Guild Wars 2

Guldlock & Goreville, I have another suggestion that may help you out.

Like Gaile said, they will not release already taken names. If the account is dormant then i’m afraid you’re outta luck, but how about accent marks? Several folks in my guild have gone that route and I’ve also seen “copies” of my own name.

One of my characters is named, “Dara”. I stayed up late on release night to try and snag it and was successful. However I’ve also gotten many mail messages and guild invites that were meant to go to “Dàra” or “Dára”.

Perhaps you could snag the name “Göreville”.

Axe Sushi.1924:

i have been waiting MONTHS and MONTHS for me to change my email without asking lots of stuff I AM the one and only owner of the account and it was a gift to me on my birthday i can provide even the exact TIME and DATE when it was created and registered but sadly ANET doesn’t want that he wants receipt paypal invoice and other things WHAT ELSE ( i don’t have those anymore )

So you are implying that you made this purchase through paypal, but you can’t get a copy of the invoice from them? Strange that I can get an invoice of any purchase I’ve ever made via Paypal….just log in, run a report and print or save it.

I hope this bit of thread necromancy will be forgiven.

Is the information regarding display name changes Gaile posted at the front page of this thread still valid?

I ask because I foolishly used my first initial and full last name as my display name. After reading Gaile’s post, I figured that would count as using your real name and tried contacting support to get it changed. However, they simply told me that they couldn’t do it, and wouldn’t tell me why use of my last name doesn’t qualify when I asked for clarification. I don’t want to keep bugging busy support people when all I want is clarification, so I figured I’d ask here.

Are display name changes no longer done for any reason, including use of one’s real name, and this thread’s information is now out of date? Or does my first-initial-with-last-name display name not count as using my “real name” and thus I can’t get it changed?

I am currently battling with support at the moment re this issue as my main accounts diplay name can be used to easily find my full real name and address and this aparently still dosn’t warrant a change. Someone needs to look into this policy, it’s completely unacceptable for my private information being compramised in this way to be considdered alright by ArenaNet employees.

Gaile I understand what you are saying and I completely agree that companies need to makesure that players cant scam, be abusive, do other horrible things and just change their names and move on.

But that is not the reason for my request.

I stopped playing the game for a long time until a friend of mine said to me recently “Why don’t we retry GW2?”

I said to him, “I would like to but my main account is close to my real name I dont feel safe to play it since they wont change the names and I would hate to lose all the work I put into the game.”

He didn’t think it was that serious until I gave him my gw2 display name, it didn’t take him more than a few minutes to find my real name from that. It was someone I know, so not a risk to give him this information. But as I have stated in the other thread I have made: my display name is my middle name and my surname, a lot of people use their middle names instead of their first names for various things and can be used to very easily find my full real name and address.

I use mine for facebook, Skype, Google + my web domains etc…all of these can be used to contact me outside of the game and find not just my personal information but the details of the other people living in my house as well.

I would like to think that you can see my account history, and lack of complaints associated with it. I’m not asking for this as a way to get a free change I am legitimately seriously concerned with how easily my display name can be used to find my address, my mothers name etc… I’m afraid to even log the account I put so much time into.

Back when I created it, I was nowhere near as aware as I am now of how much information you can find about someone on the internet, and I admit that I was not careful. I should have used something completely unrelated to my real name but at the time I made the account I honestly didn’t realise that name would be shown. I thought it was the account name and players would only be able to see my character name like in GW1. I never played the beta so I had no idea.

I have submitted evidence with my support ticket on how easy it is to obtain my full name and address from my in game name and I can only hope that it is taken as seriously by the team over at your end as it is by me.

Honestly after the first five or 6 point blank no replies that I got where it didn’t even seem like people were reading my tickets or understanding my reasoning were very disheartening and drove me to try and get some sort of recognition from the forums.

Yes my display name is not my full name – but it is my middle name and surname which can be used via who is, facebook, skype etc to find my full name and locate my address, date of birth, and details of my family members if someone vindictive so desired.

I’m sure you have seen a thread started today where a guy admitted looking up someone who upset him via facebook (because his display name was his facebook name the guy was able to find him) and harass him on there.

I honestly do not think my request is unreasonable. and I’m just legitimately extremely concerned by the lack of sensitivity to this issue shown by the responses I have recieved so far.

I understand your position on this issue, but do not feel like mine is being ackowledged.
From my display name my full name and address can easily be found by anyone with the mind to do so and a miniscule ammount of computer/ internet knowledge – this is what is concerning me – and it concerns me greatly.

My friend linked me to this thread where I saw you write this “A display name will be changed to prevent the disclosure of personal information.” but it seems being able to find my full name and adress and mothers name from my display name is not enough of a personal information disclosure to fulfil this request?

I was just doing as I was told to, but I thank you for your replies Gaile, I appreciate your time, and THANKYOU very much for pointing out my copy and paste fail with the ticket number !- It should hopefully be the correct one now (I hope) XD

Though you’ve kind of made me a bit afraid to post on the forum now, I do have one last question to which I couldn’t find an answer to on the support, search or google and I’m afraid to make a thread for it now.

Is it possible to get an account completely deleted?
Or is the only thing equivalent to this when an account is permenantly banned/suspended?

I wasn’t necesarily thinking of my main account per say.

I now have 3 accounts, my main, a spare/mule and this account which my friends have kindly paid for for me in the hopes that by the time I finish leveling with them the issue will be resolved one way or another.

Unfortunately my main account is the one with my real name information (Derp)

Granted if I cannot get the name changed I will have to considder getting it deleted as an option – I just wanted to see if this was a possibility. If it is I feel much safer with the knowledge that at least if the account is deleted my information will no longer be visible to anybody.

I know I said I only had one more question but if an account is deleted / banned does that also remove any posts that account made from the forums?

I will submit a ticket from my mule account tomorrow if this is something that can be done. Then it will be one less account to worry about being comprimised etc…

And hopefully if this is the case my HOM can be unlinked first so I can tie it up with my newest account. But I don’t want to ask for it in my ticket yet incase it just gets deleted before anything else can be done with the account.

Yes I’ll cry over the ammount of money I spent on character slots and bag upgrades but it’s a sacrifice I will have to make.

Sorry, I do tend to ramble on quite a bit don’t I?

Really appreciate your time Gaile, thankyou for the responses you are a star, I promise that was my last question and I will leave you in peace.

Kaida.1478:

I wasn’t necesarily thinking of my main account per say.

I now have 3 accounts, my main, a spare/mule and this account which my friends have kindly paid for for me in the hopes that by the time I finish leveling with them the issue will be resolved one way or another.

Unfortunately my main account is the one with my real name information (Derp)

Granted if I cannot get the name changed I will have to considder getting it deleted as an option – I just wanted to see if this was a possibility. If it is I feel much safer with the knowledge that at least if the account is deleted my information will no longer be visible to anybody.

I know I said I only had one more question but if an account is deleted / banned does that also remove any posts that account made from the forums?

I will submit a ticket from my mule account tomorrow if this is something that can be done. Then it will be one less account to worry about being comprimised etc…

And hopefully if this is the case my HOM can be unlinked first so I can tie it up with my newest account. But I don’t want to ask for it in my ticket yet incase it just gets deleted before anything else can be done with the account.

Yes I’ll cry over the ammount of money I spent on character slots and bag upgrades but it’s a sacrifice I will have to make.

Sorry, I do tend to ramble on quite a bit don’t I?

Really appreciate your time Gaile, thankyou for the responses you are a star, I promise that was my last question and I will leave you in peace.

You aren’t getting that this isn’t the place to talk about that.

To clarify: That is any facebook link, even your own? I can see that it wouldn’t be immediately possible to prove ownership of the facebook account, but if you went through support and showed that it was your own fb you linked to, and that you did so willingly and with full knowledge of the ramifications, would a reinstate be possible?

I don’t really intend to share my facebook ingame, but I am curious.

Gaile Gray.6029:

• I want to prevent someone from seeing me. Players may desire a display name change for personal reasons. For instance, they once were friends with someone and now wish to stop interacting. Or they claim they are being “stalked” by another player. Changing for such personal reasons is not supported. More importantly: If we completely change your Display Name, people who once had you on their Friends or Blocked list still will be able to identify you. There is no way to “reset” an account and wipe its history. If someone knows the old Display Name they’ll simply see the new one. (I believe that the system is designed this way to prevent people from losing their contacts if they have to change their Display Name for a genuine security issue.)

To address this particular problem, wouldn’t the easiest solution be to appear as permanently offline to people one has on their block list? I’ve always found the lack of this to be a bit odd! One could opt to go invisible, of course, but only after logging completely into the game, hiding their status from everyone, and rendered unable to communicate with their guild.

I feel there should be some room for stalker control without having to go to such an extreme. :c

Gaile Gray.6029:

Mokai.2480:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• I want to prevent someone from seeing me. Players may desire a display name change for personal reasons. For instance, they once were friends with someone and now wish to stop interacting. Or they claim they are being “stalked” by another player. Changing for such personal reasons is not supported. More importantly: If we completely change your Display Name, people who once had you on their Friends or Blocked list still will be able to identify you. There is no way to “reset” an account and wipe its history. If someone knows the old Display Name they’ll simply see the new one. (I believe that the system is designed this way to prevent people from losing their contacts if they have to change their Display Name for a genuine security issue.)

To address this particular problem, wouldn’t the easiest solution be to appear as permanently offline to people one has on their block list? I’ve always found the lack of this to be a bit odd! One could opt to go invisible, of course, but only after logging completely into the game, hiding their status from everyone, and rendered unable to communicate with their guild.

I feel there should be some room for stalker control without having to go to such an extreme. :c

You ask a valid question, Mokai, and I’ll see if I can learn more about this suggestion. It seems to me that we discussed this long ago and it was not possible, in a technological sense, but I certainly can investigate. Thanks.

And thank you for responding! =)

Having a programmer friend, I completely understand that what we players may perceive as simple to us can actually be extremely complicated in terms of design. :P

I opened a ticket 2 years ago about changing my display name: I asked support to change it because of its offensive nature (It basically means ‘StoendAnimal’)

Has the stance on this changed at all? Or am i still stuck with this name?

It was not clear at all when i registered that this name would be visible to everyone ingame. I hate how you guys at ArenaNet completely deny that.

I apologize for responding in such an old thread but I saw it on the front page last night, I made the mistake of using personal information as my name and didn’t realize that would be an exception for getting it changed until I saw this thread last night. However I contacted support and was told that that’s not something you guys do. Has the policy changed? Is there anything I can do now?

mieghley.8195:

I apologize for responding in such an old thread but I saw it on the front page last night, I made the mistake of using personal information as my name and didn’t realize that would be an exception for getting it changed until I saw this thread last night. However I contacted support and was told that that’s not something you guys do. Has the policy changed? Is there anything I can do now?

They only change Display Names that use real names if it is considered a security risk. Just having part of a name does not, in the CS Team’s estimation, pose such a risk. It’s really more when someone uses, say, their email address and such.

Good luck.

Your display name is mieghley.8195. Your account name is your email, which may or may not include your name, depending on what it is. Your display name is the only one others can see. No one can see your account name.

It would need to be your full name and/or your full email address for the CS Team to consider it a security risk.

No one would even know it was your name (or part of your email address) if you did not post that information for the public to see.

Good luck.

hello guys i just want to raise this problem again. isn’t it time they let us change our display name fjust one time per account? i mean Blizzard does it. most of the top mmo’s has a one time change with displayname/battletag. i mean Heart of Thorns is coming out new expansion i think it is time they made some new things or rules on account features also.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

The part that is upsetting about the name change, is back in beta when you created an account there was a message when creating your display name that you will be able to change it at launch. Launch came around and you all did not open up the chance for the name to be changed. Hopefully in the future there will be a solution to this where we could purchase a name change, that way we are buying the support’s time in fixing the problem.

Zypher.7609:

Michael Henninger.7451:

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

The part that is upsetting about the name change, is back in beta when you created an account there was a message when creating your display name that you will be able to change it at launch. Launch came around and you all did not open up the chance for the name to be changed. Hopefully in the future there will be a solution to this where we could purchase a name change, that way we are buying the support’s time in fixing the problem.

I wasn’t aware of any message, and I created my account pre-launch (played in betas). I thought about my Display Name at the time, and wondered if I wanted this one to be seen publicly.

You may be remembering a message about Account Names? You could, and can, of course, change those at any time (with assistance from the CS Team).

Still, even if there were such a message, anything in beta is subject to change, just like many of the features we experienced in the beta(s) (dye acquisition) were changed before launch.

Good luck.

i mean if they can let us change it just once per account. i hope they re consider.

Kasper.6527:

i mean if they can let us change it just once per account. i hope they re consider.

+1 same idea. I even support one-time change with paying gem or money.

Michael Henninger.7451:

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

I read a post from Gaile that was 2-years old indicating only 2-exceptions that are allowed for display name changes.

I was, however, a bit confused with my current situation In regards to 1 of the exceptions listed. I have a second account that I use whose display name is one of my active emails that I’d like to change. Does that qualify by those standards of having used an email for a display name that is still active? I’d like to be able to change the display name, but I don’t want to submit a support ticket if it’ll slow the process of everything and just be shot down

I feel like i’m either splitting hairs or falling in a gray area.

May I get some clarification on this?

Unless the Display Name reads fakename at fakemail dot com/net/etc., it would likely not meet the requirements for a name change.

Good luck.

DragonSlalyer.5786:

Kasper.6527:

i mean if they can let us change it just once per account. i hope they re consider.

+1 same idea. I even support one-time change with paying gem or money.

the GMs already clarified that an acc name change cause many troubles thats why they only change it at emergencies (real name …e.g) its not as easy as character name change and infect their system deeply

Michael Henninger.7451:

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

the post is even on the same page here O.o and people still posting let us change it just once per account. :o

and i know its 10 days old but such things still horrify me

Michael Henninger.7451:

Hi everyone!

Long story short is that display names weren’t designed in a way that allows them to be changed without causing a potential (and significant) batch of problems on the account so we (support) only do them when we reeeeally need to.

Michael, I promise you that if the programmers were convinced to modify the code to allow flexibility with the display name, ANet would make 1000X in profit the cost of that programmer’s time from selling display name changes.

Your company is walking away from some serious profit here.

You will need to update your ticket to discuss this further with support. You can update your ticket by responding to the last email they sent you.