46736-an-apology-from-the-devs-page-3

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I just wanted to post an update here:
 
As I stated earlier I had sent in a support ticket because my second name choice of StormieGail was getting the banhammer from the name reservation filter. I just got a reply to my support ticket that this has been fixed and I now have my name StormieGail reserved!
 
So, THANK YOU, to all the WildStar/Carbine staff that worked their butts off to get this fixed. I would have moved on and picked something different on head start. But you have made me one happy camper today! <3
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A really cheap PR stunt to cover the massive fail that was name registration...
 
First we get baited into what was lately called a "web server stress test". Then just two hours later, the actual mess of desperately trying to reserve nick and guild names on a completely broken page and login system.
 
I see what you did there Carbine, instead of spending resources on fixing the problem you hope to get away with it through an "apology gift" and some more PR crap about how sorry you are. In the meantime, you just screwed over your new player base before the game even launched... Good job!	
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			I've been checking the name reservation page but so far no additional edit time. Anyone know when this is supposed to begin?	
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That's just plain wrong, resetting is the greater evil by FAR! Yesterday was a PR debacle. Resetting would be a PR GRAVEYARD. It would kill this game before it ever launched if they reset.
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I've been checking the name reservation page but so far no additional edit time. Anyone know when this is supposed to begin?
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Good to see attempts are being made to appease those that felt slighted... myself and the missus somewhat included (though, the name I'm going for is unique enough, 99.9% chance nobody else would have taken it anyways).  Thing that's blowing my mind, is if I'm not mistaken, we can only open one boom box per day correct?  It's going to be a couple months at least until those that have been here for awhile get them all open.  Don't get me wrong, we love the idea of boom boxes and the chances of what they can contain... but starting to get overwhelming to think that for however many there are (as an example, 100?)... a person already has to plan to log in at least once a day for 100 days, just to open one of those boom boxes per day... meaning that if a person were to want all their boom box rewards, they'd have to keep subbing each month, even if they wanted to take time off, or wanted to wait and see if the game gets more stable later on. :ph34r:
 
PS - Since the first month is already included in purchase... this means anybody that was willing to lay down their money and pre-order ahead of time, are being roped into 3 more months of subs just to be able to access all of their "free bonuses".	
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So I haven't read this whole thread, but how the hell did this even come up? How is *THIS* the analogy that's being discussed? Why is an analogy even necessary? As Mark Twain said, "Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and win by experience."
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The best part about this thread?
 
It'll be wiped in a couple of weeks.	
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What additional edit time?
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I response I got to a ticket I submitted said that the next time I logged onto the reservation page, additional edit time would be added so I could get the name I actually intended to get before the system screwed it all up.
 
Only when I log on, no additional edit time. 
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			<This was crap>	
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Hrm, that would be a good thing for the to do for everyone, imo... seems like the "edit" buttons didn't actually allow editing all day yesterday.
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			Thanks for the apology, Carbine, stay classy.  Love you guys <3	
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This is the email I received:
 
Matt (WildStar Player Support)
May 15 22:35
Greetings, Citizen of Nexus!
As was addressed in the forums post apology from the Devs (https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/46736-an-apology-from-the-devs/), we are aware that the Name Reservation experience has been a bit frustrating for everyone. We are happy to announce, that things have steadied out and are now working properly. However, we also acknowledge that the hiccups may have caused some players to reserve a name that they are unhappy with.
In order to alleviate some of the frustrations, we would like to offer the opportunity to reset the edit timer. Should you choose this option, here is how it will work:
The next time that you log into the Name Reservation page, an hour of additional edit time will be added. The current name will not be removed, but you will have extra time to edit your choice to something else.
Please understand that this does not guarantee you will get the original name you wanted, as many are now taken. It is up to you to decide if you wish to keep your current name, or if you would like the opportunity to attempt to edit your name to something you might prefer. If you are satisfied with your current choice, at least to the extent you don't want to roll the dice again, there is no need to reply. However, if you would like to be reflagged for the option to edit your name, please reply with the account name on which you desire another shot.
Thank you,
Matt
WildStar Support Team
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			Sorry it game our grey on blue. If you highlight it you can read it. 	
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How about the people who didn't "bot" and who were on and ready at each posted time and got through to reserve their name? 
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Matt (WildStar Player Support)
May 15 22:35
Greetings, Citizen of Nexus!
As was addressed in the forums post apology from the Devs (https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/46736-an-apology-from-the-devs/), we are aware that the Name Reservation experience has been a bit frustrating for everyone. We are happy to announce, that things have steadied out and are now working properly. However, we also acknowledge that the hiccups may have caused some players to reserve a name that they are unhappy with.
In order to alleviate some of the frustrations, we would like to offer the opportunity to reset the edit timer. Should you choose this option, here is how it will work:
The next time that you log into the Name Reservation page, an hour of additional edit time will be added. The current name will not be removed, but you will have extra time to edit your choice to something else.
Please understand that this does not guarantee you will get the original name you wanted, as many are now taken. It is up to you to decide if you wish to keep your current name, or if you would like the opportunity to attempt to edit your name to something you might prefer. If you are satisfied with your current choice, at least to the extent you don't want to roll the dice again, there is no need to reply. However, if you would like to be reflagged for the option to edit your name, please reply with the account name on which you desire another shot.
Thank you,
Matt
WildStar Support Team
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So this is the fix for anyone that got a bad name (a name they didn't actually want).  Open a ticket and request a flag to allow you to edit your reservations.  Sounds good.  Thanks for the information.
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Yeah, don't read the argument, then claim it was probably stupid... by using a quote from a person much smarter than you to look smart yourself. 5 star post, bro.
 
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Free renames are not the fairest solution. A reset gives everyone a fair chance. Your idea still does not.
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Except for the fact that that's not what happened when I re-signed into the name reservation page. It gave me no additional edit time and, so far, I'm still stuck with the wrong name. Maybe it hasn't started yet. 
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I don't think this was the right decision, but whatever. 
 
I got my name and I got more boxes. I'm going to be opening until Xmas if they keep racking up lol	
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I've been seeing a ton of rage over this issue, and I really hated it when I couldn't get the name I wanted. My Guild pretty big we have about 50 people signed up right now for each faction also didn't get our name. The one thing I do appreciate is the DEV's communication and willingness to own the issue and admit they messed up. It's not often you see that from a gaming company. Anyone remember Alien Space Marines (OUCH). 
 
I just hope this set back doesn't keep them from talking to the community, I've seen some pretty harsh things being said and have contemplated a few myself, but they have really been open and honest since the issue started and no mater how we got here it's where we are. Keep up the awesome communication and I'll keep supporting your team!	
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95% or more of those players are trolling...
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Because comparing name reservation to ordering the murder of innocent people is so related and that analogy makes complete sense...
 
And of course I would quote someone smarter than me. That's the purpose of quoting people. Who goes around quoting people dumber than them? 
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    My question is, why was this not posted in a more official manner? Why are people that are tweeting and sending tickets getting more information than all the rest of us?
 
 
 
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This was quite the blunder, but it really doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of this game's life.
 
 
I already have 3 months worth of boomboxes (if not more) so this was kind of a pointless gesture. Free 1 time only name change on the 17th would've been a lot better and more apt to this situation.
 
 
Oh well.	
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			There is an incredible amount of greed in this thread. You got some Extra's that you wouldn't have gotten now stop crying.	
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There is an incredible amount of greed in this thread. You got some Extra's that you wouldn't have gotten now stop crying.
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			Do I think they goofed? Yup. Do I think this is fair? I do. Do I think people are being unfair to them, and more than over the top with their scorn? Definitely.	
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More boom boxes?
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/neat.gif	
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Do I think they goofed? Yup. Do I think this is fair? I do. Do I think people are being unfair to them, and more than over the top with their scorn? Definitely.
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			Well I didn't get the name I wanted so I guess I don't have much going for me. I don't think it's unfair to be pissed off over something that involves your name for a character at launch. It's a big f'ing deal to a lot of f'ing people. If the problem was just sporadic that would be one thing. This was a failure on a mass scale and screwed a lot of people out of very popular names that were online and ready to register when it went live. Not everyone had 4 hours to sit in front of the computer to keep spamming the "not working" button. People rearranged schedules to do it. One only thought the company could have handled the load. 	
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			Gratzi ;-)	
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			I had not seen the boom box video, FUNNY as always	
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There is an incredible amount of greed in this thread. You got some Extra's that you wouldn't have gotten now stop crying.
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			Something to consider: Maybe they're not offering Free Renames as compensation because they already plan on offering Free Renames to people who pre-ordered but don't want to announce it until they're sure that it's ready. After all, that really has more to do with how Name Reservation being global affects finding names during Name Reservation and Head Start in general than it does the problems they had with the Name Reservation system.	
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			No apology for the german players? Well....that sux.	
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    My question is, why was this not posted in a more official manner? Why are people that are tweeting and sending tickets getting more information than all the rest of us?
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No apology for the german players? Well....that sux.
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The Boom Boxes are neither here nor there. The apology is a good move.  I do hope that some learning happens.  Also I hope that Carbine looks at faster unlocks for names at Headstart.  And if people have to level characters with names they do not want until the unlocks, then they should get  free renames.
 
Oh and folks-- please look up the word "entitlement"-- it's not what many of you seem to think it is.  If someone says they'll deliver something and doesn't-- it is NOT entitlement to be disappointed that they did not come through.  ;)	
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Sorry to say but your name reservation process is still buggy. On my desktop pc I get told I need to Pre order to register despite being logged in correctly. On my iPad I log in and click register but my alt name is listed with no reset of the edit timer as described by a dev. I input a guild name just to see what would happen and got the ???? Timer, tried a diff name got the ??? Timer. Tried a third and it accepted but immediately displayed edit timer as no longer available.
No biggie. No hate. Just figured debs that are listening should know.	
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I have to turn on 'the troll' for this comment but is it just America or the rest of the world who wants 'more or monetary' compensation instead of an apology.  An apology is all that is needed in this incident.  Why only an apology you ask and that is very simple, its because this was not intentional, it was a miscalculation or worst a few players running scripts to secure a name and crashing the system.
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			Thank You Guys!!	
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I have to turn on 'the troll' for this comment but is it just America or the rest of the world who wants 'more or monetary' compensation instead of an apology.  An apology is all that is needed in this incident.  Why only an apology you ask and that is very simple, its because this was not intentional, it was a miscalculation or worst a few players running scripts to secure a name and crashing the system.
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			By the way, can we get some official confirmation from the devs about whether the names do or don't unlock on all servers when a reserved name is first used?  There seems to be conflicting information going around.	
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			So you've been handing out boomboxes like candy, and now you're offering us a few more as compensation?  I didn't care enough about boomboxes to log in every day during beta.  I did care enough about my name to spend pretty much the whole day trying to work around your mistake.  I know that it was my choice to spend my day hitting the F5 button, but I still feel like you've wasted my entire day and are offering me a handful of candy as compensation.	
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Ask your resident CM to translate it. :P
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			cool move. cheers.	
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			People will whine but I think you guys are awesome! Thanks for the superfun game!!!	
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You get an "Apology from the Devs" from ThaCheez,we got an "Name reservation and Boom Boxes" from ThaCheez. Id like to have an Apology too please.  :)
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Are there plans to allow GM's to change guild names and such so that pre-established guilds can maintain names that were taken during this rush?
 
It's kind of a massive hit to guild influence to have to drop the whole guild and remake after 17 days worth of leveling...	
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I bet this was already suggested but, have you guys over there at Carbine have thought about offering a free character rename for Pre-order holders? Something like a free, one-time-only rename after 14 days, lasting one week or so.
That would help people try to get their name. There is a big chance that their name got used in another server or even another region. I guess a one-time free character rename could alleviate and even solve the issue for some people.	
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Dear Carbine,
 
If you believe that giving customers 5 boomboxes is appropriate compensation for the name reservation fiasco - you have destroyed any remaining faith I had in your product. I don't care if your game has charm. I don't care if your game is fun. I don't care if your game ends up with 7 million subscribers and I'm the only one not playing it. I will not be back.
 
Everyone gets a prize for suffering through your catastrophe. So, those people who were lucky enough to win your server lottery get their choice of name and a nifty prize? While those of us who were at our computers the moment reservations went live and spammed your system for nearly six hours get... boomboxes? Some people took entire days off of work to participate in this fiasco. Some people took multiple work breaks! To reserve names in your game! Your company made your job the community's job.
 
This resolution is no resolution at all. Except for, maybe, those people who got their names or never really cared that much about a name to begin with. For people like me, those people whose whole reason for making a pre-order was to participate in a fair name reservation system, you have failed in every way. A good business doesn't deliver part of the product to some people and call it good at boomboxes. You deliver the whole product to everyone and boomboxes.	
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Thanks for the public response. It's an empty formality - Though I've seen companies simply ignoring situations like this. With that in mind you get a *thumbs up*.
It's a sign for a healthy communication flow between the project developers/advisors and the customers. Hopefully you keep this up post the game's launch.
 
As for the name reservation. I said this before and I will repeat myself. If you didn't get 'your' name, then it's 'your' fault, because it's obviously not 'your' name
Am I trying to offend people with this statement? Or to provoke them? No. I state a simple fact.
If you really want to claim a name as your own, then register it as international protected trademark. What does this mean? It means that you spend a few thousand $ or € to protect a name and to claim it as your property. If someone would have reserved 'your' nickname you could simply inform the game company that you own this trademark and enforce your right. Problem solved.
 
If you didn't protect your name. Or if you don't want to spend money on it. Then you have to accept the consequences. Life isn't always a bowl of cherries and beggars can't be choosers. Period.	
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			Does this mean if we pre-ordered like....in my example the first day they opened up, we get 10 boom boxes?	
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Because Americans believe in the great idea of capitalism. We believe we should hold our companies accountable when we aren't satisfied.
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I think a free name change should be included (usable once the reservation period ends), since the edit feature was broken to hell, and it'll give people to adjust for the WORLD'S WORST IDEA to make name reservations GLOBAL.  Seriously, if the genius behind that concept didn't get fired, he should at least have to be defecated on by everyone in the office.
 
Thank you for the apology though, other companies would bury their heads in the sand and insist they did it right.	
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Honest apology and transparency much appreciated.
I didn't get the name I wanted but that won't stop me from playing, that would be absurd :)
 
Thx for this post.	
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			Maybe a possible solution would be to release the names before 14 days!	
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Thank you for the pending detailed explanation of events that led to the horrible name reservation process and for the extra boom boxes. I do appreciate it great. 
 
As for everyone crying that boom boxes and an apology isn't enough ---- first, you are super predictable....I *knew* there would be many like you with your hand out going "pay up! NOW!"......
 
You guys are pathetic...truly pathetic. 
 
Get a grip on reality would you? The problem with reservations not working smoothly was highly frustrating, it was to me too -- I was cursing up a storm (to my computer screen) and yeah I moaned and b*tched at carbine a bit on the Facebook page too.....but how about some perspective folks.
 
This wasn't traumatic. This wasn't you losing money (and let me stop you right in your tracks if you want to make the FAR REACHING point of --- OH YES IT IS a money issue because I pre-ordered and the name reservation was part of the deal...yeah *IF* the system never worked you could use that argument....but they fixed it...and you CAN reserve a name....so again YOU DID NOT LOSE MONEY.)....This was reserving a name for a character in a computer game. 
 
Where does this entitlement come from ? What do you expect for "fair" compensation in your eyes? A free month of game time? A 25% refund on the purchase price of your pre-order? 
 
Get a grip....I'm so tired of entitlement in this current age we live in....it's disgusting.	
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No apology for the german players? Well....that sux.
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Jesus, are you people really all so bigoted you literally can't see that your opinions aren't facts?
 
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I certainly appreciate your apology as it is never an easy thing to do and also very humbling to admit you are wrong, especially in instances where events sadly leave one over promising and under delivering.
 
However, I do not believe by any means that the novelty of 5 additional Boom Boxes is an acceptable 'equivalent exchange' for the real life strife and time lost during this process nor failure for delivering on a promised pre-order feature.
 
Consider this; we get 3 Boom Boxes just for logging into Open BETA once a day...
 
So all we're getting is one day of Boom Boxes just for logging in plus 2 extra?
 
No resolution for for the issues in how the system wouldn't accept what it deemed 'odd offensive letter combinations' for legitimate and socially appropriate Guild Names?
 
No re-do of the Name Reservation Process for those who were at it all day (even scheduled off of work for it like myself) just to lose their Guild or Character Name due to your web site failing and 'dumb luck' as opposed to even 'first come first served?'
 
No re-do to ensure everyone who was able to be on and ready during the start of the Name Reservation Window had the same opportunity of 'first come first serve?' Your system didn't really work until late in the evening EST, so those who were their while the system was crashing early on may have had real life obligations they had to attend  later that night, only to return later for someone who picked their wanted name just because it actually WAS working for them at a much later time thanks to IT failings and pure luck.
 
We were promised by fronting money in advance for a product that hasn't even been released yet the ability to have true 'first come first serve' Name Reservations for Characters and Guilds.  We only received more like 10% of this benefit and selling point as it became literally an all-day lottery due to technical issues.  
 
As this was something promised and advertised as being part of the product that didn't truly happen the way it should have, doesn't that mean their may even be legal and financial obligations for not following through on that promise?  10% of a promise plus Boom Boxes is not the same as 100% of that promise.	
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Doing a reset would be the worst possible PR disaster Carbine could pull now. This is NOT an opinion, it is a business FACT. Resetting and starting over would be Carbine deciding to keep digging that PR hole.
 
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Thank Carbine, Tony and Devs. Any acknowledgement is appreciated. I'm curious though, how will the boxes be delivered as our bags won't be big enough to hold 100+ boxes. Will they just be mailed to us? I assume yes.
 
For those of you that are unhappy with this compensation, beaware that Carbine didn't have to do anything at all. They did this because they care about their fan base, who are also paying customer. Something that is increasingly rare these days in this industry.
 
If you disagree, then I personally, feel you should move along to a different game.	
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if there is an elegant solution that will make everybody or even most people happy, i don't see it. carbine is admitting that the name reservations didn't go as planned, at least not initially. there was unnecessary frustration. there was a lack of fairness. there was a... mess.
 
some few die-hards are trying to spin the current state of affairs as a positive for carbine. see how honest and apologetic the developers are being? *chuckle* this was either a blunder or an unavoidable mistake. in either case, the people paying for the mistake are not the ones who created the problem.  i understand that people are angry. tolkien was of the opinion that the single most important part of crafting a character was the naming. that strikes me as a bit silly, but i won't deny that naming is of great importance to many wildstar purchasers. the name reservation system and/or carbine let you down, and you want to be made whole.
 
unfortunately, as far as i can see, every person who was treated unfairly and had a seemingly reserved name suddenly disappear in a reset (or any one of the other multitude of inexplicable gaffs) is balanced by another individual who is currently satisfied but would be enraged by virtually every "solution" being offered. and given how lackluster the name reservation went, i can't imagine that carbine wants to try anything that could even potentially make the current situation worse. 
 
carbine is moving forward. an apology coupled with some digital baubles is not a particularly enlightened solution. it surely isn't some sort of gleaming example of carbine magnanimity. conversely, carbine's solution won't make the situation worse than it already is. if things go well for carbine, then a few months from now this event will be nothing more than an unfortunate footnote in the story of wildstar. most of us still want things to go well for carbine.	
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Thank you for the  update. I applaud transparency  in these matters no matter what else is going on.
 
However, if those three steps posted are the totality of Carbine's plan to address these issues, then  I am frustrated and appalled.   Let me break it down a bit...
 
1.  Cougar will compile a letter explaining the issues.  As I said before this is nice for the sake of transparency, but explaining the issue should be basic protocol - it is not a step to make things better, unless accompanied by other actions.
2.  Everyone that pre-ordered will get 5 Boom Boxes.  This is the big compensation for many of us permanently losing the names we wanted?!    Please remember that on a NORMAL day in Open Beta, we unlock 3 Boom Boxes just do deal with the normal efforts of testing.  The catastrophic effect of the name reservation blunder will blight the play experience of players at launch and beyond. 
3.  Those who pre-order through the next few days will also  be granted Boom Boxes.     Honestly, I'm not sure that you should be encouraging people who haven't yet taken the leap to  trust Carbine and pre-order, when compensation to those of us who already have is at present, woefully under addressed.
 
While I'll reserve final judgement until the end of this process, as it is currently written it really seems like a tremendous dismissal of the issue "- Yeah, we're sorry. Take these 5 Boom Boxes and be happy with whatever name might be locked in".   If this is the case, it is an insufficient resolution.      Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the system is working as it is supposed to be now, but what about all of us who are locked into "timed out" names that we didn't want?  What about those who were not able to secure a name at all? What about those of us who were under the impression that our name was locked in properly, but it turned out not to be?   2 more Boom Boxes than a "normal day in Open Beta" really doesn't seem like restitution for those who may never get the name they wanted and thus start their WildStar live game experience with negative feelings about  NCSoft, Carbine, and the game itself.
 
From the very beginning this system was poorly designed, and many users spoke out prior to the beginning of name reservations.  For instance,  even if all the other problems had happened exactly as they did, we'd be dealing with orders of magnitude less strife if only Name and Guild reservations were locked to SPECIFIC SERVERS.  Its completely irrational to force players to compete with every other player, on every other server, in every realm (NA, EU etc..) for names.    This was just plain bad design and we the player base knew about it before hand, pleading for a change.   Whomever is responsible for cutting corners and implementing the system as currently designed is responsible for a significant part of the blame.    
 
Let me also bring to  attention a quote written by CRB_Gaffer on the WildStar Sub-Reddit -    " Some of the scripts well-meaning folks have posted for repeatedly submitting names closely resembled DDOS attacks (we thought we were getting hit by malicious DDOS at one point though it was likely just overzealous fans, with over 75% of our load coming from folks using those scripts). " .   Now, I thank Gaffer for his transparency and honesty in providing this information, but it  certainly brings to light a major issue.     This indicates that Carbine was aware of players writing scripts in order to repeatedly hammer at the name reservation server and secure the names they wished, at a far faster rate than players who clicked manually ever could have done so.     This is essentially "Botting" the name reservation process.   Now it is not difficult for those with some scripting  and web programming knowledge to write such a script.  Why did I, and likely a significant amount of people who were able to have done so, NOT create such a script?   Given prior experience with MMOs, I expected that "botting" would be against TOS, that Carbine would have protection on their server to disconnect those who attempt, and possibly (and rightfully) lose their chance to secure a name.    Much like running an in-game bot, it is simply not fair to be able to script something that gives you a considerable advantage over other players.        Sadly, it appears Carbine did NOT prepare for this eventuality, even though by Gaffer's own admission that at one point 75% of their server traffic was taken up  by those using such scripts, culminating in a DDOS-like effect.  In using these scripts, they caused damage to  everyone else by overwhelming Carbine's servers, as well as being able to illicitly register names that others may have gotten even with the broken system if it was not for these scripts.    
 
So why are they going to be rewarded for their bad actions that  harm the community?  With the current "Plan of action", it means that Carbine is tacitly giving their approval to those who  acquired their names through "botting" a technical exploit and harming the community in the process, if they allow these people to keep their names.  Is that the first major statement Carbine wants to make on the topic? If that's the case, every player who bots, exploits, hacks, or otherwise acquires an edge using technical methods that the game did not intended, will have a valid defense.  If it is okay to exploit their way to a name reservation, why is it not okay to do the same for raid boss loot or during PVP?    Both Carbine's server infrastructure and  tons of other users were negatively affected by  the actions of those involved in these scripts, "well meaning" or not,  and there is a long precedent in MMO TOS that gains that come from glitches, bugs, exploits etc..  even those accidentally, are null and void,  for the sake of fairness and game balance.    Thus, any  recompense or solution that does not result in voiding names registered  by these  individuals, means that those who harmed the community with their scripts will be able to go about their merry way with their ill-gotten gains, while others have to go without.  That doesn't seem to be a good precedent to set.  If nothing else changes, then I at very least ask  that you revisit the registration server logs and eliminate the name reservations of those who were detected as utilizing one of these harmful scripts.  
 
Ultimately, so many things went wrong during the design and implementation of the name reservation system that recompense composed near entirely of a handful of  Boom Boxes seems to ring a hollow "We're Sorry" (not unlike the famous BP ad parodied in South Park) a.    Wouldn't the better solution be to make some changes to the system (including server-based reservations, enact DDOS/script traffic rejections, fixing technical problems  etc..), void everything done under the previous broken system and start anew?   I know it is a lot of work,  but after all that  has happened, I can't see another viable way to move forward.  Doing so will mean a clean slate and everyone will get the chance to secure their names through the just and equitable experience they were originally expecting, which I think reflects much better on Carbine than any of the previous alternatives.   Even if this solution is not possible for whatever reason, there are still many other compromises that could be made, such as giving every pre-order account present several "rename tokens" and altering the global  name reservation lock.  Likewise, an immediate step could be giving the option for those who had a name reserved during the problematic time and thus now see that name as locked in (ie the hour long counter counted down yesterday etc..), to unlock it for editing again.
 
Now perhaps there is some information yet to be brought forth,  but given the content of this thread's opening post I urge Carbine to think carefully about what sort of image they're conveying if those 3 steps are the totality of restitution planned. Thank you.
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{| class="blockquote"
   Im curious. To those of you that think that doing a complete wipe and reset of the whole thing would be the worst possible solution. Why is it exactly that you think this? 
 
   If you fairly got your name the first time would it not stand to reason that you could fairly get it again if we just had a do-over? 
 
Edit: (unless of course the issues are not fixed and they try to do the same stupid thing again) 
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{| class="blockquote"
First, full disclosure. I had a guild name reserved, then lost that reservation after they reset the servers and somebody else picked it up after. I got royally screwed in this.
 
At this point, literally tens of thousands of names have been reserved. It's been more than a day since this started. It is now set in stone. If Carbine stops it at this point and resets, they send the message they have no cinfidence moving forward. That is a PR disaster of such epic proportions the company would never survive. The game would be dead before it ever launches.
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{| class="blockquote"
I'm thinking if this post is quoted enough times Carbine might actually get the message.
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lmfao as soon as I read this I thought to myself "how will entitled man-children cry about this" and lo and behold here it is.
 
Get the eff over yourself.  Carbine wasn't required to do anything.
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{| class="blockquote"
   Im curious. To those of you that think that doing a complete wipe and reset of the whole thing would be the worst possible solution. Why is it exactly that you think this? 
 
   If you fairly got your name the first time would it not stand to reason that you could fairly get it again if we just had a do-over? 
 
Edit: (unless of course the issues are not fixed and they try to do the same stupid thing again) 
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			So the 5 "bonus" boomboxes will be handed out to everyone, not just those of us who spent much of reserve day 1 frustrated and ticked off...how is this compensation for those people as well as a bonus just for those who had trouble last minute pre-ordering that day? Pre-ordering the day of, solely for the reserve thing can be chalked up to personal error, whereas those of us who pre-ordered way ahead should have been able to expect no problems for reserving since we were prepared and the problems were no fault of our own. This has the feeling of a mock class action suit where a company is sued for having a product that caused cancer without notifying the public and 1 million dollars is promised as a settlement to all those who got their claims in prior to the judgment day, then the courthouse loses power during the trial and many of the people in the case do not receive their 1 million that day as promised to those who filed before that day, then the court waives the court fees to everyone that had been promised the settlement, but then also rewards the equivelant of the court costs to the people who neglected to file their claims until the very day of the judgment and showed up to the courthouse after the power had already gone out. I am not saying that people who plain couldn't preorder the day of should not be compensated but to have it be the same bonus as those of us who preordered before reserve day kinda demeans the apology to us who sat there all day clicking non-working buttons and refreshing screens continuously.	
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{| class="blockquote"
 
   I dont disagree that action SHOULD HAVE been taken IMMEDIATELY when the issue came up. They should have shut the whole thing down and not brought it back up till it was foolproof and ready. But now we are after the fact and it doesnt chance that SOMETHING obviously needs to be done. 
 
  Do you feel that rectifying the situation with a bold move as to wipe and restart would be any worse PR than the current state of things? I dont 
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This is a quote (sorry for some reason I can't quote the normal way)"Bluejuice• MembersPosted Today, 10:06 AMIm sorry but If the people that got screwed around on a deal promised by the team if we pre-ordered we should recieve that deal. I don't give a flying f*** about boom boxes and I pre-ordered the game in good faith that I will be able to reserve a name WITH A FAIR F***ING CHANCE of doing so. I and many others (mainly EU) did not recieve a fair chance because you kept us updated on time intervals that were too few and far between and most of us had to go to sleep to get up for work and couldn't afford to wait for a twitter post to say it was going to be up.   Either a reset happens or I lose all respect for the developers on this for not puting their money where there mouth is when claiming their top rule is no Bullshit. 
I feel f***ing cheated. ""  Wait! What?  So let me get this right, you only pre-ordered for the name reservation? O.o	
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{| class="blockquote"
However, I do not believe by any means that the novelty of 5 additional Boom Boxes is an acceptable 'equivalent exchange' for the real life strife and time lost during this process nor failure for delivering on a promised pre-order feature.
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It would make what happened yesterday seem to be a pimple compared to a heart attack combined with a stroke and stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
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Thanks for the apology. It's unfortunate that Cougar needs to waste time writing a post mortem regarding technical details around an SSO service buckling under load amongst whatever else happened. I personally don't care. Shit happens. Appreciate the transparency but I'm sure you guys have more important things to do with launch creeping up, 3am office mornings with hot fixes and all the other stuff going on behind the scenes.
 
Remember even though there's a number of screamers, there's a bunch of us who understand and support the work you all are doing.	
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All they need to do is issue free name changes. How is this a hard concept, guys? Seriously.
 
A reset wouldn't fix shit, it would just change who got the names, people would still be screwed out of the name they want because the worldwide reservation is ridiculous. Just give everyone a free namechange once the lockouts expire, problem solved.
 
Let's say there's 10 people who want one specific name. All a reset would do would make it so a different person out of those ten has the name. They might be happy, but now the original guy is even more mad than the guy who got the name this time was originally, and everyone who never got the name is even more upset they missed it again. All a reset would do is cause the shitstorm to reach epic proportions.	
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{| class="blockquote"
All they need to do is issue free name changes. How is this a hard concept, guys? Seriously.
 
A reset wouldn't fix shit, it would just change who got the names, people would still be screwed out of the name they want because the worldwide reservation is ridiculous. Just give everyone a free namechange once the lockouts expire, problem solved.
 
Let's say there's 10 people who want one specific name. All a reset would do would make it so a different person out of those ten has the name. They might be happy, but now the original guy is even more mad than the guy who got the name this time was originally, and everyone who never got the name is even more upset they missed it again. All a reset would do is cause the shitstorm to reach epic proportions.
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{| class="blockquote"
Thank you for the  update. I applaud transparency  in these matters no matter what else is going on.
 
However, if those three steps posted are the totality of Carbine's plan to address these issues, then  I am frustrated and appalled.   Let me break it down a bit...
 
1.  Cougar will compile a letter explaining the issues.  As I said before this is nice for the sake of transparency, but explaining the issue should be basic protocol - it is not a step to make things better, unless accompanied by other actions.
2.  Everyone that pre-ordered will get 5 Boom Boxes.  This is the big compensation for many of us permanently losing the names we wanted?!    Please remember that on a NORMAL day in Open Beta, we unlock 3 Boom Boxes just do deal with the normal efforts of testing.  The catastrophic effect of the name reservation blunder will blight the play experience of players at launch and beyond. 
3.  Those who pre-order through the next few days will also  be granted Boom Boxes.     Honestly, I'm not sure that you should be encouraging people who haven't yet taken the leap to  trust Carbine and pre-order, when compensation to those of us who already have is at present, woefully under addressed.
 
While I'll reserve final judgement until the end of this process, as it is currently written it really seems like a tremendous dismissal of the issue "- Yeah, we're sorry. Take these 5 Boom Boxes and be happy with whatever name might be locked in".   If this is the case, it is an insufficient resolution.      Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the system is working as it is supposed to be now, but what about all of us who are locked into "timed out" names that we didn't want?  What about those who were not able to secure a name at all? What about those of us who were under the impression that our name was locked in properly, but it turned out not to be?   2 more Boom Boxes than a "normal day in Open Beta" really doesn't seem like restitution for those who may never get the name they wanted and thus start their WildStar live game experience with negative feelings about  NCSoft, Carbine, and the game itself.
 
From the very beginning this system was poorly designed, and many users spoke out prior to the beginning of name reservations.  For instance,  even if all the other problems had happened exactly as they did, we'd be dealing with orders of magnitude less strife if only Name and Guild reservations were locked to SPECIFIC SERVERS.  Its completely irrational to force players to compete with every other player, on every other server, in every realm (NA, EU etc..) for names.    This was just plain bad design and we the player base knew about it before hand, pleading for a change.   Whomever is responsible for cutting corners and implementing the system as currently designed is responsible for a significant part of the blame.    
 
Let me also bring to  attention a quote written by CRB_Gaffer on the WildStar Sub-Reddit -    " Some of the scripts well-meaning folks have posted for repeatedly submitting names closely resembled DDOS attacks (we thought we were getting hit by malicious DDOS at one point though it was likely just overzealous fans, with over 75% of our load coming from folks using those scripts). " .   Now, I thank Gaffer for his transparency and honesty in providing this information, but it  certainly brings to light a major issue.     This indicates that Carbine was aware of players writing scripts in order to repeatedly hammer at the name reservation server and secure the names they wished, at a far faster rate than players who clicked manually ever could have done so.     This is essentially "Botting" the name reservation process.   Now it is not difficult for those with some scripting  and web programming knowledge to write such a script.  Why did I, and likely a significant amount of people who were able to have done so, NOT create such a script?   Given prior experience with MMOs, I expected that "botting" would be against TOS, that Carbine would have protection on their server to disconnect those who attempt, and possibly (and rightfully) lose their chance to secure a name.    Much like running an in-game bot, it is simply not fair to be able to script something that gives you a considerable advantage over other players.        Sadly, it appears Carbine did NOT prepare for this eventuality, even though by Gaffer's own admission that at one point 75% of their server traffic was taken up  by those using such scripts, culminating in a DDOS-like effect.  In using these scripts, they caused damage to  everyone else by overwhelming Carbine's servers, as well as being able to illicitly register names that others may have gotten even with the broken system if it was not for these scripts.    
 
So why are they going to be rewarded for their bad actions that  harm the community?  With the current "Plan of action", it means that Carbine is tacitly giving their approval to those who  acquired their names through "botting" a technical exploit and harming the community in the process, if they allow these people to keep their names.  Is that the first major statement Carbine wants to make on the topic? If that's the case, every player who bots, exploits, hacks, or otherwise acquires an edge using technical methods that the game did not intended, will have a valid defense.  If it is okay to exploit their way to a name reservation, why is it not okay to do the same for raid boss loot or during PVP?    Both Carbine's server infrastructure and  tons of other users were negatively affected by  the actions of those involved in these scripts, "well meaning" or not,  and there is a long precedent in MMO TOS that gains that come from glitches, bugs, exploits etc..  even those accidentally, are null and void,  for the sake of fairness and game balance.    Thus, any  recompense or solution that does not result in voiding names registered  by these  individuals, means that those who harmed the community with their scripts will be able to go about their merry way with their ill-gotten gains, while others have to go without.  That doesn't seem to be a good precedent to set.  If nothing else changes, then I at very least ask  that you revisit the registration server logs and eliminate the name reservations of those who were detected as utilizing one of these harmful scripts.  
 
Ultimately, so many things went wrong during the design and implementation of the name reservation system that recompense composed near entirely of a handful of  Boom Boxes seems to ring a hollow "We're Sorry" (not unlike the famous BP ad parodied in South Park) a.    Wouldn't the better solution be to make some changes to the system (including server-based reservations, enact DDOS/script traffic rejections, fixing technical problems  etc..), void everything done under the previous broken system and start anew?   I know it is a lot of work,  but after all that  has happened, I can't see another viable way to move forward.  Doing so will mean a clean slate and everyone will get the chance to secure their names through the just and equitable experience they were originally expecting, which I think reflects much better on Carbine than any of the previous alternatives.   Even if this solution is not possible for whatever reason, there are still many other compromises that could be made, such as giving every pre-order account present several "rename tokens" and altering the global  name reservation lock.  Likewise, an immediate step could be giving the option for those who had a name reserved during the problematic time and thus now see that name as locked in (ie the hour long counter counted down yesterday etc..), to unlock it for editing again.
 
Now perhaps there is some information yet to be brought forth,  but given the content of this thread's opening post I urge Carbine to think carefully about what sort of image they're conveying if those 3 steps are the totality of restitution planned. Thank you.
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{| class="blockquote"
  I guess we will just have to agree to disagree then. I dont feel this is the case at all. Those that got thier names should have no problem restarting for the sake of fairness. Those that didnt will get the chance they didnt get the first time. Cleaning up after your mess is better than saying "it wasnt me" and then "Oh look a pretty balloon!" *Sweeps under rug*
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			This is unacceptable. I never would have preordered had I known this would happen. I'm going to get my money back, don't care if green man gaming or carbine pay it. Looks like I will be doing a nice write up to the better business bureau this weekend. I advise others to do the same.	
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/sigh  You didn't pay for name reservation and you were never guaranteed to get your name.
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{| class="blockquote"
  Although i think namechanges really only fix part of the problem. I guess it would be a reasonable compromise 
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{| class="blockquote"
All they need to do is issue free name changes. How is this a hard concept, guys? Seriously.
 
A reset wouldn't fix shit, it would just change who got the names, people would still be screwed out of the name they want because the worldwide reservation is ridiculous. Just give everyone a free namechange once the lockouts expire, problem solved.
 
Let's say there's 10 people who want one specific name. All a reset would do would make it so a different person out of those ten has the name. They might be happy, but now the original guy is even more mad than the guy who got the name this time was originally, and everyone who never got the name is even more upset they missed it again. All a reset would do is cause the shitstorm to reach epic proportions.
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I'll keep parroting my suggestion every now and then. 
 
One character name and guild name change. One server transfer. All expire 21 days after launch.	
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{| class="blockquote"
Yes we did pay for Name Reservations.  The website still says it to this day roughly as...
 
"Pre-Order Benefit = Character/Guild Name Reservations"
 
What it doesn't say is...
 
"Pre-Order Benefit = Character/Guild Name Reservations that can be redeemed once in every 150 tries"
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{| class="blockquote"
No it wouldn't "just change who got the names". It would let every have a fair chance at getting names. How has this not been made clear to you by now?
 
Let's SAY 10 people wanted a specific name. Let's say person A was literally the first person to see that annoying *cupcake* with the reserve button. He clicks it, nothing happens. Refreshes, nothing happens. He does so 1000 times over the next 20 minutes. He gives up. Person B tries to get that name an hour later. Fails like person A the first time, but succeeds the second time.
 
Is there any IOTA of fairness in that? Perseverance? Person B only had to try twice while person A tried 1000 times. Person A tried first and for longer and was still SCREWED.
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{| class="blockquote"
Is there any IOTA of fairness in that? Perseverance? Person B only had to try twice while person A tried 1000 times. Person A tried first and for longer and was still SCREWED.
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{| class="blockquote"
No it wouldn't "just change who got the names". It would let every have a fair chance at getting names. How has this not been made clear to you by now?
 
Let's SAY 10 people wanted a specific name. Let's say person A was literally the first person to see that annoying *cupcake* with the reserve button. He clicks it, nothing happens. Refreshes, nothing happens. He does so 1000 times over the next 20 minutes. He gives up. Person B tries to get that name an hour later. Fails like person A the first time, but succeeds the second time.
 
Is there any IOTA of fairness in that? Perseverance? Person B only had to try twice while person A tried 1000 times. Person A tried first and for longer and was still SCREWED.
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{| class="blockquote"
No, no it wouldn't give everyone a fair chance.
 
People aren't always at home or otherwise able to access their computer. Let's say they set the reset page to go live right as you're in the middle of work. You'd be out of your name. It wouldn't be fair, at all, but you'd just have to deal with it.
 
Alternatively, you give everyone a free namechange, and the odds the person who has the name they want are on their server is infinitely lower than the odds they're the only one who wants that name, and they're practically guarenteed their name two weeks after launch.
 
You want a fair chance, you give everyone a free namechange after the reservation expires.
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{| class="blockquote"
   Im curious. To those of you that think that doing a complete wipe and reset of the whole thing would be the worst possible solution. Why is it exactly that you think this? 
 
   If you fairly got your name the first time would it not stand to reason that you could fairly get it again if we just had a do-over? 
 
Edit: (unless of course the issues are not fixed and they try to do the same stupid thing again) 
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{| class="blockquote"
It was not broken for everyone. There were MANY cases of people trying few times and actually getting their names. Get your head out of your ass.
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{| class="blockquote"
The same thing happened in the original name reset. They gave less than 24 hours notice of the time and people couldn't accommodate. To extend my proposal of the reset, I'd suggest giving a 3 days notice of the time and sending out an e-mail to all preorderers as well as posting on all social media about it.
 
The name change isn't fair. People didn't have a fair chance to reserve their names and now you're saying that if the person who has their name is on the same server they want to roll on... they're screwed?
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{| class="blockquote"
 
 
  I guess we will just have to agree to disagree then. I dont feel this is the case at all. Those that got thier names should have no problem restarting for the sake of fairness. Those that didnt will get the chance they didnt get the first time. Cleaning up after your mess is better than saying "it wasnt me" and then "Oh look a pretty balloon!" *Sweeps under rug*
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{| class="blockquote"
Oh, and make sure they have names that other people actually wanted that and lost out on.
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{| class="blockquote"
Updated the op.  I'm sorry, but this had to be done.
 
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{| class="blockquote"
 
 
  I guess we will just have to agree to disagree then. I dont feel this is the case at all. Those that got thier names should have no problem restarting for the sake of fairness. Those that didnt will get the chance they didnt get the first time. Cleaning up after your mess is better than saying "it wasnt me" and then "Oh look a pretty balloon!" *Sweeps under rug*
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{| class="blockquote"
Wow, how relevant is this part exactly?
 
I personally got into the website and was able to register my guild name almost immediately. And then it took me 8 more hours to get my name through. That good enough? Or do I have to scour every post ever made and ask every player?
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			I'm sure the boss had a nice chat with ThaCheez after that pic was posted.	
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Hi Llunatic :)
I want to quote you a post that I made - I think yesterday - in another thread.  Not sure if you saw it or not, but it has some more reasons (on top of the ones cited to you already about press nightmares) that resetting the names would be a bad idea.  I don't expect you to agree with me completely, and I'm not trying to be annoying but I am hoping that you (and others) will at least read and consider my point.
 
I also want to preface this by saying I am really sorry that you had so much trouble with the naming reservation system and I feel for you.  I am so very much in the camp of Free Name Changes for you guys so you have a chance to start the game and try to snag your names after the 14 days.  I truly am not looking to argue!  But I figured that enough people "got" what I was trying to say in the following post yesterday that it was worth mentioning again.
 
Also keep in mind that this was a response to someone else, so none of it is aimed directly at you (I get a little snippy towards the end XD).
 
I truly hope things work out in a way that satisfies you, but I hope you understand why many of us firmly believe that name resets are not the way to go.
 
 :wub:
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{| class="blockquote"
Actually, Name Reservation is NOT a Pre-Order perk. It's not on the Pre-Order page as a benefit for either the Standard Edition or the DDE, and it ends when, on the 23rd? So anyone who Pre-Orders between the 23rd and the 31st (Headstart) will not even get a chance to reserve a name.
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{| class="blockquote"
Your company dropped the ball big time and instead of replying to the community's concerns, you found it more important to update your post with a funnier picture to advertise your weak attempt at 'setting things right?'
 
I wanted to laugh at this as it is kind of funny, but with what's going on, I totally didn't laugh ThaCheez...
 
Now's the time for your 'PR & Damage Control Teams' to hop in a Think Tank and not leave till they can think of something better.
 
Instead you're trivializing and making light of a very costly mistake that's turning your once most avid fans and supporting client base (before the game even has launched!) into disgruntled 'we're stuck with it' consumers preparing to jump to another MMO or just stick with a current MMO of one of your competitors just because they have their act together.
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LOL, of course it's relevant.  If I reserve a name that no one else wanted than anyone crying that I got into the system and they didn't is irrelevant because my reservation doesn't affect them.
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{| class="blockquote"
Doesn't matter if it affected them or not. It matters if you were able to successfully reserve a name or not. Which many people could not. My point was that some people DID get in. And many did NOT.
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{| class="blockquote"
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/45589-name-reservation-updates/?view=findpost&p=460931
If you'd like to see a response to this that I've already made.
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{| class="blockquote"
Doesn't matter if it affected them or not. It matters if you were able to successfully reserve a name or not. Which many people could not. My point was that some people DID get in. And many did NOT.
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			Millions of people flood their site... it crashes... it happens.  Wildstar beta is still better than Eso, which I give credit to Eso for a full refund.  I dont know why Eso had so many issues with getting forum accounts setup.  I got issues when I cant speak my opinion... atleast the devs here listen... more I can say for any other MMO out there... they're involvment with the community sold me.	
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{| class="blockquote"
They literally removed it?!?
 
It was shown there for ages!
 
That's actually sort of shady, and rather concerning...
 
Not "wiping it under the rug," eh Carbine?
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{| class="blockquote"
It would indeed be a very bad idea for various reasons...
 
This is from my own experience in marketing and PR...
 
The primary reasons being that at this point in time you have a lot of people who have now reserved their names that intended to with those that trickled in after the initial flood. Had the reservation system just been killed off initially at the first crash when very few got a new if at all, that'd be a different story. However they didn't do that and continued onward with the system which still had some issues, which well let's jsut say hindsight sucks.
 
Consider as well the very very over dramatic posts and opinions that followed shortly after some going as far as to claim the system in itself being illegal, when it wasn't. It'd be one thing if Carbine favored people specifically, but they didn't and it was indeed a variation of luck that still revolved around first come first serve. They delivered a system...a crappy system, but it was delivered. I'm not saying it was ideal and it was BAD, but if they did a reset at this point then you have a whole mess of problems that would follow:
 
1)How do you notify everyone effectively and efficiently that they will lose the name they managed to reserve? Some people as others have said took off work to reserve a name, they planned around that day and time to get their name if they could. With that said you're now yanking it away from people who may not now be capable of doing it(like my friend managed to get their reservation yesterday, but they're going for surgery  that will have them down and out well pass the time to reserve.
 
2) Thinking of how people claimed already or went as far as to call the system illegal, Carbine would most certainly be treading a very thin line at this point in time after the service had been rendered [and thousands have claimed said service only again to have it taken. This actually can be regarded as a technical "bait and switch" depending on the individual overseeing the case as they widely advertised the date, but only specifically kept the time close to when it was being done, by which point many still even till just hours prior were not aware of the exact time. The date however was set in stone and by taking reservations away created on those dates you in turn are choosing to revoke the service from those who specifically pre-ordered for that said serve and more. Not to say it is a pure definition of something that is in fact bait and switch, but it unintentionally comes quite close to it.
 
3) In regard to having a fair chance to get your name again, pulling slightly from point 1, you again have those that planned around the initial day and subsequent days to follow. The "fairness" at this point is gone and even if you were able to get it the first time there is no guarantee that you'll be able to get it a 2nd time. You were never guaranteed to get it the first time around either and everyone was effected by the inefficiency of the system.
 
 
The best thing to do is to move on, apologize, learn from this event, and compensate as best as possible for the problem, rather than possibly risking further problems and an even more dangerous reputation hit. People have suggested a few ideas that I think are reasonable like free name changes for pre-orders, which I think is fine.
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			 changing name  after the lockout expired seems like the best idea.. people here mentioned.  :) 	
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{| class="blockquote"
As far as I know, the page is still up and functioning fine at this point. So no, there shouldn't be anyone who can't reserve a name, unless they haven't preordered yet.
 
Try again.
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{| class="blockquote"
Nope, I've seen it, and I've already told you I'm done trying to explain logic to someone who clearly doesn't care about it.
You want what you want to be right, and you're not willing to listen to reason, so I'm not willing to try to help you.
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{| class="blockquote"
What's the other half of the problem to fix...?
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By the way, can we get some official confirmation from the devs about whether the names do or don't unlock on all servers when a reserved name is first used?  There seems to be conflicting information going around.
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{| class="blockquote"
Essentially this, yeah.
 
Jhark, your entire argument is focused on "No, I did it first, the website screwed up, I did my job fine!!!"
 
No, you don't know that, and you can't pretend to know that. I logged in at 1:01PM, and got the name reservation to work almost instantly. Still didn't get my number 1 choice. Does that mean the website screwed up? No, because my first choice was "Aeon", which is a pretty damn good name for a character and I wouldn't be surprised if someone jumped on it before me. I don't know what you tried to reserve, but just because the website was having issues doesn't mean it handled requests out of order- that's pretty rare for any computer to do.
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{| class="blockquote"
Thank you for the  update. I applaud transparency  in these matters no matter what else is going on.
 
However, if those three steps posted are the totality of Carbine's plan to address these issues, then  I am frustrated and appalled.   Let me break it down a bit...
 
1.  Cougar will compile a letter explaining the issues.  As I said before this is nice for the sake of transparency, but explaining the issue should be basic protocol - it is not a step to make things better, unless accompanied by other actions.
2.  Everyone that pre-ordered will get 5 Boom Boxes.  This is the big compensation for many of us permanently losing the names we wanted?!    Please remember that on a NORMAL day in Open Beta, we unlock 3 Boom Boxes just do deal with the normal efforts of testing.  The catastrophic effect of the name reservation blunder will blight the play experience of players at launch and beyond. 
3.  Those who pre-order through the next few days will also  be granted Boom Boxes.     Honestly, I'm not sure that you should be encouraging people who haven't yet taken the leap to  trust Carbine and pre-order, when compensation to those of us who already have is at present, woefully under addressed.
 
While I'll reserve final judgement until the end of this process, as it is currently written it really seems like a tremendous dismissal of the issue "- Yeah, we're sorry. Take these 5 Boom Boxes and be happy with whatever name might be locked in".   If this is the case, it is an insufficient resolution.      Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the system is working as it is supposed to be now, but what about all of us who are locked into "timed out" names that we didn't want?  What about those who were not able to secure a name at all? What about those of us who were under the impression that our name was locked in properly, but it turned out not to be?   2 more Boom Boxes than a "normal day in Open Beta" really doesn't seem like restitution for those who may never get the name they wanted and thus start their WildStar live game experience with negative feelings about  NCSoft, Carbine, and the game itself.
 
From the very beginning this system was poorly designed, and many users spoke out prior to the beginning of name reservations.  For instance,  even if all the other problems had happened exactly as they did, we'd be dealing with orders of magnitude less strife if only Name and Guild reservations were locked to SPECIFIC SERVERS.  Its completely irrational to force players to compete with every other player, on every other server, in every realm (NA, EU etc..) for names.    This was just plain bad design and we the player base knew about it before hand, pleading for a change.   Whomever is responsible for cutting corners and implementing the system as currently designed is responsible for a significant part of the blame.    
 
Let me also bring to  attention a quote written by CRB_Gaffer on the WildStar Sub-Reddit -    " Some of the scripts well-meaning folks have posted for repeatedly submitting names closely resembled DDOS attacks (we thought we were getting hit by malicious DDOS at one point though it was likely just overzealous fans, with over 75% of our load coming from folks using those scripts). " .   Now, I thank Gaffer for his transparency and honesty in providing this information, but it  certainly brings to light a major issue.     This indicates that Carbine was aware of players writing scripts in order to repeatedly hammer at the name reservation server and secure the names they wished, at a far faster rate than players who clicked manually ever could have done so.     This is essentially "Botting" the name reservation process.   Now it is not difficult for those with some scripting  and web programming knowledge to write such a script.  Why did I, and likely a significant amount of people who were able to have done so, NOT create such a script?   Given prior experience with MMOs, I expected that "botting" would be against TOS, that Carbine would have protection on their server to disconnect those who attempt, and possibly (and rightfully) lose their chance to secure a name.    Much like running an in-game bot, it is simply not fair to be able to script something that gives you a considerable advantage over other players.        Sadly, it appears Carbine did NOT prepare for this eventuality, even though by Gaffer's own admission that at one point 75% of their server traffic was taken up  by those using such scripts, culminating in a DDOS-like effect.  In using these scripts, they caused damage to  everyone else by overwhelming Carbine's servers, as well as being able to illicitly register names that others may have gotten even with the broken system if it was not for these scripts.    
 
So why are they going to be rewarded for their bad actions that  harm the community?  With the current "Plan of action", it means that Carbine is tacitly giving their approval to those who  acquired their names through "botting" a technical exploit and harming the community in the process, if they allow these people to keep their names.  Is that the first major statement Carbine wants to make on the topic? If that's the case, every player who bots, exploits, hacks, or otherwise acquires an edge using technical methods that the game did not intended, will have a valid defense.  If it is okay to exploit their way to a name reservation, why is it not okay to do the same for raid boss loot or during PVP?    Both Carbine's server infrastructure and  tons of other users were negatively affected by  the actions of those involved in these scripts, "well meaning" or not,  and there is a long precedent in MMO TOS that gains that come from glitches, bugs, exploits etc..  even those accidentally, are null and void,  for the sake of fairness and game balance.    Thus, any  recompense or solution that does not result in voiding names registered  by these  individuals, means that those who harmed the community with their scripts will be able to go about their merry way with their ill-gotten gains, while others have to go without.  That doesn't seem to be a good precedent to set.  If nothing else changes, then I at very least ask  that you revisit the registration server logs and eliminate the name reservations of those who were detected as utilizing one of these harmful scripts.  
 
Ultimately, so many things went wrong during the design and implementation of the name reservation system that recompense composed near entirely of a handful of  Boom Boxes seems to ring a hollow "We're Sorry" (not unlike the famous BP ad parodied in South Park) a.    Wouldn't the better solution be to make some changes to the system (including server-based reservations, enact DDOS/script traffic rejections, fixing technical problems  etc..), void everything done under the previous broken system and start anew?   I know it is a lot of work,  but after all that  has happened, I can't see another viable way to move forward.  Doing so will mean a clean slate and everyone will get the chance to secure their names through the just and equitable experience they were originally expecting, which I think reflects much better on Carbine than any of the previous alternatives.   Even if this solution is not possible for whatever reason, there are still many other compromises that could be made, such as giving every pre-order account present several "rename tokens" and altering the global  name reservation lock.  Likewise, an immediate step could be giving the option for those who had a name reserved during the problematic time and thus now see that name as locked in (ie the hour long counter counted down yesterday etc..), to unlock it for editing again.
 
Now perhaps there is some information yet to be brought forth,  but given the content of this thread's opening post I urge Carbine to think carefully about what sort of image they're conveying if those 3 steps are the totality of restitution planned. Thank you.
----
			Thank you Carbine for the apology, free gifts, and also your wholehearted attempt at being transparent with us.. I hope that that the end of the beta test as well as launch day will go smoothly for you and that everyone can enjoy the amazing world that you have built~I also feel sorry for those who were not able to reserve the name that they wanted.. I hope that you will still stay and enjoy the wonderful adventures that is waiting for you on Nexus~	
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{| class="blockquote"
Well, apparently you don't understand that the problem was essentially the system "randomly" (I put this in quotes because in our nice, determined universe there is no randomness, especially not in computing) disallowing certain people from registering.
 
And that isn't my argument. You must be REALLY confused now or something. My argument is that many people simply didn't have a "fair" (as in first-come, first-serve as in "reservation") chance at their names. Many people couldn't access the page for up to 8 hours after the initial (read: second) release of the system. This isn't about MY name being lost this is about people not having a fair chance at THEIR names because of a flawed system that liked to drop requests to reserve randomly.
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Thankyou Jhark you pretty much already covered all of my response in yours.
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{| class="blockquote"
They literally removed it?!?
 
It was shown there for ages!
 
That's actually sort of shady, and rather concerning...
 
Not "wiping it under the rug," eh Carbine?
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{| class="blockquote"
They did have a first-come, first-served system.
 
Whether or not you could actually get there is another story. Everyone had to fight through the same issues, man. It wasn't just "Nah, dude, you're cool, you can reserve without issues". Not at all.
 
Doing a reset and forcing this fiasco to happen for a second time is not going to make it better.
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"The biggest problem here is that Carbine has, for all intents and purposes, fulfilled its promise to people to have a naming reservation system.  If nothing else, you and I can agree on that. People have gotten their names."
 
wow. what an utterly misguided starting point. thankfully, carbine's efforts to apologize reveal that they disagree with you and recognize that they did not meet even the diminished expectations most of us have regarding offerings by developers of new mmos. 
 
*shrug*
 
carbine doesn't have any great options available to them to fix their admittedly problematic day 1 of name reservations. they are moving forward, but that doesn't change the fact that people were treated unfairly, and carbine owed them an apology. we got the apology, but there just isn't much more carbine can do without potentially creating an even bigger problem, which would require another apology... and so on and so forth.	
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{| class="blockquote"
Their system was akin to you lining up for a concert ticket and Carbine pulling a lever causing half of the people in line to fall down a trap door. Doesn't seem like first-come, first-serve to me.
 
Just because the system was designed to be first-come, first-serve doesn't mean it acted like it. People who were clearly first were not served first. They were outright denied. I wonder if any Exile scientist has developed a head-de-assifier yet.
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{| class="blockquote"
An apology was more than I was expecting, we didnt even need one. Things happen and its just a name, people jumped the gun on this one too quick for sure. Its just a name. Entitlement to compensation for every little thing I guess.
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I can't believe people think it is a good idea to come to an apology post that the devs themselves were kind enough to post- something seldom seen, then proceed to swear and whine like children. All over some pixels above a portrait. 
 
"It's about the principle." Forgot you're all infallible, tell me what it's like to have everything always go the way you planned. 	
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{| class="blockquote"
 
It was never on the pre-order page as a perk.  Ever.
 
This is what has always been displayed for pre-order bonuses:
 
Exclusive Rocket House
Exclusive Housing Trophy
Exclusive In-Game Title: "Chosen of the Progenitors"
Access to Beta Weekends
3 Day Head Start
In-game Storage Bag
And More!
 
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Right, because only the people who got there first had issues with the server.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
They DO NOT.  This has been confirmed.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
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{| class="blockquote"
Some did. Again, I've said this before. They've already admitted to it not being a server LOAD issue. And many people DID have issues clicking the reserve button. Please think before you speak.
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{| class="blockquote"
 
"The biggest problem here is that Carbine has, for all intents and purposes, fulfilled its promise to people to have a naming reservation system.  If nothing else, you and I can agree on that. People have gotten their names."
 
wow. what an utterly misguided starting point. thankfully, carbine's efforts to apologize reveal that they disagree with you and recognize that they did not meet even the diminished expectations most of us have regarding offerings by developers of new mmos. 
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I just wanted to post an update here:
 
As I stated earlier I had sent in a support ticket because my second name choice of StormieGail was getting the banhammer from the name reservation filter. I just got a reply to my support ticket that this has been fixed and I now have my name StormieGail reserved!
 
So, THANK YOU, to all the WildStar/Carbine staff that worked their butts off to get this fixed. I would have moved on and picked something different on head start. But you have made me one happy camper today! <3
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{| class="blockquote"
I can't believe people think it is a good idea to come to an apology post that the devs themselves were kind enough to post- something seldom seen, then proceed to swear and whine like children. All over some pixels above a portrait. 
 
"It's about the principle." Forgot you're all infallible, tell me what it's like to have everything always go the way you planned. 
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			Thank you! :D	
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{| class="blockquote"
um
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{| class="blockquote"
 Looks like I will be doing a nice write up to the better business bureau this weekend. I advise others to do the same.
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Frankly, once the devs figured out that people were using scripts to brute force their registrations through, they should have shut the system down, wiped it clean and come up with a new game plan.  Not only did allowing these submissions to happen, cripple the process for those who were legitimately trying to submit their names, but with no reprocussions it sets a precedent of saying cheating will be tolerated, and with a game that is pushing for a strong pvp environment, that's just begging for toxic levels of abuse in the future. 
 
With how badly the idea of global names was conceived, they should have just made it a damn lottery.  Put in 5 names (or whatever number is a reasonable number of alternate names), in the order of what name you want most to least, and then randomly assign the name to one of the people who wanted that specific name, give people the whole name reservation time frame to submit what they want, then distribute the "winning names".  It would have sucked, but it certainly would have been better than the train wreck we got instead.	
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{| class="blockquote"
There was a point in the FAQ asking about name reservations, where it said you would be able to reserve your name. Of that I am sure. That is gone now... >.>
 
Edit:
 
Yeah, they took all references of the name reservations off their website. But it was there, as evidenced by it still existing on retailers like greenmangaming: http://www.greenmangaming.com/wildstar/
 
 
That they tried to remove all references to it actually bothers me more than the actual registration problems, which I wasn't really that upset about. This just feels.. icky.
 
annnnd amazon's listing: http://www.amazon.com/Wildstar-Deluxe-Edition-Online-Game/dp/B00IYWV852
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{| class="blockquote"
Frankly, once the devs figured out that people were using scripts to brute force their registrations through, they should have shut the system down, wiped it clean and come up with a new game plan.  Not only did allowing these submissions to happen, cripple the process for those who were legitimately trying to submit their names, but with no reprocussions it sets a precedent of saying cheating will be tolerated, and with a game that is pushing for a strong pvp environment, that's just begging for toxic levels of abuse in the future. 
 
With how badly the idea of global names was conceived, they should have just made it a damn lottery.  Put in 5 names (or whatever number is a reasonable number of alternate names), in the order of what name you want most to least, and then randomly assign the name to one of the people who wanted that specific name, give people the whole name reservation time frame to submit what they want, then distribute the "winning names".  It would have sucked, but it certainly would have been better than the train wreck we got instead.
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{| class="blockquote"
http://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/comments/25h8rm/sorry_but_the_name_reservation_is_a_mess/chh7cwp
UM
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You mean you can actually ask them if a Guild Name is ok as their filtering system 'banhammered' so many innocent ones?!?
 
WHY AREN'T WE ALL BEING TOLD THIS?!?
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Good find!  This needed to be posted!
 
One may say they are just being 'smart,' not advertising the faulty feature to avoid others running into this same issue.
 
But that doesn't mean the rest of us who went through this snafu don't feel 'fooled,' trusting they could deliver successfully what they were promising.
 
Taking it off the site now feels more like a 'cover up.'
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{| class="blockquote"
And?
 
That still doesn't warrant a full-on reset.
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"Real life strife"?  People's houses are burning in California and you have the nerve to call not getting your name in a video game "strife"?  Grow up and get some perspective on reality.
 
And for the 1 billionth time.  Just because you didn't get your name reserved doesn't mean they didn't fulfill their "promise" to have name reservations.  You were never guaranteed to get your name.  Get over it.
----
			I can't believe people are still freaking out about this. It's not going to change anything.	
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{| class="blockquote"
 
  Its completely irrational to force players to compete with every other player, on every other server, in every realm (NA, EU etc..) for names.
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{| class="blockquote"
 
Wait! What?  So let me get this right, you only pre-ordered for the name reservation? O.o
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			Wow, that is awesome of you guys, thank you!	
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Sooo.. they don't have a naming reservation system?
I'm confused as to why you think they don't.
The only thing I am saying is that they put a naming reservation system out, and thousands upon thousands of people have gotten names.  For them, Carbine's promise has been fulfilled.
It's a pretty general statement, yes, but it's also true.  How is this misguided?  Carbine never said in their apology statement that many people didn't get their names, and I never once said in that post that it wasn't a fiasco.  It was, and I clearly said that.  I wonder if you're not understanding me, or you're willfully ignoring the meaning of my post.
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{| class="blockquote"
you genuinely believe what you are saying? how curious.
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{| class="blockquote"
Ok, now you're comparing apples to oranges.  
 
You could make that sort of comeback to any unsatisfied customer.  Folks going through a natural disaster and an unsatisfied customer are completely unrelated.
 
With your logic, if someone complains to a waiter at a restaurant about having waited 3 hours for their appetizer, you'd be ok with the waiter saying:
"Yo dude!  Chill out bro!  There's kids starvin' in China maaaaaaaaaan!!!"
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{| class="blockquote"
IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!! I was waiting for this moment.
People screaming about the BBB always make me laugh.  You do know that they are not a government agency and companies are not legally obligated to listen to them, right?  It's basically just the most well known business complaint site.  If your complaint is reasonable, they act as a middle man and contact the company to try to get your issue resolved.
 
That's it.
 
That's all they do.
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{| class="blockquote"
They DO NOT.  This has been confirmed.
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{| class="blockquote"
Good find!  This needed to be posted!
 
One may say they are just being 'smart,' not advertising the faulty feature to avoid others running into this same issue.
 
But that doesn't mean the rest of us who went through this snafu don't feel 'fooled,' trusting they could deliver successfully what they were promising.
 
Taking it off the site now feels more like a 'cover up.'
----
			
You know, you aren't paying for these bonuses. 
 
I just want to point out how flawed that argument is.
 
You aren't paying anything extra. Someone that walks into best buy on June 10th (as a random date) will pay the same exact price that you did, but won't get anything extra.
 
This is "pre-order" bonuses. They are giving you extra things because you ordered before it was out. Its a gift. They screwed up one gift and are now giving another. Those who pay the exact same as you do yet pay after launch don't get these gifts.
 
Please realize this.	
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			Thank you :)  That works for me	
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{| class="blockquote"
It may have been the plan from the start to take that off after the 13th because it would have been misleading to people who got it after that date and though "hell yea reserved name coming up later on" which is not exactly the case even if worked flawlessly.
 
This is probably an overreaction either way.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
Name Reservations are still open till May 23rd, so why not advertise this 'amazing feature' still for pre-ordering?
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{| class="blockquote"
There was a point in the FAQ asking about name reservations, where it said you would be able to reserve your name. Of that I am sure. That is gone now... >.>
 
Edit:
 
Yeah, they took all references of the name reservations off their website. But it was there, as evidenced by it still existing on retailers like greenmangaming: http://www.greenmangaming.com/wildstar/
 
 
That they tried to remove all references to it actually bothers me more than the actual registration problems, which I wasn't really that upset about. This just feels.. icky.
 
annnnd amazon's listing: http://www.amazon.com/Wildstar-Deluxe-Edition-Online-Game/dp/B00IYWV852
 
----
			
The apology and the detailed write up are spot on responses.
 
The 5 boom boxes is a joke.
 
Firstly, the boom boxes do nothing to ease the pain of the name reserve 11+ hour debacle, a free name change voucher is something that actually addresses the issue or something similar. 
 
5 boom boxes....thats your idea of making things right and fair? 	
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{| class="blockquote"
You know, you aren't paying for these bonuses. 
 
I just want to point out how flawed that argument is.
 
You aren't paying anything extra. Someone that walks into best buy on June 10th (as a random date) will pay the same exact price that you did, but won't get anything extra.
 
This is "pre-order" bonuses. They are giving you extra things because you ordered before it was out. Its a gift. They screwed up one gift and are now giving another. Those who pay the exact same as you do yet pay after launch don't get these gifts.
 
Please realize this.
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{| class="blockquote"
Name Reservations are still open till May 23rd, so why not advertise this 'amazing feature' still for pre-ordering?
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
They never listed Name Reservation as a bonus on the Pre-Order webpage. I remember searching for it weeks ago and only finding a reference to it in the Pre-Order FAQ on the Support Page (which is still there). In any case, they have a Name Reservation page now, with all the pertinent information on it, and if you look at the bottom, even the Name Reservation page doesn't list "Name Reservation" as a pre-order bonus . They didn't remove anything. You just noticed that it isn't there.
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{| class="blockquote"
You know, you aren't paying for these bonuses. 
 
I just want to point out how flawed that argument is.
 
You aren't paying anything extra. Someone that walks into best buy on June 10th (as a random date) will pay the same exact price that you did, but won't get anything extra.
 
This is "pre-order" bonuses. They are giving you extra things because you ordered before it was out. Its a gift. They screwed up one gift and are now giving another. Those who pay the exact same as you do yet pay after launch don't get these gifts.
 
Please realize this.
----
			
Part of me hopes this resolution is just an attempt to stop the bleeding while they get the proper fix put together.
 
Clearly that letter is still in the works, more than 24 hours after the fact. It doesn't take 24 hours to write a few paragraphs. As such, I'm inclined to believe they've got something bigger up their sleeve that they need to have prepared and ready to roll out alongside this letter, and the boxes are just their way of saying "We know the problem is here guys, sorry, bear with us".	
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{| class="blockquote"
The apology and the detailed write up are spot on responses.
 
The 5 boom boxes is a joke.
 
Firstly, the boom boxes do nothing to ease the pain of the name reserve 11+ hour debacle, a free name change voucher is something that actually addresses the issue or something similar. 
 
5 boom boxes....thats your idea of making things right and fair?
 
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{| class="blockquote"
Part of me hopes this resolution is just an attempt to stop the bleeding while they get the proper fix put together.
 
Clearly that letter is still in the works, more than 24 hours after the fact. It doesn't take 24 hours to write a few paragraphs. As such, I'm inclined to believe they've got something bigger up their sleeve that they need to have prepared and ready to roll out alongside this letter, and the boxes are just their way of saying "We know the problem is here guys, sorry, bear with us".
----
			
Just wanted to throw in my two cents on the side of reasonable understanding and speak for myself. I'm not upset. Crap happens, and if I didn't get my name, I would have just shrugged and gotten another. It's what everyone following us will have to do, it's what would have happened when the floodgates opened, and while it may suck...
 
It's not worth getting so upset over.
 
I'll take my boom boxes, I'll take the respect they're giving us by promising an honest transparency, and I'm definitely looking forward to launch. :)	
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{| class="blockquote"
Don't expect anything more prior to Monday. Those who are pissed will sit and stew all weekend, but the answer will not be forthcoming prior to Monday.
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{| class="blockquote"
Part of me hopes this resolution is just an attempt to stop the bleeding while they get the proper fix put together.
 
Clearly that letter is still in the works, more than 24 hours after the fact. It doesn't take 24 hours to write a few paragraphs. As such, I'm inclined to believe they've got something bigger up their sleeve that they need to have prepared and ready to roll out alongside this letter, and the boxes are just their way of saying "We know the problem is here guys, sorry, bear with us".
----
			I was hoping for namechanges, too, but I think I could easily come up with a fantastic name despite accidentally reserving "Daddio".  I love mounts, so this is even more chances for me to get something I'll really enjoy!	
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{| class="blockquote"
It's still only 8:15PM on Thursday here in the PST timezone. They've got tomorrow to get an answer too.
 
You're right though, I'd expect to hear something on Tuesday or so.
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