Producer's Letter: August 2015 Updates

i tend to read things exactly as they are written and not to try to read between the lines. i don't think regular people write between the lines. in this company, however, they don't seem to be having regular, ordinary folk like me writing anything.

reading it as it is written tells me

everyone has to choose a new name.

reading between the lines - who knows.

i am hoping it doesn't read "everyone will start as a new player- all over again- from the beginning - and your other toons are gone."

Suka, he's talking about the name submissions we voted on for the new TLE servers. Looks like they will choose from the remaining names.

No, I didn't mean everyone would be made to start from scratch. But typically that is the only time one would choose their name.

It is probably when you log in you will re-choose a name for your toon...in that it will be nameless until you login?

yeah i am thinking that too. i really think they are wrong about this one. they shouldn't do this to us

of course though, we will know sometime around the end of the month

Perhaps we will get clarification tomorrow. You know actually I've seen a lot more responses from the devs on these forums of late. So hang in there. After all they changed who can vote for the expac unlock servers....so it does appear they are listening.

Don't get me wrong: I agree with a lot of what you've said. But: isn't a decision to not participate in lower content -- and that is, of course, your choice -- contributing to the very problem you highlight?

YES! brilliant idea!

Wait - what?!?!? Did I even just feaking read that???

I can't even describe how horrible an idea this is. People who live outside the US, or who work non-traditional work schedules get completely SCREWED. The idea of having to completely RENAME 30+ toons across two servers, most with more than one house that I've spend HOURS decorating and customizing which might apparently be LOST due to the server merge and potentially the lack of an actual NAME to attach said houses and property to, because someone else happened to be sitting at their computer the second the servers came back up and got to log in before I did to claim names is completely ludicrous. For a whole lot of us who have been hanging on because we love this game, and because we realize that there really still isn't anything else exactly like it out there, this could honestly be the push that gets us to leave for good.

I'm pretty much on the same page as everyone else out there - THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS. As others have said, do it by age of character + level + hours played. Put the stupid X at the end of my name and give me one free name change if someone else beats me out in these things. THAT at least I could accept. But to lose out on a name that I chose on a character I have been playing for YEARS just because I was AT WORK or ASLEEP (because, you know, not everybody works a standard 9 to 5, Monday to Friday work week) when the servers came up? That's just HORRIBLE. I can't even believe a room full of people - game developers and people who presumably PLAY THE GAME THEMSELVES - all got together and thought, "Hey! I know! Let's start a whole new server, move a few thousand people there, erase the names from all their characters and let them try to get them back on a first-come-first-serve basis!! They'll LOVE that!"

Is this the EASIEST way you could do it, from a programming perspective? I'm guessing it probably is. Is it the RIGHT decision for your players, whose subscription fees pay all your salaries and keep this game alive? From the posts I've read here tonight, probably not.

I seriously hope this is rethought or explained in a way that will make this seem even remotely okay with the players because right now I'm really, really sad over this whole thing.

Oh yes i am! Rat pack was my first guild back in the day. Karen invited my necromancer Rasiel, later i switched over to my fury Ajjantis

I sure do hope nobody takes my name. I'd have to add in an extra R somewhere.

I know it's hard not to panic. Lord knows we're very attached to our pixels, but I can't help but think this is just a misunderstanding and will be clarified tomorrow. Roshan likely forgot to take into account two people from two different servers moving onto the new server with the same name. The people who brought us the boat and the isle are not gonna strip everyone of their names and make it a free for all.

I want to believe that we won't have to log on, pick a new name and it is a first come first serve basis after YEARS of active playing AND paying for my subscription. I don't want Russian roulette on my names after work hoping to get them. If I wanted to start BRAND NEW on a NEW SERVER and pick a NEW NAME then I would have started on the time locked ones! I'm like so many on here and very upset with all of this. I don't care if there is a hidden server name somehow attached. I don't care if I bump into 3 of my name on the merged servers. I just want to keep mine the way they are. I understand progress. I don't post often. I read this thread last night and was so upset I just logged off and went to bed. The whole thing not even a month ago with the logging in problems had me finally buying a new game to play after 10 years. I enjoy it but prefer eq2. I keep it on the side for when this one is down. I'm really hoping that some of this is a misunderstanding. However.... We all have a right to let this company know how we feel. I don't like this. My name matters to me along with my characters. I am not a player over the years that has come and gone paying when the mood hits. I have been a constant subscription with all expansions mostly collectors editions. I'm going to add my voice of unhappiness hoping that speaking up matters. Please clarify what your working on because I have a feeling your about to lose more subscriptions which will be a shame considering you gained some I'm sure with the new servers. I debated posting at all. Most of the time people just say if your not happy then play something else. We all have different things important to us, playing styles,reasons to log on playing and paying. I love this game. I have rolled with the changes understanding money needs to be raised to keep it going. Please check these posts and compare them to the accounts so you know its not people just on here complaining to make noise.

Worst idea ever,Yet again this company is not taking in the whole picture...just flagg old inactive accounts to free up those names,don't screw over the ones who pay or who are loyal to this game since launch and current.

So ill have of runnyeye and of everfrost titles now? Slowly racking them up.

My original server has been merged twice so far if we get titles for a server we came from I would prefer my original server.

Original server was Shadowhaven
merged into The Bazaar
merged into Freeport
You could give people that created their characters on whatever server they started on each a separate title I WANT THE TITLE SHADOWHAVEN. If you give me the title Freeport I will just spit on it.

PVP name changing that is gonna be a nightmare My names are so unique to this day I can hop on any server and create them easily BUT on that note this will give me a chance to shank a name I have wanted for years that has always been taken, that is if I dont get the message "This name is too naughty or reserved" message first.

That would be a travesty

I would like to remind the developers about the guild issue
I already asked about that earlier in this post so I wont repeat myself .
I understand that you cant move entire guilds members and all .
But I would like to know if it is possible to move the guild with its guildhall
members can be invited again

is'n it agnostic dungeons or am I missing something else ?

Regarding server consolidation:

I am glad that this is being voiced in the newsletter section! I hope you intend on looking at current active populations when you consolidate onto a new server. AB has lost 1/3 of it's active population to the TLE servers or they just recently quit. There are no healthy populated servers, so please consolidate them all outside of the TLE/TLP ones.

no- please note that i already dragged way more than 6 toons through it (ok make that around 20 toons). the last thing people on the lower levels want is someone coming in and powerleveling them under the guise of mentoring. (go read all the hundreds of posts from people complaining about groups saying this very thing.)

the last thing i want to do is delete a higher toon to go play with them. nope- not part of the problem. the problem is that when you mentor down you are way overpowered and can't possibly play with them on an even field. i can understand the overpowered part. that is what allows us to go back and run group content solo that we couldn't run before because we couldn't get groups. however, it causes a problem when we want to go back through older content to help people. they don't want to be dragged through it by an over-powered mentor. they want to play it with people on a level playing field.