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A plea for help: What's in a name?


TheKnightHawk

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So, these are just bits of data on a sever somwhere, not real people. I get that. But I've invested a lot of time in creating my character (on a roleplay server) and part of who that character is, what makes him feel real to me, is his name. This name is important to me, as it's something personal that I've been using in other places for over two decades now. I'm not willing to change that name, and I made extra sure to buy the game as soon as possible so that I could reserve that name.

 

Now my server is being abandoned. The target server is Ebon Hawk. And someone else has that name on that server. And it looks like this will be the only East Coast RP-PVE server left, so I won't have any other choices in the future. So I have a couple of requests here, one for the community and one for the masters of this game.

 

Community: Can someone who is on Ebon Hawk find the player who owns the character named Knighthawk (not Nighthawk or Theknighthawk) and see if he has invested any time into the character? If not, would he be willing to delete his character so that I can make use of it? Bioware, you could put me in contact with this person or just reveal to me what level the character is, if this doesn't violate some kind of confidentiality.

 

Bioware: I appear to have to choose between changing my character's name (which would feel, to me, like telling a ten-year-old son that he can't have his name anymore) and staying on a server where, it seems, nobody will be left to play with, thus making the game not worth playing anymore. I realize that you want to keep some matters secret right now, because plans aren't firmed up yet, but I'm asking you earnestly, as a player who has been loyal to you from day one and has promoted this game to his friends: Is there another option? Will I be able to have a third choice between the two above?

 

If not, I'm not sure I want to continue playing this character. And no, I'm not saying this as some kind of flounce where I get all mad and cancel my subscription over something small. But the knowledge that this game can put me into such a difficult position where I have to choose between two unpleasant alternatives makes this game less appealing to me. It says to me that I perhaps should not put so much time and effort into this game as the people responsible don't feel enough respect for me to help me out when I need it. And I'm not sure I'll feel the same way about this game if that's the case.

 

So, once again, I'm asking for help, and I'm asking for alternatives. Please step up to the plate and give me a hand here. I've been devoted to you and your game and hope you will show me some sympathy. Thanks for your time.

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I feel your pain. My character name is already taken on EH also, and that is my destination server too. I'm not thrilled with it, especially since I bought my CE the day they were offered for sale, got into EA on the very first or second wave at 9 AM the first day, and did all that JUST to get the name "Syrin" for my character. To be honest I don't know why I was so invested in it THEN, but having done all that, it does chafe a bit that I am losing the name, at least spelled the way I want (I haven't checked the alternative spellings).

 

To be honest I am mildly toying with the idea of making a totally new character and killing off this one, mainly because I liked leveling JK so much I would not mind doing it again. But I'll have to see. Some is going to depend on what the guild does in the mean time, how many people transfer, if anyone else is getting killed off.

 

Another guy in the guild has a character with the name "Strife" that has a much longer pedigree across many games. Yeah he's gonna lose that one too, I'm sure. Ah well.

 

Unfortunately there is really no elegant way to do this. The people on EH had those names already, many probably since EA. They have as much right to the name as we do, whether or not they are actively playing that particular character. There's really little BW could have done once the mergers happened.

 

Well... there was one thing they could have done a year or two ago as they were designing the game: Make the unique character name identifier two strings instead of one. Then I could have been Syrin Malo and there could have been 1,000 other Syrins out there with other last names if they wanted. I will not ever be able to understand why BW couldn't have done this. Tying last name to legacy was an epic fail on their part... And if you think people are going to have trouble with first names wait till they try to re-create their legacy. Ugh.

 

Of course since "Malo" is my legacy name, and is named after Syrin (it's her last name), and I have to change her first name anyway, well... meh. Not gonna get ruffled about the last name when I can't keep the first name anyway. And none of my other characters can use it either way, so it's no skin off my other 7 noses.

 

Yeah so... this is frustrating but what can you do? They have to merge these servers.

Edited by Chessack
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I know this isn't the response you're looking for, but it might be of some help to you - or others with a similar problem. The game allows the use of accented letters (usually vowels) for names. These accents aren't overly noticeable in actual play, and could be better than a "variation" of the desired name.

 

For your name, Knighthawk, both the i or a could be accented. The basic form is to press control&alt&[insert desired letter], but if you know how to get other accents (or a website you can copy and paste from) there are more options. You could easily get Kníghthawk or Knightháwk (assuming they haven't been taken). Using this trick with the letter "i" is especially potent, as it is almost indistinguishable.

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Tell me about it, I've been using the names Phoenix and Cole quite happily but all of the target servers have them taken. Might have to resort to using special characters. Someone even took Nilus :(

 

Nothing we can really do though, just have to appreciate the positives of transfers.

Edited by AelixVII
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I know this isn't the response you're looking for, but it might be of some help to you - or others with a similar problem. The game allows the use of accented letters (usually vowels) for names. These accents aren't overly noticeable in actual play, and could be better than a "variation" of the desired name.

 

For your name, Knighthawk, both the i or a could be accented. The basic form is to press control&alt&[insert desired letter], but if you know how to get other accents (or a website you can copy and paste from) there are more options. You could easily get Kníghthawk or Knightháwk (assuming they haven't been taken). Using this trick with the letter "i" is especially potent, as it is almost indistinguishable.

Mind you, accented character names are a pain to invite to guilds/parties/ops.

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Thanks for the suggestions, folks. But I'm really not interested in having my character take a name with hyphens and/or accented characters. It just seems really off to me and like I'd be some also-ran, when I was one of the first players and spent extra time, money and effort to secure this name.

 

I'd rather not get into a long discussion about how much this name means to me, but suffice it to say it means quite a lot. I've been using it for over twenty years and it has a personal connection to a family member who is no longer around.

 

Similarly, I don't want to reroll a new character from scratch with a new name. I'll probably be having alts, but to give up all the time I spent making this character special just seems like a waste.

 

It would be a different story if there was a chance I could wait for a transfer to another server where the name isn't used, but it seems that all the other RP-PVE servers on my coast are being closed.

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If a name in a video game means that much to you, you need to seek professional help.

 

I'm pretty sure that I made it clear that it's not just a name in a video game. It's a name I've been using for quite a long time, sometimes in games, but in other areas of my life as well. It means as much to me as your nickname might mean to you, if your family gave it to you and your friends have all used it for most of your life. I'd prefer not to give it up if I don't have to.

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Mind you, accented character names are a pain to invite to guilds/parties/ops.

 

Search the first couple of letters in Who. Right click the correct individual. Done.

 

While I feel your pain, OP, as I've been using my main's name since I started playing D&D in the 4th grade back in about 1980, and I have a lot of personal investment in that name, I've chosen not to let any lost names destroy my experience in this game. I have a choice. I can stay on a dead server nursing my name, emoragequit, or adapt. The name means a lot, but in the end.....if adding a comma or an ascii to a character name made me feel like a hasbeen and outweighed my enjoyment, perhaps it would be time for me to start doing something else. It is a game. Only stick around as long as it's fun.

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While I feel your pain, OP, as I've been using my main's name since I started playing D&D in the 4th grade back in about 1980, and I have a lot of personal investment in that name, I've chosen not to let any lost names destroy my experience in this game. I have a choice. I can stay on a dead server nursing my name, emoragequit, or adapt. The name means a lot, but in the end.....if adding a comma or an ascii to a character name made me feel like a hasbeen and outweighed my enjoyment, perhaps it would be time for me to start doing something else. It is a game. Only stick around as long as it's fun.

 

Your point is well made, Ashlian. I'm wresting with some of the same thoughts you express here. One of them that I'm considering is just moving on and doing something else, but I am hoping the people at Bioware will offer me an alternative. They've put me into a spot where I have to make a tough choice between unpleasant alternatives, and I want to see if they'll offer me a more appealing option.

 

At the very least I hope they will be willing to check with the person on Ebon Hawk who already has the name so that I can make use of it if he or she doesn't mind parting with it. If not, perhaps they'll allow for some other alternative.

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Thanks for the suggestions, folks. But I'm really not interested in having my character take a name with hyphens and/or accented characters. It just seems really off to me and like I'd be some also-ran, when I was one of the first players and spent extra time, money and effort to secure this name.

 

I'd rather not get into a long discussion about how much this name means to me, but suffice it to say it means quite a lot. I've been using it for over twenty years and it has a personal connection to a family member who is no longer around.

 

Similarly, I don't want to reroll a new character from scratch with a new name. I'll probably be having alts, but to give up all the time I spent making this character special just seems like a waste.

 

It would be a different story if there was a chance I could wait for a transfer to another server where the name isn't used, but it seems that all the other RP-PVE servers on my coast are being closed.

 

I sometimes use other languages, some of them actually look more like names than the English version that can look like a label. Knight in Polish = Rycerz as an example.

 

Just a suggestion.

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I sometimes use other languages, some of them actually look more like names than the English version that can look like a label. Knight in Polish = Rycerz as an example.

 

Just a suggestion.

 

Interesting suggestion, but unfortunately RycerzJastrząb just doesn't have the same ring to it as KnighHawk. And it misses out on the pun, which would only make sense in English, I think. Thanks for the constructive idea.

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I understand what you mean, I would have been royally pissed if I didnt get my main's name over on my destiantion server. But I did, its a completely made up original name, so it was unlikely to be taken anyway. But yeah, im also very attached to my char's name, I dont know what I would have done if it was taken.

 

Try:

Nitehawk

KniteHawk

Night'Hawk

Night-Hawk

Knight-Hawk

Knight'Hawk

Knite'Hawk

K'nighthawk

 

I highly doubt ALL of those names would be taken. Those are close enough, right?

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Your point is well made, Ashlian. I'm wresting with some of the same thoughts you express here. One of them that I'm considering is just moving on and doing something else, but I am hoping the people at Bioware will offer me an alternative. They've put me into a spot where I have to make a tough choice between unpleasant alternatives, and I want to see if they'll offer me a more appealing option.

 

At the very least I hope they will be willing to check with the person on Ebon Hawk who already has the name so that I can make use of it if he or she doesn't mind parting with it. If not, perhaps they'll allow for some other alternative.

 

They probably won't do anything directly, but have you considered, before moving, making a throwaway toon on Ebon Hawk and sending an ingame email to the person? If the mail doesn't go through on one faction, you'd know it was the other. Definite possibility you might get no response, but then again....you never know.

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Have you considered using Knighthawk as the Legacy name instead? Honestly, I think it sounds a lot better as a last name, akin to Skywalker, than as a first name comparable to a Luke. And as you say you've used this name in various platforms for years, it would allow you to display your online identity over all your characters, rather than just on your main.
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Ive been forced to transfer, on several games.

 

I'm sad to say I will be cancelling my sub completely when our server becomes an origin server, since I don't plan to change my guild or character names.

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At the very least I hope they will be willing to check with the person on Ebon Hawk who already has the name so that I can make use of it if he or she doesn't mind parting with it. If not, perhaps they'll allow for some other alternative.

 

I can understand your attachment to your character name as I wouldn't want to part with my names but realistically can you imagine if everyone who had to change their name asked for BW to do this for them?

 

I think the best alternative for you is to use it as your legacy name as someone has previously mentioned.

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I feel your pain, I was extremely happy to get my two names on Rubat when it first started - as was my husband, these are characters we've played in games and RP's for quite a few years now, we logged in to save our names as soon as we could and were over joyed when we got them...

 

And now our server looks like it's going to be a desolate wasteland because everyone is jumping ship. I don't want to move to a new server, I've been on Rubat since day one, I don't want to deal with Ques and lag and I most definitely don't want to loose my name, legacy name or guild name.

 

So my guild is staying on Rubat. It'll be a dead server I suppose and most likely we'll be forced to move someday when they cull servers. It's a sad sad day and I had such high hopes for this game.

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I really can not get my head around you guys putting so much importance in the name of a character in a computer game. I love this game as much as anybody but at the end of the day it is a game and they are only names of computer generated characters.

With everything else that is going on in the world if this is very minor gripe even gets onto your radar of problems I don't know whether to envy or pity you.

 

I can fully understand why a name may be important to a person but I would sugest that if it is so important it could be regarded as an insult to the name by hanging it on something as insignificant as a computer generated character. Name a dog or even your child that name if it means so much but don't get all uptight because you can't name your computer game character it.

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Had the same issue with my Jugg. Here is what I do though, I like to pick a group of names...all pertaining to the same thing. For instance for swtor, I actually picked Egyptian Gods. My legacy is Atum, the first god to have inhabited Earth to the ancient Egyptians, then I go from there. My Jug was named Anubis on my old server...moved...had to pick a new name..gives me some options that way. Chose Nun - the waters of Chaos. Picked one name is nice, but doesn't always work.

 

You can also look up spellings of your name in a different language. Good luck

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Perhaps your just not a roleplayer? Clearly its not the end of the world if I can't keep my character name - I've played other games without them but they are important to me none the less - like favorite characters in a story that none of us want to see die.

 

It would be especially unappealing to move to a server with hundreds of new people and wind up with a name that I really don't like simply because everything else is taken. It would just take a great deal of the enjoyment out of the game - I enjoy playing these characters, I don't want to recreate an entirely new character.

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