When will character name change service be available?

Aeratus · September 2014

ZOS said back in May that character name changes will be available at some point.

We don’t have plans for any more purchasable items right now (although we will do character name changes at some point).

Source: http://dulfy.net/2014/05/01/eso-may-1-reddit-ama-transcript/

It's already been 4 months since then, and many of the more complicated features mentioned in that transcript, such as guild Kiosks, have already been implemented. Meanwhile, we already have a name change functionality in the game code (as evidenced by forced character renames), and I can't imagine that the amount of work needed to implement a general name change service would be high.

So, ZOS, when are name changes coming?

I only need to make a minor adjustment to one of my eight characters, and have been waiting patiently for this feature to arrive.

Sedrethi · September 2014

Bumping this as I've been waiting for a response on this as well. There's a thread where only a vocal minority of us are expressing our frustration, but it's tiresome sending in-game feedback regularly (suggested by a CS representative) and still receive zero response.

For such a seemingly simple feature that is practically already implemented, it would have been a perfect addition to Update 3 with the whole identity and customization theme. It's also a relatively harmless feature, and can't really be abused with the whole in-game visibility of player's @handles.

This has never worked for me in the past, but tagging staff again to see if we can a response: @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_AmeliaR @ZOS_TristanK @ZOS_JasonL

Auric_ESO · September 2014

I'm sorry but name changes are one of the msot community destroying features of an MMO. Your name is your identity. You cheat someone, you ninja something, you steal from your guild etc are all attached to your identity and if you can change this at will everyone becomes anonymous. Granted with the account name being so much more used in ESO the damage that name changing allows is a bit more mitigated but I still think its damaging to the community as a whole.

Back in daoc when you did something horrible like cheating or radaring or some such your name got around and you either deleted or lived with the consequences of your choices. When you were a good crafter or leader your name got around too. If names become meaningless then the community suffers as a whole.

I sincerely hope they have rethought offering this feature and never come out with it

Arthur_Spoonfondle · September 2014

Auric_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry but name changes are one of the msot community destroying features of an MMO. Your name is your identity. You cheat someone, you ninja something, you steal from your guild etc are all attached to your identity and if you can change this at will everyone becomes anonymous. Granted with the account name being so much more used in ESO the damage that name changing allows is a bit more mitigated but I still think its damaging to the community as a whole.

Back in daoc when you did something horrible like cheating or radaring or some such your name got around and you either deleted or lived with the consequences of your choices. When you were a good crafter or leader your name got around too. If names become meaningless then the community suffers as a whole.

I sincerely hope they have rethought offering this feature and never come out with it

I have to agree with the above and add that you need to think more carefully about the name you choose when you make a character.

daneyulebub17_ESO · September 2014

Won't it be a pay feature? If so, it's not exactly "at will" and that, along with the fact that our account names are so tied to the character names, should make it pretty much a non-issue, in my opinion, as a method of hiding your identity.

It is a nice way for people to correct naming mistakes that drive them crazy--people play characters for YEARS, after all.

Pseudonym · September 2014

You can change your name in real life, so I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to here.

As for those players who steal from their guild banks and change their names; everyone has their account name visible here, so it wouldn't change much.

That being said, account names can also be changed, but if someone is willing to pay for a character name change and contact customer support and manage to get their account name changed too, they quite frankly deserve whatever it was they stole.

Sedrethi · September 2014

Well, I mean, they could always put measures in place such as being able to only change your name once every three, six, nine, twelve months, or longer.

And as we know that @handles are visible to all, it would be be foolish for them to attempt to name change as all it takes is to quickly add the person to your ignore list to check their @handle to see who they are.

Aeratus · September 2014

People change their names in real life all the time. Name change isn't anything extraordinary in terms of modern society.

The fact that we use usernames rather than character names makes it so that the people you care about won't surprise you in terms of name changes.

Moreover, the scenario where a user changes name to avoid a bad reputation is an unlikely hypothetical situation. If there is a real badass out there, he would most definitely NOT want to change his name, since he wants you to know that he's the badass. So these concerns are unfounded.

And, agree with the above comments that they can easily put in countermeasures to prevent abuse of the system.

morvegil · September 2014

Lets fix balance

cyqa · September 2014

I see no problem with name changes.

From my perspective, let's give name changes for all the loyal subscribers that desire this feature - it sucks if a few people abuse the privilege but that isn't reason enough to deny it to the majority, who presumably don't have shady intentions.

I'm just not sure if I'd like it to be a paid feature. Maybe a quest in-game. I don't know. I don't feel very strongly about that, I'm just a fan of things being accessible in game and not for real life currency.

daneyulebub17_ESO · September 2014

morvegil wrote: »

Lets fix balance

Yes, there should be no more changes to the software ever until balance is satisfactorily fixed for everyone. Zeni only has one computer and one programmer, after all. He can only do one thing at a time.

Nestor · September 2014

Auric_ESO wrote: »

I'm sorry but name changes are one of the msot community destroying features of an MMO. Your name is your identity. You cheat someone, you ninja something, you steal from your guild etc are all attached to your identity and if you can change this at will everyone becomes anonymous.

You join Guilds by Account Name, not character name. You become friends with someone by Account Name, you trade with someone based on Account Name, everything is tied to the Account Name.

Character names are meaningless because we have Alts. Using your logic, I could have a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde Character. Go around doing bad things with Mr Hyde, then log into with Dr Jekyll and no one would be the wiser.

For the record, I want to change the names on two of my characters, and not because I am trying to hide something. Because I don't like the names that I gave them. Nobody but me cares about the names of these characters.