Character Name Change, a goldmine for CCP

Well, not entirely a gold mine, but they would make a decent profit if they offered this service for like $5-10 because I believe there are many thousands out there who created 1 or 2 of their characters in a hurry and now, once they got into the game they find themselves with a character name that they aren’t 100% satisfied with.

This naturally has to do with the fact that when people start playing EVE they have no idea what their character will “grow into”.

Are there others out there who would like to change their character name for $5-10?

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Suggested this for years, especially when similar service was introduced in China on Serenity. As you can see nothing was introduced on TQ so far.
Although it’s really surprising because with existence of skill injectors and character trades so called “reputation” (the only reason people always mention when they speak against name change) means nothing anymore.
Name change + name history in corp\employment tab - done.

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CCP doesn’t need more goldmines. CCP needs to use the ridiculous profits they already earn from us to actually improve EVE with substantial development. Pandering to some people who are not satisfied with their names does not belong there.

Besides: The greater goldmine for CCP are skill extractors. You can just extract all SP from your old char, create a new char and inject them again. That generates a whole lot more gold for CCP than a cheap name change.

Character history is important.
No name change.

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Yeah, I don’t see a reason either. The history should of courrse follow the character no matter what the name is.

They could also just add an ID number to each character (which is probably already present in the background data system): That ID should be fixed and not changeable. So that, people always can be found through their ID number regardless of name change.

The small fixes that CCP do on a regular basis are not mutually exklusive. This is one of those small fixes. You can BOTH do a small fix like this and also spend money on long term bigger projects. Especially if the small fix earns money that can be used for the long term project :slight_smile:

I’d go with this. Name change would be a good idea, but this gets round those who want a link to pre-history.

This does not solve the fact that in the heat of the moment when someone warps onto your grid, you can recognize a name, not an ID Number. Spending time to look into the pilots BIO and scroll through a name change history is not a solution.

Name is Reputation!

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That’s a valid point but I don’t think these situations would arrise that often with the correct rules in place for name change.

For example: Name changes can only be done once a year.
Name change takes 1-2 weeks to take affect.
All players with a standing towards you or who are on your friendlist get an e-mail/notification update on your name change 1-2 weeks before it takes affect.

With rules like that in place it would be extremely hard to exploit a namechange mechanic. to gain an advantage in game. If CCP also announced that this would happen 2 months from now everyone could prepare by just marking people they know with a simple standing.

I can see your point, but I still think there are many players that people recognize in their local area that they dont necessarily have standings set to.

I can see how all those rules can help… but they still dont convince me to support name changes. Eve really is a game of reputations, and allowing name changes (no matter how many rules you put in place) is a way for people to hide that reputation.

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Eve is all about consequences and having to live with them. Your reputation, bad or good, helpful or jerk, badass or bunny is critical to that. And that is bound to your identity as much as your name is.
Name changing feels like being able to just leave your clothes on the beach, fake your demise and walking away from your responsibilities and the consequences of your actions. And that’s not Eve.

Where I could see it working is in the first week (or so) or your existence - a chance to change your name from something silly or jokey that wears badly when you realise the nature of Eve and the permanence of your actions. Something you may not have understood when you signed up to try it - and that may avoid some new player attrition (“if I’d known my name was fixed… But to get a sensible name I have to start over again and I can’t be bothered…”).

Because they can’t change a label without losing all the data.

/facepalm

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You can already change your name if you have a reputation to hide, not just with skill injectors but by simply using the Character Bazaar

All not having this does is make it hard for IroXXer to change his name now that he is 31 years old!

They should charge a bit and include a name change in a legal char bazar transfer.

They should also add gender change.

Money that could be used to reinstate Blackout!

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The players recognition of another player cannot be maintained with a name change.

If I interact with Captain_Caldari and learn his fighting styles, how he likes to fit his ships, what he is likely to do when he interacts with me, (I have him set to Red).

Next time he lands on grid, I recognize his name, and adjust my response and playstyle to counter what i know about him.

Changing his name would remove the information that I have build up about him. If he was now called Bob_Smith and arrived on grid, (ok he would still be Red) but I have no idea how to react to him.

There is not time in this situation to access his profile, navigate the the Name History tab, and review name changes on the offchance that I recognize one of his previous names.

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What you have described is an very specific individual case. Majority of players wont even remember most names they encounter after a day. Moreover, if you “set player to red” as you said and he is that important to you, it will take you only few seconds to check his bio name history and remember the new name.

Name “reputation” means nothing to most people nowadays. Lack of name change service only hurts those players who have genuine reasons for change: typos, stupid names made during teenage years, all those XxxxMACTEPxxxX variations and so on.

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So your response is hypothetic ■■■■■■■■.

Got it.

Because all the data is keyed off of the label.

When they use the Character Bazaar that REALLY PRESERVES their history.

But of course when they roll a new char and use skill injectors, that also preserves their history.

/facepalm

If you people were not REPEATING CLOSED MINDED ■■■■■■■■ you would realize that of the THREE NAME CHANGE METHODS, this one is the BEST for preserving history.

I don’t want a link to pre-history, i want to recognise you at a glance in local/overview.

People recognise their regulars and their local neighbours. They recognise when a player notorious for having a cloaky friend is trying to bait them. They recognise someone who’s a good 1v1 challenge.

This is the problem. Not that we cannot change our names but that players are not interactive and getting to know eachother.

As above, names and reputation are as important as the interactions we have with eachother. So if your typical eve game is ‘farmville in space’, then sure, names won’t matter.

But if you’re defending your home from the local thugs, then yeah you wanna know who’s the fc, who’s the best logi pilot, who’s bringing cyno/cloaky back up.

Reputation matters.

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After an alt skill injection name change or a char bazaar change you not only will not recognize them, you won’t even be able to look at them and know what happened.

This is a better way if you would open your mind and look at it objectively.

How much does that cost for a 100mil sp char?