General Discussion

Weekly MMORPG Columnist Dan Fortier uses his time this week to gripe about naming policies in MMOs.

Among all the possible topics lined up in my weekly smorgasbord, this one is perhaps the least likely to get me fired. Why use it right before the holidays you ask? Well unlike some of you hopeless cases out there, I’m hoping Santa will grade me on the curve and cut me some slack if I behave at the end of the year. While it might not be the most radical idea, I do have some serious baggage to sort out on the subject and once again I’m dragging you poor readers along for the ride. This week I focus on the merits of a strong naming policy and the folks who bypass them.

Most MMOs share a pretty similar policy regarding what names players can use for their characters. They typically ban names that are sexually explicit or anything that could be offensive to any breathing human on the planet. While some of them are clever enough to counter some of the obvious alternate spellings or phonetic versions, a good portion of ‘inappropriate’ ones slip through the cracks to be sorted out by GMs and player petitions. In fact, most players consider the activity of bypassing the parser some kind of extra mini-game. This shouldn’t be misinterpreted as an attempt to keep the game free of ridiculous names, but simply as a buffer between the company and possible lawsuits.

Read the whole column here.

I think 'types' of players need to be grouped better.  One persons view on roleplaying can be very different to the next.  If servers acted like a match making services, you would have much happier customers.  Have a form you can fill out, and this with in game play, will match to the server you play on.

The servers are not hard but fluid because if you have a 12 yo friend, you may want to play from time to time but mostly you are playing with the hardcore roleplayers or PvP or Solo park or whatever suites the game style.

 It would be also nice to know when you log on you are 100% for sure going to meet like minded players.  /shrug, that is my opinion.

"There's nothing wrong with forcing people to be creative when creating a name"

The thing that always amuses me, is that many people show more creativity finding a way around the naming policies (in order to get their rubbish or rude name) than they do when thinking up the name itself.

Originally posted by devacore

I think 'types' of players need to be grouped better.  One persons view on roleplaying can be very different to the next.  If servers acted like a match making services, you would have much happier customers.  Have a form you can fill out, and this with in game play, will match to the server you play on.

I agree. With the slew of  "next-gen" MMOs coming out with new ideas on gameplay, this is one area none of them seem to be addressing. I have nothing against l33t speak - heck I used it...about 10 years ago (complete with alternating capital and small letters - awesome ). But it would be nice to log on a server and know that you will probably enjoy playing with everyone you meet.

Oh, I don't know, I sort of like finding players with inappropriate names and reporting them.  Its fun to see if you can get it changed and I've gone so far as to taunt them afterwards just so they knew I'd done it. (helps me pad up the ignore list a bit as well)

I think of it as a little mini-game that I can do while grinding up my levels so might as well let it continue.

One of my freinds in WoW had a character named Faghlijr and had literally dozens of players report him, but the name came out of the random name generator, he didn't pick it, so he was allowed to keep it.

Hillarious.

The game that I loved with regards to naming your character was A Tale in the Desert.  If I remember coorectly the main dev went out of his way to say you could definitely name your character something like "Fu#%face Horser@p#*."  But, since the game was based largely on social contacts, you would be an instant pariah due to your name.

I personally think it should be up to the community to judge.  Sure there might be some names which should be instaban, although any kid with access to the internet has a much better availability of crude media than seeing a Night Elf named Hitlerslover or something.

And re your discussion on first, last, and middle names.  Guild Wars did try and force a first and last name system, and largely it works okay.  Still you will see players that want their names to be "P H E A R" or "Blame The Monk."

My personal taste is to join a RP server if only for the tighter name conventions.

I saw someone called Lukewarm Water in SWG ages ago, I just had to say 'nice name' to im.

Guildwars has THE worst naming rules, ones Ive seen with my own eyes include

Crowching Tiger

Lord megakiller

God Almighty (of course)

I log into GW once in a while just for a chuckle.

Ultima Online has the same problem with 1337 kids. I come in with some names I concocted from old languages and variations on vowels, and then I meet a person who's named G O D. *face palms* Maybe I'm thinking too much, but I'd pay for a game that forced players to pick their names from a list (both first and last). That way, there could be no issue with naming policies. After all, what's in a name when the developers would just offer it to you. You can still name your account anything you want, but the characters (like the game) are still the property of the developer's company. So, I think such companies need to leverage that legal fact to get more consistent names for PCs.

-- Brede