Instead of requesting name changes: Aliases

[ISD_Stall]

So hypothetically Steve, if you were to angle a feature such as this would you add a time limit, or a maximum number of name changes?

[Keno_Skir]

This is a horrible idea. Character history and commitment are a huge part of what makes EvE so deep. Imagine having to investigate EVERYONE you see in local just to make sure they aren’t someone important but with a different name to a few days / weeks / months ago. Literally rediculous.

@Suren_Scott

.1. Developers shouldn’t underestimate the vanity of their players or the amount of money they can make helping them feel pretty (or comfortable, or whatever). I’ve spent an embarrassing amount on rename tokens in other games, either to add a middle name, or change a first name to a nick name

Kill it with

[Steve_Ronuken]

I’d probably go with name change fatigue.

1 month cooldown, maybe.

And there’s no way I’d make it a cheap service. I’d be recommending a minimum of 500 plex for it.

[mkint]

The cost? An appropriate amount. Actually, it’s a pretty elegant system. The longer you play, the longer you build your reputation of being an irredeemable douche, the more expensive it’ll be to clear it out. Really, it’s probably too cheap. Would be better if it was completely impossible.

[Claevyan]

If this were implemented there would also need to be a new tab for characters in game, right beside the “Employment History” tab - you could label it “Character History” and within that time stamp every name change and gender change.

Might be able to add it to the background or bio section… but it’d need to be there and making a separate tab right next to employment history would probably make it the most accessible.

[Suren_Scott]

@yellow_parasol

Your rather weak attempt at outsmarting people doesn’t go unnoticed. I mean, it’s either that or you’re completely anti-social and don’t understand how integral a name is for everyday life.

Could take a third option. Every social circle in my life uses a different form of my first or middle (or occasionally last) name. The only entities that use my legal name are the government and my banks. Not even my employer remembers my legal name, although they’ve got it on a form in a drawer somewhere.

[yellow_parasol]

I’ve written so much, but it needs more structure, so here’s just the TLDR:

This feature, when available for the broad mass, will cause massive interference in the game’s culture. It will lower the perceived value of the in-game-character and newer players, who grow “up” with this, will have a worse connection to the game.

Make it a luxury item and let people bleed money for it. This should never be available for everyone. It shouldn’t even be a feature, because it undermines the game’s integrity.

I know you give a rats ass about what I think, but I strongly advise against making this a service that’s available to everyone quite easily. That’s a really bad idea.

[Krysenth]

@ISD_Stall

So hypothetically Steve, if you were to angle a feature such as this would you add a time limit, or a maximum number of name changes?

Once per year, as with neural remaps (I mean, who says it’s just attributes you can remap?), with a similar cost of the pilot sculpting thing, ~500 plex. I’d say on the back-end of things, searching via a given name, such as “steve,” “ronuken” or “fuzzyworker” or any other multitudes of aliases they might have accrued, would act in essence as a URL pointing to an IP address (alias pointing to the UCID) and would give us @Steve_Ronuken in return. Show Info windows would show (and I recommend it being a default behavior to open to this tab automatically) the original character name at the top with aliases below-
Birth Name: Steve Ronuken Aliases 1: Fuzzyworker 2017.06.27 00:02 2: xXx USS GIT REKTED xXx 2016.06.27 00:01
etc etc. Maybe add a 20-30% increase in the plex cost for each subsequent acquisition?

edit: whether it’s currently tied to the NAME itself, or the actual UCID, standings, ACLs, corp rights, etc would have to be shifted to point/be determined by the UCID behind the name.

[Cristl]

I’ll reiterate here that I’m not in favour of name changes in general, with some exceptions such as if you later find out your name means ‘wanker’ in Portuguese or something.

However, a name change within a month of playing would allow people who are eager to enter the game, but whose first 20 tries at getting a name fail so they just enter “xtbs”, time to find a proper name that isn’t taken. Even the best awoxers couldn’t do much in a month

I just find it ridiculous that you can’t change a name, but can transfer the whole character between different actual people. That blows the whole ‘live with your decisions’ line out of the water for me. I understand it from an anti-RMT perspective, and I’d much rather our cash went to CCP rather than some twat in Moscow, but it will never quite sit right by me.

The idea of people wanting a name change because their character got married? Now there’s a situation that never even crossed my mind.

[Temmet_Vuld]

Get rid of your spouse in 120 seconds by self-destructing your POD. It’s “Til death do you part”. Would you change the name back again, then?

Does every clone have a separate spouse and name then?

[Keno_Skir]

@Cristl

I’ll reiterate here that I’m not in favour of name changes in general, with some exceptions such as if you later find out your name means ‘wanker’ in Portuguese or something.

Point being it’s already possible to sort this sort of legitimate concern via a support ticket. This feature would needlessly complicate things for the sake of vanity.

[Black_Pedro]

@Keno_Skir

Point being it’s already possible to sort this sort of legitimate concern via a support ticket. This feature would needlessly complicate things for the sake of vanity.

I agree. This adds complication and confusion for no real reason other than vanity. Each of us gets the option to choose our name so I have very little sympathy for those that change their mind.

Especially so now that we live in an age of skill extractors. You could aways sell your character before if you disliked the name that much, and you can now also strip those SP and inject them into whoever you want at a cost. If such a feature had to exist, I would much prefer it be in the form of say a once-per-year skill swap for each account where you could swap two character’s skills for a fee. At least then the UI wouldn’t be cluttered up with multiple aliases per character or whatever that I will have to sort through and parse all because a selfish someone is unhappy with a choice they made in the past.

[Este_DeStirr]

@Krysenth

Show Info windows would show (and I recommend it being a default behavior to open to this tab automatically)

Off topic, but for the love of BOB please give character Show Info a predictable tab to open to.

[Chance_Ravinne]

Can someone tell me just one thing:
Why is it that it is easier to change your name IN REAL LIFE than in a videogame?

Has anyone who is against name changes ever thought about that? The people who are so concerned about consequences and history? You are more concerned about personal history in a videogame than real-life employers about the history of employees who have access to their money, assets, and trade secrets.

In real life, you fill out name change forms, and there’s a public record of your previous names. Yet 20,000 years in the fictional videogame future, this technology has been lost. And everyone in the galaxy has lost the ability to do basic background checks or use the “internet” to look things up.

As for why the service is needed, there are plenty of reasons. Here are some I’ve seen from players I know:

• Their name has a typo in it that they only realized months/years later
• Their character is named after a spouse that left them or died
• Their name is a juvenile joke they made when they were 14 (e.g. Joker420BlazeITxXx)
• Their name is too similar to the name of another player in their corporation
• Their character name is against rules of discrimination/hate speech of a corp they want to join
• Their name is too long to reset default ship names onto (e.g. “Roger’s Nemesis” vs Roger Crunshinkle’s Neme")

But you know, it’s really important that changing your videogame name remains harder than changing your name in real life.

[Cristl]

So would you be behind an ability to change name within one month of character creation? To me that makes sense. It balances accountability with consequence

[Nana_Skalski]

Watching how are some pilots named i think that our names are working like aliases already. True names can be registered as aliases of course.

We now have also titles. As for name change, if there would be history of past names, there would be no harm I think.

[Black_Pedro]

@Chance_Ravinne

But you know, it’s really important that changing your videogame name remains harder than changing your name in real life.

Quit being silly. You can change your name in Eve as many times as you would like for no cost. You have the choice every time you log into the game. You can also change your gender, race and complete history by just logging in as a different exisiting or new character from the character selection screen or by using another account.

The idea that the lack of a name change device “provides consequences” is equally laughable. I can make a new alt at anytime and shed any history I have in the game if I so choose. I can also keep that history by making a new alt and publically declaring my association with a previous character. The player is not the character and I already have near complete flexibility to change my identity now.

The downsides would be clear however. No one cares if someone petitions to have a typo or an offensive name changed once, but if names cannot serve as a reliable identifier because they are flexible, then my ability to immediately assess the situation is reduced. Further, I should not have to go through pages of aliases and cross-reference them while running the background on a potential enemy or have my enemy use a name change to hide their known alts from me. All this complication because someone regrets a choice they made in the past.

If you don’t like the name, gender or look of your character, then play as another one. Almost all your progression can already be transferred at no cost (assets) or modest cost (SP) and I wouldn’t really care if CCP decides there needs to be some more ways to move progression around (standings extraction for example). But please, just leave the sanctity of the name identifier alone.

[Daichi_Yamato]

Identifying people in eve is more important to me than in real life because people in real life are not trying to hide/disguise themselves from me. But thats exactly what it would be used for in eve.

I don’t have to look out for the people hunting me down in real life. I’m not hunting other people in real life.

Just don’t allow name changes. Let players have nicknames next to their names on show info or something like that (like titles you can give yourself), but as far as local, killboards, corp history etc are concerned you have one name that does not change.

You want to change that? Rebuild the char with injectors.

[Cristl]

@Daichi_Yamato

Identifying people in eve is more important to me than in real life

Put aside the stigma that is associated with seeking psychiatric help and just do it. You are in a tight orbit around the event horizon of sanity and must reach out for help. It’s not too late.

[Daichi_Yamato]

Really? Cause i scan local everynow and then even in hi-sec.

I walk down the street in real life looking down at my phone not giving a flying ■■■■ whos around me.

Perhaps you should grow up?