Why is name change so expensive ?

Bansidhe1965 · February 2018

Really getting into the game so started reading up on lore,Hmm,I need a surname,chose one
went online,found name change in store and my jaw dropped!

Is there a reason for this prohibitive price ? I thought it would be a minor thing to change,what am I missing ?

I'll just keep an eye out for a sale on them,though I'll probably crack and buy on in the end

Bansidhe1965 · February 2018

Aaaargh,I promise i searched namechange first and got nothing,I invoke noob waiver on this,sorry peeps

Danikat · February 2018

Having quickly googled prices for name changes in World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Black Desert Online and Rift $10 seems to be the price standard for a name change, so it's generally not cheap but ESO does seem unusually expensive - it's about $18 if you buy a back of 5,500 crowns (slightly more if you buy smaller packs or subscribe, less if you buy the larger packs).

I've heard that a lot of MMO developers don't want name changes to be too cheap or easy because many players get to be known by the community by their character name/s (even if account names can also be seen) and they don't want it to be too easy to shed your reputation and start over.

Whether that's true or not I don't know, but it's what I've often heard. That and depending on how the game is built it may not be an easy change because a lot of things can be tied to your character name.

QuebraRegra · February 2018

They should add one free name change, and appearance change token as level rewards.

AcadianPaladin · February 2018

I agree that name changes are substantially overpriced.

greylox · February 2018

Really annoying but one night when I was drunk and made a new toon I forgot to make one letter a capital.....just can't bring myself to spend that to change one letter from lower to upper case.

Danikat · February 2018

greylox wrote: »

Really annoying but one night when I was drunk and made a new toon I forgot to make one letter a capital.....just can't bring myself to spend that to change one letter from lower to upper case.

Unless you somehow got them to level 50 that same night surely you could have deleted them and remade them when you realised?

Stickbow · February 2018

The 'don't want it to be too easy to shed your reputation and start over' makes as much sense as anything - though it would seem to be less of a concern on ESO since you can see account name pretty easily, so account name is ultimately more of an identifier than 'toon name.

From a system performance 'hit' perspective, name change is more expensive (i.e. requires more changes to the DB) than appearance change. It has to change your name in the database, on all the items you ever created via crafting, etc.

I expect they had sense enough to code it using a UUID instead of hard coding the name, but it still has to update that name change pretty much everywhere - I don't expect it caches all that on initial load.

At the same time, no human intervention is required, so I don't get why any of the character customizations (race, name, appearance) cost as much as they do - in this or any other game.

BloodWolfe · February 2018

Because ZOS is taking greed to a whole new level. I think they saw EA and how bad they are and wanted to beat them lol. In this game everyone is known by their account name anyway so a name change isn't as big a deal here as say in WoW so to use that excuse is pointless because account name will never change so no reason I can't change my character name for a reasonable price.

OrdoHermetica · February 2018

Because the Crown Store is expensive on balance compared to the competition, and has been since the start. That's the simple answer. ESO isn't the most expensive game out there, but it's certainly not cheap.

AcadianPaladin · February 2018

I've used the name change thing several times ($$$) and have found that it doesn't change the name on items your old name created.

Lazrael · February 2018

Many of the more superficial bits of content are WAY overpriced in ESO. Its's an online game, changing your fictional avatars name shouldn't cost near $20.

Grimm13 · February 2018

Danikat wrote: »

I've heard that a lot of MMO developers don't want name changes to be too cheap or easy because many players get to be known by the community by their character name/s (even if account names can also be seen) and they don't want it to be too easy to shed your reputation and start over.

Whether that's true or not I don't know, but it's what I've often heard. That and depending on how the game is built it may not be an easy change because a lot of things can be tied to your character name.

This is a flawed argument as ESO players have the ability to see the account names, which is used more often to get to know the community as it's one name instead of up to 15. The cost is unreal and done strictly out of greed.

You can can make a free change of account name, which is more of a support of the argument. I do not know if there is a limit on this change. It was hard enough to find out how to do it for my wife. They added it as of Sept of last year so that folks could change from real names, not knowing that it would be seen by all. A real problem for minors, so I am glad they have it at no cost.

A Character Name is a vanity item so sure let them be changed, just charge a reasonable rate. Want to charge a unreasonable one, then have it be the in game gold purchase of the privilege.

Sagz · February 2018

Bansidhe1965 wrote: »

Really getting into the game so started reading up on lore,Hmm,I need a surname,chose one
went online,found name change in store and my jaw dropped!

Is there a reason for this prohibitive price ? I thought it would be a minor thing to change,what am I missing ?

I'll just keep an eye out for a sale on them,though I'll probably crack and buy on in the end

My only issue is that most of the time you see the @name instead of character name anyway, so why does it matter if you change it 500 times, people only see the @name anyway, only names i see are in the character select screen and about my FTC heal bar. So in reality it should be like 100 crowns.

I even got the add on to only see the @name because in guild chat it is only @name, so if someone said something in zone and guild chat it would be under 2 different names, just my OCD i guess and made them the same at all times.

In agreement though, i would rather not see the @name at all, it should always be character name, period. Then the cost i would be OK with.

Danikat · February 2018

Sagz wrote: »

Bansidhe1965 wrote: »

Really getting into the game so started reading up on lore,Hmm,I need a surname,chose one
went online,found name change in store and my jaw dropped!

Is there a reason for this prohibitive price ? I thought it would be a minor thing to change,what am I missing ?

I'll just keep an eye out for a sale on them,though I'll probably crack and buy on in the end

My only issue is that most of the time you see the @name instead of character name anyway, so why does it matter if you change it 500 times, people only see the @name anyway, only names i see are in the character select screen and about my FTC heal bar. So in reality it should be like 100 crowns.

I even got the add on to only see the @name because in guild chat it is only @name, so if someone said something in zone and guild chat it would be under 2 different names, just my OCD i guess and made them the same at all times.

In agreement though, i would rather not see the @name at all, it should always be character name, period. Then the cost i would be OK with.

Is this a console UI thing? I see the character name with the account name in smaller text below it, and the character name in chat.

Slick_007 · February 2018

QuebraRegra wrote: »

They should add one free name change, and appearance change token as level rewards.

no. there are far better rewards for levelling than a name change token which likely 95% of players will not use.

Slick_007 · February 2018

Danikat wrote: »

Is this a console UI thing? I see the character name with the account name in smaller text below it, and the character name in chat.

you can change your preferences at least on pc to use character name or user id. this determines what you see above their head but when you target them you see both.

Sagz · February 2018

Danikat wrote: »

Sagz wrote: »

Bansidhe1965 wrote: »

Really getting into the game so started reading up on lore,Hmm,I need a surname,chose one
went online,found name change in store and my jaw dropped!

Is there a reason for this prohibitive price ? I thought it would be a minor thing to change,what am I missing ?

I'll just keep an eye out for a sale on them,though I'll probably crack and buy on in the end

My only issue is that most of the time you see the @name instead of character name anyway, so why does it matter if you change it 500 times, people only see the @name anyway, only names i see are in the character select screen and about my FTC heal bar. So in reality it should be like 100 crowns.

I even got the add on to only see the @name because in guild chat it is only @name, so if someone said something in zone and guild chat it would be under 2 different names, just my OCD i guess and made them the same at all times.

In agreement though, i would rather not see the @name at all, it should always be character name, period. Then the cost i would be OK with.

Is this a console UI thing? I see the character name with the account name in smaller text below it, and the character name in chat.

No, its an add on called pnames, so group, zone etc all show @names. Worth it imho

Greevir · February 2018

Kind of funny that you have to pay to change your character name but can change your account name whenever you want...

Slick_007 · February 2018

Sagz wrote: »

No, its an add on called pnames, so group, zone etc all show @names. Worth it imho

how is this different from displaying preferred names as user ids in the game settings?