The reason why you can’t change your PSN name

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Sony has explained why it won’t allow users to change their PSN IDs.

Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Shawn Layden explained the reason in an interview with IGN.

“We don’t want to make it so that you can go in, grief a bunch of people in Far Cry, change your avatar, change your username, go into CoD and grief everybody over there. We want to stop that,” he said.

“[We want to do name changing] in a way that’s transparent, but also don’t let people morph themselves, either.

“And yeah, it’s terrible that you have to make decisions on a service sometimes by optimizing around the bad actor. I hate that we have to do that. So we’re trying to balance that between… the 99 percent of users going to have a good experience, how can we help make that happen without giving one more tool to the bad actor to go in and ruin the experience for others?”

Layden added that name-changing and other features are on Sony’s roadmap for future updates.

Posted:
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2014/11/17/sony-explains-why-you-cant-change-your-psn-name/

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"The reason why you can’t change your PSN name" :: Login/Create an Account :: 72 comments

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MaggardoPosted:

It doesn't make a difference if someone wants to grief someone else. If they want to do that, then they can simply, make a new account. I've always hated this about PlayStation, and I know I am not the only one.

If they really don't want anyone to grief, make a name changing limit, so someone can only change their name, for a set number of days. Also, charge for someone to change their name, this will also cut down on people griefing. You can even add-in a feature, that is similar to steam, that allows you to see users previous online-ids. I am sorry, but I really hate this about PSN. I have been told, that they are planning on adding the name change feature, so people will be able to change their name. I hope they add it soon, some people, including me, would really like to change their name.

GHOSTIZABOSSPosted:

Yoke I like their reason, and i support. Rock on PlayStation.


So true he could not have explained it any better

YokePosted:

I like their reason, and i support. Rock on PlayStation.

pitythefoolPosted:

Hova Nothing stops people from just making a new account if griefing if their thing.

Besides, just put a limit on how often you can change names. Say you change it, then make it so you can't change it for 30 days or something.

Jesus Sony, I just did your brainstorming for you in 30 seconds.


That or do what steam does where you can see users previous aliases or a combination of both.

HovaPosted:

Nothing stops people from just making a new account if griefing if their thing.

Besides, just put a limit on how often you can change names. Say you change it, then make it so you can't change it for 30 days or something.

Jesus Sony, I just did your brainstorming for you in 30 seconds.

gtapro151Posted:

i hated that with psn i cant leave anything the same i change my house around every month

OdinPosted:

Alexyy They should do what Steam does with display names and then your steam ID which in my opinion works very well.


This is probably the best solution.

HarmfulMushroomPosted:

IndianBoymodz
HarmfulMushroom
IndianBoymodz That's why you charge for name changes.

That would make no difference if that is their stance on this matter. The only thing they can possibly do is make it so you can see your old name on your profile, make it read something like "HarmfulMushroom, formally IndianBoymodz". Charging people to change their name is stupid in my opinion, having to pay $10 on XBL to change it is a rip off.

The reason why I say to charge is because if it is free more people would change their names to grief, because they know they can just change their name back or to something different for free.


Ok, I see your point. I can see that being a fair argument for charging people to change their name. I still think they'd need to have a name history as well with that being their argument though.

AlexPosted:

They should do what Steam does with display names and then your steam ID which in my opinion works very well.

AntPosted:

JOJOWORLD Did any of you actually read the article or did you just read the title? Quit saying " thank god I have xbox one " because it clearly says that name changing is a feature being applied in a future update..


Some users will post on any article because it gives them a +1 towards the MVC badge, that's the only reason why they're doing it lol

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I'm actually a PSN user (and Xbox AND PC). They should just have a system like steam in which you can see anyone's past names after they have changed it so you would be able to report people for griefing since you could see their past names. For those who don't use steam, you have an account name which only you can see and a nickname which can be changed as much as you want. In majority of games, your steam nickname shows in multiplayer although some games like Dark Souls 2 will show your characters name but you can view that player's profile by going to your recent players in steam. I change my steam name all of the time mindlessly but for something like PS4/Xbox I don't really need to since I like the name I have nor am I the sort of person the article conveys.

It's nice they are bringing in the functionality though seeing as though there are players who do want to change their name. Whether or not they want to charge for it is up to Sony. Personally, I would add a free name change as an incentive for a first-time sub to Playstation Plus or upon account creation like Xbox (I know they give you a random name).


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