Why I won't transfer servers - Character Attachment

Yes, but an MMO is a different beast. The game prospers by us being invested in the characters. That is what gives a game longevity. It is really the only thing.

This haphazardness of the transfers damages that investment.

As far as uniqueness.. this is the first problem I have ever had not getting my name. Over 10 MMOs. Didn't have that problem here until I'm being forced to abandon my server for one that has it taken. If I had a choice in the matter I wouldn't be here.

In that case should have reserved his moniker on every server if it was such a big deal. Didn't? Not Bioware's fault.

obvious flamebait is obvious

Because we ALL knew that 100 servers would be condensed to 12.

Hardly flamebait, except that anything posted that isn't sycophantic towards the game gets flamed. If stating my opinion is flamebait than flame away. Others already have.

when you start caring about a "virtual handle" you think you have become known by in a video game it's time to re-evaluate your life choices

I'll get right on that Tony Robbins.

reference?

i think the thing here is that everyone understands that it stinks that your chosen name (regardless at how unoriginal it is [all of my characters names are available on all servers]) is taken on the destination server

however, with entirely reasonable alternatives suggested (such as using the apostrophe) you are now just being difficult.

And I'll agree with whoever said it first... it's petty to quit playing a game you enjoy because of a namechange

perhaps you could be Shayde'JR or Shayde2 or ShaydetheSecond or OriginalShayde

You invest time in attaining things like gear, mounts, achievements, titles, and in game currency, but you are worried about a name. Guildies is the only other thing, but like i said people in game that you are never gonna meet should not be the ones that determine if you quit or keep playing a game. You might think that those 30 people in your guild are awesome people, but what about the other 500,000 of us on the other servers? some of us are pretty cool too you know, and it wouldnt take that long to make friends with us if you came to our server and joined our guild. But about the name thing, you see even your own name isnt unique. One of the other posters mentioned he knew a Shayde and he was an ok guy. But you see there was already another Shayde running around, how many more are out there? So unless you have a really clever one of a kind name, an in game name isnt really a good way to spread the word that you are an ok guy in MMO world. That other Shayde guy might be a big douchebag.

If i'm having fun with the game, and everyone decides to stop playing that doesnt mean i'm gonna quit too. I'm gonna find a new guild or go to a different server. Server transferring is actually good for your guild if you want to expand. I was on a moderately populated WoW server, but then 1 guild poached all the good players and server transferred. Our options were to either recruit a bunch or terrible players, or server transfer to a mod-high pop server and recruit some good players. We transferred and 30-40 of our core raiders transferred and only 5 people stayed behind. Another thing too is if something as trivial as a name availablity will cause you to quit a game, what happens if a bunch of people in your guild were to quit? or you log on one day and see all your gear and credits are missing? or your guild keeps wiping on the same boss for weeks on end? What about your friends in guild that will continue to play despite how you feel about the name issue? are you gonna flake on them or stick around? or are you not as attached to them as you think you are? or are all of you quitting because you cant have your original names....

I think it would be best for you, OP, to unplug for a while (my opinion, of course).

Previous posters were trying to encourage you to realize that a make believe video game does not encompass your "identity".

Furthermore, it is not hard at all to re-establish whatever "identity" you had on one server onto another server.

I hope you take the time off as you say you will.

So.... your characters name is gone, and your invested in them as a character.... did they not have any nicknames? You really had only the one, singular way to ever refer to them in all situations ever?

I agree with you OP. My chars names are very important in TOR. They are part of the role playing I liked doing in it and with that gone, the game dies too. Because afterall, TOR is really just KOTOR 3. My best advice is to unsub and move on because BioWare does not care. And ignore the posters here who like to insult and put down those who have a opinion that is not thier's. The whole transfers situation was done very poorly and what would be wrong with several having the same legacy names on a server? Are we saying there should only be one family name of Smith on the whole planet of Earth?