Vego_Mohenjo Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 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 not making up anything. It happened, you can believe me or not, I don't really care. It's not that they couldn't come up with anything (I'm sure SUPerSuxxxors112212 was available), it's that they couldn't come up with anything satisfactory. Either way, even if it isn't really "that hard," it won't always be so. Names are an exhaustible resource as it stands, and there are now free players coming in, making characters, and leaving. Even if your assertion that it's easy to get names now were correct, in time it won't be. Think long term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vego_Mohenjo Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 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. You're missing the point. The fact is that this is an important issue to many players, both current and prospective customers. That makes it important to Bioware, who should be concerned at the possibility of losing those customers. My goal here isn't so much to get my characters' names back as to warn Bioware of the potential danger they're walking into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vego_Mohenjo Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 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. Imagine for a mioment, that I were a serviceman, sent on 6 month assignment. I won't have access to internet, and I won't be able to play the game. Is it fair to give me the shaft because of my unavoidable circumstances? Now, that's not my situation, but I've heard about that specific situation MANY times on many forums with similar issues. My proposed solution prevents anyone getting robbed of their name for any reason. That's important, because everyone's circumstances are just as valid as everyone else's. Suppose you have two people, each with identical play statistics. One gets the name, how do you choose? It doesn't matter, because you can't please both of them using the current system. That's why it has to be changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vego_Mohenjo Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Lol. Well there's your problem right there. Yes, my opinion is based on my beliefs. Imagine that. However, I've warned other developers (and even Bioware) about actions and choices I believed were mistakes many times before. I haven't been wrong yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARhenus Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 bus stops are awesome, brings many people together. but i don't wanna ride one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndasKastor Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Imagine for a moment, that I were a serviceman, sent on 6 month assignment. I won't have access to internet, and I won't be able to play the game. Is it fair to give me the shaft because of my unavoidable circumstances? Sorry, but yes. If you are not paying for the service then someone who is should get priority. Now I rolled up a new character today. I used the random name generator and noticed that everyone I liked was not available (no biggie). I also noticed that every 15 - 20 names seemed to be a repeat from earlier. This seems rather odd as I would expect a bigger pool. I ended up having to put a ' in the middle of a randomly generated name to finally play - and it did take about 20 minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 The bottom line is you're not going to get subscriber types with the ever more limited names available, you'll only likely get f2p people who don't really care what names they get so long as they can play for free. People who pay expect service (which includes not having to name yourself Gthsbikkli to be able log into a server). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 The bottom line is you're not going to get subscriber types with the ever more limited names available, you'll only likely get f2p people who don't really care what names they get so long as they can play for free. People who pay expect service (which includes not having to name yourself Gthsbikkli to be able log into a server). That's kind of a ridiculous statement. For one, it's not that hard to come up with a unique name. It really isn't. Will it be hard to get the name "Bob." Yes. That doesn't mean there aren't thousands of other names out there that sound like names. Secondly, the idea that people won't subscribe because they can't come up with names is silly. Just silly. Maybe one in a massive number of people is this ridiculous, but most people aren't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) That's kind of a ridiculous statement. For one, it's not that hard to come up with a unique name. It really isn't. Will it be hard to get the name "Bob." Yes. That doesn't mean there aren't thousands of other names out there that sound like names. Secondly, the idea that people won't subscribe because they can't come up with names is silly. Just silly. Maybe one in a massive number of people is this ridiculous, but most people aren't. No it isn't - for people who like to make decent names. Sure you can make some crappy half *** name up and run around with it over your head...in fact I've seen people run around with some really dumb names...anyway considering the forum name you're using, I strongly doubt you're someone who ever considers a name to be important. Not really sure why you're here posting, except to say "I don't care about names" Yes we can see that, just by reading some of the forum names here. Edited November 22, 2012 by lollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 No it isn't - for people who like to make decent names. Sure you can make some crappy half *** name up and run around with it over your head...in fact I've seen people run around with some really dumb names...anyway considering the forum name you're using, I strongly doubt you're someone who ever considers a name to be important. Not really sure why you're here posting, except to say "I don't care about names" Yes we can see that, just reading some of the forum names here. Lol, you're juding my interest in game names based on my forum name? Really? I do care about names, actually, I take time to plan them out, be creative, work around any roadblocks. My game names sound like names - Jesenna, Jevai, and so forth. What I'm saying is that it isn't hard to come up with a GOOD name. Not that I don't care about good names, but that it's not difficult. Really honestly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Lol, you're juding my interest in game names based on my forum name? Really? I do care about names, actually, I take time to plan them out, be creative, work around any roadblocks. My game names sound like names - Jesenna, Jevai, and so forth. What I'm saying is that it isn't hard to come up with a GOOD name. Not that I don't care about good names, but that it's not difficult. Really honestly. My point was (if you'd read my post) that the names are indeed getting harder and harder to make - floodgates have been opened and f2p people are now camping loads of names. Not saying this is bad to have them using names, just saying the numbers of good names are diminishing day by day...till it gets to point that many people who really do care about the name they use won't want to subscribe with the names they have been able to get (eg fail names like Dryllia, Phiffiii, Hoo'rice etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 My point was (if you'd read my post) that the names are indeed getting harder and harder to make - floodgates have been opened and f2p people are now camping loads of names. Not saying this is bad to have them using names, just saying the numbers of good names are diminishing day by day...till it gets to point that many people who really do care about the name they use won't want to subscribe with the names they have been able to get (eg fail names like Dryllia, Phiffiii, Hoo'rice etc). Mark me down as an optimist here on the subject of Name Armageddon. I think you're blowing this problem way out of proportion. Maybe I just have more faith in people's creativity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) Mark me down as an optimist here on the subject of Name Armageddon. I think you're blowing this problem way out of proportion. Maybe I just have more faith in people's creativity No you just have lower standards than people who actually care about names - for me, anything short of the exact name (no spelling variations, and no apostrophes or dashes), is a fail name. I don't do alien names. I don't do l33t names. Names that form a sentence (like your forum name) is also a fail name for me. Everyone has their standards - it's not for you to tell people they need to drop their own standards down to your standards. They would've been smart to make all names unique across all servers, and get us to make a first name and a surname (so it has a gap not an apostrophe or a dash). But I believe people told them this before the game launched...they just didn't think about the consequences of server merges...or perhaps didn't think they would need to merge so quickly. Edited November 22, 2012 by lollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 No you just have lower standards than people who actually care about names - for me, anything short of the exact name (no spelling variations, and no apostrophes or dashes), is a fail name. I don't do alien names. I don't do l33t names. Names that form a sentence (like your forum name) is also a fail name for me. Everyone has their standards - it's not for you to tell people they need to drop their own standards down to your standards. They would've been smart to make all names unique across all servers, and get us to make a first name and a surname (so it has a gap not an apostrophe or a dash). But I believe people told them this before the game launched...they just didn't think about the consequences of server merges...or perhaps didn't think they would need to merge so quickly. I wish you and the rest of your uber-rigid brethern well! I am off to actually enjoy the game with the creative, beautiful names I came up with. Have fun with your stewing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) I wish you and the rest of your uber-rigid brethern well! I am off to actually enjoy the game with the creative, beautiful names I came up with. Have fun with your stewing! I'm not stewing, I'm explaining. Post after post in this thread failed to understand the points OP was trying to explain - people telling others they shouldn't care. Well it's okay for people to care, and in some cases this caring WILL result in withdrawal of subscriptions, or failure to secure subscription in first place. Incidentally it's no wonder people generally say nothing about their true feelings and motivations on a forum - people like this and others come along and try to make them feel worse or act like the feelings are irrelevant and even funny to them. This is a games forum - people discuss what is making them happy and what is making them unhappy about the game this forum is for. If you don't like what others are saying about their feelings over something that's been implemented, you don't have to read it. Explanation, take some in. And show less of the attitude. Edited November 22, 2012 by lollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vego_Mohenjo Posted November 22, 2012 Author Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) I keep saying it over and over, so I'll try to make this the last time. I'm not saying character names are or should be important to everyone. I'm saying that there are many people for whom their characters' names IS an issue, and there are doubtless many reasons why they feel this way. The concern I have is that this is an issue that is going to end up harming the game, which is struggling to survive. If you're going to come here and tell me the game is fine and dandy, you're deluding yourself. They cannot afford to lose any customers to something like this. The fact is that it IS already costing them customers. There are at least two people in THIS THREAD who have indicated that their continued subscription depends upon a satisfactory solution to this problem (yes, I am one of them). There are others in other threads who have said the same. That makes it serious. That makes it a concern for Bioware to address. It's not because character names are important that they need to do so, it's because customer satisfaction is important. They need to deal with it because it's important to us, whatever they may think of it themselves. The solution has been presented here and elsewhere. There are free to play games (STO & CHampions Online, for example) that they can go check out if they want to see it in action. It's not likely something completely trivial to implement, but I think it's needed. They need to put the solution into effect as soon as they can, not because the game is going to be destroyed now, but because this is only going to get worse if they delay. It's going to harm their bottom line, it's going to harm the game's longevity, it's going to harm the game's community and it's going to harm their reputation. Edited November 22, 2012 by Vego_Mohenjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codek Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 I keep saying it over and over, so I'll try to make this the last time. I'm not saying character names are or should be important to everyone. I'm saying that there are many people for whom their characters' names IS an issue, and there are doubtless many reasons why they feel this way. The concern I have is that this is an issue that is going to end up harming the game, which is struggling to survive. If you're going to come here and tell me the game is fine and dandy, you're deluding yourself. They cannot afford to lose any customers to something like this. The fact is that it IS already costing them customers. There are at least two people in THIS THREAD who have indicated that their continued subscription depends upon a satisfactory solution to this problem (yes, I am one of them). There are others in other threads who have said the same. That makes it serious. That makes it a concern for Bioware to address. It's not because character names are important that they need to do so, it's because customer satisfaction is important. They need to deal with it because it's important to us, whatever they may think of it themselves. The solution has been presented here and elsewhere. There are free to play games (STO & CHampions Online, for example) that they can go check out if they want to see it in action. It's not likely something completely trivial to implement, but I think it's needed. They need to put the solution into effect as soon as they can, not because the game is going to be destroyed now, but because this is only going to get worse if they delay. It's going to harm their bottom line, it's going to harm the game's longevity, it's going to harm the game's community and it's going to harm their reputation. People seem to get all that, they are just pointing out on a scale of 1-10 for changes needed in this game, a character name overhaul is like a 3 at best. The risks for the rewards is also pretty lacking if BW screws it up in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaD Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) Pfft, when the Soviet Union collapsed, my rl name got spelled all funky and in a different alphabet. And then I moved to the US and the authorities gave me the weirdest spelling ever. By the time I got to that citizenship phase of "would you like an easy, free name change?" I had publications and did not want to... But when our new Chinese overlords take over, I bet we will all switch to hieroglyphic names and smile about it! Or else! I feel for you, but you get used to these things. It gets easier with practice. Or with Zen. Or your lightsaber sticking through enough pubs. Edited November 22, 2012 by MariaD typos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaD Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Post after post in this thread failed to understand the points OP was trying to explain - people telling others they shouldn't care. You can't get too attached to things you don't in any way own. It's a road to misery. It's like planting trees on rental property. The owner will likely uproot them. I select names with care, but they are like those mandalas made out of precious sands. They are beautiful. The wind will blow them away - soon . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDeanOU Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Character names are an extremely trivial problem. For the overwhelming majority they are so trivial it simply isn't factored in when deciding whether or not to play a game. The miniscule handful of people, such as yourself, that consider this a substantial problem represent such a tiny minority that their numbers are insignificant. It's sometimes difficult to accept when one's concerns are vastly out of step with the concerns of the rest of humanity. You, my friend, appear to have more emotion connected to this issue than probably every other person in the universe combined. The 30 or so people world wide who would decide not to play this game over this issue should not matter to anyone connected with the production or maintenance of this game. Personally, I would be insulted and disgusted if the devs spent a single second considering your problem while the game is still plagued with technical problems and bugs that actually do matter to players. For that matter, I'd be insulted if they spent a second on this problem while purely cosmetic issues like hood up/down toggles haven't been addressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) You can't get too attached to things you don't in any way own.. Attachment to our characters is the only reason players continue to play, or return to, a game. People have different reasons for this attachment - for some it's amount of time they've put into it (probably factors in for all of us actually), for others it's the customisation they've achieved with their characters, and so on, A character's names falls under the banner of customisation attachment. Removing this attachment can remove desire to play game - if suddenly your character had been de-leveled about 40 levels and you were L10 again, with all your gear gone, I almost guarantee you would quit game. For some people removal of a name is like a complete death of the character, like being de-leveled to level 0. Edited November 22, 2012 by lollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killamoosdra Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 My character name is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARhenus Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 tl:dr - vocal minority problem(?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cretinus Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 My toons simply don't have names. It's the best solution to this problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sotof Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 (edited) Attachment to our characters is the only reason players continue to play, or return to, a game. People have different reasons for this attachment - for some it's amount of time they've put into it (probably factors in for all of us actually), for others it's the customisation they've achieved with their characters, and so on, A character's names falls under the banner of customisation attachment. Removing this attachment can remove desire to play game - if suddenly your character had been de-leveled about 40 levels and you were L10 again, with all your gear gone, I almost guarantee you would quit game. For some people removal of a name is like a complete death of the character, like being de-leveled to level 0. This needs some emphasis. tl:dr - vocal minority problem(?) More like tl:dr - vocal minority tries to deny every problem with this game. Edited November 22, 2012 by Sotof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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