Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

[annabethchase]

So you want the other Day-1 player from a different server to have their name taken from them?

 

No, wipe the inactive accounts first and foremost. That should be a no brainer as it hurts nobody that's showing a current interest in the game. If they haven't even poked in as a F2P they simply are not important at all compared to paying customers in game right now.

[Khevar]

So you want the other Day-1 player from a different server to have their name taken from them? The issue with SWTOR is that they created too many servers at the start. Then they had to merge them all together. I haven't lost any of my character names in any of my moves.

A friend of mine lost his main character's name in a server merge, to a level 6 toon that hadn't played for over 5 months prior to the merge.

 

To date, that other player still hasn't logged onto that toon.

 

Since this other player was on a "destination" server, he had priority in keeping his name, and has never taken advantage of it.

 

One of two two players would lose out in such a name-conflict situation. My vote would be for the one who is actually playing the game instead of the one who got bored and left ages ago never to return.

Pretty much this. Gotta love the selfish entitlement of some players here.

Look at the flip side. Would it be selfish to create a character, get bored with the game, unsub, stop playing for 18 months, then come back to find your name given to someone else and complain about you should have been able to keep your name?

Edited May 14, 2013 by Khevar

[PoliteAssasin]

I do not agree. People can be gone from the game for a lot of reasons (like military duty as one relevant example). People can be out of touch with the email address their account is tied to. Wiping character names so you can perhaps maybe possibly get your favorite name is inappropriate and selfish.

 

There is plenty of flexibility in naming in this game, so there are still plenty of names. It would be nice if it was as flexible as GW2, but it's not.. so we have what we have. Work with it IMO.

 

Pretty much this. Gotta love the selfish entitlement of some players here.

Edited May 14, 2013 by PoliteAssasin

[Dacce]

No, wipe the inactive accounts first and foremost. That should be a no brainer as it hurts nobody that's showing a current interest in the game. If they haven't even poked in as a F2P they simply are not important at all compared to paying customers in game right now.

 

Nope still that is something that should never happen. As someone else has already pointed out, are you saying that someone who is on active service overseas,who doesn't re-activate their sub, and is offline for 9 months, should they have their names reset to OUIGWOEUGWQDP ??

 

Get out of town. They'd have more right to be upset than any other reason posted on this forum.

 

As Andryah has already said, maybe people should choose some name that are more unique and not the general norm that people use out of pop culture and fiction.

 

A sith warrior named Gilgamesh oh how original! It might be something completely outside the norm for star wars canon, but people make the same mistakes all the time when it comes to choosing names.

 

I have had Dacce for over 10 years, and I have never lost it and even starting a game thats old (I tried out CoH in its final year) I still got the name no issues.

[Jadrian]

Next time.. pick more unique names.. names not attempted by 20,000 people per name, names like Fred, and Ricky, and Pwnzer. Instead, pick names that are pretty unique, that you like, that you can use over and over again on different servers and even different MMOs with little chance of said name being taken....EVER.

 

I did that myself and apparently it didn't work out as well as you claim to think it would and if you read my earlier post I clearly laid out the history of me with my name and with this game. The fact I lost my name to someone that hasn't been on for at least 9 months is BS!! PERIOD!!!

 

By the way... I have used that as a character name for more then 10 years on many MMOs on many servers, through server mergers and transfers, and never been unable to have/keep the name.

 

So lucky you are...I have had my name for just as long and somebody took it on the one server that I got forced onto and hasn't logged on in ages but your response is basically "ok, deal with it"?

 

Its not like my situation is any different from yours, I just got screwed cause of a FORCED double server merge. I'm sure there was someone else who lost Andryah during the merge too, suppose that mysterious SWTOR algorithm worked out in your favor then, how surprising...

 

Funny how its always "deal with it" and "stop complaining" when you respond to people as though Bioware shouldn't take any responsibility and fix their screw-ups...it's as if its not a personal issue to you then everyone else needs to shut up and take it...

 

My name is who I am online, it is my entire reputation of over 10 years of gaming!!! To not have it for the reasons previously stated is a disservice to both me as a paying active, loyal customer and to Bioware as a previously lauded game developer. They need to find a way to fix the name issue and as Cryptic and several other developers have shown, its entirely possible to do it if they tag names via account names instead of character or legacy name. There is always a way if they are willing to do the work to find it...

[Aelther]

So you want the other Day-1 player from a different server to have their name taken from them? The issue with SWTOR is that they created too many servers at the start. Then they had to merge them all together. I haven't lost any of my character names in any of my moves.

 

And what makes those other "day 1" guys more important than us who are also here from day 1? Oh you mean because they quit the game they "deserve" to keep it more than we, who actually play it? We pre-ordered the game to name out characters whatever we want and we lost our names because of flawed priority system. When servers were merged it was inevitable that some people would lose their names. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONES WHO QUIT to lose their names, not the ones who never stopped paying.

 

In the end it's all because OF A HORRIBLE NAMING DESIGN. NO NAME SHOULD EVER BE UNIQUE! Names are not unique in real world, why should they be unique IN A GALAXY FULL OF PLANETS WITH BILLIONS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE? All whispers and stuff should be made by using some sort of ID codes, just like we have in real world, and just like some other MMOs started doing, so that the visual display name could be whatever we chose.

And no crazy fanboy will ever convince me that unique names are not a horrible design.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Aelther

[Andryah]

Funny how its always "deal with it" and "stop complaining" when you respond to people as though Bioware shouldn't take any responsibility and fix their screw-ups...it's as if its not a personal issue to you then everyone else needs to shut up and take it...

 

I also walk my own talk.

 

I don't complain about things.. I deal with them. It is afterall, a game, not real life.

 

As for the name Andryah being lost by someone else... nope. I did however lose it to myself when two of my servers were merged together in SWTOR. And you know what.. I did not complain about it in the forum, I dealt with it.... I simply renamed to one of my other unique character names that I keep in a list that only I seem to ever collide with when I end up with two characters of the same name for a server. Interestingly enough.. the name from my list was free after the merger.. because it is a simple yet unique name that I have used (and therefore identify with in MMOs) for years now that I not only like.. but nobody else seems to ever want the name.

 

Cultivate unique names over time that you like and that are unlikely to ever be taken by someone else and it's a non-issue in most cases. You innoculate yourself from the constraints of names and naming in MMOs by doing so. There will always be naming constraints in MMOs.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Andryah

[Dacce]

In the end it's all because OF A HORRIBLE NAMING DESIGN. NO NAME SHOULD EVER BE UNIQUE! Names are not unique in real world, why should they be unique IN A GALAXY FULL OF PLANETS WITH BILLIONS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE? All whispers and stuff should be made by using some sort of IDs, just like we have in real world, and just like some other MMOs started doing, so that the visual display name could be whatever we chose.

And no crazy fanboy will ever convince me that unique names are not a horrible design.

 

Now your just arguing semantics for the sake of it. Yes they could have implemented a system similar to what GW2 has but, unfortunately they didn't. Is it something that they can change? Probably not. Not with out a massive code re-write, and probably and engine change. To be honest, they shouldn't have merged the servers and had it set to "random" as to who kept what name. But what choice did they have when people were logging on to 1 person on the fleet? This topic needs to be closed. It is a part of this game, it cannot be changed, so get over it.

[annabethchase]

Nope still that is something that should never happen. As someone else has already pointed out, are you saying that someone who is on active service overseas,who doesn't re-activate their sub, and is offline for 9 months, should they have their names reset to OUIGWOEUGWQDP ??

 

Absolultely. If you want to keep your name, subscribe.

 

That same serviceman also had about an 80% chance of losing his name in the server merges as well, so he likely doesn't have it still anyway.

 

You know that you are cherry picking for the perfect reason somebody may be gone. Why not just say "what if someone lapsed into a coma out of excitement the day they first logged in and just now recovered... what about them?"

Edited May 14, 2013 by annabethchase

[Aelther]

engine change

 

Engine change? For naming re-design? That's completely unrelated. Sure they would have to change a lot of code, but they'd never have to change an engine (even if I'd really like to, cause this one is just terrible).

And I know they're not gona change it. But what they should do is add a name-wipe after being offline for 1 year (At least for character's created before the server merge).

Edited May 14, 2013 by Aelther

[annabethchase]

I also walk my own talk.

 

Yes, but your name isn't a name. It has no meaning to the outside world. A few of your closest associates may recognize those random letters, but to the rest of us, you're either Andrea or nothing pronouncable at all.

[Khevar]

Nope still that is something that should never happen. As someone else has already pointed out, are you saying that someone who is on active service overseas,who doesn't re-activate their sub, and is offline for 9 months, should they have their names reset to OUIGWOEUGWQDP ??

 

...

I just asked my younger brother, who serves in the army AND plays TOR, how he felt about it. He says:

 

"If I wanted to keep my character's name while not playing for 9 months, I would ask you to log in periodically to keep it alive. Otherwise, tough s**t my loss"

[Ratajack]

How nice for you

 

 

 

During the merges they claimed they used some kind of algorithm to determine which characters kept the names and which didn't (though they never publicly listed what the criteria specifics were). All I'm asking for is the same here because there is a precedent for it

 

:uncool:

 

No, you are not asking for the same thing. In the merger two or more characters who's names were identical one of those characters was able to keep the name, and the rest had to choose new names. What you are asking for is for a character which does NOT have the same name as any other character on their server be forced to loose that name solely so that you can have that name either for one of your current characters or for a future character.

[Dacce]

I just asked my younger brother, who serves in the army AND plays TOR, how he felt about it. He says:

 

"If I wanted to keep my character's name while not playing for 9 months, I would ask you to log in periodically to keep it alive. Otherwise, tough s**t my loss"

 

I don't believe you. There isn't a game out there that will take your character name off you if you aren't playing for an extended period of time. SWTOR is the only one that made "Forced" changes like this because of their server merge. honestly, be thankful they didn't charge you for a paid character transfer like every other game would have.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Dacce

[Aelther]

honestly, be thankful they did charge you for a paid character transfer like every other game would have.

 

Lol.

Anyway, forced transfer being free is not really a charity...

Edited May 14, 2013 by Aelther

[Khevar]

I don't believe you. There isn't a game out there that will take your character name off you if you aren't playing for an extended period of time.

You misunderstood my post. I asked him what he "would do" in a theoretical situation of losing his character name after 9 months of inactivity.

SWTOR is the only one that made "Forced" changes like this because of their server merge. honestly, be thankful they did charge you for a paid character transfer like every other game would have.

I should be "thankful" that they didn't charge me for a server merge? (I'm assuming you meant 'didn't' instead of 'did')

 

Since the server I was on, Lord Ieldis, was shutting down, it would have been in poor taste to charge for the merge.

[Andryah]

Yes, but your name isn't a name. It has no meaning to the outside world. A few of your closest associates may recognize those random letters, but to the rest of us, you're either Andrea or nothing pronouncable at all.

 

That is your value judgement, not mine. I disagree with you.

[Dacce]

Yes it was a typo thanks for pointing it out.

 

Since the server I was on, Lord Ieldis, was shutting down, it would have been in poor taste to charge for the merge.

 

Considering that they could have just let the servers languish until they got a paid transfer system up and running, then given you the option to pay $15 to transfer to a server of your choice. Which is what a number of other MMO's have done.

 

And if your name was "John" (not saying it is, this is just a crude example) you probably would have been required to change your name anyway, no matter which server you chose - due to it being common. But in that case, you would have been choosing where you were going, you wouldn't be complaining in this thread that you "lost your name" and Bioware would be $15 richer.

[Ratajack]

I don't think they should wipe names; however, I think they should set a priority point WRT length of time inactive.

 

They did it during the last server merge. Name priority was based on something other than "they already have that name on this server". It was based at least in part on account activity and length of name ownership regardless of server.

 

I would like to see some breaking point in inactivity for the account. Say if the account has been inactive 6 months and someone wants a name associated with it, they can get that name. Or maybe it's 9 months. Or 12. Whatever.

 

But at some point, unused names need to be opened back up.

 

I'm not asking for character deletions; just forced name changes for long inactive accounts.

 

You are disregarding the fact that during the last server merge, the servers were all changed to upgraded higher capacity servers. The pre server-merge harbinger is not the same server as the post server-merge harbinger, even though they have the same name. This means that NO ONE had the name first on any server, since all the characters on the origin servers were transferred to the new destination server at the SAME TIME. They could not use the "he had the name first" method to determine who got to keep the name, and therefore had to use different criteria.

[Ratajack]

Glad to see someone has common sense. I agree to this. I would not be mad if I returned to a game I hadn't played for 6+ months and find I had to rename. I might be a little disappointed, but I'd recognize that I forfeited my claim to it and move on.

 

That person who took a break for 2 weeks, 6 months, or even a year forfeited nothing, not his in game credits, or any of the items in his bank or inventory and not his name. The fact that you want the name his character has does NOT entitle you to it, no matter how long it has been since he logged in.

[Khevar]

...

 

Considering that they could have just let the servers languish until they got a paid transfer system up and running, then given you the option to pay $15 to transfer to a server of your choice. Which is what a number of other MMO's have done.

 

And if your name was "John" (not saying it is, this is just a crude example) you probably would have been required to change your name anyway, no matter which server you chose - due to it being common. But in that case, you would have been choosing where you were going, you wouldn't be complaining in this thread that you "lost your name" and Bioware would be $15 richer.

Well, fair enough. I guess I am thankful that I wasn't charged $15 for the server merge.

 

I believe you are conflating me with other people on this thread. I'm not complaining about losing a name.

 

As a matter of fact, I had 9 toons at the time of the merge and not one name was in conflict. This is partly due to making up my own names, but mostly due to the fact that I started the game in March, and some of the names I wanted to pick were already taken.

 

The reason why I feel there is a some value in the OP's suggestion, is what happened to my friend as described in this post.

[annabethchase]

and therefore had to use different criteria.

 

All indications are that there were NO criteria chosen by in the 2nd round of mergers. The 1st round, they had the "original server guys keep their name" rule, which was massively unfair but at least it was a method. 2nd round seems to have been random number generator deciding if you kept your name, possibly not even intentionally chosen by anyone working at Bioware and feeling more like just some default setting programed in.

[Jadrian]

I also walk my own talk.

 

I don't complain about things.. I deal with them. It is afterall, a game, not real life.

 

Really? Then where is the understanding for those of us who got screwed in this whole deal? Those of us who like you, had our names, OUR UNIQUE names, for just as long and still ended up losing them in the forced merges? Its easy to say things like "I walk my own talk" when your not effected by the problem at hand in the first place!

 

It seems like you'd rather sit there and tell us we need to be more original and do this and that when the problem isn't our creativity or originality, its a flawed system that was used both in implementing naming in the first place and used during the merges to determine who got to keep what name.

 

Just dealing with things is a sure way to never getting what you want. But if your content with the way things are, then why do you always show up to tell everyone to shut up and stop giving their own feedback on issues that they are passionate about?

 

Of course people don't ever all agree on things, but this is something that can be fixed without anyone losing anything. We pay for this game to function, we should be the ones listened to when it comes to something as integral as character names and Bioware should have thought out a better solution then the one they did when they forced merged people that they placed themselves on low-pop servers at launch, causing this mess in the first place.

[Khevar]

That person who took a break for 2 weeks, 6 months, or even a year forfeited nothing, not his in game credits, or any of the items in his bank or inventory and not his name. The fact that you want the name his character has does NOT entitle you to it, no matter how long it has been since he logged in.

You should note that Arlon_Nabarlly is not saying that he should be entitled to take the other player's name.

 

He's saying that he shouldn't be entitled to keep his own name if he stopped playing.

 

It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

 

[Dacce]

The reason why I feel there is a some value in the OP's suggestion, is what happened to my friend as described in this post.

 

That was on the last run of mergers wasn't it?

 

I am pretty sure that the criteria for deciding who got to keep which name was akin to putting on a blindfold and spinning around 2 dozen times, before sticking the probe where it doesn't belong. and that was the winner of the name. Yay Bioware! /sarcasm