Regardless whether or not you let that Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription slip, you might log in to find one or all of your characters on a different server. Earlier in the summer BioWare initiated the much needed Free Character Transfer Program in which players could opt to move their characters from certain origin servers to higher population servers. Now, as of September 18, "all characters on origin servers will be automatically moved onto the upgraded high population destination servers".
BioWare asserts that while no characters have been deleted, players may have to rename their characters due to another player character having the same name on the destination server. If this is the case, you will find a red exclamation point next to your character's name on the character selection screen. Players will no longer need to have a unique Legacy name per server and as a result everyone will have an "opportunity" to create a new Legacy Name upon logging in to their character, though it does not appear that you will be forced to.
A potentially bigger point of contention is that guilds will also have to deal with the possibility of a name change, with their names changed to OriginalGuildName@OriginServer if they share a guild name with another guild on the server. Of course, if you have wanted to change your guild name for some time, this will be a perfect albeit one-time opportunity to do so.
While change is sometimes hard to accept, there are some benefits to BioWare consolidating servers, such as lower warzone queue times and an easier time using the group finders. But at the same time, many players who enjoy playing solo or on low population servers may be overwhelmed with the large amount of players now on their server.
The change is ultimately a positive one for Star Wars: The Old Republic though, and likely directly ties in with the game going free to play with restrictions or with the option to pay the normal $14.99 a month.
How do you feel about the server consolidation and what it might mean for the game as a whole?
Source: BioWare
