We owe you an apology. Some time ago, we communicated a plan to make a paid name change service available to players. We want you to be able to change your name in-game more freely, and do so as often as you like.
The small percentage of players who used the free name changes that we previously offered, the introduction of Battle.net Battle Tags, careful consideration of how character names will work with Battle Tags in the future, and our increasing focus on completing StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm all contributed to us deprioritizing the Paid Character Name Change feature. The fact that we didn’t keep you updated when we deprioritized the feature was a mistake, and we aim to do a much better job of keeping you informed in the future.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that the lack of name change options has caused anyone. We’ve definitely heard your passion for this subject, and we should have more information about a Paid Character Name Change feature shortly after the release of Heart of the Swarm. In the meantime, we’ve added a new free name change to all player accounts.
We’re planning to offer another free name change to all players when the new Clans feature goes live in the next couple of months, so don’t worry about removing your clan tag from your character name with this one. We will alert you to that when the time comes.
If you'd like to change your character name, log in to Account Management and choose your StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game license. On your game license screen a "Character Name Change" button at the bottom will initiate the request. After confirming that you'd like to change your character name, log in to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and you'll be prompted to assign your character a new name.
It's a step in the right direction, still waiting for unlimited though. I changed my tag like 2-3 days after I created my account and have wanted to change it several times since.
Lets all celebrate them finally agreeing to charge us for something that should be free!
Wait I did that wrong..
Why do we want to pay for this feature again? It's not an RPG, we aren't renaming a character. It doesn't matter if we change our names on ladder because our opponents are chosen for us and we don't even play people within our own leagues, so who are we meant to be fooling?
seriously their sc2 team must be like 10 people... DB, DK, MC, 2 more balancers, cloaken, 2 other community managers, and 1 misc
all jokes aside, this is great haha, even though I never changed my name xD I hope it didn't overlap like last time, and that i have 2 free name changes now and not 1 still... but doesn't matter too much to me heheh
also is nice how they were considerate enough to inform us about how clans would affect this and all
Why is everyone excited about this feature? I mean sure, I would like to change my name as well but I'm surprised or rather still find it bizzare that they want to have it as a paid service. I mean you're changing your name yet they plan to charge the customer for it >< Am I the only one who feels this way?
Thanks for making us pay for something we can do freely in the "predecessor" made 13 effing years ago Also, here's how i feel about this :
We’ve definitely heard your passion for this subject, and we should have more information about a Paid Character Name Change feature shortly after the release of Heart of the Swarm. In the meantime, we’ve added a new free name change to all player accounts.
edit : exactly what this guy said :
On January 12 2013 10:17 GodZo wrote: We don't want a change name. We just want bnet 1.0.
- The possibility to create free other nicknames - Have all the bnet functions, without to display name and surname, for privacy reasons.
Great for them to (finally) clarify this. The free name change is nice on their part... I think this is all building towards making us fall in love with Blizzard again pre-HOTS
Yeah, way too little way to late. I don't want / need the feature, and I still hadn't used my last name change. But oh god has this feature taken way to long. Blizzard's priority list is something I'd love to see T_T.
Excellent for a free name change. I think they will put in a paid one, but its more important to get HotS right than get the paid change into the game.
"We want you to be able to change your name in-game more freely, and do so as often as you like."
How do they type this with a straight face when their plan all along is to charge money to change your name. You'd think at some point they would stop and say " couldn't we just let them change their name like any other fucking game ever"
Implementing a clansystem is something so easy to do for a company with a budget like blizzard, it really doesnt deserve any applause. Back in 2007 Supreme commander already had clan mode and free name change just to name an RTS example.
On January 12 2013 09:24 Glurkenspurk wrote: How many times are they gonna apologize about not keeping us updated on stuff until they actually start keeping us updated on stuff?
That's probably because they make more money by not telling you anything. How many players bought multiple accounts? I wouldn't have had I known when they were doing this.
i just dont get how in a game like dota u can change ur name whenever u like, but wiht starcraft ur kinda stuck with one. doesnt seem to make much sense to me.
I really wish there was name changes on HOTS beta (With regards to WOL, I will be using mine. I used my name and now there are like 20 people with that name). Way back when I first used my test account I was way into Miami bass music and named one of my test server accounts after DJ Magic Mike, the well known Miami bass DJ who was kind of a big deal in that scene. Flash forward to this year, I sign into beta and see the name of my account. At first I chuckled but after being called various homophobic epithets it dawned on my why this was happening. That movie came out. If you don't believe me go check HOTS GM.
What's wrong with a free name change? It's ok if more people have troll names with this feature, no one really cares either way. Keeping track of players who often change their names wouldn't be a problem, the real id friending system and character codes work fine for identifying players.
I also don't get the "greed" argument, because paid name changes wouldn't bring blizzard much revenue in comparison to the money they get from selling the original game and expansions. Either way, having paid name changes is better than having no name changes except for unpredictable, non-overlapping free name changes, so I guess this is an improvement.
If Blizzard is unwilling to provide an unrestricted free name changes for whatever reason, they could also offer a free name change periodically, and charge for any additional name changes.
Lol fuck off, we wanted it like, 2 years ago, now only they realize it? I know it's better late than never, but now it's too late, it's not hard to make that feature, why the heck could we do that for free on Dota² for example, EVERYTIME we wish it, but not on Sc2, srsly.
I lost a lot of interest in Sc2, even though I took a picture with MMA months ago at the Iron Squid, I lost faith, I hope it'll back with Hots. Blizzard messed too much to my mind, really too much
On January 12 2013 12:54 fAnTaCy wrote: Didn't the announce this like a year and a half ago? Lol, either way still good if they're actually making it happen now
Recently, some inaccurate information was shared with the community in regard to the future of a paid name change service, so we wanted to take some time to clarify our current stance on the implementation of this feature. Our original plans to implement a paid name change service have not changed, and it is indeed something that we would like to make available as soon as possible. As with any feature, however, it remains a matter of scheduling it among our other development projects before it can be introduced. We’re not able to give a specific timeframe yet, but we are targeting work to begin late this year or early next year. We’ll share release plans once we’re further along in the process.
As always, your ongoing constructive feedback is appreciated.
Now to let us have two letter names so I can use mine. :/ Forced me to use my change before I could even check whether or not they decided to remove the arbitrary limit of 3 chars gg.
omg if only blizzard had done this 12 months ago when we asked, then 11 months ago when we asked again, then 10 months ago when we asked yet again, then 9 months ago when some commentator said something about it @ a tournament, then ....
blizzard is lazy. No thanks, this should have been done ages ago. You already have the system in place for WoW, no reason that they couldn't do it for SC2, they are just fat, lazy and useless.
On January 12 2013 12:54 fAnTaCy wrote: Didn't the announce this like a year and a half ago? Lol, either way still good if they're actually making it happen now
Recently, some inaccurate information was shared with the community in regard to the future of a paid name change service, so we wanted to take some time to clarify our current stance on the implementation of this feature. Our original plans to implement a paid name change service have not changed, and it is indeed something that we would like to make available as soon as possible. As with any feature, however, it remains a matter of scheduling it among our other development projects before it can be introduced. We’re not able to give a specific timeframe yet, but we are targeting work to begin late this year or early next year. We’ll share release plans once we’re further along in the process.
As always, your ongoing constructive feedback is appreciated.
Well i dont even know what to say. 1.5 year to implement the simplest name change feature. What the hell is wrong there. Are they working for 2 hours/week?
On January 12 2013 12:54 fAnTaCy wrote: Didn't the announce this like a year and a half ago? Lol, either way still good if they're actually making it happen now
Recently, some inaccurate information was shared with the community in regard to the future of a paid name change service, so we wanted to take some time to clarify our current stance on the implementation of this feature. Our original plans to implement a paid name change service have not changed, and it is indeed something that we would like to make available as soon as possible. As with any feature, however, it remains a matter of scheduling it among our other development projects before it can be introduced. We’re not able to give a specific timeframe yet, but we are targeting work to begin late this year or early next year. We’ll share release plans once we’re further along in the process.
As always, your ongoing constructive feedback is appreciated.
Well i dont even know what to say. 1.5 year to implement the simplest name change feature. What the hell is wrong there. Are they working for 2 hours/week?
Just because it seems simple to you doesn't mean that Blizzard is lazy. Maybe one day when you have a big boy job you'll see it's not some simple matter to do something productive in the massive mess of bureaucracy that is a corporation.
Why not just make a limit so you can only change your name once per season, or once per 2/3 months? I guess this way is better at making the $$$ so why pass it up... still sucks imo!
On January 12 2013 09:57 Gingerninja wrote: Lets all celebrate them finally agreeing to charge us for something that should be free!
Wait I did that wrong..
Why do we want to pay for this feature again? It's not an RPG, we aren't renaming a character. It doesn't matter if we change our names on ladder because our opponents are chosen for us and we don't even play people within our own leagues, so who are we meant to be fooling?
Charging for it is a good idea to discourage it from being used. Basically the same reason why you can't name change in TL if you have over 500 posts. So that people will tend to have 1 identity in the community.
Having a cooldown but no costs would make it feel as though you are able to change your name once every two months, or whatever the cooldown is,without consequence.
Barcode here I come. Oh, and how about making an account with my legal name so I'm forced to be well mannered? It will be a self improvement project. xD
On January 12 2013 16:18 Akira Duncan wrote: Barcode here I come. Oh, and how about making an account with my legal name so I'm forced to be well mannered? It will be a self improvement project. xD
plz do so : D, everyone needs to make a barcode so we can all smurf!
Nice, would LOVE to see one here on TL as well (I personally don't want to stick with this name any longer, but I created this account shortly before changing my SC2 ID)
Is blz serious?! PAID name change for a simple embedded database command on their website?! IF they are concerned about ppl changing their names too often just make it once per season and thats it. Writing these statements and giving ppl feedback on it takes more time then actualy implementing the code :D
On January 12 2013 19:32 Justinian wrote: Everyone should stop such being a bunch of moaning bastards for once and be glad when they get something they asked for.
Two free name changes plus the option to pay for more sounds fine to me. How many times do you people want to change your name?
Is paid name change what you ask ? Free name change every seasons should be the strict minimum, raise you standards.
On January 12 2013 19:32 Justinian wrote: Everyone should stop such being a bunch of moaning bastards for once and be glad when they get something they asked for.
Two free name changes plus the option to pay for more sounds fine to me. How many times do you people want to change your name?
This has nothing to do with the quantity, it has to do with blizzard being way too damn lazy about doing something simple. But I think ppl also get the wrong reasons as to why they're complaining about. I really think Blizzard first implemented that one name only so we can identify the players before starting the game. But now with all of those Barcode players, all those things are pretty much useless.
From a technical perspective i can barely imagine that it takes more then 2 days which includes writing the code and getting it through QA, to implement a name change, hell, even a paid name change.
For them, with hots near completion, its yet another chance to sell a few more hots keys for ppl off-racing/smurfing and whatever. Expect free name change 2 years after LotV ...
I really don't understand why they didn't already do this years ago. It's a much requested feature that is easy as pie to implement and people are willing to pay for it. Only very few people are willing to buy a whole new game every time they change clans, but many would pay a small sum for altering that one field in a database.
Really, I don't like to repeat myself, but am I the only one who thinks it's better to charge people for that kind of extra stuff instead of turning SC into a f2p game everybody has to pay for continuously (to have equal access to content you would not otherwise)?
I don't really get why a name change couldn't be free and unlimited...? A cap of some sort, once a week would be fine. Charging money for one is not okay.
I don't really get why a name change couldn't be free and unlimited...? A cap of some sort, once a week would be fine. Charging money for one is not okay.
I dont like the ide of free or unlimited name change. Because I play this game quite a lot and from time to time I met people that use hacks, so if you know them from before you atleast get a headsup. I think the change you suggested would benefit the hackers to melt in way too much. They can still buy new copies or say pay for a name change, but if they spend extra cash, then I am happier! :D
Maybe I am just seeing the whole thing way too negative..
I don't really get why a name change couldn't be free and unlimited...? A cap of some sort, once a week would be fine. Charging money for one is not okay.
I dont like the ide of free or unlimited name change. Because I play this game quite a lot and from time to time I met people that use hacks, so if you know them from before you atleast get a headsup. I think the change you suggested would benefit the hackers to melt in way too much. They can still buy new copies or say pay for a name change, but if they spend extra cash, then I am happier! :D
Maybe I am just seeing the whole thing way too negative..
Should a game have less features because of hackers or less hackers and more features ?
Just because you apologize doesn't mean that everything is fine now. While I appreciate the free name change and it is a nice start, but if you really want to win back a lot of people that have lost faith in you then you need to deliver.
On January 12 2013 20:40 Creager wrote: Really, I don't like to repeat myself, but am I the only one who thinks it's better to charge people for that kind of extra stuff instead of turning SC into a f2p game everybody has to pay for continuously (to have equal access to content you would not otherwise)?
This has nothing to do with f2p. Name changes are a feature carried over from WoW, lol.
Been looking forward to another free name change. Also a little surprised that it's taking them so long to get paid name changes up. I expected it like six months after release. Better late than never to have name changes though, paid or not.
On January 12 2013 10:07 Hiea wrote: Why does name change cost something....
You could easily get another name in WC3/BW
So that Blizzard can more easily follow all their top players and thus allow them to control things a little easier. Also, greed.
It's just greed.
If it was greed we would have had paid name changes years ago, and the premium map shop feature they talked about in beta. Those were the two ways they planed to monetize SC2 and neither have happened yet. If Blizzard were truly greedy we'd had have those things ASAP.
do people really change their names that often? find a name and use it. There are a lot of things in life that if you don't think over will end up costing you later. They've given periodic name changes. The only issue I can see is if a player changes teams they were locked in. with the new clan tag system it seems like it's a non issue. I've been using this name on forums and games since before sc1. If you don't take your name seriously then why should blizz?
Paid name changes is so ridiculous, honestly. You have to pay for what exactly? They push a button and everyone gets a free name change (like thats something special) and they are promising the "feature" of a paid name change? I don't understand this world.
Paid name change is retarded. It should take them like a day to implement that even if it was a good idea. Apparently they have the ability to add name changes, apparently they have the ability to charge for things. They've probably spent more time discussing this announcement than it would have taken to just do it. This whole thing just gets dumber and dumber.
This kind of change takes an hour implement but takes them 3 years to do.
And the way they appreciate our patience is by charging us for the service. In essence, its like charging for water, because everyone else gives away tap water for free, but not if you go to a blizzard establishment.
On January 13 2013 04:15 bigbadgreen wrote: do people really change their names that often? find a name and use it. There are a lot of things in life that if you don't think over will end up costing you later. They've given periodic name changes. The only issue I can see is if a player changes teams they were locked in. with the new clan tag system it seems like it's a non issue. I've been using this name on forums and games since before sc1. If you don't take your name seriously then why should blizz?
Well it's kinda a feature that games have had more than a decade ago for free. Why one would jump for joy over the prospect of paying for the same feature I'm not sure. But if the barcode phenomom is any indicator, people want far more freedom than the current system allows. And I'm not sure paying for the feature is necessarily 'listening' unless our standards have lowered exceedingly. That said, of all things that could be changed in SC2... it's pretty small.
Obviously they just don't want people changing their names all the time, in which case implementing some kind of cooldown (1 month, 2 weeks, something) and making it free would probably be the best decision. I'm guessing they are going off their WoW business model where they charge pretty outrageous (IMO) prices just to switch servers to play with your friends or change names on one character, and finding that it makes more money in the long run.
On January 13 2013 14:25 TheIceMan86 wrote: I find it really funny how people are giving blizzard props for giving us something that was free 10 years ago.
People shouldn't be able to change names at all, and after the clan system is implemented there really won't be any legit reason.
The only reason for wanting to change your name is if you are an idiot but don't want people to know (or representing your clan/team, which will be sorted with the clan system).
On January 13 2013 14:25 TheIceMan86 wrote: I find it really funny how people are giving blizzard props for giving us something that was free 10 years ago.
People shouldn't be able to change names at all, and after the clan system is implemented there really won't be any legit reason.
The only reason for wanting to change your name is if you are an idiot but don't want people to know (or representing your clan/team, which will be sorted with the clan system).
Why is it so hard to understand that there are people who want to change their IDs they identify themselves with?
I'm sure you if you try a little harder you can come up with a couple of reasons more why people would want to change their IDs other than being an idiot.
I really hate when people cry for name changes and similar absolutely irrelevant stuff. There was always so much more important stuff we should have been askinig for (now a lot of it is finally at least partially implemented or on the way, such as unranked games, clan tags, tounrament maps on ladder etc.) but people still whine all the time about namechanges. You are just letting Blizzard get away in investing abosultely zero work into namechanges instead of doing something really usefull - and they still get thanked for that.
On January 12 2013 09:57 Gingerninja wrote: Why do we want to pay for this feature again? It's not an RPG, we aren't renaming a character. It doesn't matter if we change our names on ladder because our opponents are chosen for us and we don't even play people within our own leagues, so who are we meant to be fooling?
I must agree with you. It doesn't make sense for this to be a feature which requires payment. It really isn't an RPG, and you raised the correct question, "Who are we meant to be fooling?" Especially when most of the time we're matched with random opponents.
On January 13 2013 14:25 TheIceMan86 wrote: I find it really funny how people are giving blizzard props for giving us something that was free 10 years ago.
People shouldn't be able to change names at all, and after the clan system is implemented there really won't be any legit reason.
The only reason for wanting to change your name is if you are an idiot but don't want people to know (or representing your clan/team, which will be sorted with the clan system).
Really?? People who want to change their in game ID are idiots? Thats some ground breaking stuff right there. I mean forget that lets say, i dunno, 99% of people play sc2 unprofessionally regardless of their skill level.
You think its really important for casual gamers to be forced to play under a single id forever and if not they're an idiot? I can only wonder what other brilliant thoughts and idea's you have swirling around in your little brain. I won't hold my breath waiting to hear them though.
Personally I have no problem with paid name changes. If a company is supporting and improving a game for so long, they deserve some forms of payment.
Do you guys realize the amount of work put into SC2 release was greater than 99% of games out there, and do you realize that it cost just as much as any game. Then they continuously patched it, changes UI, made new maps, etc. So for me, giving them some money is okay for me, the people that change their names a lot in Brood War were generally trolls, having a couple name changes for free and then paid seems very good way to do it. Trolls might be unhappy, but overall I think it serves the game well.
The thing that I'm unhappy about, and most other people here is these bullshit apologies. "derp, it took us 30 months to make this name change, guys were very sorry for sucking, we will make sure not to suck next time, so come BUY our name change because we're so sorry."
So where my problem is, Blizzard isn't supporting the game we want it to. I'm willing to give Blizzard money periodically, if they give us stuff we're looking for, like new maps on ladder, chat channels, better UI, being timely with patches, and giving the community what we want opposed to what they think is best for us (again we'd be paying them for it).
I think it's totally reasonable to be paying 10-30 a year for constant support for a game you love to play. Hell, I'd be willing to pay even 50, but the shirt you job Blizzard is doing, they shouldn't be asking for anything, their player base for SC2 is going to be tiny by now anyways, only maybe 5-10 percent of the initial Starcraft players still play, the expansion won't explode all these figures.
Really like the idea of the paid name change as they have in WoW it makes it alot easier for though who do change teams alot and are always changing their names as well.! Great job Blizzard!
I hate all the people here that think this is good. Changing your name should not be a fucking paid option. You could always change your name in game before and I don't see what really change.
It will always be a mystery for me that people are accepting that as normal.
On January 14 2013 05:32 FiWiFaKi wrote: Personally I have no problem with paid name changes. If a company is supporting and improving a game for so long, they deserve some forms of payment.
Do you guys realize the amount of work put into SC2 release was greater than 99% of games out there, and do you realize that it cost just as much as any game. Then they continuously patched it, changes UI, made new maps, etc. So for me, giving them some money is okay for me, the people that change their names a lot in Brood War were generally trolls, having a couple name changes for free and then paid seems very good way to do it. Trolls might be unhappy, but overall I think it serves the game well.
The thing that I'm unhappy about, and most other people here is these bullshit apologies. "derp, it took us 30 months to make this name change, guys were very sorry for sucking, we will make sure not to suck next time, so come BUY our name change because we're so sorry."
...
Agree with most of this.
I've sometimes wondered how Blizz could make any profit out of BW given how long they've supported the game. I've played 1000's of BW games on their servers, maybe it's only fair I start paying a small fee occasionally, and I was originally happy to support them by paying $80 (in SA) for SC2.
What gets me isn't that Blizz wants my money, it's that they're trying to squeeze out every penny while providing an inferior product (by Blizzard standards).
Also Blizz must be one huge bureaucracy now to spend as much as they did ($100 million) on making SC2, and the fact they put more effort into development than other developers obviously means nothing, since they have a proportionally larger market share.
On January 12 2013 20:40 Creager wrote: Really, I don't like to repeat myself, but am I the only one who thinks it's better to charge people for that kind of extra stuff instead of turning SC into a f2p game everybody has to pay for continuously (to have equal access to content you would not otherwise)?
This has nothing to do with f2p. Name changes are a feature carried over from WoW, lol.
Erm, and what I stated is just that I'd prefer being charged for it than having to pay a monthly fee or extra stuff to be on par with other players... So did I compare apples with oranges?! So it seems, but it's actually not because Blizz surely doesn't really care HOW they generate their income, as long as it's generated somehow! Money is money, no matter how hard you look at it...
EPT
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