This is a good point. If they can force you to change names since you picked a vulgar one or something, they should be able to "force" you to rename yourself if you swap genders.
This is a good point. If they can force you to change names since you picked a vulgar one or something, they should be able to "force" you to rename yourself if you swap genders.
They should just restrict it to people changing genders, then it should be fine. That's the only valid reason to change a non-vulgar name anyway.
Well, I think a name change might be important for some race changes too, especially for RP'ers and people that followed Eorzean naming conventions. For example, Elezen names sound kinda French to me, while Roegadyn names are heavy on the consonants and Lala names have repeating syllables (just observations, don't quote me on that lol).
Not to mention that a name like Mimi Moe or Purri Fluffkins might not work all that well for a female Roegadyn or Highlander . . . ;)
A lot of people use names that are more "generic" and will fit most any character of that gender, but there are plenty that do not.
Just to give some programming level insight.
If the game's databases are built as badly as I fully believe they are, it could be that instead of each character having a unique ID, they utilize the character's name as it's ID, so changing the character name in one place would require a manual change of all the references everywhere. Which, when doing such a gigantic batch job as this WILL invariably generate a pile of errors and lead to things like missing achievements, loosing quest progression, GC rank, gil, inventory... Whatever sorts of things that the '[X] is no longer linked to [character]' error can issue.
Of course, here's hoping they manage to find a way around that.
My database knowledge is a bit rusty, but even if the character name is indeed the primary key, wouldn't a properly linked database propagate the change?
What about your name change? What's the reason you want to change? If it's just you not liking your current one, then why did you choose it in the first place? I'm not trying to be mean here, but allowing unrestricted name changes will just lead to confusion and in some cases people "resetting" their reputation.
That's irrelevant. I shouldn't be judged on why I want it. If others are allowed, I should be allowed as well. I pay just as much or more than most people who play this game (I have multiple characters.) My name change will cause no more confusion than others'. (Not to mention, I would still have the same last name anyways.) And no one knows me on that character. O.o
The key here (get it?) would be 'properly linked'. Or for what it's worth, given how ungodly arcane the entire system XIV uses, it could use some really bizarre proprietary construct instead of a database proper.
Truth to be told, i'm just partial to believing that they do, in fact, have programming-level issues with just about every goddamn thing, but I am mostly just making guesses at this point (my knowledge is really just of 'holiday programmer' so I can't claim to fully understand that sort of stuff as well XD)