Legacy names -- allow us to change them

[ApesAmongUs]

Yeah really, what is this, a game? Are we doing this for fun? Now get back to work!

Look at his name. Do you really think he's a reasonable human being that can be spoken to rationally?

 

Obviously, his Legacy name is either "PwnzU" or maybe the roleplay choice of "Teabagger", so he would never need to change his awzome!!! choice of name.

Edited January 10, 2012 by ApesAmongUs

[Kourage]

Greetings "Unimportant Customer",

 

At present we would change the character names only in cases outlined in this process from our ‘Help Center’ on the website.

 

Thank you for your understanding!

 

Inappropriate Language and Naming

 

 

The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Customer Service team prides itself on maintaining a friendly game-play environment. Therefore it is required to provide guidelines for you to follow when chatting with other players in game or when naming your character, Legacy, guild, or any feature that allows a player to choose a unique name that will be visible to other players.

 

Violations that are inappropriate and can result in a name change and/or game suspension include:

 

Profanity

Sexual or obscene/vulgar references

Xenophobia or hate speech

Violence

Harassment

Impersonating EA or Bioware employees

Gibberish/unintelligible character names

References to significant religious, political, or historical figures or events

References to drugs or other illegal activity

References that violate trademarks, copyrights and other proprietary rights

Generally inappropriate

 

 

As far as the naming of characters, pets, guilds, items, etc. it is important to remember that BioWare reserves the right to change any name deemed inappropriate at any time, as well as take action on an account based upon any communication that is considered to fall into one of the categories above. Multiple violations of the Terms of Service may result in temporary or even permanent suspension. This policy applies to all languages regardless of what language server the player is playing on.

 

This is the way it is...

[Yaerius]

I agree with Legacy name changes 100%. And to the people that say "It's your own damn fault. Live with it." well all I can say is that maybe perhaps it is some peoples fault, but is it our fault that this system is INNATELY FLAWED? The menu for the Legacy name jumps out at you. It offers NO EXPLANATION, it DOESN'T allow you to preview the name IN ANY FORM, it DOESN'T ask are you sure? and, most annoying of all, trying to do something with dashes that is typed as, for example "Joe-Schmo" becomes "Joe-schmo" when displayed over your head. It DOESN'T TELL YOU THIS AT ALL. If you put a dash only to find out how terrible it made your name look, well there's nothing you can do.

[SamJamhour]

My character is now called Myth Busters thanks to my friend having a laugh whilst I went to get him a drink... I suppose this means I could re-roll a character called ghost.

[Sirsri]

They never clearly specified the Legacy name feature, it doesn't support camel notation, they've been waffly on the full characterset (i.e. full UTF 8 or whatever), all of that stuff.

 

It's one of those things that was obviously poorly thought out. Your actual character name, if you don't like it, realize you made a typo, realize whatever about it is wrong, you can delete the char and reroll and you've lost 5 minutes. Your legacy name you have no documentation on what valid input is, or how it will be presented.

 

I understand GM's not being able to change it. That requires tools on the backend that probably won't be done until the legacy system gets further polished and.. you know... actually implemented. But right now it's a nuisance feature that isn't documented. And no offence to some of my friends, but I'd have thought something like "Sinestra" (the WoW boss) would not be allowed. A clear name violation probably requires escalation to someone who can actually poke at the database and fix it, but you don't really want your tier 1, 26k euro's a year guys trying to touch heroscript.

[Nikusu]

I agree with Legacy name changes 100%. And to the people that say "It's your own damn fault. Live with it." well all I can say is that maybe perhaps it is some peoples fault, but is it our fault that this system is INNATELY FLAWED? The menu for the Legacy name jumps out at you. It offers NO EXPLANATION, it DOESN'T allow you to preview the name IN ANY FORM, it DOESN'T ask are you sure? and, most annoying of all, trying to do something with dashes that is typed as, for example "Joe-Schmo" becomes "Joe-schmo" when displayed over your head. It DOESN'T TELL YOU THIS AT ALL. If you put a dash only to find out how terrible it made your name look, well there's nothing you can do.

 

Except for the fact it says once it's chosen it cannot be changed. The naming rules are the same as when you're creating a character. Shocking. I don't even care if they allow legacy name changes. I hope they make it paid though so people will actually take the 10 seconds to read 5 lines or do a little research. You people are the kids in class that raise their hand for the teacher's help every 5 minutes, punish everyone else who understands the content, and doesn't bother looking down at your book to at least TRY and figure it out for yourself. My first reaction when that screen popped up was, "What's a legacy name?" not, "I think I can put something stupid in here."

[thesaltman]

Except for the fact it says once it's chosen it cannot be changed. The naming rules are the same as when you're creating a character. Shocking. I don't even care if they allow legacy name changes. I hope they make it paid though so people will actually take the 10 seconds to read 5 lines or do a little research. You people are the kids in class that raise their hand for the teacher's help every 5 minutes, punish everyone else who understands the content, and doesn't bother looking down at your book to at least TRY and figure it out for yourself. My first reaction when that screen popped up was, "What's a legacy name?" not, "I think I can put something stupid in here."

 

Naming rules are the same when your creating a character...agreed....just failed to mention that this rule applies to every character you make on that server from here on out. It has not to do with reading "5 lines". Please show me where in those 5 lines it says it will affect every character that is created. I would love to see that. And seriously, how about all those people that had a simple typo? Can you really tell me you never had one typo ever?

[Skiilz]

I agree. When i unlocked the legacy surname, i just picked the first thing that came to mind. Only to realize how dumb it is, please let us switch/turn off surname.

[BBriggs]

I agree. But I am happy with mine, for now.

[Garrek]

I did the same thing as someone else some pages ago. I was tired, didn't know what it was and ended up having my characters first name twice. Please Bioware, if I have to pay for it so be it, but please let us be able to change it.

[T-Rexy]

I have opened about 10 tickets trying to change my surname and I always have a ticket open hopefully one day they give in lol.

[AJediKnight]

I have opened about 10 tickets trying to change my surname and I always have a ticket open hopefully one day they give in lol.

 

I actually agree with doing this. Why? Because the more tickets are out there concerning this, the more likely Bioware is to take note of it being a significant issue. And, hey, who cares if you're annoying them -- they're only droids.

[sabreene]

Except for the fact it says once it's chosen it cannot be changed. The naming rules are the same as when you're creating a character. Shocking. I don't even care if they allow legacy name changes. I hope they make it paid though so people will actually take the 10 seconds to read 5 lines or do a little research. You people are the kids in class that raise their hand for the teacher's help every 5 minutes, punish everyone else who understands the content, and doesn't bother looking down at your book to at least TRY and figure it out for yourself. My first reaction when that screen popped up was, "What's a legacy name?" not, "I think I can put something stupid in here."

 

How about if you close that box out to think about a good name, and it pops up later while you're in the midst of typing? You don't see it since the the UI freezes up, and when you come back there's a random word entered permanently as your legacy name?

 

Or if you've made a simple typo and since you didn't get screen showing what your name would look like, you now have a typo'd name for ever?

 

Or what if you thought you could delete all the characters and start over with a new one, and choose a new name? Nope. Once a name is chosen it's chosen for that server forever. The only place I've read about *that* little tidbit is here on the forums.

 

I don't think you should be able to change your name whenever you want, on a whim. But I do think they've gone about the system badly. If you don't choose one immediately the screen pops up constantly. There's no confirmation window (or at least, some people are not getting one). And it's not explained just how very lasting this name is. It's a server name, really.

 

I love the game, but it's absolutely ridiculous that they won't or cannot change a legacy name that occurred due to bugs, mistakes or typos!

[Patizor]

You people are the kids in class that raise their hand for the teacher's help every 5 minutes, punish everyone else who understands the content, and doesn't bother looking down at your book to at least TRY and figure it out for yourself.

 

With all due respect, you have no idea what is being talked about here.

 

Read the opening post, for starters.

 

It amazes me that so many people will defend any decision by people in authority, no matter how foolish. "All my characters on the same server MUST have the same surname? Great idea!" "Nothing about our character can ever be changed? Awesome, that's just what I was hoping for when I started playing!" And best of all, "it would ruin the game if people could change their names!" Give me a break.

[Garrek]

I just hope that they do listen and give us the option to change it. Its one thing if the name you created in character creation can't be changed, but this we should be able to. At least that is what I think. Especially for people who make typos and such mistakes. We are only human.

[Folgrin]

I asked Stephen Reid this: it does nothing. And, not only that, but I asked what would happen if you deleted every character on the server. Know what happens then? Nothing! You can't even petition for a surname change -- the GMs are unable to do that!

 

I mean, really, it's mind-boggling. Name changes are just a part of life in MMOs. People get dissatisfied; they make mistakes; they have a change of heart -- how could you possibly launch a system whre NOT EVEN THE GMS CAN CHANGE SURNAMES, BIOWARE??

 

I support this 100%. I REALLY want a legacy name change. I choose mine at like 3am just to stop the pop up. Forgive me BW, I know not what I did! At this point I'd pay up to $10 for it but seeing as its launch they should give us one change on the house.

[kalei]

i pleaded across multiple forum threads during beta to not implement the naming aspects of the legacy system. (and read countless suggestions for improvements or at least ways to limit the damage.) everything is live now and its pretty much the same bad design from the last build of beta. (you know, that one where its pretty much too late.) this issue pretty much killed my enthusiasm for the game.

 

i reached the end of chapter 1 earlier tonight, making it almost a month to do what i did in a week during beta. i tried my actual name which was taken. i tried a few other names. they were taken. at this point i plan to ignore the window and pray it doesn't pop up at the wrong time locking me into some random letters.

 

overall i like the game but unless something about this changes or at least there's an announced plan to change it i can't see myself playing much more once i finish leveling. bad game design is a pet peeve of mine and this one is just killing me as being so easily avoidable.

 

this restrictive and intrusive naming should have left out till a later patch... like idk maybe when they bother to patch in the actual rewards or purpose for example.

[AJediKnight]

It amazes me that so many people will defend any decision by people in authority, no matter how foolish.

 

For some reason, no matter how many times it is proven to be the truth, I am always astounded by this as well. I believe it has much less to do with agreeing with the policy, then it does a powerful desire to feel 'right.' How do you know you're 'right' if you're a hollow shell? Why, you look to the people who are in control at the moment -- weak or silly as their positions might be -- and you rally around that.

 

Nothing is so comforting for the weak-minded as is championing policy. It's like humming showtunes while sitting around a campfire.

[Lucieth]

Well i think i have a good case for NEEDING a legacy name change:-

 

I tried several names they were all taken, i decided to leave it but the popup got annoying so looked up what i wanted and alternates on the net, i chose a latin version of the name/phrase, it was available; cool.

 

within 10 minutes someone whispers me asking why so racist, i did not check all its uses and apparently a modern translation of the word is also a horrid "N" word relating to those of skin tone similar to afro-carribian.

 

Luckilly they belived my tale and did not report me but now im stuck on all chars with a legacy name that could probably get me banned due to its alternat meaning, im so upset because im not racist, love this game (star wars in general) and dont want a reputation based on something i didnt intend on doing.

 

I messaged a GM, got the generic "we cannot change this issue but if it crops up enough it might get looked into" style message but felt this was a policing issue and not something that was down to me being unhappy with the name, so i tried again explaining in more detail about the alternate meaning, the exact same response was given by a different GM/Droid several days later.

 

Im so dissapointed at the moment, i cant show my legacy at all due to fear of upset and/or ban; i have collectors edition and upfront sub and feel a part of the game is not accessible to me now due to one mistake.

 

All that being said, Legacy system im a fan of as its a bonus system (shouldnt ever moan about bonus material), I would gladly pay a reasonable (£5ish) to change my name asap, really should be a method of policing any user input including both naming systems; so please get something out there to let us change our names.

[Jedlosson]

I bypassed this problem when I created Sith characters on one server and Jedi characters on the other. You cannot directly send items between them anyways... Edited January 12, 2012 by Jedlosson

[thesaltman]

overall i like the game but unless something about this changes or at least there's an announced plan to change it i can't see myself playing much more once i finish leveling. bad game design is a pet peeve of mine and this one is just killing me as being so easily avoidable.

 

I actually agree with you. I'm not saying I'm going to cancel my sub, but at the same time, really, my concern here is (at least the way it appears to me) that they are ignoring their subscribers. Obviously, there is a outrage with the Legacy naming system, this is just one of many threads dedicated to people wanting the ability to change their names do to many different reasons. When I messaged them (I messaged them a few times in game about my distaste about the Legacy naming system) and I was told to bring it up in the forums and that I'm stuck with my Legacy name. Then I think to myself, this particular thread is how long right now and not one dev or csr has even taken the time to reply saying that they are even looking into possibilities. It just feels like we are being completly ignored. Sorry, I strongly believe for RP purposes, having many characters on one server being different races yet all forced to have the same surname is a terrible idea. I also think that if you type something in and not realizing that you either spelt it wrong or that name had a hidden meaning in another language and you open a ticket literally seconds after you realize this, and they tell you you cant fix it, I dont care who you are, if your really into that character and hate his name, a big part of you stops liking that character because he/she is no longer the way you want him to be created, and character creating and development with the dialog choices and what not is one of the best things about this game. And if they are ignoring and just not bothering addressing the issue to their subscribers, what issues down the road are they going to ignore? I enjoy this game far more then I ever enjoed WoW, but the one thing I give WoW credit for, and this may end up being a deciding factor for me is, whenever you had an issue, WoW addressed it immediatly. And if you ever made a mistake, WoW was willing to fix it. Right now I'm really just hoping that the only reason they havent said anything yet is because they already have a fix in the works and are just fine tuning it.

[Karl_Ancher]

Of course, I was planning on having a couple of characters, my mains, who WERE related, where it made sense for them to share a name. So they would get to show a surname. For all my other characters their last name would remain a dirty little secret.

 

Then, this afternoon I was playing my Trooper in Anchorhead and I encountered the player who snagged my intended Legacy Name on my server. It's not a Star Wars name, or a name from another game, or a movie, or anything you might normally encounter. But it's one I used on my characters in KotOR I in 2004 and one I'd been planning to use now. I felt that it was probably safe to NOT rush to the end of Chapter One, that my name would *probably* still be there, that it would be okay to group with my guildies and enjoy the story as I leveled. I was wrong. I gambled and lost.

 

That's the only real complaint I've had about SWTOR. The name I wanted to use for my Legacy surname got snagged, and I picked the name for my main and several alts around how they'd sound with that particular name.

 

Still kind of bummed about it. Love the game otherwise, though.

[Draselon]

/signed for legacy name change..

[Archetypee]

Signed.

 

The stupid window asking me to create a legacy name popped up EVERY SINGLE TIME I changed zones. This caused me to get frustrated and simply enter my main characters last name backwards just to get rid of the screen! Little did I know that it would be across all characters and could not be changed.

[Patizor]

Bump, since this issue has come up again.

 

I'll be the first to admit that I made a mistake when I created my legacy name. I thought I was going to stick with my Jedi Knight... but I wound up later switching to a Sith Inquisitor.

 

I wouldn't call that a "mistake". I'd call it a game experience changing over time, which is what you want from a game.

 

And as a jedi knight myself, I sure can't blame you for getting tired of that class.