Free StarCraft 2 Name Change Coming Ahead of Paid Name Changes

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Everyone will be getting one free name change for his or her StarCraft 2 character name from Blizzard soon, though Blizzard has only committed to the "near future" in terms of when this will be available.

"In some cases, people chose character names that don't represent their usual multiplayer nicknames, as they were unaware of how the character names were being used," explains Blizzard. "It's important to us that everyone is represented by a name of their choosing in their multiplayer games, ladders, and on the forums and community site."

This will not, however reset ladder statistics. Additionally, Blizzard will eventually introduce paid character name changes like with World of Warcraft.

From The Chatty
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    August 16, 2010 1:59 PM

    This is something that should be free to begin considering all this amounts to is changing a database entry. I understand the move to transform gaming in to cloud/service based but not every game needs to be treated with the same brush. Paid name changes just smacks of greed and nothing else. Starcraft II Avatar != MMO character so don't treat it as such.

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      August 16, 2010 2:07 PM

      They don't do it for greed. They do it so people have an identity. So you don't change it tons of times because you can't make up mind or for some other random reason unknown to the mass populace. I personally stick with the same name on PS3, Steam and previously, 360. When I had one. It makes sense for people to be known and be gone with the problems associated with anonymity.

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        August 16, 2010 2:24 PM

        The problem with that is that character name in this case isn't your identify as battle.net 2.0 uses RealID which shows your real name. So the question remains why limit in anyway what people can name their avatars. The paid name changes will likely keep everything from your ladder to friend lists intact which like I mentioned already had access to your real identity. It would be hard in any case to simply have a alias log like steam uses or have a delaying mechanism to allow you to only do it once a day/week whatever.

        Considering that some people change their character names in games that don't offer proper clan support to add clan tags. So do you expect these people stick with old clan tags when they move on to another.

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          August 16, 2010 2:26 PM

          [fixed]It wouldn't be hard in any case to simply have a alias log like steam uses or have a delaying mechanism to allow you to only do it once a day/week whatever.

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          August 16, 2010 8:09 PM

          It doesn't show your real name. The only time it does is if you add somebody as a Real Life Friend, rather than a mere Friend.

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      August 16, 2010 2:09 PM

      This is the new Blizzard we're talking about. Greed. Control. That's all they have now.

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        August 16, 2010 2:21 PM

        So is it the Greed or the Control causing them to offer a free name change?

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        August 17, 2010 5:35 AM

        yup.. that's what i've been saying to my friends since wow came, they're very greedy now, make millions from wow + charge for name change,realm transfer, race change.. just won 80million in lawsuit and then announce this yeah..

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      August 16, 2010 2:15 PM

      Get over it. Why would you need more than 1 anyway?

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        August 16, 2010 2:24 PM

        Free name change and a solution to pay if you desperately need to do so afterward. I see no reason to complain.

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        August 16, 2010 2:49 PM

        ... for an online RTS, I see that all the time.

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      August 16, 2010 3:25 PM

      Free = people will do it all the time.

      $$$ = People will do it less often.

      Really that's what it's all about. They don't want you to change your name.

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        August 16, 2010 4:48 PM

        not more than once anyway

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        August 16, 2010 4:59 PM

        I don't know all the issues, but I believe that a solution to the problem you rightly pose is by making the frequency of name change limited. So, once every 6 months or perhaps you pay money to expedite the name change?

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        August 17, 2010 3:18 AM

        But if it's free, introduce an history of names like Steam. We'll see who change his name often, but seriously, paying for change your name? That's just madness...

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