Name changes

[kustrin]

I lost 2 names in 12 during the voluntary server merges, and managed to get through this one without losing a single name on any of my 8 characters from Drooga's so I feel very lucky.

 

My sympathies to anyone who lost their names during the mergers. The first time switched servers in WoW I had to give up my main's name, which I loved. Ever after that I have always gone out of my way to find obscure, exotic sounding names from history and mythology so the likelihood of someone else having the same name would be remote. Losing a favorite name can be really painful.

[Mdgshorty]

I think a lot of people would be happy if they would do what Cryptic does with their games and use Charactername@handle This way everyone can have the character name they want. It was very hard to come up with a new name for the ones I had to rename.

[Blackavaar]

I think a lot of people would be happy if they would do what Cryptic does with their games and use Charactername@handle This way everyone can have the character name they want. It was very hard to come up with a new name for the ones I had to rename.

 

I agree, such a system would be a boon for this game. But it takes time and money to create such a system (they can't just flip a switch like some seem to think) and with players screaming for new content I don't see a lot of time and money being dedicated to creating such a system.

 

Edited September 19, 2012 by Blackavaar

[Andryah]

I think a lot of people would be happy if they would do what Cryptic does with their games and use Charactername@handle This way everyone can have the character name they want. It was very hard to come up with a new name for the ones I had to rename.

 

Personally, I don't want @handle attached to my character names. I'd rather rename if needed (and I have during voluntary moves in July).

 

Instead, if they had adopted the naming scheme used by GW2, it would give huge freedom to naming that does not exist in this MMO or any others that I can think of.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Andryah

[Mdgshorty]

Personally, I don't want @handle attached to my character names. I'd rather rename if needed (and I have during voluntary moves in July).

 

Instead, if they had adopted the naming scheme used by GW2, it would give huge freedom to naming that does not exist in this MMO or any others that I can think of.

 

If they do it like Cryptic, the @handle would not have to be shown. The @handle would be different than your forum name is the other thing.

 

I get that it takes a while to do something like this, but its something they should look into as this will keep the players that are not to happy about the name change happy. As more and more people join these servers, it will be harder and harder to come up with a unique name.

[Vaalin]

 

So apparently... If you lost a name, it's because someone had it longer than you AND played the character.. If you had some name from back in December last year and lost it now, you prooobably didn't play that character much, so why care about the name?..

..

 

I had to change the name of my main character, created day one of early access, (and the same one I used through beta). I played that character every day. And the odds of someone having it longer than me? Nill, I was literally sitting here waiting for the server to come up and was in within the first 20 minutes of them going live.

[Hambunctious]

They could also allow a space character in the first name for more variety, and to send a tell to a person with a space in the name you would place the entire name in quotes. It wouldn't affect anything else.

[Pytviper]

This is really F up. Why in heck do I have to change my character name? I held the name on The Fatman and Prophecy of the Five; both characters where a work in progress. Now I can’t have a name that I held on the 2 server that were merge. I would love for BW to explain it why I lose my name. Or they can take their super server turn in sideways and shove it up there…

[Sorwen]

It is just really annoying to jump through the hoops some of us did to get the names, especially when we were not having any problems. I was on a server with zero problems to get dorked over now with losing character names, guild names, having to fight even more for limited glowies and name npcs with long respwan timers.

[Mevan]

I had to change the name of my main character, created day one of early access, (and the same one I used through beta). I played that character every day. And the odds of someone having it longer than me? Nill, I was literally sitting here waiting for the server to come up and was in within the first 20 minutes of them going live.

 

Snap. I bet the Bioware employees that play the game didn't lose their names...

[Voren_Kurn]

So apparently I just lost my guild name. -__-

 

I had the guild name of "Relic" PRE-LAUNCH and was ported into Port Nowhere when the game launched (we also had the highest number of members on the Guild Pre-Launch on the SWTOR Guild site with Relic as the guild name). We even made it to the guild summit back when it was hosted at Bioware. Since then we were forcibly moved to Prophecy of the Five when the first Server transfers went live to stay on a populated server. Since then we've been active and playing the game with a healthy member base as we have since the start of this game...

 

Now I log in to find we've been changed to "Relic @ Prophecy of the Five" I did a double take and went to the server list to find....We're still on Pot5. I can't change the name back to "Relic" because apparently someone else already has it?!? We were here first....they should have to change it. The only possible reason I could think of our "Play time" for the guild is lower is because we had to recreate it come 1st set of Server transfers...But that shouldn't have been counted against us!

 

Please Bioware, we are rather attached that guild name...and I'd hate to lose it to a guild of 6 schoolmates just running around casually

Edited September 19, 2012 by Voren_Kurn
Adding details

[Pytviper]

I wonder how many more people told them to take their game turn it side ways and shove it up their... today. BW is doing an amazing job and losing sub. They huge up roar over name changes and they do it again. BW employees deserver a pay raise.

[Hambunctious]

The only way for them to have won today was to have been more proactive, and found a way for people to share first names. There are several ways to have done it, and they didn't.

 

I'm thankful to have kept all my names, but I understand the gripes of those who didn't.

[Mevan]

The only way for them to have won today was to have been more proactive, and found a way for people to share first names. There are several ways to have done it, and they didn't.

 

I'm thankful to have kept all my names, but I understand the gripes of those who didn't.

 

Sharing isn't the problem. People who had their first names since early access and then had them taken away because Bioware can't get anything right is the problem.

[Hambunctious]

Sharing isn't the problem. People who had their first names since early access and then had them taken away because Bioware can't get anything right is the problem.

 

Well, if you could share the name, you didn't lose yours, and no one else lost theirs either.

[Mevan]

Well, if you could share the name, you didn't lose yours, and no one else lost theirs either.

 

Sharing names would suck, takes away identity in a game that already makes it hard to be unique. Besides, it's more the point that someone has my name when they have no claim to it, purely because Bioware has made mistakes. I should have my name, not some idiot who started a few months ago.

[NightBlizzard]

Sharing names would suck, takes away identity in a game that already makes it hard to be unique. Besides, it's more the point that someone has my name when they have no claim to it, purely because Bioware has made mistakes. I should have my name, not some idiot who started a few months ago.

 

I would rather my name go to someone who started a few months ago and has been playing non-stop than some lousy person who hasn't touched a high-level character in forever.

 

I personally have only been playing for around 2-3 months - however I put my all into my characters. I play each storyline and level my characters as fast as I can while still enjoying the side-quest stories. If I beat out someone whose subbed longer but hasn't played their characters that much than so be it - I believe I earned that right.

Edited September 19, 2012 by NightBlizzard

[DarthZwicky]

Well... I'm not writing on the forum anymore, but I think now is the time. Honestly Bioware, I don't think people who lost their name they had from the early access care about the consideration you took for choosing the character who had to change. Because it's a fact. I lost my beautiful name that I had from day 1 of the early access, because someone else on another server named their character the same name as me 5 minutes earlier? My question is: Why allow only one name on a server? What's the different if many people have the same name? Isn't it a game? Isn't it suppose to be fun? Part of the fun of creating a character is to give him a good name. So why put this kind of restriction? Since you remove it from the legacy name, why not from the first name too? What's the thinking behind this?

 

Bioware should review the naming policies in this game. This would be the best solution in my opinion. Everybody should get a handle (account name) like many other MMO. I really hope bioware will take this into consideration. Because it's been an issue for many people since the beginning of the game.

[Pytviper]

I would rather my name go to someone who started a few months ago and has been playing non-stop than some lousy person who hasn't touched a high-level character in forever.

 

I personally have only been playing for around 2-3 months - however I put my all into my characters. I play each storyline and level my characters as fast as I can while still enjoying the side-quest stories. If I beat out someone whose subbed longer but hasn't played their characters that much than so be it - I believe I earned that right.

 

You should get a name over me? Becaue you are playing active for the pass couple months and I'm fully deck out in WH gear BH gear and there is nothing for me to do on my 50 because there is not that much end game at this point. Maybe if came out with RWZ with gear and not just Pre-season gear same stats as WH gear.

[Mevan]

I would rather my name go to someone who started a few months ago and has been playing non-stop than some lousy person who hasn't touched a high-level character in forever.

 

I personally have only been playing for around 2-3 months - however I put my all into my characters. I play each storyline and level my characters as fast as I can while still enjoying the side-quest stories. If I beat out someone whose subbed longer but hasn't played their characters that much than so be it - I believe I earned that right.

 

Yes, but as I mentioned earlier in this thread, I play all the time AND had my name of day one early access. Hell, I wanted early access purely so I could get the names I wanted- I had a holiday to New York booked so I didn't even get to play for most of the early access, but I didn't care.

 

All that time and money getting early access and dealing with problematic pre-orders- doesn't mean **** to Bioware. I imagine me pulling my account down doesn't mean **** to them either, but fortunately it seems I'm not the only one. I'm hoping that they crash and burn now, no more "oh maybe they'll sort themselves out next update" thinking. Bioware = EA. There is no Bioware anymore. End of story.

[kirorx]

When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones.

 

Wish that was the way first time around, the guy that had my level 50 day 1 characters name was a new level 10 character that happened to run into right after i transfered.

 

At least to good to know things were planned out a little better this time around.

[tahyri]

When naming conflicts occur due to the consolidation, players are given priority based on a variety of factors such as character play time and if they have already had to rename their characters as part of the first character transfer program back in June. Please do keep in mind that this does not encompass all of the factors taken into consideration, but those are an example of the major ones.

 

First time I've been an upset customer with SWTOR. Logged in the second that Early Access started (Harbinger server which was a Destination Server) and made all 8 of my characters within a few minutes. I've had continuous subscriptions going on my account and my wife's (both CE's) from Day 1 and have played each of my characters a significant amount. Now today I find that I have to rename 3 of them, the 3 that I have used since I started playing MMOs who knows how long ago. Strongly considering this being the end for us. Yes, names are important.

Edited September 19, 2012 by tahyri

[Cordelia]

Wish that was the way first time around, the guy that had my level 50 day 1 characters name was a new level 10 character that happened to run into right after i transfered.

 

At least to good to know things were planned out a little better this time around.

 

Except they aren't. People are still losing names made on Day One on main characters. People who bought the CE should also get priority, I mean they did spend more on the game

[supafreak]

IM usually supportive of this game, but the devs seem very shistey lately. You know? like underhanded and scummy. Just doing really poor CSR, ignoring feedbck, and trying to salve it by linking uninformative quotes.

You dont spring a name change on half the population at once. They ported over what? like the last person on each of the old servers that were farming crates, and/or were too introverted to move with the rest of us. So that is what lol? 30 people?, plus everyones old crappy unused alts, now we have to change our names because of it. Our servers didnt even get bigger did they? So why piss off so many people for it? Make the movers change names, it's so obvious

[Adoramei]

And also, to say that just because one person hasn't racked up more playtime than another shouldn't mean anything. I play tons of alts. All of them are just as important to me.

 

So.. people who have more time to play thanks to less RL responsibility/ time constraints should be ranked in importance over other people who pay the same amount? As far as I know, everyone pays roughly the same subscription fee. Point is, we're all still paying. I sure hope they didn't give any preference to accounts that were closed.. That's what I'd really like an answer to. I might feel better about losing the one name on my account that had any personal value.

 

As for the argument of, "Well your name wasn't very original then." .. Who said that they wanted a name that was strictly original? I picked a couple of names because they had weight to them. Or because I had never been able to have a certain name in a MMO before because I created the character after it was well established and the name would never have been open.. I lost a certain name this time that was a name that I had created a long time ago for a story I wrote that translated over to the MMO's I played. The name has an unoriginal base, but the name is not a name I've ever seen used by someone else until now.

 

It just sucks for those who already lost their names from the "voluntary" move, which was based on seniority on a server that we didn't choose (but had to in order to play the game with any player base).. Then, we have to change our names again.

 

Everyone puts value in different things. There's no reason to belittle someone because they're upset about this. Other people get upset over PvP problems or group finder problems. So what if some people feel strongly about this? Who's to say what is deserving of value? I personally could care less about PvP, but I feel empathy for those who put value in it. Let people rant. This has been really frustrating for a good number of people. Especially since we thought that this whole thing was over. (I've been playing MMO's for a while, and I have NEVER had to change my name. Let alone twice! Should have just kept my characters on the dead server and forced people to change their names.. sheesh.)