Why was the name Omega removed?

Just goofing around and looking at lat names on the reg page. Why is Omega no longer there? Maybe I overlooked it but I don't see that a a last name option anymore. Is there a reason why? Anyone who knows is encouraged to answer.

Omegas just turned out to be too Awesome, after Catherine, Charlie, Oracle, myself and many others they decided that they couldn't handle any more people awesome enough to choose Omega for a last name.

The downside is I don't think anyone can put us as a referral either. :-/

Same with Starseeker hehe, gone from the list too. I rarely see other Starseekers in game (not that i mind)

HEY! Jones isnt so popular as I *thought*. No mo' Jones.

Here's a thought. I wonder if the Lindens are retiring Beta names so we're *special*. Awww.. dontcha feel *special*?



Seriously tho.... I wonder if thats whats up. Check your last name. Some are still there but they may be replacing them a few each day. I'm totally guessing here.

We retire names after 150 people choose them.
We have retired Omega, Powers, Sunchaser, Starseeker, Crash, Fairchild, Yamamoto, Armstrong,
Zeeman and Electric .



Why 150? Well, this could start a whole 'nother discussion, but in general, 150 is the number of people that you can remember and remain familiar with.

For instance, the Goretex(tm) company operates with buildings that can only hold 150 people. Thus, if they hire more than will fit in one building, they build another building. This keeps everyone in the company accountable to each other regardless of the total size of the company.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote lots about this in his book "The Tipping Point". More can be found at www.gladwell.com. His work is one of many reference points that we use when making design decisions here.

-Peter

Aw, I liked my explanation better.

Looks like an interesing read, check out the excerpts

Wu is gone as well

But Misnomer... as Peter's longer answer and more complete answer perhaps obscures somewhat... the idea IS precisely to make you feel special.

There will always be a small group (embedded in a much larger world) of those who share your name.

Will names ever be brought back? Say one year from now there are only 50 Omegas still playing, will you re-enable Omega as an option?

Good Question. We've not decided on that.

Any opinions?

I like having a unique name And i don't mind being a little selfish either hehe.

Perhaps allow a random spattering of previously removed names to become available to new players based on how many of those names are still active players.

For example, lets say there are still 100 active Yamamoto's in the game, but only 50 Omega's. Some fresh mea.... I mean new player decides to join and gets a selection at a name. You would have the normal available list of names, then a few randomly selected removed names that would be weighted towards the more inactive names. So someone would be twice as likely to get Omega as a choice as opposed to Yamamoto in this test case.

Awe, no more little Powers running around asking how to buy land. I don't remember that many Powers, hum there is/was JinDokGhe , Skippy, RaAusar, Noncarbinated... There must have been more.

To my surprise, there are only 92 Millers. I am in SHOCK! I would have thought there would be more. C'mon folks, be my relative!

I vote that once a name is retired, leave it retired. Makes long time players more unique and yes, "special".

It will also offer a more diverse population name wise if there are always new names.

I got that btw, I was just goofing around.

I agree with Misnomer. That avatar speaks my mind

A agree, leaving the name retired is sort of a reward for long time players. The longer you play the more unique your name will potentially be.

I always liked the idea that there could be some famous or infamous person who shared my last name. Then you'd either be the long lost cousin hitting up the rich relative for L$ or try to ignore the "skeletons in the closet from mom's side of the family."

Let's invent family traits for the last names!

"Oh, you know, all those Flufflewhaites are rate miners"
"Boy those Hassingtons sure know how to build"

Well lets see,

The Omega's I've met are rich and powerful. All 3 of them anyway.
The Grimm's are nice but seem to have a dark side,
The Epoch's tend to be scripters,
So do the Rand's (of which I've only met Ope )
And the Yamamoto's are quiet but friendly.

Oh, and lets not forget the Linden's!!! The nicest, sweetest, most wonderful people in the whole wide world.


What was that? Kissing up? Why I'd never do such a thing.