Inactive Player Names

The current player name system requires every character to have a unique name from any other character any other player has made, which would be fine if 66.5% of people who own the game (on Steam atleast) haven’t even placed their first beacon and fueled it… That number speaks for only a fraction of how many potential inactive players there are simply taking up space on the servers and holding names active players might desire. My only question is if any system is or will be developed for removing these inactive accounts in order to make room for active players.

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I feel like a couple months after every beacon a character owns expires, it’d be fair to remove that character from the game. At that point everything they owned is already gone and they haven’t even logged back in to check on it.

Sounds more like a suggestion than a support issue :slight_smile:

Regardless, I do agree because the username requirements are quiet stringent. Most active players have multiple, if not all 10 characters. Something will have to give if the player count were to ever increase. Maybe allow numbers or changing the valid length of usernames.

RuneScape went through a similar issue late in their development and now allows names to be taken after a certain time period. If someone else takes the name of an inactive player, it reverts their character name to their account ID [#38382992837] for example. When they next log in, it instructs them to pick a new name.

I bet behind the scenes characters already have a unique identifier. It should not be a difficult task to implement a similar system.

My pc character doesn’t have a beacon. Doesn’t need one. He has access to my ps4 player beacons. :joy:

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You are correct. This does come off as more of a suggestion…
I own the characters named:
MrBlue
MrRed
MrYellow
MrBrown
MrGrey

I really wanted to finish the set, but I feel like I’ll never get to because more than likely someone grabbed the remaining names early after launch and has been sitting on them idle ever since.
MrGreen
MrPurple
MrOrange
MrWhite
MrBlack
These characters elude me…

So we have a big issue with people being mad that things are lost if they are going inactive… If we implemented something like this it would add more to that situation because they now lost their name.

I must admit it can suck when you want a name but it is taken… Overall though I do not agree that this is something that will really help the game. Killing the accounts too seems to really hurt that possibility that anyone might come back.

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If someone goes inactive to the point where they can’t put in a single piece of fuel once every 2, 4 or 8 weeks, I see no reason they should be preserved entirely. Maybe a system like @FlippityFloop mentioned would be the proper compromise, but I still feel that people who’ve been inactive for several months don’t deserve to preserve their names.

I understand that it can be frustrating when a name you want isn’t available, but this is not unique to Boundless.

I play OSRS and I’ve gone over a year without logging in once or twice…never lost my username in any way. A lot of MMO RPG players take breaks of 6+ months & then come back to the game.

Keep in mind, some players invest hundreds/thousands of irl $ in games they like - not to mention a lot of time. That shouldn’t be tossed in the trash if you can’t/don’t log in for a certain time frame.

The username I originally wanted to use in BL wasn’t available so I came up with a different one. :woman_shrugging:

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There is an very large difference between someones build expiring and their Identity. There are only a handful of games and sites that have a name expiry policy that I interact with or have interacted with. And that is typically after a few years of inactivity.

Boundless haves an extremely small player base, There is next to no need for boundless to reclaim names at this time.

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Hey don’t forget about those of us who has more then one character/account. My pc account has no beacons because he doesn’t need on. I’ve got a billion already on my ps4 that it’s got access to.

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Boundless is also an MMO! If names are no longer used after 2 years or are no longer active - you can think about it! but how should that work? There are certainly some characters who own thousands of plots! And these are earned or bought! As long as Boundless exists, the character and the plots must be kept! …

… although I’m not even sure if two years are enough! Whoever comes first has the chance first! Of course it is annoying, if names are hoarded and you would like to own them - but this is the case everywhere?

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I mean, the character doesn’t have to be deleted, just flagged for a name change. Removing a character, which you perhaps paid Cubits for (that you perhaps bought with cash) is not an option. Besides, this game is still so small that there are millions of names still not taken. :slight_smile:

In World of Warcraft, they did a few times a wave of name-re-distribution.
Like @QuimbyBoundless proposes, the characters which had been offline for about 6 years or so had their names removed to be taken by new players. If the player comes back, he has a pop-up saying “take a new name”, but the character isn’t lost.
It’s a fine way to do this, honestly.

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To be honest,
How hard is it to just place a beacon down in a build with your alt and keep it fueled? You can even put it in your agenda to remind you later “go fuel beacon . And if you decide to take a brake from boundless you can always take gleamclub when you want to keep it all. If you actively decide to take a brake for 6 months and don’t want to fuel or take gleamclub you probably decide to start fresh anyway, so why not “chose a new character name”.

I am already to lazy to fuel every beacon i have (40 atm). So i take the gleamclub of 6 months. Im still in to boundless but if I should lose my intrest I’ll probably won’t return any time soon and have to start over anyway. Would not even mind if i lose everything (even lvl) accept the cubits and cubit purchases.

My point of view if you aren’t active (no beacon or login) for more than 6 months you decided to start over when you come back to boundless. That includes maybe choosing a new name to.

What the f… :-1:

Yup, same here! But you name is available for snags I think after 3 or 6 months. If someone tries to take it, they can. This usually only applies to special names like 1-3 character stuff.

So what is the time limit before an “inactive” person become a removed account? Also do you consider a person that went inactive as someone that quit the game? Where does that definition change?

What is true inactive in your view? Maybe someone had a medical emergency or needs to go on a tour of duty like the military?

What do you expect should happen to their character? Should all items be deleted and their level and everything? Basically completely removing the character from the game? Or do they lose their “name” only?

If we had an option to allow people that really have QUIT the game (versus being inactive) to delete their accounts would that be a compromise?

Lastly, if you had the option to rename all your characters from MrGreen to Mr_Green or Mr.Green or Mr-Green would that be acceptable?

Player base of WoW is absolutely extreme compared to that of boundless , Also WoW haves RP servers that have naming requirements, you are not allowed to use just any old name.

Ask that to all of the people who have quit because of whatever mistake and/or reason happened that caused their beacon to expire, I am pretty sure they would find this highly insulting.

Once more, Someones Identity is quite a bit different then whatever they may or may not have done and/or lost in the game.

Realistically speaking, I feel very few people would use this function.


The bottom line from me is,

Boundless is still less then a year old from the Non „Beta“ Launch.
Boundless haves a very small user base.

Names running out in this game, is not really a general problem at this time.

Also if names expired in this game, I feel it should require at least one year of inactivity to prevent abuse and impersonation.

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You understand that how much people use a function is irrelevant when asking the person who did the original post and is suggesting the idea, correct? The reason for my comment was to understand the scope of the solution and whether other options fit their needs or not.

Obviously use is important as some level but not when deciding what they see is in some or not. And even if it is used by 5% of the people it still doesn’t matter because it does work toward the main objective of trying to remove usernames that are no longer in use.

I didn’t mean to insult or do otherwise to other players. But if they have a valid reason to be insulted by my comment. Fine and they can let me know. But as i see it you can’t make it anyone else problem to fuel your beacon if you don’t ask. Thats why i tell my guild members to align so i can keep an eye on their beacon when needed. And let them know. Even some non align beacons in my neighborhood ill let them know if i can.

Second i agree with