Character Names, not a trivial problem.

[Sotof]

Except you said it was now upside down and broken.

Which is exactly what happens if your character lose its name. It lose its soul. In effect it gets turned inside out and gets broken.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Ok to translate what you said

 

"Im more important than an active subscriber because I was here first. Someone had a priority over me because they played more, had an active subscription and met other criteria and this isnt fair. I quit the game and probably wouldnt have come back if it wasnt F2P. I dont know who got my name but I assume that I am way more awesome than him and he is only a noob and couldnt possibly have been in the beta as well since I was the only one there with a few friends."

 

You JUST resubscribed just to say this?

 

I didn't say that at all. In fact, I specifically said I considered the fact that my particular need was no more important than anyone else's, which is why action is needed. Read the thread.

[HarleysRule]

Which is exactly what happens if your character lose its name. It lose its soul. In effect it gets turned inside out and gets broken.

 

LOL loses its' soul? Really?!? LOL

[Vego_Mohenjo]

It's actually more like this

 

He got a bus ticket to reserve a seat

HIS bus crashed so he had to move to another bus

He wants to sit on the same spot, but someone was already sitting there and now he wants that guy to give up the seat.

 

That's rude, besides, bus rides make me dizzy. I suggest getting a cab or walkin.

 

No, not like that. That's how it was the first two times I lost my names. This time I was the one already on the bus, and my name was given to someone else. And you're right, it IS rude.

[Sotof]

LOL loses its' soul? Really?!? LOL

Yeah. Ever heard of something called a "metaphor"?

Edited November 21, 2012 by Sotof

[Vego_Mohenjo]

definitely not my problem

 

if name's are such a big deal why don't I see tons of complaints like these in-game? like sure i hear them... once a month in general chat I guess.

 

The thing is, it IS your problem after a fashion. People quit the game over this (we've seen as much already in this thread), which erodes the game's playerbase, which erodes the game's income, which means the game dies off.

 

Bioware needs to keep ALL the players here. They can't say, "we don't need those people." The game, and by extension, YOU, can't afford it.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

OP is a unique and special snowflake, unlike the tens of thousands of other people that lost names of characters without writing a book/emo rant about it.

 

 

 

Fail analogy is fail. His seat (character) is still there, it's just a different color (name).

 

Insulting me isn't productive. As I've said before, my particular situation is just one among many. That it is not unique is precisely the problem.

[Malastare]

Yeah. Ever heard of something called "metaphor"?

 

You didn't use a metaphor. You used ridiculous amounts of hyperbole.

 

In this case, it totally undermined your argument. Now you just look like you're being satirical. The vast majority of people will laugh at your statement and and be less likely to take you seriously.

[Calsetes]

I was a bit miffed that I had to rename a few of my guys during all the merges, but overall I'm happy with the names I got in replacement, with one exception:

 

I thought it was cool having a sniper named Deathshrike, and it lasted a long time. Unfortunately, when I came back before free-to-play, I had to rename her. No biggie, I'll try a few different things. Death-shrike, butcher-bird, butcherbird, bloodshrike, and a few others were taken. I'm not going to drop the "a" in "death" since it's a stupid "I'm bypassing the filter!" kinda thing. So, I managed to go with Deadly-shrike. Not as cool, but hey - it still fits the "super-secret agent code name" thing.

 

Whoever has Deathshrike on Harbinger, I give you a giant Vader-sized NOOOOOOO!!!! and a congratulations on getting a name I use and like. It happens.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

You didn't use a metaphor. You used ridiculous amounts of hyperbole.

 

In this case, it totally undermined your argument. Now you just look like you're being satirical. The vast majority of people will laugh at your statement and and be less likely to take you seriously.

 

He was trying to impart a sense of why this issue is important - that there is an emotional investment for many people. However, as I said before, the reasons WHY this is important to us is irrelevant. There are doubtless many reasons. All that does matter is that we DO care enough about this to leave the game because of it.

 

Once again, the game can't afford to lose anyone, especially when a solution to prevent it is so readily available.

[Saliq]

I was in beta, I was online in the first wave in Early Game Access, I bought the Collectors etc etc etc...

Yet a bunch of the names I have on my characters who were created within the first 30 minutes of SWTOR being open to the public were forced to be renamed when they did server merges.

 

I was pissed about it, since the servers I were on were servers that are still there, other servers merged into those.

But that's life, nothing we can do about it, moaning about it on the forums won't help, so take my advice, don't post about it, just suck it up, because that's how it is :/

[Sotof]

You didn't use a metaphor. You used ridiculous amounts of hyperbole.

It has become apparent to me that you do not know what a metaphor actually is, it seems your system has failed you. But do not worry, the Internet is full of knowledge.

[Codek]

The thing is, it IS your problem after a fashion. People quit the game over this (we've seen as much already in this thread), which erodes the game's playerbase, which erodes the game's income, which means the game dies off.

 

Bioware needs to keep ALL the players here. They can't say, "we don't need those people." The game, and by extension, YOU, can't afford it.

 

I highly doubt anyone who quits over the lose of a name (especially when the loss of the name was the cost of improving general populations across the active servers, the #1 complaint at the time) left solely based on the name change. More then likely they left because they didn't enjoy the game in itself as well.

 

It's not a matter of "we don't need those people" but a matter of "we don't need people who don't care for this game". Complaining about name change (that was the by-product of improving the game) is not something I would consider "helpful" towards making this game better.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

I was in beta, I was online in the first wave in Early Game Access, I bought the Collectors etc etc etc...

Yet a bunch of the names I have on my characters who were created within the first 30 minutes of SWTOR being open to the public were forced to be renamed when they did server merges.

 

I was pissed about it, since the servers I were on were servers that are still there, other servers merged into those.

But that's life, nothing we can do about it, moaning about it on the forums won't help, so take my advice, don't post about it, just suck it up, because that's how it is :/

 

You don't know it won't help. They need to be told when we're upset with something, or they won't know to fix it. They may not, but if so, they are gambling that it won't hurt the game as I think it will. The better solution is to implement the solution many have suggested, as I suggested above.

[Malastare]

The thing is, it IS your problem after a fashion. People quit the game over this (we've seen as much already in this thread), which erodes the game's playerbase, which erodes the game's income, which means the game dies off.

 

You're overestimating the number of people who are like you. This is a common problem, especially in gaming communities where egotism is not discouraged.

 

The number of people who have quit because their precious children (characters) were assaulted by Bioware and robbed of all identity (had their names changed) is probably an order-of-magnitude (or two) smaller than the number of people who have quit because they disliked seeing all the stupid names people pick for their characters. If Bioware "fixes" the problem as you request, it makes the second situation worse.

 

Using made up numbers: 100 users quit because they lost the names of their precious, precious toons. 1,000 users quit because the names selected by their fellow players are childish or offensive and turn them off the game.

 

We apply your "fix": Bioware regains 100 users who are free to pick their own names. Meanwhile, the number of absurd/stupid/childish names rises, turning off more existing users. 1,200 of them leave.

 

Score. Problem solved. You get to feel special. And the game... well, let's be honest: You never cared about the game in the first place. You just cared about yourself.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

I highly doubt anyone who quits over the lose of a name (especially when the loss of the name was the cost of improving general populations across the active servers, the #1 complaint at the time) left solely based on the name change. More then likely they left because they didn't enjoy the game in itself as well.

 

It's not a matter of "we don't need those people" but a matter of "we don't need people who don't care for this game". Complaining about name change (that was the by-product of improving the game) is not something I would consider "helpful" towards making this game better.

 

Your doubt is unfounded. We've seen two people at least in this forum alone who have indicated this is an issue that will drive them from the game. I am one myself. I left the game only a little while ago to attend to personal matters (real life does intrude on gaming), with every intention of returning when I was able to. Now, because of this an only this, I won't be coming back.

 

Unless they fix it.

[Vlacke]

I agree with the OP.

It pissed me off when i saw i had to change the names of two of mine characters on ToFN.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Vlacke

[Sotof]

I might also add that there is a reason why these threads pop up so often. It is because this is a problem. Edited November 21, 2012 by Sotof

[HarleysRule]

He was trying to impart a sense of why this issue is important - that there is an emotional investment for many people. However, as I said before, the reasons WHY this is important to us is irrelevant. There are doubtless many reasons. All that does matter is that we DO care enough about this to leave the game because of it.

 

Once again, the game can't afford to lose anyone, especially when a solution to prevent it is so readily available.

 

Sorry, but you're delusional if you think the number of people leaving over losing a character name is anything more than a drop in the bucket. Frankly, someone leaving over something so trivial won't be missed...and yes, they *can* afford to lose people over it. They determined the handful of ragequitters over names was less an economic impact than rewriting the database to give millions of characters a unique ID not tied to a name. Also, people emotionally tied to a video game character need to seek therapy ASAP.

 

By your logic, they should never make class changes because they can't afford to lose people that threaten to quit over nerfs. BTW, people in this thread have quit over it? Server mergers were months ago...they're still posting, so they're still subbed.

Edited November 21, 2012 by HarleysRule

[Darzil]

Unfortunately, changing the name system, when that name is used in so many places - database tables (possibly), chat, character banners etc - isn't a quick fix. When SWTOR was losing players fast due to having the playerbase spread far too thinly causing grouping to be very difficult, Bioware had to quickly sort the situation - increase vastly the number of players on each server. Far too quickly to do something elegant with names.

 

I'd like them to do something elegant with names, but I also understand that the overall health of the game was more important at the time.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

You're overestimating the number of people who are like you. This is a common problem, especially in gaming communities where egotism is not discouraged.

 

The number of people who have quit because their precious children (characters) were assaulted by Bioware and robbed of all identity (had their names changed) is probably an order-of-magnitude (or two) smaller than the number of people who have quit because they disliked seeing all the stupid names people pick for their characters. If Bioware "fixes" the problem as you request, it makes the second situation worse.

 

Using made up numbers: 100 users quit because they lost the names of their precious, precious toons. 1,000 users quit because the names selected by their fellow players are childish or offensive and turn them off the game.

 

We apply your "fix": Bioware regains 100 users who are free to pick their own names. Meanwhile, the number of absurd/stupid/childish names rises, turning off more existing users. 1,200 of them leave.

 

Score. Problem solved. You get to feel special. And the game... well, let's be honest: You never cared about the game in the first place. You just cared about yourself.

 

Again, we have no idea of the numbers, but however many it may be, it's more than the game can afford to lose. I don't see more absurd names arising. The lack of useful NORMAL names is far more likely to generate silly names.

 

We are all here for our own entertainment. However, if I was here just for myself, I wouldn't have said otherwise several times already. This is not just an issue for ME, but for many others. The fact that we see threads like this over and over is evidence of that.

[Codek]

Your doubt is unfounded. We've seen two people at least in this forum alone who have indicated this is an issue that will drive them from the game. I am one myself. I left the game only a little while ago to attend to personal matters (real life does intrude on gaming), with every intention of returning when I was able to. Now, because of this an only this, I won't be coming back.

 

Unless they fix it.

 

People come to the forums to complain, seeing two cases is hardly surprising...

 

Anyways, I had many characters and have never stopped my subscription and from what I saw during all the server merges, the characters I played the most retained there names. Those I played the least lost there names to players (that I would imagine) put more game time into there characters. If this is not a "fair" way of deciding who gets what name then you are just desperate for obtaining solely what you want out of life.

[skiibyrd]

However, it doesn't end there. As I've been thinking about this, it seem to me that this is a SERIOUS problem in the making, and it is COSTING CUSTOMERS. The game is losing customers in THREE WAYS.

 

1. There are veterans like me who have been robbed of our names once again. Many of us are leaving and not coming back.

2. There are new players trying to make characters who can't get names, even using the random name generator. Many of these players are leaving and not coming back.

3. Perhaps most seriously, BOTH of these kinds of players are going to dissuade others from trying the game. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising.

 

TOR is dying, and it cannot afford to lose customers over something like this, that could be EASILY corrected. The solution has been suggested many times already, but let me briefly restate it.[/color][/b]

 

For one... SWTOR is not Dying, it actually is jam packed, and has been continuing to grow, recently at a very quick rate... Two, SWTOR is NOT losing a bunch of customers because of not having the name they want, I mean it sucks to lose your name, but its not ground breaking, I read this and I have to say, your making yourself sound like an ignorant, whiney 10 year old (Maybe you are).

 

If you quit playing this game, and really only subscribed to just QQ on the forums like a baby, then maybe this game is better without you than with you, I would hate to see how you would react to a real issue.

Edited November 21, 2012 by skiibyrd

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Sorry, but you're delusional if you think the number of people leaving over losing a character name is anything more than a drop in the bucket. Frankly, someone leaving over something so trivial won't be missed...and yes, they *can* afford to lose people over it. They determined the handful of ragequitters over names was less an economic impact than rewriting the database to give millions of characters a unique ID not tied to a name. Also, people emotionally tied to a video game character need to seek therapy ASAP.

 

By your logic, they should never make class changes because they can't afford to lose people that threaten to quit over nerfs. BTW, people in this thread have quit over it? Server mergers were months ago...they're still posting, so they're still subbed.

 

They have lost THOUSANDS of customers since the game launched, very likely as a result of things just like you described. The result has been ever shrinking population (evidenced by reduction in servers), and by extension reduction in income (evidenced largely by the f2p model).

 

The game is bleeding out, and they need to do whatever they can to stop it.

 

(people may still quit and be able to post if they bought several months of subscription that haven't yet run out)

[Vego_Mohenjo]

For one... SWTOR is not Dying, it actually is jam packed, and has been continuing to grow, recently at a very quick rate... Two, SWTOR is NOT losing a bunch of customers because of not having the name they want, I mean it sucks to lose your name, but its not ground breaking, I read this and I have to say, your making yourself sound like an ignorant, whiney 10 year old (Maybe you are).

 

If you quit playing this game, and really only subscribed to just QQ on the forums like a baby, then maybe this game is better without you than with you, I would hate to see how you would react to a real issue.

 

So you disagree. How does insulting me help your case?

 

This is costing Bioware money. It's that simple. They can shrug and call it insignificant, but why would they when a simple solution exists?