Coming soon: Minecraft will finally let you change your name

Minecraft has always been about creativity. Its 1.8 update for PC will add a new way to be creative — changing your character’s name.

According to Minecraft developer Mojang, name-changing is “one of the most requested features since the birth of Minecraft.” Its planned system for enabling name changes will rely on unique user IDs that never change. These permanent IDs will ensure that players who are banned, whitelisted, or oped (Minecraft’s equivalent of being given moderator privileges) on a server don’t lose their status when their name changes. Today, Mojang made prerelease build 1.7.6 available, which doesn’t support name-changing but fully supports the unique user IDs.