Assembly Hall

Dodging reputation, evasion of consequence, shattering immersion, meta-gaming – all these thoughts are often misdirect towards Name Changing in ignorance of Character Transfers as it exists today.

Character Transfers provide no documentation of having been transferred. You can be can be scammed, blindsided, and utterly destroyed without knowing what you hit you or why – because the system is unregulated. What Name Changing intends to do is provide a regulated alternative to Character Transfers, in essence, reducing the amount of unregulated actions making EVE more secure while actually improving immersion and ‘adding to the tools in the sandbox’

What are gathered here are the coalesced ideas of Name Change threads of the past; a legacy to calm logic that will rise as often as need be



Essential Features of Name Changing: These are "must have's"

• AKA (or Alias, Name History, etc.) Tab – Similar to the Employment History tab it’s a record of name change permanently tied to that character
• Searchability – If "Bob" changes his name to "Steve" searching “Bob” will link to “Steve”
• Transfer of Standings – "Bob" is red to me; now that "Bob" has changed his name to "Steve" he will still be red to me. Red is red (odds are he won’t want to cuddle)
• Fee – I could care less what the amount is or whether it is ISK, PLEX, Aurum, Dollars/Euros, etc. Whatever level it is set to must be an effective deterrent to keep name changing from being a more efficient method of nefarious activity than the plentiful existing methods. Additionally, it must in part pay for itself (customer service, R&D, execution, etc.)
• Frequency – A name may be changed only after x amount of time (commonly a year between renaming). If a person wants to change their name every week, odds are it isn’t for a legitimate reason

Debated Features of Name Changing: Features that have been brought up but are currently deemed neither essential nor necessary. Listed for merit and consideration only

• Mass Mailing – Anyone either linked to or linked by the character (think character to Character Standings, Block List, etc.) would receive a notification email. Credited to Amarr Priest
Cannot change name within X time for doing Y – This was mentioned as “Can’t change a name within 48 hours of leaving a corp” by Faolan Fortune.
[**] Cooling-off – “No name changes will be completed no sooner than X days of applying for a name change.” Provides a window to rethink the new name and abort while denying the nefarious desire for instant results
[**]Kill Rights – Character must have no Kill Rights at the time of Name Change

• Case by case review – Literally, “Now Bob, why do you want to change your name? Let’s look at your activity of late...” Undeniably a very strong tool but impractical
• Security and/or Standing and/or SP Hit– Some feel this is necessary
• Character Transfer – Name Changes should not transfer in the event of a Character Transfer (reverting to the first name while preserving full name history) and/or no character having been transferred will ever be allowed a Name Change. This is highly divisive, but it keeps the character market level
[**] Only with Character Transfer -- views have been going both ways lately

• Real Need – “"Homm3rsexsual" changing to "IkillU2and4eva" should be rejected, but if "Homm3rsexsual" changing to something similar as normal human name (like John Peterson, Cliff Johnson and such), should be approved.” By Gordon Colt
• One time only – again, divisive, but with a strong following and inherit merit of encouraging legitimate use
• Begin with the Same Letter – The new name and the old name must begin with the same letter to deter Name Changes on the basis of being targeted in fleets
• Security Rating – Character must have above a specified security rating to receive a Name Change
• API – It’ll be on there
• Permanent ID -- A searchable number forever bound to your character. It could even be called a 'Pilot Certification Number' for role playing
• Private Investigation Skillset -- tools to make a sub-career in the post AKA world. Credited to Sapphire Fangborn in Post #77
• Temporarily "'New Name' AKA 'Old Name'" -- Your new name is " Y aka old name" for like 3 months and then it is just Y (where Y is new name) -- by Sentenced 1989 in Post #100

In Closing

What I’ve tried to do here is illustrate the considerations towards Name Changing and reassure the doubtful that EVE would be enriched rather than destroyed. In specific I hope we can agree to disagree, but in general – are you with me? What more would you like added? What is insufficient? Which criteria are necessary, which aren’t?

Liked. But dammit, no Aurum.

Allow a name change.

I like many others were in 'trial' mode when I chose to pay for the game.

I did not know I would be stuck with the name for life.

You either have a character 'red' or you don't.
A name change no a character makes no difference.

If you have a character red, you most likely have notes on them as well (ie - stole from corp).


Allow it once for all paying accounts - PLEASE

CCP has some decent reasons for not allowing name changes, but the benefits to the player community outweigh the concerns.

Simply listing the name change in the character’s employment history would solve most concerns; though it would require players to take extra steps to research historical data in some cases (e.g. they would have to search market data for all names a character has held, etc.). CCP could probably develop more comprehensive solutions similar to those listed by the OP, but I'm not sure it’s worth the dev time.

In any case, CCP takes an alarmist stance toward name changes, while character transfers are far more problematic. IMO a name change should be required when a character is transferred. I don't necessarily want name changes limited to transfers, but they should occur during a transfer at the very least.

but... how will I mock corpmates who buy n00bpwnr01 if they can just change the name? DO NOT LIKE.

I support the ability to change a character's name, I do have some issues with some of the options you listed in your post.

However, CCP should determine the functionality of changing character names.



For all those who would argue that they can't track someone because of corp theft or whatever, do you realize how easy it is to create an alt on an existing account? Yes, you can require an API key. Or create a trial account and just start a new character? Doesn't take any skillpoints to be a corp thief. I can buy another character just as easy. So it seems like both of these are much easier ways to get around 'player identity' than changing the character's name.


This seems like the perfect opportunity for an infusion of money to CCP, just like the now outdated money a picture change, I would pay to change my name.

As another suggestion, you could create a new forum and require people to post there.

Consider the Debated Feature: "Character Transfer – Name Changes should not transfer in the event of a Character Transfer (reverting to the first name while preserving full name history) and/or no character having been transferred will ever be allowed a Name Change. This is highly divisive, but it keeps the character market level." I believe this satisfies your issue

Dodging reputation, evasion of consequence, meta-gaming, all bad things that come from the allowed practice of character transfers is only made worse with the addition of name changing. Until the priors are solved first, let's not introduce more problems. Do not like.

No.

With searchability on old name there is no reason why this would happen.

The very, very slight increase in ability to dodge reputation is completely negligible compared to all the gazillion ways already available. If people would actually have reasons against allowing it I could maybe be persuaded they are right, but the only ones disagreeing either have reasons that dont make any sense (like this one), or dont even bother with posting a reason.