Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

Are you saying that this is not the case?

It's known... the only thing not known is exactly how many. But it is in fact known that they applied a fairness scheme in the second wave that would give priority to active players over inactive players.. so stop pretending otherwise. The only thing not known is exactly every element of the fairness scheme applied (such as level vs level in the context of activity vs inactivity).

And I am in favor of leaving things as is... requiring no action and not pissing off even more players about names being lost..... especially given how much it offended the player base last year with the merges.

Are you saying that this is not the case?

It's known... the only thing not known is exactly how many. But it is in fact known that they applied a fairness scheme in the second wave that would give priority to active players over inactive players.. so stop pretending otherwise. The only thing not known is exactly every element of the fairness scheme applied (such as level vs level in the context of activity vs inactivity).

And I am in favor of leaving things as is... requiring no action and not pissing off even more players about names being lost..... especially given how much it offended the player base last year with the merges.

I still don't understand why it's so hard for people to come up with names. I've named three characters in the past week and had no problems. Didn't have to use special characters or random combinations of letters.

I've been reading threads like this one. I have a couple of questions. Not challenges to viewpoints. Questions to help clarify the situation for me. Like AlienEyeTX, I haven't had an issue with creating names, so I'm trying to get perspective.

If there were some sort of recurring purges of certain player's names, the newly available names could be taken by anyone. Does this mean that the primary issue isn't that certain names aren't available, but that certain names are currently held by (seemingly?) inactive players?

I've seen mention that users of particular names have not logged on to the game in some time. There's a way for one player to see when another player last logged on to SWTOR? Another player can see when someone last logged onto the game, not just when both happen to be logged on at the same time, if they are on ones Friend list?

I think it's great that we're finally seeing free character name changes in the upcoming patch, however, many names are sitting in limbo or "squatted" by people no longer playing for months now.

Bioware, i would really hope you'd begin some sort of process to whittle out names from people not playing the game anymore. I know you want them back, and might be afraid they'll say, "forget this, i'm done since they took my name", but you guys could easily deal with satisfying both concerns like other games in the past have done.

Simply send out an email reminding people who haven't been playing for like 60 days or more how awesome the game is, and that if they don't log into their account to confirm they want it still, they'll lose their current character names and have to reset them if they ever return. DONE, SIMPLE.

Not only does it clear out names for those who actually DO want to keep playing the game, but it's a firm nudge to people sitting out playing that maybe they should come back.

If you agree with this approach, your post would be appreciated to give attention to this concern.

What is the big freaking deal with names, my god. It's not like you go by that name. Your agent, or barsenrhor, or Jedi, or my lord. So you can be named Darthvader.
Just hit the random name generator, move around the letters and use that for a unique name. Or do what I did, look up random words in other languages for your name. Example my bounty hunter Pinyin which is something like revenge or vengeance or something like that if I remember right (it's been awhile since I made the name).
Stop complaining about something that doesn't even effect game play...

When you've been using a particular name for 10 years or more, you tend to get attached to it.