Guild Wars 2

+1 Change Display Name

<software developer babble>

The fact ArenaNet can’t allow Display Name change sounds to me like the back-end database is using the Display Name string as its pk (primary key) to identify accounts somewhere in the constellation of services that make up our game/web experience. It’s ironic, since most data architects would recommend the creation of a Display Name field specifically so that the users can have something to control, while intentionally masking the non-human-readable string in the back-end that is no-mod and used to “actually” track that user among the various services.

In this case, I can only guess that one or more services are hardcoded to that string in some way and it would take an architectural overhaul to crack it open for users to own/modify. They’d have the shift the primary key burden onto some other string. There may be software services reasons we can’t see that drives their decisions here. It’s probably not impossible so much as low priority (they have bigger fish to fry) and low return-on-investment (it’s not really “broken” so much as irritating to end users and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it).

Every year that goes by that they don’t improve this, I try to remember that they’re likely using those man hours for things that have a bigger positive impact for the player base. Whoever made the original data architecture decision that left us in this situation — maybe even an outsourced vendor and not ArenaNet at all — probably sleeps like a baby every night. ;-)

Noah
(and yeah I wish my display name sounded less like a girl)

Just adding my agreement that the user interface should simply reflect the true math involved in the sales. It should show the ‘listing fee’ and ‘sales tax’ values up against the user’s sale price value. That’s it. I doubt we can argue with the math itself, but we can at least ask that the user interface reveal it to us in a simple, clear, straight-forward manner. I think that’s a fair request. And if there are any interesting quirks impacting buyers as there are for sellers, those should be made clear on the user interface as well. Thanks, ArenaNet, for considering.

I woulda sworn it works when gathering. Must be a false impression from a series of coincidences. D’oh. :-)

I’ve seen that too. My guess (just a wild guess) is that the person posted their asking price before they added the rule that we can only list items at least 1 copper above merchant price. When they added that rule, they did not retroactively wipe out any ‘asking price’ instances that would never be fulfilled due to the new rule.

That being said, it’s also true that they (mysteriously, given that it is vital information) do NOT remind buyers of that rule on the ‘Place Custom Order’ screen, nor do they enforce that rule in any other way for buyers as far as I know. So people who have not been exposed to the ‘1 copper above merchant’ rule as a seller… may not realize they are placing orders that will never be filled.

Note also, if you’re new to this forum, that unless you sell at 15% higher than the merchant price, you will lost money. There’s a 5% listing fee (obvious) and also a 10% tax (not noted anywhere in the user interface). That means all the ‘1 Copper Above Merchant Price’ sellers who are driving the marketplace straight into the ground… are also draining away their own silver for the privilege. The only thing we can do right now is make sure everyone knows.