Hmm, well, let's go look at our handy WoW account. Character name change: £6.
Over on LotRO, character name change: £6.
I think you can see where the price comes from here.
As regards the character transfer thing, AFAIK, if there's a name clash, you get a free rename, if there isn't, why would you want to change it?
If you want an explanation of why it costs £6 to rename a character? I'd imagine that it's the amount the game companies think people will pay for something they won't do very often (that the companies don't want done very often, in fact). Cheap enough to not worry that much over, expensive enough to deter idiots from griefing and then changing identity.
It probably costs more to process the requests than it does to actually schedule the name change through the database batch process. This is one of those cases where the price is set largely by external constraints than by the 'work' required to do it.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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It probably costs more to process the requests than it does to actually schedule the name change through the database batch process. This is one of those cases where the price is set largely by external constraints than by the 'work' required to do it.
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Hmmmm? I would have thought the cost of both processing and scheduling would be effectively zero, assuming the latter even exists. From what I've seen the entire business is fully automated, and happens immediately (hence the doubt that there's an explicit "scheduling" phase).
As far as the OP's query goes - I'll second that the cost of this is likely to be what NCSoft think the market will bear. It's probably an entirely arbitrary choice, and could be as cheap or expensive as they wanted (going all the way down to "free").
There'll be back-office handling charges to cover the credit card transaction. Maybe some record keeping (maybe), and I suspect it needs to ensure that the character isn't logged in or anything before doing the change, but yes, you're probably right.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I got characters without heroic names simply because I couldn't think of one. I picked mates from school pretty much somehow knowing that the name change facility will become available like some Precog.
Anyway now that I have found what my characters powers are about, what the sets are about through in depth research I now have very well thought out names!
But £5,99 a pop I mean "Crumbs!" that's going to add up. Surely they could be cheaper? Especially as it's more likely to see a use via character transfer that costs too.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.