Why I won't transfer servers - Character Attachment

If people enjoy the game then the name change is a minor impediment to continuing to play. As someone who went from a dead server to a "live" server, I can testify to the fact that the game is a whole lot better when there are people to interact with.

If you have to have the name, try changing a few letters here and there. You might be surprised.

Perks? What are these perks you speak of? I haven't heard, what are we supposed to get? And those who were compliant and transferred, do they get them too?

Edited, Nvm, I found out about the goodies m'self thanks.

I can see your viewpoint, but you get out of a game what you put into it. I'm defined ingame by my identity ingame, it has been consistent over 10 different MMOs, and it was a very important part of my part of my community.

It's the only thing of value I have in this game. Every other bauble and trinket can be bought/sold/looted.

A big part of it is my investment in the story. I watched Shayde's story unfold and take shape depending on what choices I made. It was my epic journey, creating an unrivaled criminal empire. Granted, there's a couple thousand others out there, but not quite like me. I guess that's the fault of the developers, in making a story so damn engaging.

Funny thing, both my kids transferred without a problem. They didn't care because it was insignificant to them.

This just illustrates why so many developers don't understand player retention. It is the attachment I feel that keeps players playing the game. Hell, there's thousands of ex-SWG players who would jump at the chance to play that game again because of what they invested into their characters in that game. There's people who wouldn't quit that thing even after sony screwed the game up beyond recognition because of their personal investment in the lives of their toons.

That's devotion, that's loyalty.

But I digress.

Either way, I guess my toons will die when they shut Space Slug down. Honestly, I can't see how they expect people to come back and play TOR if they come back to having to transfer their toons and meet new people or reguild.

Personally I hate the fact that when I eventually transfer my 50 assassin, I can't just have his name. But I don't want him to have another name, so I'll probably give him one of those "weird" characters in his name, much as I'd rather not, because it makes some things annoying.

You know all those stories about people going along wtih the authority and being shipped off somewhere where horrible things happen to them? Well its the opposite here where we've been shipped to a vibrant community where wine freely flows from the fountains and children laugh in the park while nothing but misery exists where we left.

And they are giving everyone on an origin server or destination server a free pet and 25 BH Comms. It appears that if you didn't transfer off of the Origin server you will also get the reward, so I am not sure what it is rewarding beyond just being subscribed to the game on July 30th.

Thanks for the quick answer, I went through and found the post about the gifts. It's pretty nice to get a free present out of all of this. I was unhappy at losing a name myself, and can certainly identify with the OP's point of view. I have that kind of devotion too, and certainly, I'd feel pretty upset if I lost all my names. It's too bad, that they didnt have a system of making the legacy your deciding name, and let people keep their first names.

All mmos should do this. STO and Champions tied their names to your handle's name, so there could be multiple character names, and you could tell/friend/interact with others by their handle.

Really the best way to go in any game. But that ship sailed over a year ago.

I like this idea pretty well.

Monster Hunter had a good way of going about it , too, that I very much approve of. Basically, you had your ID number that was a combination of six letters/numbers. And aside from that, you picked your name. Multiple people could have the same name, but you distinguished them/added friends etc using their ID number. I realize this has repercussions, but I really think the pluses outweigh the minuses.

As stated its a video game...

This goes for any game that you play, but you dont want to get attached to your character or items. When you get attached for whatever reason, then that starts to have some effect on your fun. Same goes for guilds and people you meet online, say for example you are an exceptional player but you are recruited to a guild of kind hearted people...that all suck at their classes. Do you stick around and be the nice guy even though your raids go very poorly? or do you find another guild?

Me personally, i dont identify with my in game avatars, i know that my gear is meant to be damaged (or in some games destroyed). I accepted a long time ago in WoW after my first name/sex change that a name is just a name. My character name has the same kind of value as my pretend gear which is made up of purple pixels. I've done several server transfers now and if a name is taken want to know what i did? i double up one of the letters, and i moved on. I didnt emo rage quit post in guild chat or some forum saying that my character is worthless now and therefore has to be deleted.

Your name is generic anyways. You could probably think up a better one in the time it took you to make this post.