Discussion: Character Transfer, Rename and Names
By
Adam_Alpha,
Posted on: 2007-10-03 14:35 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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I really hate that you arent letting us get the ability to rename a character through IN GAME means. Making us pay for something that should just be a rare feature in the game just makes it an obvious "do what makes most money" instead of "do whats best for the players".
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The WoW servers are that way: ------>
Don't let the door hit you in the [censored].
Seriously, THANK YOU very much for this, devs. I doubt that I'll personally use it, but it's nice to know it's there. 
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
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I don't like the idea that renaming or transfering a character to another server should cost cash.
I think that there should be other penalties used to do these things such as charging a chunk of Influence or charging character levels if they can't pay or something like that.
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Part of the reason it costs cash, is so people don't go overboard with it.
Also, because it costs money, and either only the people who use it pay, or we all pay (and get less updates).
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Tuesday i did three transfers. All three went through just fine.
Then i tried to use my credit card yesterday and it would not work turns out the bank flagged these as Fruad. After some (fun dealings with the credit card company) reading it sounds lile I am not the first one to have a problem like this and I will not be doing any more transfers or renames till I have more confidence in the billing system.
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Flaming Screamer L50 Fire/Sonic
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Tuesday i did three transfers. All three went through just fine.
Then i tried to use my credit card yesterday and it would not work turns out the bank flagged these as Fruad. After some (fun dealings with the credit card company) reading it sounds lile I am not the first one to have a problem like this and I will not be doing any more transfers or renames till I have more confidence in the billing system.
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Hi ArchLight,
I posted about the fraud prevention issue here.
Keep in mind that different banks and financial institutions will react differently as they attempt to keep what they see as "high risk" transactions, like repeated low dollar amount sales, from becoming problematic.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
Something that I urge everyone to keep in mind here:
This is NOT NCSoft's fault. This is the responsibility of your credit card institution, and NCSoft really has no control over whether your credit card issuers decide that something is potential fraud. Let's please try to avoid blaming NCSoft or their billing software for problems largely caused by the credit card company, 'k?
@SithRose and @Sith Rose
Permanent resident of Virtue
"Mommy, I need Cthulhu. He keeps the bad dreams away."
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Something that I urge everyone to keep in mind here:
This is NOT NCSoft's fault. This is the responsibility of your credit card institution, and NCSoft really has no control over whether your credit card issuers decide that something is potential fraud. Let's please try to avoid blaming NCSoft or their billing software for problems largely caused by the credit card company, 'k?
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Couldn't agree more 
I don't know this works on my Billing Summary it saying "Credit Card on File
None"
can someone help me out or tips work this works.
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why all the complaining about paying for something? we have gotten 11 issues for free!!!!! give me a break. lets see pay for transefer one or two toons, rename one or two toons and its still way ceaper than paying $30 for 11 issues. a good friend of mine who has played most MMO says EQ used to charge ~$75 to transfer a toon. so stop your whining and play the dame game!
Victory Server
Ridgid lvl 50 energy/energy Blaster
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DeRidgidnator lvl 50 energy/energy Brute
Santa's LittleHelper lvl 50 ice/kin Controller
Guess NCsoft is related to the Telephone Companies, and got wise to SIR CHARGE.... Will nickle and dime you to death.... $10 charge... No Way. 
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Guess NCsoft is related to the Telephone Companies, and got wise to SIR CHARGE.... Will nickle and dime you to death.... $10 charge... No Way.
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OMG you people make me not want to play this game. i love this game and cant think of one thing to complain about. this is the last time ill say this.." 11 issues free!!!!"
Victory Server
Ridgid lvl 50 energy/energy Blaster
Powder Puff lvl 50 ill/rad Contoller
DeRidgidnator lvl 50 energy/energy Brute
Santa's LittleHelper lvl 50 ice/kin Controller
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Something that I urge everyone to keep in mind here:
This is NOT NCSoft's fault. This is the responsibility of your credit card institution, and NCSoft really has no control over whether your credit card issuers decide that something is potential fraud. Let's please try to avoid blaming NCSoft or their billing software for problems largely caused by the credit card company, 'k?
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There are two issues here actually. One is your bank's responsibility and you'll have to contact your bank to deal with it. There is also NCSoft's transaction limit, which may kick in after just a couple transactions. That seems to prevent you from making any billing related transactions with your NCSoft account, even changing the credit card in your account.
I had to deal with both issues when attempting to do server transfer. First, my bank declined the charges. I called my bank and they said that the NCSoft charges are coming from outside the US, so they were flagged rather quickly as possible fraud. After some quick verification I cleared it up with the bank and they ok'd the charges.
Then I went back and successfully transferred two characters. When I tried to do a third, NCSoft decided to impose their own limit. I had to wait 24 hours before transferring that last character.
So there are a couple stumbling blocks that can make this frustrating, but hang in there. With some patience it should work out.
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Guess NCsoft is related to the Telephone Companies, and got wise to SIR CHARGE.... Will nickle and dime you to death.... $10 charge... No Way.
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Uhh.. $10? You could go play a certain other MMO where they charge you $25 
Just sayin'
Or you could just do like me and wait for one of two things to happen... Either the price will drop after awhile, or the serverless restructuring will take place... and if not you still saved $10.
~~Blergh!
Unfortunately, my banking institution (SunTrust) politely informed me VISA blocked any further character transfer attempts beyond the first because it was flagged as 'gambling'. I've since spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with my bank, VISA, and the security departments who handle fraud trying to get this cleared up, but even they said that due to the nature of the transaction they could not guarantee further attempts to make such transactions would not be blocked. Perhaps it is in NCSoft's best interests to contact VISA and clear up the misconception that character transfers are somehow related to gambling, since consumer power doesn't work, and I'm fairly positive more than just myself use VISA cards as a means to pay NCSoft and its subsidiaries for services.
Edit: And now, I can't even change my credit card on the NCSoft website. I'm getting an error: "We are unable to process your transaction. Please check your payment details and billing address and try again. If you are still unable to complete the transaction after doing so, please contact your financial institution." This is slightly frustrating.
So I read 90% of the posts and no one mentioned...there's no way to do this without a credit card yet...I'm totally left out pretty much. Any word on that Lighthouse?
i wanna rename my 1 toon, hopefully and pls give the ones including me that don't have a creditcard, a way to pay for rename or transfer. PLS PLS PLS PRETTY PLS
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Guess NCsoft is related to the Telephone Companies, and got wise to SIR CHARGE.... Will nickle and dime you to death.... $10 charge... No Way.
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'said it before and I'll say it again.
The WoW servers are that way: ---------->
Don't let the door hit you in the [censored].
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
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Will nickle and dime you to death.... $10 charge... No Way.
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Then it's a good thing no one is forcing you to use the feature. Don't want to pay for it? Don't use it. Problem solved. There's a lot more than this that I'd be willing to pay extra for, if it meant getting some long requested features into this game.
Kid Lazarus, 50 empath Defender
Freek, 50 mind/psi Dominator
Black Khopesh, 43 db/wp Scrapper
Circuit-Boy, 40 elec Brute
Graf von Eisenfaust, 38 db/wp Brute
Blue Banshee, 35 sonic Blaster
Blood Countess, 33 mind/storm Controller
Dr. Radon, 32 rad Corruptor
Phantom Pirate, 32 db/wp Stalker
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i wanna rename my 1 toon, hopefully and pls give the ones including me that don't have a creditcard, a way to pay for rename or transfer. PLS PLS PLS PRETTY PLS
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Go to a mall, get a VISA Gift Card. Should work.
Also, I use a Debit Card that's emblazoned with the VISA logo ... works fine as a credit card anywhere I care to use it. Including transferring one character, yesterday. (The price means, what moves I want to make will have to wait a while ... but it's not stopping me entirely.)
OK.
Let's talk about something that is a bit more insidious.
NCSoft needs to ease off the "generic" trigger when people's names are petitioned.
Case in point: A friend's character made it to late 30's with the name "Promethea", a female version of the Greek mythical character "Prometheus", who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Sound familiar? he should - he was the demigod that Manticore tried to impress by shooting Statesman through the chest with an arrow.
We are talking GREEK MYTH here.
Which means it's PUBLIC DOMAIN. Disney notwithstanding (and trust me I've many many issues with them for copyrighting characters from folk tales as a business practice), if you base a body of work from a known myth or mythological figure, you CANNOT EXPECT TO BE THE ONLY HOLDER OF THE NAME.
These characters and stories are pervasive of the culture. Everyone knows who they are not because of your marketing efforts but because of tales passed down through generations prior to yours. They effectively cannot be trademarked, unless someone trademarks something else along WITH them (a very specific look, icon, etc.)
This means that the precedent of disallowing mythological names (or even variants) because someone else is using said name will remove entire cultures from play. Forget RP, forget concepts, forget origins. We may as well become "Hero #123456" and run around the City of Barcodes... because all the interesting 'names' will be trademarks.
OK, rant over. But I do believe NCSoft's legal department needs to give this some SERIOUS thought - the playerbase will not be pleased if they are limited to choosing names which no one ANYWHERE has used or possibly could use.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
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Case in point: A friend's character made it to late 30's with the name "Promethea", a female version of the Greek mythical character "Prometheus", who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Sound familiar? he should - he was the demigod that Manticore tried to impress by shooting Statesman through the chest with an arrow.
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Promethea is the name of a well known comic book character created by Alan Moore. No surprise your friend got genericized.
Kid Lazarus, 50 empath Defender
Freek, 50 mind/psi Dominator
Black Khopesh, 43 db/wp Scrapper
Circuit-Boy, 40 elec Brute
Graf von Eisenfaust, 38 db/wp Brute
Blue Banshee, 35 sonic Blaster
Blood Countess, 33 mind/storm Controller
Dr. Radon, 32 rad Corruptor
Phantom Pirate, 32 db/wp Stalker
That's my point exactly.
The character by Alan Moore only shared the name.
The character here was based off of the original myth, even down tot he costume elements. She did NOT share costume, or origin, or bio, or anything else. My point is, Alan Moore cannot expect to trademark "Promethea" because it is a mythological variant of Prometheus. If he does, he's wrong, and NCSoft is wrong for helping to support his so-called trademark.
The sad part is, when he told me his character got generic'd, I wasn't surprised at all. I was saddened that the GM that pulled the trigger was so unaware of the myth of Prometheus that "promethea" was the only reference he or she had.
THAT's what needs to be addressed.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
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That's my point exactly. The character by Alan Moore only shared the name. The character here was based off of the original myth, even down tot he costume elements. She did NOT share costume, or origin, or bio, or anything else. My point is, Alan Moore cannot expect to trademark "Promethea" because it is a mythological variant of Prometheus. If he does, he's wrong, and NCSoft is wrong for helping to support his so-called trademark.
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I'm not a lawyer so I'm certainly not going to stake my life on it, but I believe you are wrong. Prometheus is a mythological character, and therefore "public domain." (Although I also believe that Cryptic has a caveat that you cannot create characters with names taken from mythology.) I am unfamiliar with any character named "Promethea" that existed prior to Alan Moore's creation; it doesn't matter if it's a variant on Prometheus, it's still a unique name. Even if none of this is true, Cryptic is going to err on the side of caution. It's an existing comic book character and they're not going to let you use the name anymore than Wolverine.
Theoretically I could create a character called "Superman" because that was a preexisting word and concept prior to the Man of Steel, as long as my character bears no resemblence to DC's. That, however, is not a theory I care to test since I would almost certainly be buried by Warner Brother's lawyers.
Kid Lazarus, 50 empath Defender
Freek, 50 mind/psi Dominator
Black Khopesh, 43 db/wp Scrapper
Circuit-Boy, 40 elec Brute
Graf von Eisenfaust, 38 db/wp Brute
Blue Banshee, 35 sonic Blaster
Blood Countess, 33 mind/storm Controller
Dr. Radon, 32 rad Corruptor
Phantom Pirate, 32 db/wp Stalker
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NCSoft is going to err on the side of caution.
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... I think I'll go trademark "Generic Hero" just to throw a spanner in...
Oh drat! Someone beat me to it.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
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I dunno. $10 per rename or transfer sounds a tad on the expensive side to me. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with NCSoft making some money. But the marginal cost of using an automated rename or transfer system is incredibly close to 0. It's true the system itself cost them some money to develop, but it can't have been much.
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Not to sound snarky here, but I seriously doubt you personally have any real evidence to back up the above statement. Unless you work for Cryptic, or at least have worked as a programmer in the MMO industry, you really don't know how much this cost to develop and/or operate.
That, and the fact that it has been pointed out many times in other threads that this fee is the lowest in the entire MMOG industry.
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform