Username Reservation Policy

[Hyena]

Does anyone know what the policy is on people making accounts specifically to reserve names? I'm looking at changing my username in the near future, and one of the ones I was strongly considering has been taken by someone who has absolutely no time logged into the game at all. There doesn't seem to be a way (at least, I don't know of it if it exists) to check when the player was last online without adding them as a friend.

I can understand not getting this username if the person was at least MR 1 or had more than 2 hours logged into the game. This is just blatant name reservation, however.

Other games do have a system in place that make returning characters change their character's names if they return after years and their name is taken. I'm not sure how well that would translate to account names like Warframe uses, since that could get into defamation territory (and also people could just log in a day before the timer is due to put their name in a usable pool to refresh it), but I'm not sure what else to suggest.

EDIT: The name I'm looking to get is 5 characters in length, and exists in a dictionary. It's not like someone has taken an intricate username that I use for all platforms.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Snivs
Some unclear information.

[Horonelius]

Send in a ticket, and see what support has to say.

[Godzilla853]

11 minutes ago, Snivs said:

Does anyone know what the policy is on people making accounts specifically to reserve names? I'm looking at changing my username in the near future, and one of the ones I was strongly considering has been taken by someone who has absolutely no time logged into the game at all. There doesn't seem to be a way (at least, I don't know of it if it exists) to check when the player was last online without adding them as a friend.

I can understand not getting this username if the person was at least MR 1 or had more than 2 hours logged into the game. This is just blatant name reservation, however.

Other games do have a system in place that make returning characters change their character's names if they return after years and their name is taken. I'm not sure how well that would translate to account names like Warframe uses, since that could get into defamation territory (and also people could just log in a day before the timer is due to put their name in a usable pool to refresh it), but I'm not sure what else to suggest.

EDIT: The name I'm looking to get is 5 characters in length, and exists in a dictionary. It's not like someone has taken an intricate username that I use for all platforms.

You can contact support.

[Hyena]

Just now, Sean said:

I was not the original owner of my current username, that belonged to an MR0 account with 2 minutes of game time. The player had a Loki, but as their account was so old and unused, the model shown when viewing their profile was that of a default Excalibur.

What I did was contact DE Support with several pictures of the person's profile and let them know I was good with paying the standard name-change fee.

 

Looking at the old support ticket, it was roughly 3 days for them to get me my current username.

I do want to note that they don't simply swap the usernames; they probably just delete the old account, so your previous name will be available for someone else to use.

That's some good information, thanks. I'm a little concerned about the direction that could take if someone starts using my current name after I change off of it. Oh well. I'll send in a ticket and see what happens. Need 26 more plat before I can actually name change, though. Time to trade some vault mods.

[Hyena]

Ticket is in and I sold a Carrier Prime Set for 50p, so I've got enough now. I'll post again when I hear back from support.

[YeAhx_]

46 minutes ago, Sean said:

Soon after my username was changed, I created an alternate account using my previous name that I hop onto from time to time, though I keep it as an MR0.

Sometimes it can be nice to just go back to the very beginning to see how the current beginning of the game is.

Isn't that against the rules to create additional accounts ? Just to let you know it could get your current account banned as well.

[Prime]

55 minutes ago, Sean said:

they probably just delete the old account, so your previous name will be available for someone else to use.

They rename it to something similar. The original Prime is now Prime-.

[Hyena]

1 minute ago, YeAhx_ said:

Isn't that against the rules to create additional accounts ? Just to let you know it could get your current account banned as well.

I believe the issue there is with taking advantage of %-off-Plat coupons and trading them to yourself, but yeah, I was trying to avoid mentioning that.

[YeAhx_]

54 minutes ago, Sean said:

Part of why I specified that I keep it at an MR0.

Completely impossible to trade with it even if I wanted to.

 

56 minutes ago, Snivs said:

I believe the issue there is with taking advantage of %-off-Plat coupons and trading them to yourself, but yeah, I was trying to avoid mentioning that.

Totally agree and understandable but in front of DE it would still be considered rule breaking.

[YeAhx_]

2 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

While this topic is getting a bit off on a tangent, here is the specific reference on secondary accounts within the Terms of Use:

You, as creator of your Account and User ID, are solely responsible for your User ID. Digital Extremes will not tolerate offensive or obscene User IDs. If a User ID violates any part of these terms, DE may immediately, temporarily, or permanently ban such a User ID, with or without notice. The creation of alternate accounts will be handled on a case by case basis, and we reserve the right to remove accounts used to circumvent any form of restrictions to the game or the Service including the official Warframe forums.

 

Main points being that if you use accounts to go avoid restrictions in place (exploiting rewards and trading would fit) then that is where it ends up going into violation territory. Though they still go with things being on a case-by-case basis, there isn't much that would apply in regards to an account that is not able to even trade (requires MR2).

Thanks for the reference from the terms of use. So basically it all comes into their hands to decide if its okay or not. I have read people getting banned when another account was used from the same IP. Anyway lets not derail this thread even more.