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General: MMOWTF - What's in a Name?
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
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.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
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.
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.
Who the hell are you, and why should I care?
Congrats! You are a victim of Trollstar!
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
Here is a fun idea, what if you could rename any player to anything you want? In other words, if you ran into somebody named God Hater or something, and you were offended, you could right click on them and choose 'rename'. Then type in any name for this player you want. This system is used in some non-game chat software.
From then on you would see that name over their character, and that name if they send you a message, and when you send to that name the game automatically sends to the player. Everyone else will still see the original name (unless they too rename the player).
Now, when you are offended, you can fix the problem yourself. Players who aren't offended can leave them as they are. Another nice feature, you can change a long name to something short and easy to type. Your only limit would be that you can't rename someone to the same alternate name you used on another player.
Of course, in voice chat you might have a little difficulty if you renamed someone Bonehead and use that to refer to them...
Jatar
CitadelofSorcery.com
Right on.
There are way too many people out there that use absolutely NO CREATIVITY WHAT SO EVER when creating their character names. I'll admit that even my creativity isn't the highest in the world, but I try to be creative with my character names.
I have, however, seen some very amusing and creative names as well as the usual, uninspiring, multiple versions of character names from (insert movie/book/comic/video game here) which is kind of sad.
I had, when I was playing WOW, a character which was a Tauran Warrior. I couldn't come up with a name for him that seemed to fit, so in a fit of total lunacy, I named him "Moomookitty" (based on something an ex-wife told me about her childhood. For my character style it fit. It was also disarmingly silly.
It isn't the preacher that gives you freedom of religion, it is the soldiers that gave some or all to protect that freedom.
I am totally in agreement with the OP. At the least, on the RP servers, I'd like to see a much stricter naming policy. I have no problem having a few servers open to all the silliness (but none of the racist, sexist names).
What most people don't get is it isn't a lack of creativity. L337 d00ds do this because it pisses other people off and that is there entire reason for being. But it is coming to an end The ESRB is also starting to look at MMO not only for the content but what goes on during a live game, Tabula Rasa had to put the disclaimer: “Online Interactions Not Rated by ESRB”, come March of next year that is all changing so a T game can get it rating Changed if in game talk and even Players names are found offensive.
MMO's will all end up like Disney does their MMO's. You select from a list or take a Temp name while you wait for the name you submitted to be approved. I doubt seriously that companies won’t start charging for the privilege of having a custom name. The wild west days are rapidly coming to a close Little Timmay’s parents are listening to Jack Thompson, and reading that Baby Graces Parents played WoW…game developers will Knee Jerk accordingly to keep the masses playing.
I saw a guy in Star Wars Galaxies, on Chilastra that was named "Jewbacca."
I'm sure someone reported him, but I found it to be hillarious.
My buddy in WoW, a Tauren Shaman, named his toon Torran... not even realize till later that he was Torran the Tauren....
While playing the original Medal of Honor (PC) online multiplayer, some Axis guy called me a "Mexican Jew Lizard."
That doesn't even make any sense...
Point is, policing names that are very, very offensive = good idea, will always be done.
The more strict your naming policy becomes, the more restrictive it feels.
Leave it up to the players. Make rules against numbers and symbols, Haxx0rz7o1!!! shouldn't be allowed for any reason... make rules against obvious profanity, racial slurs, etc.
Besides that, leave it up to the players to choose who they report.
The problem with that theory is Leaving it up to the players really doesn’t mean shit when the Anti Defamation League is banging on your publishers door with a hefty class action suit, and Charles Gibbons is doing an Expose on how your game is a Training ground of intolerance and hate. And it's not like certain communities don't give the litigators an endless supply of ammo. So publishers are going to have to take that unknown element (That being not knowing what some Asshat kid is going to name his character or say in game) out of the picture or at the very least Muzzle it as much as possible.
When you give an individual a audience like every MMO players has you are ultimately responsible for what she says and does, because you provided the venue. In our litigious crazed society developers can no longer put there future in the hands of a Fourteen Year old with ADD that wants attention at any cost.
considering how little flak second life gets with some of the stuff in it, I don't think you'll get much flak for a normal game with no name policy.
although I do have better opinions of people that come up with interesting and non1337 names. also if there's ever a time where I would need to type in someones name I won't bother doing so for 1337 names.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
Another one that always irritates me is the names with alternating capitals. While you are free to express yourself in these games, you have to expect you will get some negative feedback if you use them.
I know I like to mention the alternating captitals as an indication, that pimples are a major problem in your life.
Personally, I love seeing people get creative with their names. Particularily if it's humorous without being insulting.
I blame the Americans! It is all their fault for being so damn touchy!
Also, why would calling someone a Jew be an insult? Are they not people like us?
Great idea! I'll add it to The GAME feature list immediately!
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the reviews of MMORPG.com or its management.
Ive always felt if a name wasnt racist,sexist,trademarked,generally offensive,etc it should be allowed. I personally cant stand names with numbers and alternating caps etc but as long as it doesnt break one of those above rules let it be.
More often than not its those selective "immersion" freaks that petition anything that doesnt fit in their narrow minded view of appropriate. Bt selective immersion i mean those people that have no problem with grouping paladins with necros and shadow knights or a druid that slaughters wildlife for phat loots,etc. yet find names somehow break their immersion.
"Personally, it drives me up the wall when I see names with numbers in them. I’m not sure what puritan gene is responsible, but I refuse to even talk to someone named “D1rk D4rkblad3". In fact I’m likely to go out of my way to kill him if given the chance"Author: Dan Fortier
I hear ya
Great idea! I'll add it to The GAME feature list immediately!
Feel free to add it to 'The Game' feature list, it's already a part of the system for our MMO project, Citadel of Sorcery.
Right on the money.
Every time i see a retarded name with numbers, or anything along those lines, I'm reminded of how stupid some people are. I usually try to make my name relevant to the game I'm playing, and from the position I'm playing (good or bad and so on) - I even might go so far as to search for, to some degree, unknown historical names. Call me a geek, but I take pride in a name.
The alternating caps problem is easily solved, right along with the "doesn't believe in capitalizing names" one. Computers have been doing string manipulation since forever (read: ENIAC just after WWII). So run the string offered by the user as a prospective name through a string sanitizer - first letter capped, all others lowercased, remove numbers (unless appropriate to setting - or you might replace them with letters*), odd symbols, etc. This stuff is really, really easy to do for a somewhat competent programmer. You could even add in a word filter that kills or replaces offensive words from names. Just make it less brain damaged than the forum word filter of the old WWIIOnline forums - I don't think I can stand being "rear endrear endinated" by having a "sheck" shot into my "chickenpit" again...
You could even run this sanitizer on the fly - similarly to how it's done in City of Heroes. Here, if you exceed specifications (more than one non-letter or number in your name, for example), the symbol just doesn't get written. I doubt many people will feel their freedoms are curtailed by only having one capital letter per word, or not being able to use lots of weird symbols.
*: 1 = L or I, 2 = S or Z, 3 = E, 4 = A, 5 = S, etc. Or just replace them with roman numerals.
What I find MOST annoying is names that lack any sense of creativity or effort.
Example: DeathDealer, DeathAngel, Death *insert spooky sounding word*
I had a friend who started a guild in Guild Wars. Lets just say- his Guild name sucked. "Demons of Death". I said "Dude? Are you 14 yrs old or just retarded?" He said "ok, what should it be?"
It took me a few moments, but nothing came as I was suffering from a case of hemmroids.
SO it came to me: Hemmroids of Doom.
Bizarre, odd, and a definite "WTF?" name.
Besides, imagine the fun if we actually were good enough to go onto the "championships"