Here’s a post, taken word-for-word from the Bioware TOR forums:

Bioware I would pay double the monthly subscription for this and I know others that would too.

It would be hard to pull off and monitor but it would greatly increase the quality of gameplay experience for a decently sized group of players.

You know what? I’ve seen similar requests in every single pre-game community for any MMO I’ve ever been involved with. And the sad part is, the posts come from people who know what they want, but are looking for what they want in all the wrong places.

Frankly, I can never understand why people like the person who posted that message won’t simply join a mature guild — like Beskar, for one example — in the first place.

After all, when you’re in a strong, mature guild with lots of people to mix with, 95% plus of what you will do in-game is within the guild, with those same mature members, so the wider server — and the idiots on it — doesn’t really matter.

That’s certainly how I approach playing in MMOs. I turn off global and regional chats… I don’t join PUGs… and I stick to the mature people around me… and the fact there might be idiot kids out there doesn’t even cross my mind for most of the time.

They become all but invisible to me.

Result? My method doesn’t involve asking for these impossible-to-implement 18-plus servers, yet I have an idiot-free experience most of the time. Sure, once in awhile you might have character names turned on and you see someone run past with an idiotic name, or you go into a cantina and someone’s running around the room leaping on tables like a lunatic, but on the whole when it comes to chatting and doing quests and actual interaction with people, if you follow my method, you can’t go far wrong if a mature experience is what you crave.

You don’t NEED an 18-plus server.

Bioware, of all the PC game companies out there, understands RPGs. And a key component of any RPG — something that everyone does, regardless of playstyle — is name their character.

Thus, it would be handy to know, in relation to TOR:

* Can we have a firstname and lastname, or are we stuck with just one name?

* If we can have a firstname and lastname is that from the start, or does a surname slot unlock at a certain level (similar to what happens in Lord of the Rings Online, for example)?

* Can we use spaces or special characters like ‘

* What is the minimum number of characters per name? Two? Three? Four?

I think they are the main questions at hand and, given this isn’t something I’d consider game-breaking or a “big reveal”, I’ve asked Bioware if there’s any chance of actually getting an answer on it. I’m all too aware that people would love to plot out character names, whether for RP or other purposes, and having some idea of what the guidelines are would be VERY handy.

I wonder if Bioware will reply to me?

Why is it that moderators on the TOR forum happily put their real name to anything and everything… except when handing out infractions?

For mine, hiding behind a “catch-all” account to do the dirty work, so to speak, isn’t a very open and transparent way of dealing with things. And isn’t being “open” and “transparent” two of the most important concepts in social media? Last time I looked, yes they were.

This method also puts us at a disadvantage of not knowing if one mod, in particular, is griefing us.

I also ponder the question, would some moderators be so hot on “the infraction button” if they had to put their real name to their handiwork? Because I reckon if they had to, they might put more thought into their decisions.