I do not think that is fair. It should be calculated on the length of subscription. I think that a company should support their long term paying and supportive customers first, not the ones that have spent a little more time in a day using a specific product.

I have a question about the following and would like a little more clarification please: "It is our intent that this process will have very little impact on you or your account. Since Character names must be unique on a server, it is possible that when we create the new United Forces servers, you may need to rename your character. As part of the process of uniting the galaxy, we will communicate a specific set of rules to govern the prospective scenario where two names collide: Premium players (Subscribers) will have priority over Free-to-Play and Preferred Status players. Highly played characters will have priority over characters with less play time." Does "highly played" include the total existence time of the character or the amount of time someone has been a subscriber into the equation? I have been a sub since launch and my main characters have been around since then also. But I have many alts and the total /played time might not be as much as someone that only plays 1 or 2 characters as free to play/preferred but that decides to sub just before the merge. I would hate to lose my character names that have been around since launch.

So basically what you are saying is that you don't think there is any kind of log or record of how long a person has been subscribed for? I really doubt that. All I am suggesting is that they take care of their long time subscribers and dedicated player base. People who have been supporting the game the longest.

I know that there are various posts about the rules and calculations for name changes during the server merge but I have not seen any that posed the following question... Why is your length of subscription not also taken into account for the calculations on who needs to change their character name? I have been a subscriber since launch and I have various alts and characters that I have put about equal time into. If someone that has only played 1 or 2 characters, even during periods of free to play, decides to subscribe 2 weeks before the merge and forces me to change my name that I have had since the game started, I would consider that unfair. I have even seen threads about name stealing where people would move their characters to another server to change it to a name that they can steal when the merge happens. I think that the amount of time that you have been subscribed and supported this game should have just as much or even more weight than the time played on a character. I love this game very much but I would be very sad if I am forced to change a name of a character that I have had since the game was launched. A dedicated and supportive customer.