Name change as donation perk

[Sacha]

Since name change requests for RP reasons will get rejected, but people with acceptable names might desire a change nonetheless, I thought it might be a good idea to allow it as a perk of donating money. People with inappropriate names would still be able to get a change for free, but those who want to change it for RP or flavor reasons would have to make a contribution in return for a one-off name change.

Thoughts?

[Anaris]

If you don't like your character's name, you should not have created the character with that name.

I can think of very, very few reasons for an IC name change, and pretty much all of them should be accompanied by, at the least, resetting your honour and prestige to what they would be for a new character.

[Sacha]

Well in my case it's not the character name that I'd like changed, it's my family's. No real IC reason for it, just that I think it's bland the way it is now.

[Anaris]

Well in my case it's not the character name that I'd like changed, it's my family's. No real IC reason for it, just that I think it's bland the way it is now.

That's even worse. Like, massively. Your family name should be a huge part of your identity. Changing that...well, I honestly can't come up with any IC reason to change your family name that shouldn't be coupled with your entire family trying to change its identity, go underground, flee the country, that sort of thing.

So...yeah, I don't know for certain what Tom's going to say, but I'm gonna go on record as being strongly against it.

[Sacha]

Well, I can understand why it wouldn't be acceptable for myself... but what about people who come into the game as Joe Smith or Steve Johnson? Those names are perfectly acceptable, and a name change for them would be rejected on that basis, yet I'd want to change it if I come into realms where half the people sound like they walked out of a Tolkien novel.

A bit like this delightful Penny Arcade strip:

[Peri]

maybe one can be allowed to change name within a certain timeframe from the creation of it, but otherwise I agree with delvin. Bm is a lot about who you are and your past, a namechange would wipe it out too easily and the game would lose a lot.

[Anaris]

Well, I can understand why it wouldn't be acceptable for myself... but what about people who come into the game as Joe Smith or Steve Johnson?

If you realize within, say, a week of joining that your name is not one you want to keep, then deleting your account and creating a new one should not be too onerous.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Yes, because that's exactly what a new player wants to do. Start over from scratch. I'm sure that'll do wonders for our retention.

[Draco Tanos]

So long as the family page will list former family names, I can't see an issue with it.  Hell, Blizzard allows similar without the name tracking, so we could tweak it to suit our needs and wants. 

[Lefanis]

Well, I can understand why it wouldn't be acceptable for myself... but what about people who come into the game as Joe Smith or Steve Johnson? Those names are perfectly acceptable, and a name change for them would be rejected on that basis, yet I'd want to change it if I come into realms where half the people sound like they walked out of a Tolkien novel.

Got to agree with Sacha. Let everyone be able to change it once, and list what they changed it from.

I changed my family name from Le-Fay to Lefanis, and I think everyone deserves the chance to change from that generic name they give themselves when they join the game to something unique. If I had been told to delete my account for name change, I'd have left the game.

[Tom]

I've followed quietly to see what the pro and con arguments are.

I do think that we should get a bit more relaxed on name changes, and tracking them is a good way enable us to do that. Unfortunately, we have tons of other issues around right now that need our attention, but I support the basic idea.

I'm not sure about tying it in with donations. This really isn't a Freemium game and I don't want to turn it into one.

[Indirik]

I would support free, no-strings attached, name changes within, say, 2 weeks of account creation. So regardless of whether the original name is "OK", as long as the new name is also "OK", let them do it. Changing a family/character name is hardly an onerous task. (I think it's just a matter of looking at the request list and clicking a yes/no button.) So I don't see requiring new players to delete an account and recreate it as being a satisfactory option. We *want* people to play our game. We have the ability to be nice to them. Why don't we just be nice?

[vonGenf]

Could there be an island-wide announcement when such a name change occurs? I remember at least once when an important character changed her name and it took me some time to realize it was the same character.

[Indirik]

Ideally, the "important characters" won't be getting name changes. Hence, the 2-week limit.

[fodder]

there's the news page when you log in... seriously...