Starting 24 October 2005, the City of Heroes and City of Villains character name policy will change. Names for characters under level 35 on game accounts that have been inactive for over 90 days will be changed to ‘unreserved’ status. This means that those names will become available for new character names if picked by an active player. This policy is being enacted in order to free up character names, based on player feedback.

If your game account is inactive for over 90 days and you reactivate your account you will need to log back in to any characters affected by this policy to move them out of unreserved name status. If your old character name has been taken by an active player, the game will prompt you to rename your character. You will be given only one opportunity to rename your character. It is possible that your character name may still be the same if an active player has not chosen to use that character name.

All characters in an unreserved name status will be shown in your character selection screen; however, their photo will not be shown, indicating that they are in unreserved name status.

If you do not log into the game with a character in unreserved name status, the character’s name will remain available to any active player until you log that character into the game. Logging into the game with the affected character will change the character’s name status back to reserved.

Any questions about this policy can be directed to http://uk.support.cityofheroes.com/