Lord of the Rings Online has only been live for a few months, but they have already introduced features that many games take years to bring in.

Decide that you really don't like your avatar's name? You want your Loremaster "Idiotone" to be taken more seriously? Change his name!

Find out that all your buddies from work are on another server, but don't want to start all over now that you've finally made level 40? Move your arse!

How about that kinship you joined on a lark? The one with the ludicrous or misspelled name? Maybe the members have become serious and would like to rename it to reflect a change in management, now that the founder of "Dork's Donuts" or "Impresive" is going back to WoW... rather than restart the guild, have it renamed! The Leader of the kinship is the only one who can apply, and they must have an active subscription - this can be a problem in some cases where a Leader has gone poof without notice.

None of the other games I play allow name changes to guilds; I remember asking repeatedly about having our guild name changed in EQII, to no avail.

One of the traditional objections raised against allowing name changes is that of players (or even guilds, in this case) being able to escape their bad reputations. The LOTRO name change application process neatly addresses this by clearly stating that there cannot be any Terms of Service of Code of Conduct issues against the account. So mister kill-stealing, foul-mouthy tantrum-throwing dork will not be able to escape his name. No sir.
In the case of a kinship, it is the Leader's account which is held up for inspection when a rename is requested.

The name change rates are very reasonable, and the server move cost is in keeping with that of other games which offer the service.

Here is all the official information you need:

"Turbine is pleased to announce that we are now offering three new services to the The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ community:

* World Character Transfer: Started on Elendilmir but all your friends are on Nimrodel? Turbine can now move your character from one LOTRO world to another! Your character stays intact, retaining all of its stats, items, levels, titles, and other information. The fee to transfer your character from one server to another is $24.95 per move.*

* Character Rename: Wish you'd picked a different name, but have come too far to re-roll? Characters can now be renamed for a fee of $9.95 per name change.*

* Kinship Rename: Kinships can now be renamed for a fee of $12.95 per change.* You must be the leader of your Kinship to change the name!"

Can't wait to get started? Click on the links above to take the plunge!

;-)#
Brasse
(who likes her name very much, thank you!)

To talk about this article, particularly how players on Europan servers are still stuck behind their silicon curtain, click here.