I've noticed recently that a lot of people have been changing their names. I think it's great that this is something that the site is able to support - but I have been wondering if this is perhaps the best use of Admin's time when the MegaZone and so much else is in the works?

I wanted to suggest that name changes are made a Diamond-Fee service, much like the reclaim pets function. As the site continues to grow I feel it will be less and less feasible to answer individual PMs for help with name changes etc and I think it could be an excellent idea to automate the system. This way, people can still change their usernames but hopefully we will see less "flavour of the month" changes (which can make it hard to keep up with sales, trades etc as previous usernames are not visible anywhere) the site can receive more income and any future name changes will be dealt with promptly without an admin needing to be personally involved each time. Changing names isn't offered on a lot of sites, I think it's great that it's offered here but I do think a name change should be a goal to be worked towards with diamonds/gold/time/playing the game etc rather than it being an ask-and-receive set up.

Obviously I'm just a little voice in a huge crowd but I find myself wondering about ways to make the site better often - I genuinely believe Sylestia is just going to continue to grow and grow so implementing a system now might well head off any issues before they happen :3

I very much support this. It's quite frustrating when people change their name because it's a 'fad' - while I know the number is few right now, it could easily gain strength as the younger members are easily persuaded to go along with this new 'fad'.

However, in addition to what Lav says, I also think a gold option should be available. By taking a ton of diamonds out of the system, that raises the price a lot and... well, poor college kids like me can't afford diamonds and rely on others.

Maybe, if name changes are 100 diamonds, the gold price can be 250k gold.

I totally agree with this, I think that being able to change usernames is awesome, but I would also love to see it become a paid for service. On the other pet sites I've been on that have offered name changes, it's always been through the "premium" currency, which I think works very well, as it allows people the option to change their name, but makes it so it isn't something that you just impulse do.

I support this. It seems like a good way to have extra site revenue for something non-vital to gameplay but at the same time still available for players.

I support. I do feel a lot of name changes are 'on the whim' decisions, not well thought out. I've already been seeing some people seem to regret their name changes, and request to be called by their old names instead, which causes a lot of confusion.

I think if this was a paid service, people would have to really think their name changes through before committing to it. I also feel at the rate this fad is going, it's really going to become a burden on the admin's time if everyone is changing their names so constantly just 'cause I can' or 'cause other people are'.

I support. But maybe a gold option might be handy, too?

My concern with an "only-gold" option would be that it would still be something that could be done very much on a whim and I think my main reach with this suggestion was to provide another source of income for the site whilst reducing the workload on the admins.

Gold doesn't really do anything income wise (though could be used on the Currency Exchange broker) and gold is a whole lot easier to come by - it might not combat the issues with frequent name changes. Perhaps if the gold price was a lot "higher" than the diamond price, so to speak, so one would have to spend more in gold to change their name than they would on the broker buying diamonds for the same purpose. This might encourage more people to regularly trade currency which could give the site a boost - people who are able to afford small amounts of diamonds buying them frequently and trading them in small chunks for gold so people can change their names etc. whilst also giving themselves a gold boost? Pretty big selection of possibilities :)

I think it being a diamond-only service (much like the pet reclaim) makes it a "Premium" service which is not something to be taken lightly.

Though I think that final choice would definitely be something personal to the admins. I imagine a lot of thought went into whether or not to have a gold option on the pet reclaim, and it would here too if this suggestion came about :3

Support.

I've been noticing this kind of thing too. It really will discourage people from over-changing their usernames. It will also encourage people to be more thoughtful about choosing a username. I completely agree with Lavelle on their not necessarily being a gold option. In my opinion gold isn't necessarily hard to come by, but if need be players can use the exchange in order to get diamonds which makes a lot of sense.

Great idea ^ ^

Support overall. I don't really have a preference for the cost.

Maybe set a restriction to not be able to change your username for a year after the first change. Or to make it a real deterrent, amp up the price to 5x the original cost for a second change (500 diamonds, 1.25mil, whichever).

I support options that make users really sure whether they want to change their names or not, and not to do it on whimsies. (I may have a whimsy too, but I'm gonna think about it if it costs a lot of currency aha.)