Producer's Letter: August 2015 Updates

Color me confused.

So say for instance, you merge 5 different servers together on to this new consolidated server and say that I have a Finora on each of those (entirely possible, I've got a lot of Finora's scattered about Norrath) are you saying that which ever Finora I log on first gets the name? Or what? Because I'd sure hate to log on the level 12 Finora that I made 6 months ago on a whim and make my Finora I've had since 2004 lose her name because of some crazy new server merge mechanics.


We definitely need some elaboration here.

Oh ok. Can the new server please open in Australian peak time?
What a stupid way to go about it.

ouch. so i might lose names i have had for years in both games just because someone gets them claimed before me? please say butcherblock is not a low population server. i don't like this idea at all. we should get to have our names if we have owned them and played them for years. let people who are not new keep their names and let people who have want names that are not already owned have those. but you seem to be forcing a move to a new server and to strip everyone of names they have always owned and played is not really fair to people who are long-time members

I'm pretty sure they won't make us PvP for our names. What was posted is confusing but there is no way they would leave us all nameless and fighting to re-get our name.

we really do hope but i have seen gaming companies, including this one, do some incredibly strange and weird things over the years - ahem, ah, and stupid ones too (i almost didn't dare say that)

and do i dare say that sound's like someone's crazy idea of a joke - "yeah we will leave them all nameless, watch them scramble and see who comes out on top". and maybe see who all says "i've had enough" and leaves?

I'm pretty sure the naming issue needs to be cleared up fairly quickly. It is, and always has been, something that a lot of players get very emotional about.
It's seems absurd to me that it would be a free for all once we hit the new server. Apart from naming issues, how on earth would we find anyone we knew?

besides, i don't like to idea of being forced into such a server. why can't we have an option of moving to one of the regular servers being kept?

also how are you going about determining what servers are low? if you look at the server population right now you will find that all of them are called "low", yet we do have a lot of players on most. just because we check out the new server doesn't mean we have left our regular servers.

Name issue aside, I'm sure this is the solution to resistance to being forcibly merged 'into' a foreign server, and being unwelcome foreigners. Which of course sounds completely insane that it should even be a problem, but it's happened every time. How you could have a 'culture clash' between two EQ2 servers seems somewhat baffling - but we do.

Honestly, it's probably the best answer. Nobody will be able to feel like others are invading 'their' server. Everyone is losing their home turf equally.

The resolution to the name issue stated here however, is bizarre. If the PvP name claiming rules turn out in such a way that it's possible for me to (for example), gank Feldon's name out from under him, they're pretty bad rules....

If I was creative I would be doing some cartoons about this right now.

I heard of name problems on other games and what happened there was if you were the second person to get that name on another server you end up with an x or a 2 some kind of mark but you would keep the name.
but really some people have not played for ages I would make names fair game if the owner was not on for a year or 2

I find this amusing as all my abandoned characters on Unrest (originally from the Nagena merge) are more than likely going to be merged into a new server. Mean while I have started again with new characters on AB which will most likely not be subject to the merger. So this new server will happy get a whole bunch of characters which I don't play don't want to delete because of the memories and cannot afford to move to AB. Seems like a big win for the new server.

I'm looking forward to rerolling some of my house touring alts if I end up being in the consolidated group.

Ok, let me get this straight. One of my main characters is a level 96/100 whom I've had since 2007, and have played her a total of over 63 days. Someone else created a character with her name on another server a month and a half ago, has played him for 20 minutes, and he is level 3. Yet if he happens to log in first (say I am at work when the server launches, or - heaven forbid - in the hospital), he gets to keep the name and I don't?

How is this even remotely fair? Can we please rethink this policy? At the very least, the old method was more fair, even though it could have been made better. You could have an algorithm that weights various factors - character creation date, adventuring level, tradeskill level, time played, etc. It might take time and effort to come up with, and I'm sure the method you're doing now is extremely easy for you to program, but is it fair to your client base?

Really, would you want someone to do something like this to YOU, if you were in our position? Please think about it.

just realized - kk so you force a bunch of people to new servers, strip away their names, what happens to the established guilds they worked so hard for and the houses they own, etc? my guild is over 83. some guilds are 100. they didn't get there by accident. some people put a lot of hard work into them. so what happens to them when you force this move?

Any time you like Roshen, you can come back and clear up this mess you left.
It has always gone on /played before. Surely DBG would not be stupid enough, to make it whoever logs in to the server first.

TIME ZONES. THE WORLD HAS THEM. AND YES I MEANT TO USE CAPS BECAUSE MAD.

seems to me every time i turn around you guys are trying to shoot your feet off lately. do you really intend to drive away people who have been with you for many years? some as long as 10 to 12? i played eq1 long before i played eq2. i have been here a long time and so has most others. as long as i have been playing, i have always had all of my names of my toons in BOTH games and i don't want to fight for them. i also don't want a big mess in my guild. will you please consider what you are doing to your player base?

hmm- looks like he may have gone off to bed and left us to stew about it. i am with you. this really irritates me. i don't like the idea of anyone messing with the names of my toons. and i am worried about what they plan to do about our guilds. if we lose our toons names, will we also lose our guilds? our houses? what else will we lose?

Good questions. I'm really hoping someone has some answers tomorrow and is prepared for any other questions that might arise. And be prepared for a VERY unfavorable reception if what some fear that statement meant is actually what is going to happen.