Character Names, not a trivial problem.

[HarleysRule]

I've already spoken to several people who went to try the game, spent half an hour to an hour trying to get a name, and gave up trying. Those were people who would have been customers, but for the existing naming system. Granted, it may not happen all the time, but it shouldn't be happening at all.

 

Making up totally BS examples does nothing to help your cause and makes you look silly. I refuse to believe anyone with a functioning brain cell (much less "several" people) can spend 30-60 minutes without coming up with an acceptable name. Some names I use and have used are just slight variations of random name generator names. Add/delete a letter somewhere, change a vowel, or both. It's really not that hard.

Edited November 21, 2012 by HarleysRule

[Graydon]

They didn't see the name generator then? Or did SuparSkillzzzz have too many Z's for them to use?

 

Have you tried the name generator lately? It's rare that it creates a unique name. You must realize with the double server merges, new players are now competing with millions yes millions of names that have been used up.

 

It's this reason why we will see more and more god awful names like "SuparSkillzzzz".

 

The good news is Bioware does realize this is an issue (unlike most of this community based on the posts), and do have plans to work and improve names. This was mentioned during the Developers Cantina Meet in Austin.

[chimex]

Have you tried the name generator lately? It's rare that it creates a unique name. You must realize with the double server merges, new players are now competing with millions yes millions of names that have been used up.

 

It's this reason why we will see more and more god awful names like "SuparSkillzzzz".

 

The good news is Bioware does realize this is an issue (unlike most of this community based on the posts), and do have plans to work and improve names. This was mentioned during the Developers Cantina Meet in Austin.

 

Never needed to, 6 chars through transfers and not a single name change. Like the OP, I have resubscribed recently. It's amazing how little trouble you can have with just a little imagination

[Andryah]

It's amazing how little trouble you can have with just a little imagination

 

Indeed.

 

And the reverse is: just how much trouble you can have with an absence of imagination at all in using the character naming in this game.

 

The ' and the - characters work wonders in names in this game so that you really don't have to resort to odd ASCII characters in your name unless you really want to.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Andryah

[seekerofpower]

The naming thing may have been two months ago, but I wasn't told about it. That's part of the problem. If they had INFORMED people about the upcoming merge, and told us an active subscription would allow name retention, many of us would have signed up to avoid losing our names. THAT would have been fair. THAT would have been courteous.

 

Wait, so you would have spent at least $15 to re-sub to a game you obviously weren't playing, just so you could retain names for characters that you weren't using at the time.

Wow.

[Vesahgo]

Names are important to me as well. Similar circumstances as you, I played beta, pre ordered collector's edition, and was in the game on hour 1 of early access. I got my names. During the first transfers I lost 3 important ones and wasn't happy, but without much to do about it if I wanted to continue playing, I sucked it up. Thankfully I didn't lose anymore during the mega-server merge. It still pisses me off that my main character's name is now spelled incorrectly, but what can you do?

 

For all the people saying the name isn't important and to get over it I'll explain why they're important to me.

 

During development I planned my characters. Name, race, class, skill set, history, etc. I developed a "legacy" with my own character histories before the legacy feature was even announced, as in my character histories were intertwined (relationships, relatives, rivals, all that jazz). During the first months playing I captured many screenshots of the evolution of a couple main characters and posted their stories on my blog, now with incorrect names. I still have a couple character sketches pinned on my bulletin board done before launch, also now with incorrect names.

 

Point is, I don't play a whole lot of games but the ones I do I put a lot of effort into character creation and documenting my journey. The genre of this game still has the letters RPG in it doesn't it? That's what I'm in it for, I role play, I design my characters and tell (play) their stories. Don't make me change my character's name because it really no longer feels like the character I designed.

[Calsetes]

Indeed.

 

And the reverse is: just how much trouble you can have with an absence of imagination at all in using the character naming in this game.

 

The ' and the - characters work wonders in names in this game so that you really don't have to resort to odd ASCII characters in your name unless you really want to.

 

There's restrictions on those too, though, if I remember right. I think you can only have one hyphen in your name, and... I think you need two letters before you can use an appostrophe. So something as simple as, say, "Jedi O'Flannigan," in terms of this games' naming conventions, pops out as "Jedi-oo'flannigan," which to me looks incredibly lazy since you can't have capital letters midway through, you need two letters before using an appostrophe, and you have to use hyphens instead of spaces (though that's relatively minor.)

 

For me, personally, the lack of being able to capitalize whatever letters we want, combined with the inability to use numbers in names, is somewhat restricting to me for some of my character ideas. I have a character that was experimented on. Her name was going to be XPR-8571 - it's simple, it's a statement, it's a serial or project number. It works. Can't use numbers, right? Okay, no biggie, we'll use a phoenetic equivalent - we'll use XPR-Alpha. Says it's the first, but whatever. In the actual game, though? Xpr-alpha. Loses a bit of its punch when you can't capitalize all of XPR, or even the A in Alpha.

 

Minor gripes, and for me, they'renot going to make me run from the game because the name's not perfect. But it's points going in the negative column when I later on go to evaluate if I enjoy this game for another month or so down the line, and all those tiny one or two-point infractions add up to overtake the big guys at some point.

[Jenzali]

I logged on last night to see if names really are at a premium. Searched up a list of 3-letter names and words and many of them were still available. If you are having trouble thinking of an original name that is longer than 3 letters, there's exponentially more combinations available to you. I've only had to rename one character since launch and never used any apostrophes, dashes, funny alt-code characters, or doubled up letters. If you're still having trouble, I'd recommend looking at lists of baby names or use one of the many fantasy name generators until you find a name you really like.

[skiibyrd]

I've already spoken to several people who went to try the game, spent half an hour to an hour trying to get a name, and gave up trying. Those were people who would have been customers, but for the existing naming system. Granted, it may not happen all the time, but it shouldn't be happening at all.

 

Clearly, you don't care what your characters' names are. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. I expect a majority of players feel that way. However, many players feel the same way I do, or these kinds of threads wouldn't keep appearing. That fact alone makes this an issue that needs to be considered. It's a trivial concern that can have a non-trivial impact.

 

Actually, I do care about what my characters name is, its very important to me... but i dont get affixated on having certain specific names, if mine gets taken, I use something called.... and this is a big one... creativity, to come up with a new one thats good... also, how could you possibly of spoken with several people about not playing because they couldnt find a name they liked? they wouldnt be on the swtor forums, they wouldnt of been in the game... and you certainly cannot back up their claims to do any of that unless they were your friends, which probably would the same viewpoint as you. This thread is a HUGE QQ thread, and makes no sense. Either suck it up, be creative and come up with a name you like, or STOP COMPLAINING ON THE FORUMS. I MEAN SERIOUSLY, YOU SAID YOU PAID FOR A SUB JUST TO COME ON THE FORUMS AND COMPLAIN!! I

 

I mean, come on people, why dont you just unsub, or send a message to the Devs explaining your issue, and if its a big enough problem they will fix it.

Edited November 21, 2012 by skiibyrd

[Codek]

Lets see, character names that I use:

Codex

Cödex

Côdex

Còdex

Codêx

Codëx

Codèx

Côdêx

Côdëx

.

.

Codek

Cödek

.

.

Kodex

etc...

108 different variations (near a thousand if I throw in some ' into the mix), and all based off one name!

Is it really that hard to beat the system?

Edited November 21, 2012 by Codek

[Andryah]

For all the people saying the name isn't important and to get over it I'll explain why they're important to me.

 

Honestly, I don't think anyone is trying to tell anyone else that a name is not important to them. I know I am not. What I am saying is.....that you need to let it go and move on. I guess someone could curl up in a fetal ball over it, but how does that solve the issue? It does not.

 

Multiple people used the same names... the game producer established a checking and decision algorythm to decide who gets to keep a name and who must change a name. This is not open for debate... this is exactly what was done.

 

It's DONE. People who lost names must take the next step forward. Rename is your only productive option to move forward. You are not going to get your old name back.

 

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, or your pity pot... I am just being pragmatic and pointing out reality. How you cope with it is up to you. But complaining in general forum is not going to move you forward and it's not going to get a lost name back.

 

Maybe Bioware needs to hire a few grief counselors for the forum.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Andryah

[Crawelc]

Lets see, character names that I use:

Codex

Cödex

Côdex

Còdex

Codêx

Codëx

Codèx

Côdêx

Côdëx

.

.

Codek

Cödek

.

.

Kodex

etc...

108 different variations (near a thousand if I through in some ' into the mix), and all based off one name!

Is it really that hard to beat the system?

 

Same for me, I have 4 imprimis' on my main server and a nameholder on all the others just in case. Truth is within a month of rolling my toon in wow there were 36 new people with my name on other servers and I didnt want that to happen in this game. I can sympathize a bit with the OP, but if you want to name your toon after a lightsaber form your kinda being silly to begin with.

[ObiJuanShenobi]

Alright, I've resubscribed so I could post this. Be glad it's typed, because otherwise the profanity might melt your ears.

 

I have a story to tell.

 

I was a beta tester. I've been around since before the beginning of the game. When it was getting ready to launch, I preordered. It cost me over $100 to get the game early, the WHOLE POINT of which was to ensure I had access to the names of my characters. Some are EXTREMELY important to me.

 

When I tried to get online on launch day to get my names, I had an account issue that customer service took over a week to resolve. The result was that I didn't get all the names I wanted. However, I got the important ones, so I sucked it up.

 

Some time later, they decided to close the server I had been on. Now I had to get my characters onto another server, which cost me more of my characters' names, including two of the three most important ones. One, I was able to make work by respelling it, the other has never been played because I couldn't come up with a satisfactory name. I was angry, but I accepted it. Whoever had been on that server first had dibs. I could accept that.

 

Now, I come back to find all the rest of my names, including the most important one, Shein, had been handed to some incoming players, EVEN THOUGH I was there FIRST. This time, I had dibs, but again I was the one getting the shaft. This time, I can't suck it up. They say their policy was "fair," and I say BULL.

 

I lost my names at launch. I lost my names in the first round of server closures, and now they're taking my names away AGAIN? THREE TIMES. That is NOT fair.

 

I want to know EXACTLY what the "fair" criteria used were.

 

 

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.

 

Have everyone choose a unique account "handle." When a character is created, it would combine the character's name with the account handle to create a unique character name. Thus, if my account handle was @Vego, then my character Shien would actually be Shien@Vego. Another player could then have a character named Shien, as his character would have a different handle, such as Shien@Bob. STO and Champions Online use this system and it works very well. Everyone can have the name they want.

 

Now, one of the complaints about this is that there's no uniqueness in names. That's kind of the point, but I do understand the complaint. I play a well-known character in Lord of the Rings Online, Skjald of Rohan. I am well known there for the music I write for players to download. It would indeed annoy me if someone else could have the name Skjald, as they could then claim to be me, and take credit for my work. However, I think the odds of that happening are small. Certainly, retaining customers is more important, I think.

 

Some have suggested using Legacy names, and that may work if Legacy names are made unique. The problem there is that legacy names aren't available until around L30+. For this to work, it has to be in place from the beginning.

 

This may seem a trivial issue, but I don't believe it is. The fact is, this is an important, even game-breaking concern to many of us. WHY doesn't matter, all that matters is that IT IS IMPORTANT TO US.

 

Bioware, you CANNOT let this slide. You MUST do something about it, and quickly. You cannot afford the damage this is doing to your game and your reputation.

 

If you are just NOW posting about your names being changed last go around, something tells me it's because you have been unsubbed. If that's the case then i do NOT feel sorry for you.

 

I was a beta tester too. I pre-ordered as well. I had names that meant a lot to me that got changed...just like you did. The difference is, I NEVER unsubbed. I played every day. Since December. The fact that I had my names changed in favor of people who are no longer subbed pisses me off.

 

So, my plight? Much more important than yours in mind, so it's hard to feel sympathy for ya.

 

All this assuming, of course, you have been unsubbed and are just now figuring this out.

[BlazingShadow]

This may seem a trivial issue, but I don't believe it is. The fact is, this is an important, even game-breaking concern to many of us. WHY doesn't matter, all that matters is that IT IS IMPORTANT TO US.

 

Bioware, you CANNOT let this slide. You MUST do something about it, and quickly. You cannot afford the damage this is doing to your game and your reputation.

 

Lol. Well there's your problem right there.

[Trollokdamus]

I've already spoken to several people who went to try the game, spent half an hour to an hour trying to get a name, and gave up trying. Those were people who would have been customers, but for the existing naming system. Granted, it may not happen all the time, but it shouldn't be happening at all.

 

Clearly, you don't care what your characters' names are. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. I expect a majority of players feel that way. However, many players feel the same way I do, or these kinds of threads wouldn't keep appearing. That fact alone makes this an issue that needs to be considered. It's a trivial concern that can have a non-trivial impact.

So this is happening. Exactly what i was talking about here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5391962#post5391962

 

Making up totally BS examples does nothing to help your cause and makes you look silly. I refuse to believe anyone with a functioning brain cell (much less "several" people) can spend 30-60 minutes without coming up with an acceptable name. Some names I use and have used are just slight variations of random name generator names. Add/delete a letter somewhere, change a vowel, or both. It's really not that hard.

I'm sorry but you're just narrow-minded. Or at least look like one. It's not about finding an "acceptable" name (any set of letters that is not already taken can be considered as such), but about coming up with a name which suits both yourself and your certain character.

Edited November 21, 2012 by Trollokdamus

[Maccha]

too many pages so I apologize if someone said this.

 

While I recognize specific names are important to people, I find it hard to believe people are quitting because they cannot find alternate names. Names I have been using in MMOs for almost 20 years (started in UO) are not available, it never takes more than 2 tries to find another one. WoW had 12 mil accounts at one point, with 50 potential toons per. People still found names (some of them were bad, but...)

 

As far as first and last names, UO had them in 1995. Last names had to be unique, but first names did not. It worked wonderfully. Why MMOs can't/don't do that now I don't understand.

[Calsetes]

108 different variations (near a thousand if I throw in some ' into the mix), and all based off one name!

Is it really that hard to beat the system?

 

The only complaint I have about that system is this:

 

Bill is a different name than Bîll, which is a different name than Bíll, which is a different name than Bïll. Trust me, if your name was Joe, and someone spelled it Jo, you'd be pretty upset too, because one is a man's name and one is a woman's name - all because of one letter. Then, you have some names like André, which is completely different when you have Andrée, as again, one is a male name, one is a female name.

 

I get what you're saying about it being a workaround, though, and for most people, that's probably good enough. If you're on an RP server, or if you do any amount of role-playing where names important to you and your characters, then it's an issue. One that, unfortunately, someone has to get the short end of the stick on - whether it's me and my character named Deathshrike who has been Deathshrike since launch day who had to get changed to Deadly-shrike, or the other guy who may have had Deathshrike for some unknown-to-me period of time and managed to "keep it" when my server merged with his. One of us would get the name, one of us wouldn't. I called Heads, it came up Tails.

[Codek]

The only complaint I have about that system is this:

 

Bill is a different name than Bîll, which is a different name than Bíll, which is a different name than Bïll. Trust me, if your name was Joe, and someone spelled it Jo, you'd be pretty upset too, because one is a man's name and one is a woman's name - all because of one letter. Then, you have some names like André, which is completely different when you have Andrée, as again, one is a male name, one is a female name.

 

I get what you're saying about it being a workaround, though, and for most people, that's probably good enough. If you're on an RP server, or if you do any amount of role-playing where names important to you and your characters, then it's an issue. One that, unfortunately, someone has to get the short end of the stick on - whether it's me and my character named Deathshrike who has been Deathshrike since launch day who had to get changed to Deadly-shrike, or the other guy who may have had Deathshrike for some unknown-to-me period of time and managed to "keep it" when my server merged with his. One of us would get the name, one of us wouldn't. I called Heads, it came up Tails.

 

I may just be immune to the finer details of what makes a name thanks in due part to a web series that hi-jacked it from me while I was asleep... Nothing like waking up one morning to people sending you whispers asking if your some girl from a show you've never heard of before ().

 

I've always just gone by the philosophy that a name is what you make it, not the other way around. My name could be fluffies and I could still be known as "The Destroyer of Worlds" if that's how I choose to represent that name.

[Willhousefour]

Edit: read some more of the thread and apparently workarounds are unacceptable to some, so I'll just say I don't understand why the name with correct spelling is so important and if someone could explain, I might be interested although I'd probably still disagree. Edited November 21, 2012 by Willhousefour

[Calsetes]

Codek, I get what you're saying, and I agree mostly - it just seems like a crappy workaround to me, instead of something that's an alternative. Like, if I could somehow make Deathshrike work with... like, that e with this ^ above it, then I'd use that. Otherwise, I'd rather come up with an alternative - which would be fine, if I didn't try eight or nine alternatives and settled on a more mediocre one. It's settling for chocolate ice cream instead of chocolate peanut butter ice cream with sprinkles, you know? It's still good, but it's just not quite as good.

 

Edit: read some more of the thread and apparently workarounds are unacceptable to some, so I'll just say I don't understand why the name with correct spelling is so important and if someone could explain, I might be interested although I'd probably still disagree.

 

Eh, it's like if someone had the name "Excalibur," and you really wanted it. Granted, this is an extremely common name, but whatever. To some people, having "Ëxcalibur" is equivalent to someone who would have the name "3XC4L1BUR" which is a complete tool-like way to spell it. It works for some people, and that's cool. It'd work for me, if the character I was making had an acronym or something that could be worked out to that, such as... I don't know, "third-generation experimental construct, 4-limbs, single-boson, unregulated recon unit." It's a mouthful, but when you go "In short, 3XC4L1BUR, otherwise known as Excalibur," then people go "Ooooh, I see now." But normally, with nothing to back it up? I'd rather try to find something else that'd fit without "retooling it."

 

Again, it's all a personal preference thing. It works for some, but not for others.

[Mhorlok]

Back when they had the first server migrations and they forced alot of us to change our names I was upset - I was also a beta tester, I also have the CE I want the names I picked, not be forced to change because someone with a level 10 toon that is unsubbed just happened to have the same name.

 

However that being said - you unsubbed

 

You lost your right to complain about losing your name - Active Subscribers should have preference over inactive.

So since you gave up your right to complain pick a new name or unsub again...

[Sweetiepies]

It's DONE. People who lost names must take the next step forward. Rename is your only productive option to move forward. You are not going to get your old name back.

 

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, or your pity pot... I am just being pragmatic and pointing out reality. How you cope with it is up to you. But complaining in general forum is not going to move you forward and it's not going to get a lost name back.

 

Maybe Bioware needs to hire a few grief counselors for the forum.

 

Never thought I'd agree so hard with you

[Tmanarl]

You left the game.

You lost your name.

You now have to deal with it.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Wait, so you would have spent at least $15 to re-sub to a game you obviously weren't playing, just so you could retain names for characters that you weren't using at the time.

Wow.

 

Well, truthfully, it wasn't JUST that. Another part of the reason I resubbed was that it was impossible to get any customer service while free playing. Fre players can't post on the forums looking for help and they can't file tickets. The other reason, as I mentioned before, is that real life forced me to unsub for a time, and I had always intended to return.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Names are important to me as well. Similar circumstances as you, I played beta, pre ordered collector's edition, and was in the game on hour 1 of early access. I got my names. During the first transfers I lost 3 important ones and wasn't happy, but without much to do about it if I wanted to continue playing, I sucked it up. Thankfully I didn't lose anymore during the mega-server merge. It still pisses me off that my main character's name is now spelled incorrectly, but what can you do?

 

For all the people saying the name isn't important and to get over it I'll explain why they're important to me.

 

During development I planned my characters. Name, race, class, skill set, history, etc. I developed a "legacy" with my own character histories before the legacy feature was even announced, as in my character histories were intertwined (relationships, relatives, rivals, all that jazz). During the first months playing I captured many screenshots of the evolution of a couple main characters and posted their stories on my blog, now with incorrect names. I still have a couple character sketches pinned on my bulletin board done before launch, also now with incorrect names.

 

Point is, I don't play a whole lot of games but the ones I do I put a lot of effort into character creation and documenting my journey. The genre of this game still has the letters RPG in it doesn't it? That's what I'm in it for, I role play, I design my characters and tell (play) their stories. Don't make me change my character's name because it really no longer feels like the character I designed.

 

Exactly so, but even that is rather beside the point. We all have different reasons why we're attached to our names. The important thing is not WHY we're attached to them, but that we ARE attached to them.

 

In my own case, I was able to rename one of my characters (originally called Ahriman, now called Arhiman) acceptably. I still grumble every time I see his name, but that will pass. The kicker was Shein. It's a name I'm not really able to do much with, because it's my OWN name respelled. There's really only two ways it might be done, Shein and Shien. Both were unavailable. I really can't add extra letters or respell it because then it loses its connection to ME, which is the whole point.

But again, that's kind of beside the point.