Unpopular suggestion: Inactive Names

metaphor • 6 June 2016 at 5:08 PM

NOTE: I am fully aware that this is a controversial topic and am willing to hear objections, suggestions, etc. With this in mind, I would appreciate if people remain civil and discuss their opinions without any personal attacks.

So, I've been looking up names lately and noticed that a lot of them are on accounts that have not seen activity in more than a month. As I said above, I KNOW THAT THIS IS A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC but bear with me. I am by no means suggesting that we say "forget about those inactive people" and take all their creatures and their names. I know that EC is different than a lot of other sites that engage in occasional to regular name clearings, in that Egg Cave is a collector's site rather than a "gaming" one, meaning that many people try to get their dream creatures or a certain collection of names and then leave for some time, once their creatures are immortal. I am making this suggestion with this in mine.

That said, I have a few suggestions for handling potential name clearings/freeing of names on inactive accounts. Some of them will be more controversial than others. Feel free to add to them, offer up your own, reject them completely. It's all fine. Just no personal attacks please.

1. Probably the simplest one: once or twice a year, set aside a date and time in advance (to make it fair for everyone) and clear out inactive accounts. To be eligible for clearing, an account must have been inactive for at least 2 years (maybe more).

2. This one I think might be slightly fairer. After an account has been inactive for a certain number of time (again, say maybe 2 years or more), the creatures' names are open to anybody. The creatures' names are then replaced with random characters--but the creatures do not go anywhere. Therefore, if the person ever decides to return, they still have their creatures. I consider this one fairer than simply purging accounts because it is not much different than the Resurrection Stone. You can resurrect a creature, but you are not guaranteed its name if it has already been claimed. But yes, it's still controversial.

3. This one is kind of adding to the above and will probably not be particularly popular with those who can't buy CC, but: make it so that creature names on inactive accounts become available after a certain period of time, but you need a special "deluxe" name change to claim one of these names. This might cost anywhere from 100 to 500 CC (maybe more) and makes it so that if you really want a name on an inactive account, you can have it, but you have to pay for it.

Now, before everyone starts telling me what a terrible person I am for even suggesting something so mean, I also propose these things:

1. Months before an account is eligible for purging or for its names to become free, the holders of said account will receive an email warning them of this--perhaps even several warnings, starting at the "20 months inactive" mark.

2. When people sign up for EC, this policy is clearly laid out. The FAQ will also mention this policy.

3. Make it longer than 2 years. Maybe 3 or 4 or even 5. I don't know. These are all just suggestions.

Now I am going to quietly step out and hope for a nice engaging conversation. Remember: I am willing to debate and to listen to disagreements--just let's keep it civil!

duckduck • 10 June 2016 at 12:07 PM

@metaphor
I agree with you. While many people think it to be stealing or abandoning accounts, the fact remains that many names will never resurface because the owner has left. I think it would be a good idea to randomize creatures' names after the two year mark.

spelunker • 10 June 2016 at 1:34 PM

@metaphor
When I first saw this I wanted to groan, "Not again!" But I read it anyway. And I'm glad I did. This is a great suggestion. Very well planned, and plenty of opportunity for inactive players to come back and save their creatures/names.
So like, if the account reaches that point, all their creatures go into the adoption center?? Or what about deleting the account? It doesn't make much sense to keep empty data around if they haven't been seen in over 3 years.

immortalraven • 10 June 2016 at 2:00 PM

@metaphor
Totally on board /thumbs up/

barbyka • 10 June 2016 at 2:30 PM

@metaphor

I like your ideas. I'm not much of a name collector myself, but I think Egg cave is in need of cleaning.

I think it's fair, when EC, sends out warning mails. And maybe there should be an option of more mails then one in which you recive this notification? (I switched mine 3 times since I was here. I realized it's just easier to use gmail for everything, but maybe someone else has separate mails too?)

I realy wish we could figure something out, cuz if I ever quit playing and then forget egg cave, I wish my creatures would get back in comunity. I may be too attached to trade and sell them, but if I was away 3-5 years, I'd be happy if somebody else would appreciate it.

On that note, maybe EC should make it mandatory, when we start playing, to choose after how many years of innactivity our account can be released.

And then the player itself will choose anything from 3 to 5 years. But 5 should be tops, cuz honestly, if you haven't been back once in 5 years then you're 99% not coming back.

kieraap • 11 June 2016 at 2:49 AM

@metaphor

Couldn't agree with you more

shelby • 11 June 2016 at 3:30 AM

Apparently I am the only one who disagrees thus far.

While I do hate when a name is taken and the account has been inactive for months to years, I still don't think it's fair to steal the names of their creatures.

What if they paid lots of real money buying CC to buy that name from someone, and something has come up in their life and they can't get on? What if life has been very hard for that person and they aren't able to get on for years? It happens.

When they come back they are going to be VERY upset. To find that the name they paid lots of CC for is now just gone.

You suggest having a warning, but just because they receive the email doesn't mean they will actually have the time to get on to prevent this stealing of their creature names.

Someone could be having medical issues that prevents them from coming on sites for fun. They shouldn't have to live in fear of losing the nice names they possibly spent a lot of money on just because they aren't capable of coming online to prevent the name purge.

This wouldn't be fair to users currently away and unaware of this new change, either. They wouldn't even be aware of it when it would take effect (though I highly doubt this will be implemented) only to come back to find this horrible new feature that stole their names and now they're just sitting on someone elses' creatures.
Don't you think it'd be rather horrible to find out that all that money you spent is now just gone because Egg Cave implemented a new name stealing function? I don't know about you but I'd probably just quit if that happened to me.

And some people probably can't always check their emails, either. Especially if, as mentioned above, they are unable to get to a computer or check their phone for their emails.
Plus if they're in a bad state, they're just going to be put off more having to worry about losing their creature names.

A lot of people would probably quit after that.

Even if the purge happened every five years, it still wouldn't be fair in my mind.
I like that I can take a break and come back and still have all my names and creatures alive if they're over level 2000. I don't want to have to worry about losing my creature names if for any reason I got severely injured and was put up in the hospital for an extended period of time.

Yes, it may be highly unlikely that I (or anyone else) will be put up in the hospital for so long that you can't get on for years. But you never know. I know how likely it is to get into an accident. I was in one recently.

I don't find it fair at ALL that people would now have to worry about losing creature names.
It's bad enough we have to worry about them dying, and trying to immortalize them, I don't think it would be fun to add a new worry to the list.

Some older users might want to take a break from egg cave or have to because they have kids now and just can't get on like they used to.
Do you think it's fair to them, having to take care of new baby 24/7, to have to worry about losing creature names just because they have to take care of a child and don't have the time to get on egg cave? I don't think it's fair to them.
Maybe some users want to take a break because of school (high school/collage). Do you think it's fair to them who might be trying really hard to complete school, to only come back after they graduate to find all their creature names are taken except for maybe one or two?
I don't.
I don't think we should have to have a new worry on Egg Cave. It's suppose to be a fun site, not one of stress and worry.

And like I mentioned, it wouldn't be fair to people who are currently away for whatever reason but do plan on coming back. Overall this just isn't a fair idea considering all the people that might HAVE to take long extended breaks for whatever reason.
I don't think it's fair to make them feel like they can't ever come back because they could be missing some of the names they paid money for. Or even lots of rare creatures. :\

metaphor • 11 June 2016 at 6:17 AM

@shelby

Fair enough, you bring up some valid points that I did consider before making this topic. I recently graduated from college and did a lot of juggling myself. Somehow, I still managed to come here from time to time, but I understand that's not always feasible. Which is why I understand that this is a controversial topic and that none of my suggestions are without their flaws. Inevitably, whether this is handled through a purge or through simple inactivity marks, somebody's feelings will be hurt. So I know this is not something that can be implemented thoughtlessly, without heavily weighing the pros and cons.

Personally, though, if I were ever in a position where I couldn't get on to EggCave for a long time (if not ever again), I'd want my names to go to people who would actually have a use for them. Yeah, I'd miss a lot of them, but I'd feel bad having them rot on my account. And I mean that for my accounts on all the other sites I play as well (Subeta, Misticpets, etc.). The former has a system similar to the inactivity one I mentioned, while the latter does clearings from time to time.

shelby • 11 June 2016 at 10:01 PM

@metaphor

Maybe instead of a forced name purge, people could select whether they are okay with having their creature names stolen or not?

For example under profile settings, there could be an option of
"Are you okay with having your creature names taken should you become inactive after (x amount of months/years)?"
And there would be a yes/no option.

Then people who are cool with their creature names being taken have the option to do so and those who are not, can opt out.

I think that's more fair.
Because as I mentioned, a lot of people might have to take extended breaks but do want to return don't have to worry about their creature names being stolen at all.

raccoon • 11 June 2016 at 10:15 PM

@metaphor

While I get frustrated with names being on inactive accounts I have to say I disagree with any kind of purge for the reasons @shelby mentioned above.

Their suggestions of an option could work, but the names currently on inactive accounts would still be unavailable. Which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.

I don't think there's any kind of way you could work this out and still have it be fair for everyone.

metaphor • 11 June 2016 at 11:36 PM

@shelby @raccoon

Thank you both for your input, in any case!

And that goes for everyone else!