Suggestion: Add Character Name Change Service to the NEW EDEN Store

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

I would like to suggest adding a Character Name Change Service to the New Eden Store (NES).

Players may sometimes want to change their character’s name after playing the same character for many years. A character’s name can become outdated due to changes in the player’s interests, role, corporation, alliance, or simply because the player chose a name they no longer like.

Currently, creating a new character is effectively the only way to obtain a completely different character name, which means losing the history, skill progression, employment history, standings, and other long-term identity associated with the original character.

Proposed Feature

Add a purchasable Character Name Change item to the NES Store.

For example:

  • Purchase a Character Name Change service using PLEX.
  • The player enters a new character name.
  • The new name must follow all existing character naming rules.
  • The new name must not already be in use.
  • The character keeps all existing skills, standings, assets, employment history, killboard history, and other character data.
  • The character’s unique character ID remains unchanged.
  • The previous name could remain visible in the character’s history or other appropriate locations for transparency.

Possible Restrictions

To prevent abuse and preserve character identity, CCP could impose reasonable restrictions, such as:

  • A cooldown period between name changes, for example 30 or 90 days.
  • The character must not be involved in certain restricted activities when the name change is requested.
  • The new name must pass the same naming and moderation rules as a newly created character.
  • The previous character name could be retained internally by CCP and remain associated with the character ID.
  • CCP could optionally display something such as “Previously known as [Old Name]” in the character’s employment or identity history.

Why This Could Be Useful

EVE Online is a game where characters can exist for many years. A character can accumulate a significant amount of history and value over time.

Allowing a name change would let players update their character’s identity without having to abandon a long-established character and start over.

It could also provide CCP with an additional NES/PLEX monetization opportunity without directly affecting gameplay balance.

Most importantly, this feature would not need to change the underlying character. The character ID and all gameplay-related data would remain exactly the same; only the character’s displayed name would change.

I believe this could be a useful quality-of-life feature for long-term EVE Online players while also providing a reasonable additional PLEX/NES service for CCP.

“The Serenity server, which is the Chinese server, implemented this feature more than 10 years ago. Players really need this feature.”

3 Likes
2

No thanks. In EVE actions are meant to have consequences. EVE is a permanent server where history matters and players make the story.

Your name is your identity in this game, the first and often only thing people see of you before you attack them.

If players can just change names, even if those names are hidden in some name history tab, people stop recognizing you and what you did.

Of course alt characters exist and already give players the option to start under a new name, so a name change is alreasy possible for those who really want to start under a new name. There just is a cost, depending on how much you already invested in the old character.

I do not think it should become far cheaper to rename characters.

Also please stop with the AI.

9 Likes
3

I understand the concern about identity and consequences in EVE, and I agree that a character’s history should not simply disappear because the player changes their name.

However, I don’t think allowing a name change necessarily means removing a character’s history or consequences.

A character still has a unique character ID, employment history, killboard history, standings, skills, assets, and all of the other records accumulated over the years. A name change would only change the current display name. CCP could also keep the previous name permanently associated with the character and make it available through the character’s history.

In fact, I think the argument about alt characters works both ways.

If a player really wants to disappear under a new name, they can already create or obtain another character. That means preventing existing characters from changing their names does not actually prevent players from starting under a new identity. It simply forces them to abandon a character that may have accumulated years of history, skills, standings, and investment.

I also don’t think the service should be cheap or unrestricted. A high PLEX price, a long cooldown, and a permanent record of previous names would address most of the concerns about abuse.

The important distinction is between changing a character’s current name and erasing the character’s history. I am suggesting the former, not the latter.

There is also a real precedent for this. The Serenity server has supported character name changes for many years. So this isn’t merely a theoretical feature that would fundamentally break EVE’s identity system.

EVE is indeed a game where history matters. I simply don’t think that history requires a character to be permanently locked to one display name.

And regarding the AI comment: fair enough. I’m just trying to discuss the feature and its possible implementation, not have AI write the game’s design decisions for us. :slight_smile:

First of all, I don’t know you, and I don’t want to know you. I’ve been playing EVE for 20 years. I didn’t know you in the past, and I won’t know you in the future. Your memories have nothing to do with me.

Just like the hundreds of thousands of players in EVE’s database, it is impossible for you to know every player or have a personal connection with every character in the game.

I am not asking CCP to force you to change your name. I simply want the option to change my own character’s name. As for other players, I don’t care what they choose to do.

Therefore, I don’t think your argument holds up. You cannot force other players to become part of your personal memories or to remain permanently associated with you. That is not what I intend to do.

This argument has existed for years, but I don’t think it is reasonable, and in my opinion, it doesn’t really hold up.

Changing a character’s name is a personal choice. It doesn’t mean that the player has chosen to become associated with you. Nobody chooses that they must be your friend, and nobody chooses that they must be your enemy. Those are choices you make yourself.

Your theory simply doesn’t hold up.

On the Serenity server, this kind of service has existed for many years, dating back to around 2000, and it has continued to serve players well.

I respect the fact that some players value permanent character identities. But that doesn’t mean everyone should be forced to follow the same philosophy. If you don’t want to change your character’s name, you don’t have to. I simply want the choice to be available to players who do.

4

Changing a character’s name is simply a choice available to the player. It is not necessarily about trying to escape from something.

Even in real life, you can legally change the name on your government-issued ID. Why is that possible? Because it is your right.

The same is true for social platforms. Most social media services allow users to change their display names, and even Google has introduced the ability to change the name associated with an account this year.

If a player wants to “escape” from something, I honestly don’t even know what they would be trying to escape from. It’s just a game. What exactly is there to escape from?

A player can simply create a new character and use it as a spy to infiltrate and attack your alliance from the shadows. That has absolutely nothing to do with changing an existing character’s name.

Would adding a character name change service somehow increase PvP between alliances? If anything, that would be a good thing for EVE.

Whether someone changes their character’s name or not should be a matter of personal choice and freedom.

You are free to keep your name forever if that’s what you want. But your personal preference should not determine whether other players are allowed to have the same choice.

That’s why I don’t think the “people will use name changes to escape their past” argument really holds up.

5

I have to bring up Discord at this point.

Discord is an essential app for most EVE players, and you can change your display name whenever you want. So how does that argument work?

Does changing your Discord name mean that players are trying to escape responsibility for something?

Should Discord also permanently lock your name to prevent you from “escaping” from something you did in EVE?

Who cares?

That whole theory simply has no real basis. It doesn’t hold up.

Changing a name is just a feature that gives people a choice. It doesn’t erase their history, and it doesn’t force anyone else to forget what happened.

If you don’t want to change your name, then don’t. But that doesn’t mean everyone else should be denied the choice.

6

I already gave a counterargument to this.

I am not playing EVE with everyone’s character history open. The vast majority of the time the only thing people see of a person is their name.

This means that the vast majority of people stop recognizing regulars, friends and foes who change names, all besides a few close friends you would still know despite a name change.

Yes, you can indeed ‘change name’ by making an alt.

Yet that change is considerably more expensive than it is now due to all the SP you gained. I think this is a good thing that the more known a player is the more they have to lose by starting under a new name.

You say you don’t want the service to be cheap, but it already exists (alts) and you want it to be far cheaper as a thing to be bought in the NES.

This does not match up.

The Serenity server does a lot of things that I would not like to see happen in EVE. It’s not under FCs direct command either, as far as I know.

You may not know me, but you may have seen me.

I see lots of people I’ve interacted with in the past. I may not know them, but I have seen them before. And I can recognize them, because of their name.

People who posted on the forums before, people who caught me in a gatecamp before, people who I’ve flown with or flown against, people who have been camping my space in cloaky ships…

They all have names and make this universe feel alive and recognizable.

I do not wish to change my own name, but the point I’m trying to make is that I wish other players also not to change their names at a whim.

I’ve seen what this does to recognizing names in other games. Back when I played RuneScape and they added name changes, the next month half my friends list had a different name, with their previous name visible as history. A year later and multiple name changes further for the lot of them I lost track how I even met most of those people or who they were. And these were acquaintances, not even all the random players I met in the game.

The introduction of name changes made it completely impossible for me to remember who all these people were, as names are how we recognize people, and I wish to not have this happen in EVE either.

EVE is a game about actions and consequences.

In real life a criminal or a corrupt politician would also love to be able to change name and start somewhere new, but in EVE these things will (and should) follow you.

If someone pulls the plug on the clone bay of a Keepstar or steals trillions they better be and stay known under that name.

They can start all over on a new alt, of course, but not simply erase the recognition for $50 in the NES.

Discord is a third party tool with it’s own use and none of it is built specifically for a game about actions and consequences, but is made as a gaming communication platform for all types of games.

If people want to change their name there they can.

I do not see how this is relevant for EVE.

Changing a name forces everyone else to stop recognizing that player, because nobody is going to play with the character history window open.

3 Likes
7

we only play with standing,not history, if in high sec, even dont care about standing.

8

I think being able to create multiple characters (and alts) already largely serves this purpose. Allowing name changes is probably very problematic for many reasons we haven’t even considered.

10

Youre not the first to suggest a name change. FC has stated multiple times, they have no intention of allowing us to change names. @Gerard_Amatin has laid out every single reason why.

If you’re not happy with Tranquility, go back to Serenity, which is not under FCs control

1 Like
11

The good old days when a nice CCP double entendre would fit perfectly here. :thinking:

:psyccp:

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12

Chars and events in this game are remembered and recognized by name. Often character involved in something in the past just rings a bell somewhere in the future. Sometimes years later. The feeling to deal with meaningful entities in the game gets lost.

3 Likes
13

+1 for name changing option!

Btw, one don’t have to advocate their opinion towards one or another option.
It’s just the matter of taste and question of which “world” do you prefer more.
With.. or without the name changing service :))

14

i think you should just include name change in character resculpt certificates

16

Hi,

Against naming change !
You shouldn’t do bad things and get away with a name change !

3 Likes