HDL

A series of e-mails between me and Blizzard over the last couple of days regarding Blizzard snatching a character name because it was idle for a few years. That just about blew any shot in hell I'd ever come back to this game. I have NEVER heard of an MMO being so crass as to actually start stealing character names when you don't play them for a few years. I have a lot of unique names on my account, and this is the 3rd one Blizzard has taken. Then other that isn't mentioned ("Life" on Maelstrom) was taken because it "was never meant to be available." ... 2 years after the character was made. They least they can do is take pride in being inefficient assholes instead of trying to be weaselly with excuses. I hate it when assholes are like "What? Me? Naaaaw. I'm the good guy!" I mean, I don't do that. Consistency is important. People know I'm an asshole and I think that puts everyone at ease a bit.

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Greetings,

Account Name: XXXXXXXXXXX
Realm: Emerald Dream
Old Character Name: Luck
Temporary Character Name: Luckxyz

It has been brought to our attention that a character created on this account has a name that was previously in use by another player. While we realize that you may have grown attached to this name, its recent availability was unintended.

We have provided the character with a temporary name. You will be prompted to select a new character name upon your next login. When selecting the new character's name, please be mindful of our Naming Policy (http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01722p).

For any concerns or questions on this matter, please contact the Game Master staff via the in-game petition system or by e-mailing wowgm@blizzard.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.


Regards,
Game Master Rynsr
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
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;;Account Name: JPSIMONETTI
;;Realm: Emerald Dream
;;Old Character Name: Luck
;;Temporary Character Name: Luckxyz

;;It has been brought to our attention that a character created on this account has a name that was previously in use by another player. While we realize that you may have grown attached to this name, its recent availability was unintended.

To whom it may concern,
This is absolutely, 100% not possible. At all. This character was created less than 20 seconds after Emerald Dream first came online. There is no way ... I mean, no way at all ... this character name was taken by anyone else. Check your records for when my character was created and when the realm came online for the first time ever years ago. Check the time, down to the second. I loaded the realm, and hit Create Character as soon as the server came online.

This is the second time Blizzard has insisted someone had a character name before me. The first one was Crystal on Earthen Ring, which was thankfully returned to me. I expect the same in this case.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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Hello there,

My name is Senior Game Master Valescie and I got your ticket escalated to me due to the delicate nature of your concern and I've been investigating directly into your concern in order to make sure I have a complete understanding about the name change itself.

You were completely correct in that the information that you highlighted in your email to us did not reflect the situation that you were in.  For the confusion and frustration that it might have caused you, I sincerely apologize and hope it has not damaged your trust in us.  We take care to make sure that we communicate clearly to our player-base, not only for the sake of good business, but because we're players too and want to be treated with the same respect.

The reason this name was changed was due to the fact that your character "Luck" on the Emerald Dream realm had not been active in years.  We considered the amount of time that went by and the desire for someone else to lay claim to the name and decided to allow them to have a character with active status own the name.

Again, I'm sorry if this caused you any hard times as we do try to make sure we accommodate all parties in this regard but I hope you can understand our point of view on the subject.

If you'd like to continue speaking about this I'm more than happy to follow-up with you and you can email my personal address here which is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact about this matter.

Regards,

Senior Game Master Valescie
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
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I actually petitioned to get them to free up my warriors named for me awhile back.  I think it largely depends on which GM handles the ticket - I know Joe tried to get a name of someone obviously inactive and they wouldn't do it for him.  I seem to recall FFXII would delete your characters if you had been inactive for long enough (though my experience with this game is fairly limited.) 

I dunno, if it has been a couple years and you haven't played the toon past level 10, or it isn't a bank alt, I don't see too much of a problem with it.  Though it's happened to you a couple times, I don't think it's a very common practice.  That's why we see people named ??????? running around. (not even kidding, lemme find the screenshot...)

I think it's important to have the policy in writing somewhere. That is my big thing. Honestly, I really don't care about the characters. I mean, that's obvious since they were inactive for years. But I really feel like I'm being wronged here.

I have a TON of unique character names floating around inactive that I'm sure people try to get several times a day. A lot of those are level 80+. Why this one? It's not like they're handing them out whenever someone tries to make the character. Someone actively petitions them. Crystal was level 60 (this was during old world) and they just took hers. Like, really? The hell is that?

It just doesn't make any sense. All I have to do is cry to a GM in just the right tone and get any character I want, but it depends on if the GM is in a good mood or not? They need this policy in writing. This should not be a "judgement call" issue. It's not some verbal spat between players about who started it. The facts are backed by dates and records. There is no 'opinion' to be made.

Also, let's face it, WoW is getting old and competition will continue to roll out. If they want people to return to their game after sampling other products, the player needs security in knowing the account will be as they left it. What's next? Draining gold and points as a penalty for being inactive too long? Hoarding names may be a douchebag move, but equally so is a business stealing them from underneath players while they're on vacation in a way that is not backed by any policy or forewarning. I've seen Blizzard do some shit I didn't approve of over the last 6 years. Pat has heard me bitch about most of it. But at least it was upfront. This here is just shady and that's why I wanted to bring it into the light. You don't hear about this sort of thing, but there it is.

The only time I would be ok with them taking a name of one of my inactive toons would be if my subscription had lapsed.  I can't imagine being mad or feeling wronged if that were the case.  But if my account was still active, you better not touch any of my damn toons regardless of how long they were unplayed.

Honestly, I think Blizzard is pretty generous in the fact that they will keep your characters available, no matter how long you have been inactive. Many other MMOs will delete your toon after a period of inactivity, some of them as short as 30 days.

It does suck to have a name taken from you multiple times, but your character still exists. Would it be fair for me to save 10 desirable names on servers when they first open, but with no real intention of playing them?

In the end, Blizzard is a business. If you're not currently paying for their services, they probably will side with the person who is. They're going to try to keep the current money coming in, not hope to satisfy people with no definite intention of bringing in revenue.

Quote from: Kiero on Tue, 2011-05-31 : 14:16
In the end, Blizzard is a business. If you're not currently paying for their services, they probably will side with the person who is. They're going to try to keep the current money coming in, not hope to satisfy people with no definite intention of bringing in revenue.

Maybe I read things wrong, but I was under the impression that James account was still active (not deactivated) in the sense that he is paying for it. But, his character is inactive (i.e. not logged in recently)... but let's explore the deactivated account angle mentioned anyway....

So, someone who can't pay for a month and thus is deactivated can lose their names? Or someone who has to take a break from the game for personal reasons and deactivates for a few months loses their names? Or their gear? Nah. I have to side with James. There are much better ways of handling this. A bit about that in a second.

This is a slippery slope. It is quite easy to fall into this mentality and it is poisonous. Hard to bring people back or to bring in new customers with this mentality and perception from the player base. You can get away with it for a while, but it is not a desirable long term strat. The reason why Blizz is different than other developers goes back to the fact that they get the little things right business (usually) and technically (most of the time). Doing this.... isn't one of them, IMO.

A great book on this subject is  "Quality is Free" by Crosby. There are a lot of things that companies can do that cost nothing, but has a major impact on perception and customer (past, present, and future) satisfaction.

An example is Southwest Airlines. Their model is quite interesting. Anyone in the organization can make the right decision because their goal is to be THE low cost carrier. However, it is countered by making sure everything else (i.e. the little things) are done RIGHT. My wife likes flying Southwest for exactly this reason.

Character name "reservation" is something that doesn't cost much and is a little thing that can be done right.

So, what could Blizz do? (I build and fix things.... thus, I always think this way. Also, I am an executive, so I am always thinking how things should be handled.)

They can't keep names around forever. But they could do a lot pretty easily. Say names are reserved for a year after account deactivation. If someone requests a name, then let it be handled on a case by case basis. Like in this case and others mentioned. After a year of an inactive account, then the name is effectively freed up. Anyone who requests it gets it. Maybe Blizz has this in place, I really don't know. My account has never been deactivated since launch.

Another thing is to send email to past customers asking them (or maybe even incentivizing them with free game time or items - bringing them back to the game in the meantime) to free up names.

I can't see too many folks wanting 'Capuloclavo', but feel free to ask for it.

You'll be back, coffin nail.