Character Name Change and Appearance

Gilvoth · October 2014

DenverRalphy wrote: »

I'm against name changes. If I run in a group and one person is completely useless, I take note of their name to make sure I never group with that character again. Don't get me wrong... I can recognize the difference between a bad spec that can be changed versus a bad player. And when I mention bad player, I'm not referring to talent, but more so a lack of group contribution and self greed.

I really don't want to see a mechanism incorporated that allows *** to change their names, and reintroduce themselves again.

it's a very easy fix to the problem you are mentioning, all you have to do is right click on the persons name that you do not like and thier entire account is blocked perminantly, no matter what name they use or change thier name to or even if they make new characters with different names matters not because the "block" feature is account wide. totaly easy fix that has nothing to do with name changes.

allowing name changes has no bad effects at all, their is no ligitame complaint against name changes and character apperiance changes.
it's a GOOD thing

SecretSurprise · October 2014

pppontus wrote: »

Send an email to support and ask for a name change. That's that problem solved for you ^^

I tried this before, and I believe they referred me to forums.

SecretSurprise · October 2014

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

I am tempted to come down on the side of no. I have nothing inherently against the idea or indeed people using it, but not being able to change things like that forces you to think about your character and how you initially create them. It makes it more meaningful. If you call your character something like "Sir Noobs-a-Lot" or something like that because you think it's funny at the time, that's certainly your choice but should be sticking to it.

Now think about this from a player retention side. Sure, you want to make the game challenging and have punishing elements in it, but you really dont want to make the player feel theyve screwed themselves over permanently by a bad decision. They are more likely to quit than to redo the exact same content with a new character. Especially when the leveling process is rather lenghty. This goes mainly for builds/specs but its also pertinent to names and appearance.

Besides, appearance change has been pretty much confirmed. They want to have it in the game and new customization options have already been created for it. Theyre deciding how to best implement it. We'll just have to wait and see if they'll put name changing on their to-do list as well.

Also Im still hoping theyll announce craftable costumes or some other form of vanity system eventually.

From player retention side, trying to appease this kind of players is waste of time. They could as well demand change of gender, class (after all, they do did not know beforehand what class is like, unlike name or looks, and it takes so much time to level new character), mount, whatever, and then they will quit anyway. You can take a look at any free to pay game, there is literally everything in cash shops, games are successful in milking such players, but they still hop from game to game.
Ironically, also players who were initially appeased would quit, because they eventually realize they log into everchanging psychedelic circus and not even leveling a new char is going to help it.

Not to say name change option alone will break game, just watch out for that principle behind.

Whats there to watch out for? Sure there are people who will quit regardless of this but you can say that about any single aspect of a game. Some people will quit regardless of how good the story is. Some will quit despite brilliant graphics. Does it mean devs shouldnt bother with these things?

QoL changes might not be a priority but they are never a waste of time.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

I'm against name changes. If I run in a group and one person is completely useless, I take note of their name to make sure I never group with that character again. Don't get me wrong... I can recognize the difference between a bad spec that can be changed versus a bad player. And when I mention bad player, I'm not referring to talent, but more so a lack of group contribution and self greed.

I really don't want to see a mechanism incorporated that allows *** to change their names, and reintroduce themselves again.

The ignore command is account based not character based... dont really see a problem here.

I agree, and I could not imagine this would be too difficult, because as you stated, the game chats are account based and not character. I personally think changing account name's would be stretching it too far, but to have the ability to change the character name should be allowed; all while ensuring that character's account name's are unaffected. And considering that the game's chat functionality is mostly account based, I would think this would make character name changes so much more simple to implement in-game.

Mithron · October 2014

Yes, please allow name changes, appearance changes, and sex changes if you so choose. Everything is tied to your userID so why not allow these simple features?

Mithron · October 2014

And while we're at it, /afk would be great as well.

pppontus · October 2014

SecretSurprise wrote: »

pppontus wrote: »

Send an email to support and ask for a name change. That's that problem solved for you ^^

I tried this before, and I believe they referred me to forums.

Push them a little, they threw some mumbo-jumbo at me too saying they couldn't do it. Then I pointed to the fact that they can, since they can force people to rename characters with offensive names, and then they suddenly could.

Osira · October 2014

Any idea when they will add these features? Shouldn't be that hard, I mean the character creator is already there.

JamilaRaj · October 2014

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

JamilaRaj wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

I am tempted to come down on the side of no. I have nothing inherently against the idea or indeed people using it, but not being able to change things like that forces you to think about your character and how you initially create them. It makes it more meaningful. If you call your character something like "Sir Noobs-a-Lot" or something like that because you think it's funny at the time, that's certainly your choice but should be sticking to it.

Now think about this from a player retention side. Sure, you want to make the game challenging and have punishing elements in it, but you really dont want to make the player feel theyve screwed themselves over permanently by a bad decision. They are more likely to quit than to redo the exact same content with a new character. Especially when the leveling process is rather lenghty. This goes mainly for builds/specs but its also pertinent to names and appearance.

Besides, appearance change has been pretty much confirmed. They want to have it in the game and new customization options have already been created for it. Theyre deciding how to best implement it. We'll just have to wait and see if they'll put name changing on their to-do list as well.

Also Im still hoping theyll announce craftable costumes or some other form of vanity system eventually.

From player retention side, trying to appease this kind of players is waste of time. They could as well demand change of gender, class (after all, they do did not know beforehand what class is like, unlike name or looks, and it takes so much time to level new character), mount, whatever, and then they will quit anyway. You can take a look at any free to pay game, there is literally everything in cash shops, games are successful in milking such players, but they still hop from game to game.
Ironically, also players who were initially appeased would quit, because they eventually realize they log into everchanging psychedelic circus and not even leveling a new char is going to help it.

Not to say name change option alone will break game, just watch out for that principle behind.

Whats there to watch out for? Sure there are people who will quit regardless of this but you can say that about any single aspect of a game. Some people will quit regardless of how good the story is. Some will quit despite brilliant graphics. Does it mean devs shouldnt bother with these things?

QoL changes might not be a priority but they are never a waste of time.

The devs should bother, but I can only repeat: not to appease this kind of players.

Kreetar · October 2014

I think there was a poll about this a few days ago, and I think I voted "no" but have found since then that my mind has changed [somewhat]. I made a character that I thought I was just going to use to make gold and help my poor veteran out, but I grew to love her and feel a connection with her (DON'T JUDGE ME

) and would love to change the silly name I gave her.

BrightnessSyl · October 2014

I'd love a way to change appearance and maybe in game name (not username).
Pretty sure the guy that names his Knight Blade "Buttsfursale" is feeling namers remorse.

Newk · October 2014

I would like a race change, Wood Elf - Templar, stam builds is not good for templars imo, unless I want to be Tank I guess then my passives or not completely wasted.

deathmasterl_ESO · October 2014

Aoife32001 wrote: »

As one who loves games like this to be as realistic as possible within the given lore, I would nevertheless love the ability to change not only cosmetic traits but structural ones as well. In TES games, I'm constantly using cheat codes to tweak my character until I get it just as I want it, and don't really have the time nor the desire to have to completely re-start in order to make those minor changes.

That being said, while a cosmetic editor would be ideal in-game, I would think it best if such a full-blown character editor were utilized at the log-in screen rather than in-game. As much as I would like to see such an editor, I would really hate to see ZoS try to come up with some explanation as to how I can go from 6'07" to 5'08".

Just let players make structural changes and move on as if nothing happened. Don't try working an explanation into the game...

I'm not gonna lie you probably have the best idea on how to do this for the future with the log in screen having the option after you click the selected character.

WraithAzraiel · October 2014

They'll get around to putting in a barbershop or Face Scultpor ala Skyrim at some point in the future.

Patience. They've already got a timeline with a plethora of new content they're going to get to first before anything else goes up on the proverbial "board".

ShirleyShine · October 2014

I'm happy with my Toon, but I have a buddy who went with an Argonian because it was his usual choice in ES games, but he's always been unhappy with it. Now, at Vet 1 with him he just doesn't play him anymore. It would be great if people like him could change the race.
I wouldn't know, because I play Breton, but he said from get go that his lizard was so far from what he expected him to be, it was a real let down.
Unlike me, he is an experienced MMO player, so that must mean something?

SecretSurprise · October 2014

Stop being lazy and offer this service! lol
Just grant people the chance to change it once or for a limited of times for each character; just so people aren't over doing it or abusing the service.

Varicite · October 2014

Aoife32001 wrote: »

I would really hate to see ZoS try to come up with some explanation as to how I can go from 6'07" to 5'08".

*brandishes hatchet*

Easy enough...

Hortator Indoril Nerevar · October 2014

+1 to the idea to be able to change name and appearance.

AngryNord · October 2014

Hortator Indoril Nerevar wrote: »

+1 to the idea to be able to change name and appearance.

Seconded. At least for appearance.

Necronomicon · October 2014

I've made two polls, commented on 20 forums threads talking about this topic and taken 10 other polls on this topic. We need apperance change please.

SecretSurprise · October 2014

Let's go on strike!

Give us what we want, give us what we want, give us what we want! haha ;P

Mondo · October 2014

Give us beauty we give you money!

Slaunyeh · October 2014

Absolutely. And, to be frank, I don't really understand why you'd launch an MMO in 2014 without these features (or, at the very least, concrete plans for these features.)

Scylos · October 2014

Hi all !

I am glad SecretSurprise started discussion on this topic again. I agree that players should be able to change their physical and facial features if they want. To correct mistakes made in character creator before starting the game and to let them evolve their characters. I would love to to put few scars on the face of my character or some years after playing him for quite some time. Maybe lose some muscle mass as he is getting older, grow a gray beard ect. I am surprised they have not implemented this feature in last months and its long overdue. I hope they will do it in a near future. Race and sex should remain unchangeable.

Zorrashi · October 2014

Fine with both appearance and name changes. Even if it is done through the cash shop. All I ask is that race (and maybe gender) be unchangeable.

But it would be nice if we had quest related formalities just for immersions sake. You know? Like heading to a registrar to change your name so they can 'keep track of you as one of their citizens'. Or implementing a barber and/or a face sculptor for appearance changes.

GoatKnuckle · October 2014

Nestor wrote: »

SecretSurprise wrote: »

I don't see why they wouldn't just allow you to delete unlimited amounts?

It was done to combat the gold spammers and bots, and it worked. So, it needs to stay.

Proof positive, right there. The bots and spammers disappearing had NOTHING to do with the drop in subscribers after initial release.

And you know, because spammers were only having individual toons that they spammed with banned and they weren't banned at the account level.

Come on now.

Nerouyn · October 2014

SecretSurprise wrote: »

I feel strongly about adding a feature for allowing characters the ability to change their names and possibly the chance to alter appearance.

As a new player I strongly agree with an in-game appearance change option.

With the character deletion restriction and lighting in the game being different from the character creator, it took me a little over 2 weeks to make an argonian whose appearance I was completely happy with. That's 2 weeks I wasn't playing the race and faction who I ended up actually enjoying.

Really bad for the game. If we were able to change our appearance in-game then it wouldn't be an issue.

Re name change I don't think it's desperately needed like appearance change but can't see any harm in it. Given we can see account names in-game I don't think we need to worry about griefers abusing name changes to avoid heat.

Elvikun · October 2014

k9mouse wrote: »

I vote "NO!" -- making a char should mean something and changing it at will not help to build up the player based. I do get to know your char somewhat on their looks and all of sudden he or she does not look the same, does not help people who like to RP, or your char background. IMHO, if you want a new looking char, then re roll the alt. Once the die is cast, one must live how the die has landed.

One aspect of the ESO what should be like RL life -- once someone is born (aka created) one does not get to change their looks or tats can not really be removed easy or horns in case of Argonian or spots on a Khajiit.

This is a BIG may be, hair or other aspects that one can change like in RL life. Also, if ZOS does let player changed their chars, it should be cost A LOT! to discourage over used. I hope ZOS never let this "bad idea" of changing char in ESO at any time.

I rather not see any type of char name, or look changes in ESO. (Unless, it is causing a bug with special chars in the name -- then talk to a GM and should be a case by case bases. Not a player self fix)

Also, if a player is a troll or like to cause trouble -- changing name or looks will cause more problems for guilds and / or groups. It based to live with the char name and people can know who you are and treat you accordingly

I just have to ask you, how many times, in real life, you put on your clothes and went "Oh, whoops, my ass is clipping trough my clothes and those new boots dissapered in my leg!"? Or alternatively noticed that parts of your clothing and backpack just levitate around your body?
Well, this happens in games, and it's hard to tell just how far can you move the sliders to avoid clipping, floaters and other similar things, like you face sticking though the side of solid metal helmet. Being able to move the sliders later in the game solves it. And yes, just wanting a fresh look is just as good.

Additionally, arguing against appearance change is a bit "meh", because it's a feature many want and you can completely ignore, but going against it is quite literally "I don't want it, so you can't have it either.".

As for names, well, I would agree that it should be hard to get (cash shop, possibly) to avoid griefing. Even tho the possibilities are limited, due to the ESO "don't care about characters, all is account-wide" approach.

Beega · October 2014

I know some players would love to see some sort of make over device in the future just like I would.

Gythral · October 2014

I really do not understand why
name change
barbershop
tattoo parlour
and a re-sculpture of the character
simply are not available at a large gold cost, as they all make great sinks to take gold out of the economy.

Aenra · October 2014

would use it if they ever implemented it.
not sure if i'd ever pay for it however, not unless they made it cheap anyway. The typical 15 euro a pop that one game offered and all others copy pasted is just way, way too much. Paying is one thing, being taken for a fool quite another.