Well thanks a lot Bioware.

Wow really? If he's still subbing then he's paying. If he's leveling another toon (unless it's a separate account) he's still logging in.

As far as why? Because business do what's in the best interest of making a profit, that's how businesses work. If I lease an apparent, then I just leave one day and stop paying. If I come back 6 month later I would likely find I was evicted and likely face legal troubles for failing to fulfill my financial obligations. Obviously this is a different scenario in that there is no agreement to pay for a certain amount of time like an apartment, but still if there is a limited resource (in this case quality character names) then it makes sense that once one is no longer in service to offer that out to someone who is actively paying to enhance the experience for your consumer and encourage them to continue to do business with you.

Not true, I would argue that any account that hasn't either generated any revenue (sub, CC, ect) and has not had a single log in, within a 6 month period, is dead.

Wow really? If he's still subbing then he's paying. If he's leveling another toon (unless it's a separate account) he's still logging in.

As far as why? Because business do what's in the best interest of making a profit, that's how businesses work. If I lease an apparent, then I just leave one day and stop paying. If I come back 6 month later I would likely find I was evicted and likely face legal troubles for failing to fulfill my financial obligations. Obviously this is a different scenario in that there is no agreement to pay for a certain amount of time like an apartment, but still if there is a limited resource (in this case quality character names) then it makes sense that once one is no longer in service to offer that out to someone who is actively paying to enhance the experience for your consumer and encourage them to continue to do business with you.

If the name keeps you from enjoying the MMO, then you were not long for that MMO anyways. It would not be long before you found something else that kept you from enjoying it.

No, there is no limit on "quality" character names. I can go in and make 100 non-gibberish names. Again, the problem lies in players' own lack of creativity. They've named their main in every MMO "Salty" and if they can't get it here, they complain about the naming limitations.

And if you recognized the inaptness of your apartment analogy, why did you even use it?

These things can and do impact a player's enjoyment of a game. It's a problem that's been solved in many games as others have pointed out.

If Bioware hadn't simply copied 2003 game design and actually thought about some of these issues it would never have caused these problems. Such are the things that showed the dev team knew how to make an RPG, but had no clue about MMOs.

And to the "be more original" crowd, not everyone wants to have names that look like someone rolled their face over the keyboard and put an apostrophe in the middle to make it "star warsy". Just because you show a lack of care in your character creation doesn't invalidate the OPs complaint.

Read my last post prior to this one. I can go in and make 100 non-gibberish names, using no special characters or extended ASCII. My personal bank of "acceptable names" does not begin with "variations of Dax" and end with "variations of Boba Fett."

Sorry, that's just a stupid thing to say.

A character's name, looks, backstory all contribute to how much you want to play that character. There were plenty of characters I created in City of Heroes that never made it to level 20 because I didn't like some aspect of them. (at shutdown I had over 50 alts, only 16 made it to level cap)

I played that game for over six years.

These things can and do impact a player's enjoyment of a game. It's a problem that's been solved in many games as others have pointed out.

If Bioware hadn't simply copied 2003 game design and actually thought about some of these issues it would never have caused these problems. Such are the things that showed the dev team knew how to make an RPG, but had no clue about MMOs.

OP, I feel your pain. I lost names in two successive server merges and I understand your emotional reaction. I have gotten used to the new names for my characters, some of which I like more than the old ones, but it has taken time.

And to the "be more original" crowd, not everyone wants to have names that look like someone rolled their face over the keyboard and put an apostrophe in the middle to make it "star warsy". Just because you show a lack of care in your character creation doesn't invalidate the OPs complaint.

/agreed. Some people limit themselves far too much. Who knows, if they took the creative route and made a name all on their own, maybe they would fall in love with that name, too? You know, because it's unique.

Yeah. If I have it in mind to RP a character, I create the character, including its name, and then let the story and my RP shape the character. Its name is its name. A "stupid" name can be part of the character's back story.