Legacy surnames do not make sense

I'm surprised no one mentioned that this idea, of characters being related and having family ties, etc. came directly from John Smedley. Yep, the genius who was in charge of Galaxies and the NGE. This was in a 'state of the game' address he posted. I think it will probably work out just like the NGE, but hey, I'm only 1 voice.

Same surname for all your toons is one of many "features" that makes me wonder if these devs ever played an mmo before.

Darth Vader was Luke Skywalkers father. And i bet that was the idea this whole Legacy thing was based upon. "Hey wouldn´t it be cool if every player would play a Skywalker family."
That sounds nice in theory but doesn´t really work in the actual game, especially since you can never meet your own characters from the other faction.

Naw... Bioware should not weaken a game feature just because you have complaints. The legacy name is part of an entire emerging Legacy system. It is there by design. You know about it in advance, and you should give it the proper care and respect it deserves when choosing your legacy name.

Besides, they give you a check box in preferences so gimps can turn off their poorly chosen Legacy name.

It's coming. What we see here is a very raw version of what's to come. Judging it on its current state is kind of dumb when it's about to change dramatically.

Its on the yellow brick road to NGE.

Not only can you turn off the surname, you don't even have to use it. Just ignore it. Its just going to be achievements that you and your alts will earn. When we finally see what these achievements or "perks" are, make your decision then. If its worth it, pick a name you know you won't hate, hide it, and enjoy the perks. If the perks are "meh", then don't even bother. Win, win.

Are Legacy surnames still working the way they did?

I create a new character recently after hitting 50 the second time around. I have the system set to show my surname. It doesn't do so. A few weeks ago it worked fine with a newly created character, but now... no surname on a new character.

The character doesn't earn it. The player does, to represent her accomplishments on the server in a unique way that can be viewed across characters.

Yes, there is. It lets the player pin his own unique name on multiple characters so that he can be identified (if he chooses to be) by those he fights with and against.

(You forgot a number 3)

They don't have to. If you're RPing, it's metagaming anyway to have a freaking giant nameplate floating over your head announcing to the world who you are. You can roleplay any of your characters having whatever last name they like - you'll just have that character TELL other characters this (you know, like how we learn other peoples' names in real life?).

Displaying the Legacy Surname is ENTIRELY OPTIONAL per character.

Emphasis added by me.

In The Old Republic, you get to make a lot of choices. This is one of those choices and it matters. There is nothing wrong with this.

If you're ashamed of the surname you picked, don't show it.

That post made my day.

well - I can agree with some of your post.

I would mark out the part about Joe Smith being born with his name. He is given his name by his parents, not born with it unless they picked it out already and even then he officially, in the U.S. at least is not so-named until parents speak it and it's on birth cert.

Not to mention there are cultures across the world who are awarded names for differing and various reasons such as entering adulthood, bringing food to the table for the first time in some hunter/gatherer cultures, taking a mate(in our culture women typically take the name of her husband)

I would like to be able to opt out of having the surname on all of my toons though.