Due to the consolidation, after coming back to the game to prep for wrath, I found most of my low level characters completely missing. Resolving to just play another toon and find out, I find out that all of my missing characters were being moved in limbo from old servers to sulfuras.
Upon arrival, every single one was flagged for a name change, and had to be renamed. I begrudgingly renamed them so I could login to see what happened, and put in a ticket.
After waiting for a response… the GM tells me my names were all available and that I should just use those names - but the in game prompt refused them.
I tried re-making a new toon to stat the lowest level names over so I could at least have them, but it leads to an generic error message.
Please help - Not only was it wild to have no access to these, but now they’re on a new server, mashed together, and with names I didn’t want, with time ticking to where I will lose these names.
I fear getting stuck in the long response time back and forth before the launch.
While I’m unsure of the current consequences of the recent consolidation, the game itself telling you that the name is unavailable on Sulfuras suggests the GM wasn’t accurate in their assessment of the situation.
But given the state of such undertakings, it could very well be that there are still some bugs to work out. An SFA should be able to chime in later looking at your ticket history and cross referencing with characters on Sulfuras, but do temper your expectations and be prepared to hear that the GM was mistaken.
Depends upon where the GM was looking, toons below level 10 are not listed in the armory and toons higher than 10 who have changed realms may not show up in the armory until after they have logged in from the new realm.
Existing characters on Sulfuras keep their names. Characters with that name that transfer in have to change their name.
If there are no existing character with the name, the first character with the name who transfers in gets the name and later transfers have to name change.
Regardless, the names are already taken and not available to you.
Classic characters aren’t listed in Armory at all. My Classic character that was moved to Sulfuras also had their name taken (but no worries for me, not playing Classic right now).
Not sure what prep Blizzard did for the realm consolidations due to retiring of some of the Classic realms, but it does seem like what to do with the character names of those who were moved in the consolidation was an issue.
If your characters originated on Sulfuras, they should have been able to retain the names they had. However, if they were originally on another realm then any naming conflict would require the character to be flagged for a rename. Only a character originating on Sulfuras or one that logged in first, would have access to that name.
If the names were flagged for a name change they would have had random numbers and letters attached, making it difficult to tell what the name may have originally been, so the Game Master wouldn’t be able to check on the name availability. The recommendation they provided was to try naming the character the name it had previously, if it is available you’ll be able to. Otherwise, you’ll need to select a new name.
The one name you provided in your first ticket looks to have been taken already. Sorry, Misthoof. There is likely nothing that can be done if the names were already taken.
This is very unfortunate, I wonder why this wasn’t communicated better considering this was the first time this has ever happened and, because I wasn’t made away by anything but a forum post, I lost all my names for it and and they are now stuck on a server thats already dead.
This was a terrible choice. At least merged realms meant names were preserved.
I’ll agree that it sounds like this could have been better communicated. I definitely won’t argue there, though that sort of communication should have come from the development team making decisions on what to do with the dead servers.
That said, for the few posts I’ve seen where people were not aware, there were countless others asking Blizzard to do something about the classic/tbc servers that were virtually dead. People arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay for a transfer just because their realm was empty.
At the end of the day, there really likely were not any good choices. None that would have made everyone happy I’m sure.
They could have done what they did in retail, and merged them with suffixes instead of forcing everyone except the first guy to transfer to lose their names.
I find it funny when people hear something that they disagree with so they make up other stuff to try and bolster their point. I made no apologies for them. I didn’t even state that I agreed or disagreed.
But if you have feedback on how this process went, you’ll want to provide your constructive feedback in the TBC Classic forums. CS was not involved in making decisions regarding retiring those servers.
If you have a better idea of how they could have accomplished this all, I’m sure they would absolutely love to have you on staff. Otherwise, this isn’t the place for your narrative and unconstructive feedback. I am sorry you’re in the spot you’re in, but this isn’t the place to lash out at people who had no part in that process.
Should you wish to provide it so the proper staff can see it, as this forum is not used by any staff save for our SFAs - who do not relay messages - you can direct it to General Discussion or through the in-game suggestion and feedback tool.
I don’t need random non-employees posting patronizing replies at me with giddy excitement like a kid with a rubber stamp. I said my piece, and you felt the need to step in here to talk down to me and explain something for them that wasn’t needed.
You’ve both done nothing for this interaction but to increase the anger and resentment from a customer to a company, shame on you for causing more harm then good in a desire to feel important.
Please refrain from offering “more advice” - this topic was over before you guys felt the need to add to it.
Mate, this forum is a player to player help forum. It isn’t for ranting and venting about something the blues here that’s unable to help with. Along with that, acting this way isn’t helpful towards the folks whom want to help folks with nothing in turn for it. No amount of back-handed remarks will help this event, nor does implying tossing money at something will make something change in a person’s favor.
You misunderstand how Customer Support works. It is a forum for players to assist other players, though our SFAs do try and help when and where they can. And too, so long as the owner’s account is in good standing, we are allowed to post in any thread however we like so long as the CoC is followed.
That said, perhaps my tone could have been better, but yours could have also, seeing as again, you are venting/slapping out to people who have no real part in your direct issue but yet are still wanting and trying to help. If you actually want those people to know your thoughts and feelings on the matter, that is why Perl and I both tried to help direct you to the proper channels to do that. It has nothing to do with feeling important. It does have everything to do with trying to help you get your voice heard so that this sort of thing can be addressed better in the now and for any future incidents like this.
Yes, I suppose that could have been done, but there is a significant difference between a connected realm and one consolidated into a main realm. I can’t speak for our Game Developers but I imagine they felt it better to fully consolidate the extremely low population realms instead of attempting to connect 21 different realms to Sulfuras and all the issues that might entail.
The truth is, Misthoof, you have no idea on the process or what it entails or costs, but to give you some insight, we’ve never consolidated realms before in the history of World of Warcraft. So instead of using a process that we have done before, that we have already put countless hours into, our Developers went with a new process that needed to be created from scratch. Not exactly something that is designed to save on labor.
I understand the frustration, that you missed the notifications posted back in June and therefore couldn’t use the Free Character Moves to transfer yourself and possibly retain your name choices. However, there is simply no need to disparage your fellow players who are simply trying to provide advice and insight they may have available to them.
I think we’ve covered this as well as we’re going to.