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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

So, How Many Names Did You Lose?


Thaed

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I worked really hard to ensure i had the best possible chance of getting the names i had pre-selected prior to launch (in fact the same names i have always used throughout my long MMO history).

BW stated that the earlier you pre-order the earlier you will gain access and therefore the better the chances of getting the names you want. So i pre-ordered immediately, i booked the time off work for early access and my preparation paid off, i got each of the names i wanted and was overjoyed!

 

All that has been undone with this server transfer bungle

Hydian Way (one of the first few early access servers created) has been designated an Origin server and the Destination server has none of the names I worked so hard to get.

You can say im sad, you can go on about how it's just a name etc, i dont care, it means something to me, it's a huge part of my toons identity and i refuse to use stupid alt characters or foreign letters to try and give the appearance of the name which has now been lost.

 

I WILL NOT MOVE!

 

If forced transfers are the next move I promise you right now that as your customer will take my business elsewhere.

 

BW you have for the first time truly disappointed me with this lack of forethought!

Why could you have not altered the naming system, to cater of this sort of naming conflict!?

You knew that server merges where on the cards after you created far too many servers post launch !

Again, not that you give a damn, I am really annoyed over this!

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I worked really hard to ensure i had the best possible chance of getting the names i had pre-selected prior to launch (in fact the same names i have always used throughout my long MMO history).

BW stated that the earlier you pre-order the earlier you will gain access and therefore the better the chances of getting the names you want. So i pre-ordered immediately, i booked the time off work for early access and my preparation paid off, i got each of the names i wanted and was overjoyed!

 

All that has been undone with this server transfer bungle

Hydian Way (one of the first few early access servers created) has been designated an Origin server and the Destination server has none of the names I worked so hard to get.

You can say im sad, you can go on about how it's just a name etc, i dont care, it means something to me, it's a huge part of my toons identity and i refuse to use stupid alt characters or foreign letters to try and give the appearance of the name which has now been lost.

 

I WILL NOT MOVE!

 

If forced transfers are the next move I promise you right now that as your customer will take my business elsewhere.

 

BW you have for the first time truly disappointed me with this lack of forethought!

Why could you have not altered the naming system, to cater of this sort of naming conflict!?

You knew that server merges where on the cards after you created far too many servers post launch !

Again, not that you give a damn, I am really annoyed over this!

 

I agree with you completely. I also preordered as soon as it was open and when the server was opened and we were able to play pre release I made sure to get the names I wanted that I have had playing MMOs with going back to UO and EQ. Now both servers I have repub and imp characters are being moved to other servers and the names I have are already taken. I'm staying on a dead server to keep my identity and names.

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I lost my main char name which has about 30 days invested playtime to a lvl14 char. Lost one alt name too.

 

The real thing about this whole char renaming issue is not the fact that you had to rename some or all of your chars, its another thing which in fact makes me really upset.

 

This "free char transfer" service is de iure (legally) a voluntary service, but de facto (effectively) a mandatory thing. Mandatory because you couldnt play the game in a proper way even before the transfers (due to messed up management decisions by BW), but after the transfers there definitely is no way to play this MMO as a massively multiplayer game on an abandoned server. So if you think of this whole transfer as a mandatory service where in fact some kind of super servers are created, then this "free char transfer" service is effectively a SERVER MERGE.

 

Now the problem with letting this be named a char transfer service by the PR department caused a much bigger issue than just trying to deceive the community, it in fact led to it that BW - at least from a legal pov - had not to implement a char renaming policy because "its a player's free decision to transfer and lose his beloved name". Under renaming policy i mean some simple rules which ensure that someone with over 1 month playtime on a char doesnt have to lose his name because of another char with some hours of playtime or even a totally abandoned 5-6th alt char of someone, which is just not fair.

 

If this had been called a SERVER MERGE service, than there would have been no way to avoid the implementation of a renaming policy.

 

So for me thats the real issue about this whole renaming debate. I personally am deeply frustrated and disappointed by the way BW handled this whole issue with a simple "first come first serve" rule. This would be fine if this whole transfer thing wouldnt have been mandatory (de facto)... BW could have made this work, but they decided to not care about names, in a game where its all about "personal" story and becoming attached to your char...

 

I probably cancel my sub and look for another game which hopefully honors day 1 players more than BW does. Cancel not only due to the above issue but because of the way BW and their PR department try to sell us for fools for over 5 months.

 

 

Very well said. Agree 100% Does Bioware care? Will they ever address this? Id wager not.

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I still haven't seen an alternative outlined that wouldn't take a complete rework of the entire naming system?

 

You mean they would have to rework a poorly thought out in game system? the horror.

 

This falls under the category of do it right the first time.

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Not happy because...

 

A - I wasn't given a choice.

B - I wanted one of each lightside class on the same server and one of each Darkside class on the same server.

C - I Don't want to share Legacy.

D - Not arsed about transfering Items.

E - If I was arsed about getting a HK, THEN I would consider making a NEW character to enable getting it.

 

And before you say don't transfer. I'm not going to have much choice when I end up being the only one left on my original server.

 

So no i'm NOT fecking lucky. And no I'm NOT happy as hell.

 

So don't do the transfer just yet, wait a bit for some of the dust to settle.

 

I'm sure once the designated server they pre-selected for you fills up, they'll offer choices to other servers so you won't have to have your Imp/Rep toons on the same server. I highly doubt this is a one time chance to transfer,

 

I had three that I transferred from Swiftsure to Bastion as most of my guild went as well. I have left my toons on Kaiburr Crystal there though until more options open up, I'm not thrilled with the server choice they gave me.

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Im on Shadow Hand so I finally got to transfer today. Figured Id lose names because we got the shaft being a launch server and all. Lost all 8 of my level 50s names AND my legacy name (which is legacy level 50).

 

I pre ordered from origin the first day and was in the very first wave of people let on my pre assigned launch server on the very first day of early access. So it kinda sucks. Aint going to quit though. Bioware obviously never meant for us to get attached to our legacies otherwise they would have named both of their content patches legacy, instead of just one.

 

 

Formerly the Kardashian legacy on Shadow Hand, now the %%$#cares legacy on Shadowlands.

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Lost four names moving to The Harbinger, along with my legacy. No more Commissioner Gordon or Flash Gordon, but I've picked up satisfying replacements with no special characters. Mantellian the Mantellian, Honorable the Honorable, The Spaceslug Legacy...having some fun with this process, tbh.
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Seriously? What did you want Bioware to do? Force the person who had been on that server with those names to give them up? You wanted to transfer, don't blame Bioware.

 

Bioware is not giving the people on these transfer from servers much choice either, when I started at release Sith Wyrm was a healthy server now we are being gutted and to add insult to injury people who want to move from the ghost town to whatever server they pick for us lose all our names also?

 

How this should have been handled is no matter if your moving to or from a server, your name reservation should have been based on creation date that would have been fair (imho)!

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I lost one name to myself as I had made a couple republic alts on what turned out to be the destination server for my imperials. I did lose my legacy name though, but I was't that attached to it. Going from a dead server to one with multiple fleets running is a huge improvement. Edited by Draekos
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Wow, Vornskr just got allowed onto Harbinger today, and getting names sucks.

 

Before I made the actual transfer I just checked to see which of my names might be available. I figured I'd have no chance on a couple of them, and am fine with that, but thought I could probably at least get a variant on some of the others, but wow. I tried over 10 variants on one of them, all with no luck. I think only one of my names was available unmodified.

 

I, apparently erroneously, thought my names were unique enough to at least have a chance of a variant, but holy cow. I might just stay where I am, dead or no. It doesn't help that my Imps (from Gauntlet of Kreesh) went to the same server last week, so I don't even have enough room for all my characters.

 

edit: Now I'm trying to log into Harbinger again just to try more names, and it lists a 20 minute queue to even get on. Forget it,

Edited by split_light
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Some of these names you think are taken by people who quit, may actually be used by someone who has a lot of alts and just doesn't get around to that character much. Maybe it's the name they use on their GTN mule. BioWare can't and won't steal their name to make you happy. They have a right to use it. It's just a bunch of letters. Change your spelling or add a hyphen or space or apostrophe. :)
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