Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Not really saying that they should be strict overlords on what does and doesn't constitute a name... but simply adding the limitation that System Names, Cuss Words (CCP are very multicultural, I'd be surprised if they didn't have 1 person from each Nation they language support that they can ask "Hey what offensive words do you natively know?") and that god awful habit of using Leet for names.

I'm not against seeing a name like Mr Fredmeister 72 ... but 3limin4t0R instead of Eliminator is just ******* childish and annoying, given the main focus within this game is PvP; which means at someone point someone WILL have to attempt to call out these names. Mind this said I also feel that there should be a better language localiser, because if I'm playing in Engilsh I want to see English characters for what is being said; where-as if I'm playing in Japanese I'd prefer to see nothing but japanese characters.

There are pretty standardised systems for achieving this, just hope it makes it in to the game at some point. I mean if they go down the full translation route, Microsoft is currently working on software that not only perfectly translates text but also voices between language ... very weird hearing your own voice speak a language you don't know, but so damn cool.

Now don't get me wrong I do understand the whole "Scam" aspect here, but our names are merely String ID fields; we actually all have a unique "Clone Number" as it were for each account, you see it on the forums (profiles) you also see it on EVEGate and the API that killboards use. Why not simply have this shown with the character name, Scammers will always try to scam... hell I've seen people make characters specifically with similar names to scam with, if we had the Clone Number, this gives people a very definitive means of keeping track of people regardless of name changes.

Right now as I understand it the only thing that constitutes valid for a name change are names with bad language in them.
If that became an automated system that blocked them, everyone was forced to have a Last name (which ALL new characters are), there was a block on using System / Region / Faction names and the use of Numbers and Letter was limited to Seperate Words. This would provide a much cleaner and better system we can use for naming our characters.

There would possibly be some edge cases of loosing touch with people you don't have on your friends lists or potencial scams, but honestly it would do more good than potencial harm.

I also don't see an issue with name changing if it had say a 12 Subscribed Months Delay to when you can do it again and it cost a PLEX each time. Provided it was only 1 and they didn't stack like Attribute Respecs. Don't see how it could really do that much harm, plus that person would be stuck with it for atleast a year.

Almost every other MMO I know instigates a number of Naming Policies that are far more strict than EVE, simply because their audiences are generally younger .. EVE tend to appeal more to adults, but problem is I think we're actually worse than the damn kids, partly cause we know far more offensive terms. Would also echo that every other MMO I play allows you to change a characters name, either at will or for a nominal £10 fee.

As I said, I understand EVE is in a unique position with far more open nature to scam, but honestly with the ability to effectively create as many character as we like for free... how is not allowing people to change their names actually a big deal. We have depol to do it in real-life, surely they still have depol in the far future where there is only war (wait wrong IP lol)

"Your name is your reputation" is nothing short of a b******t excuse these days for not implementing name change. Only the ballsiest and/or most sociopathic players don't use alts to scam or otherwise inconvenience other players, instead of reveling in their bad rep. However, a considerable amount of people are avoiding karma simply by having alts. With the plex system having a "dirty work alt" is easier than it was ever before.

At the very least old characters should be offered a name change due to the limitations of the old character creation system, if for no other reason. I mean back in the day I'm not even sure if there was a name randomizer available (possibly was, but can't remember for sure), not to mention being able to have three parts to your name. I nevertheless would want this to become an actual paid feature wtih ideas that have been passed around before in greater detail, like once a year maximum, a reasonable yet abuse discouraging price tag (say, the price of a months sub, and you couldn't buy it with PLEX) at the very least.

To make a compromise to the ever complaining, self entitled bitter vets, namechanged accounts should be noticeable somehow, possibly having a small star(*), exclamation point(!) or any variant thereof, added behind their name.
It should be fairly unobtrusive on the name itself, but still appear in the overview/chatlists in a way that would be immediately noticeable. This would alert the most paranoid of us to check the many times over suggested name history tab of the character.

Personally I'd even be happy with just having a slot you could fill out yourself in style of roleplaying addons of other MMO's, that would display when opening character info, under a characters name. Other people could use it to add imaginary titles to themselves or something.

EDIT:
Adding this link for good measure to a thread about this in CSM, it debunks the common reasons for saying "no" much better than I ever could.
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=8710