Factors for a fair forced transfer: Naming

Just wondering why there is so much nashing of teeth over something some trival as a character name in a game. For Pete's sake, they are only PIXELS and not part of your flesh and blood family. I for one am more into just playing the game with whatever character name I can creatively come up with but if it has to change I feel I can be just as creative and come up with something just as good for a character. It is not that important that I hold onto something so unimportant.

Which is the whole point of my solution, give players with an active account an alternative. To resolve the inactive issue shoot out an email to those accounts informing them of server transfers. If they can move inactive accounts they can allow players to make a choice by logging into their inactive account. If they decide not to do anything with their inactive account then they've waived their right to choosing where they want their characters placed.

So you bring up market analysis but yet have no market analysis to backup your claim.

My solution solves the problem for the active population, those returning will have the issue regardless of whether or not active accounts are given an alternative.

For those who feel this not a big issue - it's apparently a big enough issue that people would rather languish on empty servers rather than transfer - almost like a digital hunger strike. People care about names, just like people care about how they look.

I guess I'm not seeing anything in the comments that precludes creating a new server for those people remaining on old servers who wish to retain their names.

If you feel it's unfair to those who have already transferred, they've received something for transferring early - they get to play with a lot of people for 2-3 extra months - that's a pretty big reward.

If you think there aren't enough people, I'm not so sure. my characters are on Grand Master Zym and there were 40 people on the empire side last night - there's no reason to believe the other 'dead' servers don't have at least that many. Keep in mind there are *100* origin servers - if only 40 play on each one that's 4,000 people, which should be plenty to fill a new server.

At the very minimum players who lost their names (and really care) should be given a voucher or promise that, should a new server open, they'll have first crack at transferring and getting their name back. They could also have a program where, if a person who holds the name you desire cancels their account you'll have the option of poaching the name back.

And heck, why can't BW have an option to petition the holder of names people want and offer -them- 25 tokens if they give up the name? The person holding the name might not even care. You only get 8 characters on a server, it's not like people can squat on names.

Or just have an event where people can put their names up on the GTN and sell them, that might actually be kind of cool.

There seem to me to be quite a few compromises available besides telling people they shouldn't care about something when they're obviously very passionate about it.

Just giving the community managers some useful feedback on how this customer thinks they should handle the coming forced mergers! Here's hoping it helps.


I could see the writing on the wall even before they posted this, weeks after I've decided to cling to my dead server : http://www.swtor.com/blog/character-...nd-you-part-ii

To summarize: If you stick around your once popular, but-then-sucked-dry-by-voluntary-transfers server, you're going to get evicted. So why would I, after being promised so many free goodies, not move by myself then? Simple! I like my character names and legacy name. I'm pretty sure that at least half those remaining, have similar reasons. If you have any comments about that, I would refer you to the last paragraph of this post; the one after I get to the point.

I'm wondering and proposing, how this forced transfer transfer thing will honor our names. And what will happen when the destination server already holds 10 characters? In my defence, my pre-order - where I picked some of the most populated servers now empty - and reserved my name, is just as good as any other's. Back then, the most loyal customer got theirs. To devolve it into the arbitrary, is a bit of a kick in the teeth. Hell, I even reserved the same names on a dozen different servers, but I deleted them the moment I got well enough into the game. I'm not one to hold a name hostage.


I propose a couple of solutions, that this particular customer would find fair:

- For this one time, several different characters with the same name on a single server are allowed, as long as the legacy names are different.
- The day of the mergers, different players posessing the same name, will need to reclaim it on a first come, first serve basis (as both are reset).
- Bioware will simply add an invisible code to the name, unseen by players, but recognizable by the server. There is no conflict.

Retracted on mothear's observation and because the above three will do:
- The character with the highest level, gets to keep its name
- The legacy with the highest XP, will get to keep their name
- The most played character, will get to keep its name


All of this could be handled on-site, or in game. I imagine that if you already have 8 characters on target, that the former would be easier. A menu prompts you which you need to delete, or which names you'd like if there's already a duplicate out there, should we repeat first-come-first-serve.

This will once again reward loyalty and zeal and is a lot more fair than simple "tough luck". I'm pretty sure there's several thousand players like me and we can ALL agree that SWTOR can't afford to lose more.



Yes you, I can see you roll your eyes. I've been on the forums and read all the placeholder remarks about that.
"You're taking the game too serious!" "It's not such a big deal to put in apostrophe" "You're not being very creative. "It's about the game" "You should get a life."
Well, let me turn that argument around on itself. Everyone has their own reason to play this game, and mine was when pre-ordering, to get on a brand spanking new MMO that would last a decade, with names that I liked. Yours might have been Star Wars, for others it might have been alian chicks, but that was mine: The challenge to be a founder with dibs. To each their own. When I cannot gain that satisfaction from the SWTOR anymore, I will shrug, not take it serious and simply endeavor to find a more fulfilling, creative hobby than playing this MMO. It's not such a big deal. It might matter to Bioware/EA's subscription numbers though...

Reminds me of Manifest Destiny and the old American West. People moved out west to claim land for farms and ranches yet failed to see the people who lived there first (the Native Americans). When the Native Americans fought back, they were slaughtered and/or forced to move. Now they're a rare sight across the United States unless you're near a reservation which often is no where near their ancestral home.

Also reminds me of those that stay in their house when a massive flood is going to occur. Their excuse is that their entire lives are in that house and they fail to see material possessions can be replaced. You can't take it with you when you die so no sense dying over it. Then they end up dead when the flood hits them like a ton of bricks. Replace flood with bombing, hurricane, tornado, fire, etc. People cling to the dumbest things and ultimately it can lead to an even worse situation for them.

The people on the destination server have every right to the names they picked and not be bullied out of it because they played less than another player. It's not their fault they happened to pick a name someone else also picked on another server. No player is better than another. We are all equal when it comes to names. Just pick another one. In all honesty, we knew Bioware was going to eventually merge servers. You could've moved your characters a month ago, been forced to rename, and had a chance at a good rename. Instead, you decided to putz around clinging to a dead server and now are crying because your name will be lost and your chance of getting even your second choice is slim to nil.

Think of the rename as your chance to actually be creative. Pick something no one else thought of. In the transfers, I lost a grand total of 1 name but every other name I had was unique, including my legacy name. There are plenty of random name generators as well as baby name sites to use for ideas. There's millions of names you can pick.

If you're going to quit over something so simple as a bunch of pixels attached to a name ... don't let the digital door hit you on the way out. And seek professional help if digital pixels are so important to you. Do remember, it's a game, not real life. Ultimately, names matter little in a game. Your friends should know you by the name you wish to be called so it shouldn't matter if your toon has the same name or not. It's ultimately the player who's being talked to, not the character. If your character is Abcde (and yes, that's a real name [ab c dee]) and your real name is Bob, your friends can call you Bob instead of Abcde or whatever character you happen to be on. It's just pixels.