Name changes

[The_Leanansidhe]

All I know, is that if I don't get my name back, I'm quitting.

 

I play this game because it's by BioWare, not because I like Star Wars very much. And, not getting to keep my name (which I've used for 8 years now, on many different games) after numerous transfers, is a deal breaker for me.

 

Unfortunately, my husband and I just re-subscribed for another 6 months last month. He also is being told that he has to change his names. Even he, who loves Star Wars, is getting ticked off.

 

Both of us have CE's, both of us have been playing since hour one, of day one, of early release. We pay six months in advance for 2 accounts. Yet, somehow, it's OUR names that get taken away.

[GnatB]

Oh, fwiw, I was force transferred (probably would have preferred to stay)

 

Kept the names on my two lvl 50's. (one of which was created before x-mas, other created a few weeks later)

Kept the name of my lvl 37 (created a few weeks after that.)

Lost the name of my lvl 27 (used to be Kyron, created same day as the lvl 37. Was unable to find that name on either faction, but that presumably only means not currently on. Took over 20 tries to find a similarish name that wasn't already taken, that didn't use funky characters)

 

Imp side, all of them created shortly before the first merge, kept them all (1 lvl 31, rest all lvl 17)

 

All of them extensively used for crafting, all of them with a fairly significant number of hours /played.

 

 

Oh, and fwiw, all my characters are loosely named after my favorite star wars character and his associates, names altered to fit racial (or at least, what I know of them) naming conventions, as well as to seem like they could be etymological ancestors of the names in question. (curiously, Kyron's new name is arguably closer to his namesakes)

[Aldoramjm]

What is your point? If a name is in use by a non-active character, and no other active toon is using it, why do you think it would magically become available?

 

The whole topic is about ACTIVE character being forced to change their names because characters that are MORE THEN LIKELY inactive has the same name.

 

If it was about inactives keeping their name that nobody else wants I would not even be here...

[Urael]

I thank you for at least trying to understand my argument, as you said in another post.

 

I work with likelihood and probability, this is all I have claimed in my post, this and what I perceive to be normal human behavior. This being, "If the server is dead, I will a) transfer server b) start fresh on a new sever c)quit playing and the most unlikely d) keep playing on a dead server.

 

Nobody can argue that the servers were either dead or dying, because if they were active servers, there would have been no need to merge the servers, and this thread would not exist, because we would all be happy and keep our names.

 

This is an assumption. You do not work at EAware and do not know their intensions (none of us do). You also assume to know "how everyone" will "behave" and "respond". Again assumption.

 

Counter argument: Say all the servers remained at "standard" population thus by your definition "active". But EAware determined that the overhead for running all of that server farm was more costly that reducing the number of servers and consolidating their playerbase on servers that were cheeper to operate but more powerful and could handle the increased load. EAware would deside to move to less servers to reduce overhead costs but, would still beable to provide the same and maybe improved service. One could say that by this reasoning they always intended to eventually reduce the amount of servers. The truth is we don't know. But, in this case people would still have to be moved. We can go round and round all day on this but in the end YOU nor *I* have actually data, and are not privy to the goings on inside EAware ( sometimes I don't think even EAware is privy to the goings on inside EAware).

 

? Edited September 19, 2012 by Urael

[Surakis]

I understand that I am being biased, because I was affected in a negative way.

 

As I have said previously, I put a lot of effort into character creation and naming, for more then aesthetic purposes.

 

My problem is not that people don't agree with me, it is that they are not willing to try and see anything from my point of view.

 

When the point of view is simply "give me what I want", what are we missing exactly?

[TUXs]

What is your point? If a name is in use by a non-active character, and no other active toon is using it, why do you think it would magically become available?

 

Never said it would be. You need to read things in context. That reply was made to the statement that " It's all heresay, and it is heresay in the absence of facts" when in fact we DO have facts. Some of us have the ability to verify who is playing and who isn't. Nothing more.

[Surakis]

You do the same, provide me with facts and proof that I am wrong, and then I will shut up.

 

I am not claiming that said characters are inactive, but the likelihood of them being inactive is far greater then them being active.

 

Phew, good thing you did write something like, "Because the people who were forced to move were moved from dead realms, and were almost certainly not active on the character that had the same name as me."

 

[Bonemower]

Looks like I'm not the only player to have concerns about this latest nonsense,

it came as a total surprise to me too. It appears that Bioware is making a last ditch effort to save money by culling everything but a half dozen or so servers.

I happily jumped at the chance to pre-order the game and was quick to purchase the collector edition, and have been one of the games biggest flag wavers from the beginning.

I've carried enough water for these people since to fill and ocean. but this latest crap is beyond me.... I do have one question though...

 

What the HELL am I suppose to do with THIRTEEN characters on one server!!!!!

half of which are now duplicates of other toons! Are you people out of your freaking MIND!

 

I can't speak for the rest of you but I'm not about to pay a monthly fee for this..they had better get off their bloody butts and re-open the free character transfer again. I play a server for the good friends I run into along the way and NOT because it saves them a few bucks.... I don't buy this "upgraded destination servers in order to support a significantly higher number of players" smoke for one second....

Oh, bye the bye....Have you heard? They just launched the new version of Guild Wars 2..... take my point??

[Aldoramjm]

When the point of view is simply "give me what I want", what are we missing exactly?

 

Give me what I want?

 

My argument stands for anybody who is unhappy about having to change their names, not just myself.

 

As I have said, and will say again, I have also been on the opposite side of things, being forced to change realm, and even when this happened I had the same views on renaming my character as I do now, If I am the one moving, It should be me who changes my name.

 

If they had changed the names of the realm for this merge, I would have accepted it, and moved on, but they kept the server names the same, so my view, and that of a lot of other people here is, I was on the realm first, so I should keep my name.

[Aldoramjm]

Phew, good thing you did write something like, "Because the people who were forced to move were moved from dead realms, and were almost certainly not active on the character that had the same name as me."

 

 

You quoted it right there, ALMOST CERTAINLY, which is me saying I MAY BE WRONG, but the likelihood is I am right.

[Andryah]

If they had changed the names of the realm for this merge, I would have accepted it, and moved on,

 

This was a mistake on their part IMO, but I can see why they did it. It would have quelled some of the rage posts, but it would also have created a whole new set. No win for Bioware.

 

However, you still need to move on because it is what it is. It's not going back and you don't get your old names back.

[Ambisextrous]

Honestly there is no way they are going to fix it. Am I happy that the name I used is now someone's shadow instead of my sage? Not at all, but for me it's not about having to change my name it's about the lack of notice or explanation. Oh sorry they gave us 24 hour notice, but didn't explain anything in a whole lot of detail until after the patch.

[TUXs]

This is an assumption. You do not work at EAware and do not know their intensions (none of us do). You also assume to know "how everyone" will "behave" and "respond". Again assumption

 

Really? You're REALLY going to pretend that the servers were healthy or that somehow this game didn't fail, which lead to massive server declines, which led to the absolute need to merge the servers (twice now) by arguing about words like "need" or such other nonsense? Come on Urael...you're better than that.

[Surakis]

The whole topic is about ACTIVE character being forced to change their names because characters that are MORE THEN LIKELY inactive has the same name.

 

If it was about inactives keeping their name that nobody else wants I would not even be here...

 

Read http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5176816#post5176816 which is what I quoted and responded to. Context, it's important.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

If a character is on a dead server then the likelihood of the character being active is very slim, dead server has no players, no community, they all went to active servers when they could not do much on their original ones.

 

This makes no sense. Fatman was rolled into Prophecy of the Five. Before the 1st round of server moves Fatman was on of the largest active servers and one of the first destination servers. By your logic it was a dead server and no one was active on it because the new server wasn't called Fatman...

Edited September 19, 2012 by Arlon_Nabarlly

[Ambisextrous]

This makes no sense. Fatman was rolled into Prophecy of the Five. Before the 1st round of server moves Fatman was on of the largest active servers and one of the first destination servers. By your logic it was a dead server and no one was active on it because the new server wasn't called Fatman...

 

This ^

 

Fatman was just as populated as The Bastion was before this round of mergers, and Bastion was an active server.

[Wraiven]

You are not thinking this through well at all.

 

Unique names are part of the fundamental mechanics of character server identity for this game.

 

Whereas Legacy names do not even become available until around level 30-33. Further, Legacy names ARE NOT part of the fundamental mechanics of charcter server identity for this game AND never have been.

 

And, what do we do about the fact that the Legacy name is scattered across up to 12 of your characters on the server???

 

But let's go with your premise for a moment...... what exactly would be solved by your premise? First names would be OK, but Legacy names would need to be changed. So name changes against the wishes of the player will ocurr, just a different part of the name.

 

 

No, I'm pretty sure I covered that as well. Seems you did not finish reading my post. Looks like you just read what you have quoted there and stopped reading from that point on.

 

If you will recall, I also suggested (And has been suggested to death long ago) that they free up first and last names, but add an account name to the game that identifies each player by account name. There is your identity. There is the name that nobody else should have unless they want to be called @Wraiven1 or so on.

[Urael]

Really? You're REALLY going to pretend that the servers were healthy or that somehow this game didn't fail, which lead to massive server declines, which led to the absolute need to merge the servers (twice now) by arguing about words like "need" or such other nonsense? Come on Urael...you're better than that.

 

You are infering my PoV. I am countering his arguement that is all. I am trying to make him see that he is arguing from a point of error.

 

We have already discussed my views on the state of the game and you know how I feel about EAware management. I have not changed my opinion. I am surprised you couldn't take that into account and given my posting style know that I often will "play devil's advocate" if I see an argument that is subjective and based in emotion only.

[Aldoramjm]

This makes no sense. Fatman was rolled into Prophecy of the Five. Before the 1st round of server moves Fatman was on of the largest active servers and one of the first destination servers. By your logic it was a dead server and no one was active on it because the new server wasn't called Fatman...

 

I am sorry if anybody misunderstood what I was saying, I was not claiming that the servers were inactive BEFORE the first round of transfers, but that AFTER the transfers, when they were frozen, they were inactive, with people transferring away to be on an open and active server, the community would have died, and most people would have stopped playing there.

[Surakis]

Really? You're REALLY going to pretend that the servers were healthy or that somehow this game didn't fail, which lead to massive server declines, which led to the absolute need to merge the servers (twice now) by arguing about words like "need" or such other nonsense? Come on Urael...you're better than that.

 

You continue to confuse server population with character playtime. Someone could easily have been an active player on a low-pop server.

[TUXs]

You do not have the ability you claim. You may know X used to play with a character named Y. You do not have the ability to know if W is now playing with the character named Y.

 

Sure I do. Friends list. If character Y exists, it tells me.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

I am sorry if anybody misunderstood what I was saying, I was not claiming that the servers were inactive BEFORE the first round of transfers, but that AFTER the transfers, when they were frozen, they were inactive, with people transferring away to be on an open and active server, the community would have died, and most people would have stopped playing there.

 

Fatman was a destination server last round so by your definition above it wasn't dead, therefore it wasn't dead despite the fact that it didn't keep it's name. You can't even keep your own made up definitions straight.

[TUXs]

You continue to confuse server population with character playtime. Someone could easily have been an active player on a low-pop server.

 

You continue to miss the context of my posts. Sometimes, usually, there are a series of posts that lead to my commenting.

[Surakis]

Sure I do. Friends list. If character Y exists, it tells me.

 

At best it would tell you if they were online at the time. You have not idea if they are on when you are not nor how active they are.

[Surakis]

You continue to miss the context of my posts. Sometimes, usually, there are a series of posts that lead to my commenting.

 

The context of your posts is you have secrete evidence that you know is true but can't really show or present to anyone else. We just have to take your word for it.