My friend created his character The Godfather during the beta, and has continued to use that name since launch on Saronia:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...cicuid=2892433

Unfortunately, he is now The Godfather01. The person who now has the rights to the name on the newly merged Sargatanas world is from Lindblum, and made their character halfway through 2011 (nearly a year after launch):

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...icuid=10911430

As far as I'm aware, characters that were created first should have the rights to the name. In this case, it seems clear that The Godfather01 should have those rights, being that he created his character over a year previous to the gent from Lindblum. This is as per the announcement on the Lodestone:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...37c35caeacf3a0

Neither character was active on March 26th/27th, 2012. On the Lodestone, both characters remained on Saronia and Lindblum respectively for quite a while after everyone who was active was displayed as belonging to Sargatanas.

When my friend logged on, however, the game asked him to change his name. I noticed at this point that the gent from Lindblum mysteriously had his character transferred over to Sargatanas before my friend; at least, according to the Lodestone. This seems like a pretty apparent bug, but perhaps I'm missing something?

I tried contacting the Square Enix Support Center. I was first told this:

Dear Customer,

Regarding your request for account support. Please find your answer below.

Unfortunately that service is not available at this time. Suggestions from our customers are always valued. While we cannot guarantee implementation we will surely pass this on to the developers.

Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.
I was then told this:

Dear Customer,

Regarding your request for account support. Please find your answer below.

We do apologize for any confusion, however the system you are referring to is in place, and functioning correctly. If a character has been flagged for a name change, then they were not eligible to retain that name. We do apologize for any inconvenience. Please be aware that the SQUARE ENIX Support Center does not provide support for in-game issues such as this. You are welcome to contact an in-game Game Master for further assistance if necessary, however the fact of the matter is that per the systems put in place for the Server Merge, any character who was not eligible to retain their name will be flagged to be renamed, and that decision is final.

Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.
I find this somewhat disheartening, on a number of levels. I'm kind of perplexed that this is apparently not something the support center, well, supports? According to the documentation in-game, this isn't really something a GM would deal with, either, even though I was directed to them. I'd like to kindly suggest that there be a clear avenue for escalating these kinds of account issues.

The representative told me that the system is working as intended, but I find that difficult to believe, given the evidence from my perspective. That gent from Lindblum only ever played a single day in his entire life if the history is to be believed, so I rather doubt he's active even now.

I would like to please, please, please request that someone take a few minutes to look into this. I feel strongly that you'll find something went amiss. This is understandable, as bugs do occur, but I would really appreciate it if someone could at least look into it.

For the record, I did make a GM call, but was told they would not support me since I was not the customer with the issue. I have asked my friend to try contacting the support center, but feel like he would be reluctant to log in to make a GM call, since that would involve changing his character's name, which he doesn't want to do.

I sincerely hope someone looks into this, because the thing I've been anticipating the most in this game is playing with all of my friends from Final Fantasy XI (I've known this guy for almost a decade now), and would be saddened if any of them chose not to play over incidents such as this one. I think it's a particular shame because I believe that Final Fantasy XIV is going to be something truly amazing once 2.0 is released.

Thank you for reading.