My Runescape Diary

To tell you the truth being able to change your name was not much of a surprise for me, the time taken for it to happen was a surprise, the name change thing was being talked about in the P Mod forum when I was a P Mod which must have been 2 or 3 years ago at least, I could look it up but cba.

The surprising part was that well over 50% of the active players on my friends list have changed their names already, when I started playing I had a few accounts that never gained many levels the first I abandoned because I was killed by a guard and didn't know how to get my tut island stuff back, I do not remember the names but must be something like Steve**11, I then found a unique name that I liked and stuck with that as my new account.

Perhaps when they created their accounts they just made do with a random name some with a few numbers after, I know at least one did but perhaps some just decided for a change, my son changed his name, its his account but I did feel quite sad that the name he has used for 6 years has changed, I have found that I am attached to friends names and it is quite strange seeing them as something else.

On the P mod forum years ago there was mentioned changing names that did not meet the acceptable name policy, at the time not possible because the name stipulation was not compulsory when some of the older accounts were created, adding a rule after an account was made would have met with stiff opposition and valid reason for complaint, instead they would be tagged for change when the ability was implemented.

Well I had immunity from ban for offensive name because they modded me and then demoded me with the same name but I did expect to be tagged for change, it hasn't happened yet but I am sure its just a matter of time, by the way I do not hold it against Jagex I believe it was the correct decision even though I was very annoyed at the time, they did apologise after I put in an official complaint, my name was only offensive if you read it a certain way and was rarely interpreted as offensive by younger players.

The thing is what happens now, do all old unused account names disappear after a certain amount of time ready to be snapped up by the quickest hand, will a player called "y" that hasn't been used for 7 years be available for registration by a player new to RS, I can see there being a desire for single, double or triple character names but how to watch and get them may be interesting, what if I take a 1 year RS break and someone takes my name, I am not going to be a happy bunny.

The thing that surprises me is how many unique names are available now, I see so many new names many starting with lower case letters without numbers after them, are they reclaimed from old/expired accounts or are people getting more imaginative, perhaps because many people have played for a while they can make names more appropriate to their playing style, lots of unanswered question that without doubt will be answered over the coming months.

I am not changing my name until forced but I do think the facility is a great idea and a giant step forward.