Many people have noticed the new restriction on in-game nicknames. It amounts to having to use a nickname that you own (ie., have already registered) rather than any random name. The restriction is not unreasonable, but it's a bit of a hassle to switch nicks when you want to play with an alias. The latest ZLauncher (from Sep. 10, 2012) lets you switch aliases more easily than ever before. Here is how:
The Settings/Servers/In-Game Aliases entry leads you to a dialog from where you can add/edit/remove aliases.
For each alias you have to specify the alias (nick)
as well as its password.
Once you specify the aliases, you can select any one of them from a combo box at the right hand side of the toolbar. The selected nick will be used for all subsequent games.
In this way, the switching among aliases becomes easier than ever before. One may still worry that the new restriction about "owning the nick" requires the creation of new accounts, which in turn, may lead to an automatic master ban (for making many new accounts within a limited timespan). No worries: there are
no more automatic master bans for the creation of new accounts: the master will simply refuse to make more new ones until some time elapses. More precisely, the master will allow up to 3 new accounts from a single IP address within 24 hours. When this threshold is exceeded, it will refuse to make new accounts: it will
not ban.