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PoloJoe
Member Posts: 48
Not sure if this has ever been brought up before. I think it would be a good idea of character names can *not* be duped across servers. Imagine if there was a character named 'Joe' on three different servers, and you happened to have a character on two of them. Talk about a confusing mesh of independent roleplays hehe. Two Joes that have nothing to do with each other, at all. I think the same goes with GM character and mare names. Since each server is its own story, for example why should there be like a Tehthu on each server, that interacted with different characters and done different things? Would be way too confusing.
To add to this, I'd also go as far as saying to ban all old UL character names. Doing this rejects folks from carbon copying their old character into Rec. Also makes people get creative with their names, which should be roleplayish anyhow. There's really no reason why any of the old UL character names should be in Rec again, except maybe a recurring character from UL-time for whatever odd RP reason. PoloJoe certainly isn't a roleplay name heh, and trust me I do not intend to use it again in Rec by any means (other than one of my new character's great grandfather maybe or something?). The website states that Rec is at a different time period, for which I assume the future, so why should anyone dupe their UL name? Did they live for the past thousand years? 
Comments
first paragraph, I agree with you. The less confusion the better which is directly related to the following:
Second paragraph. I know this was brought up on the Stratics forum (side note: what happened to the Rec forum on Stratics?) that Lyra hadn't ruled out the possibility of UL players from reserving one of thier UL names for Rec to prevent others from copying them. Iago is not that important to the overall story line in UL, I'm not even gonna use that name for Rec, but at the same time I also don't want someone to be running around and using the name partly to avoid confusion and partly to ego. Can you imagine someone else taking Wraiths name for Rec or PoloJoe or (god help them) Tzayak? Not saying that people would take these names on purpose, at least not in every instance. I aslo want to agree that all UL names should be banned, but I have a couple of secondary characters (none of which are currently active) from UL. None of them ever made to first sphere, or made any impact on UL, and if someone wants to use thier name, then by all means go ahead, but Iago was MY creation, alot of work went into him, and I still strugle with him at times, I just would not like to see another one running around, or someone claiming to be the decendant of him from UL, and so on......
Another point in that same thread (right now I really wished those Rec forums on Stratics were still up) was to also ban names with numbers in them, historical figures, and popular fiction names. Most names from Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Wheel of Time, Dungeons and Dragons, Pern, Star Trek, Final Fantasy, Dragon Ball Z, etc.... Personally I really don't have an issue with these names, hell, I got the name Iago from Shakespeare's Othello (not the ****ing parrot from Alladin), as long as the person is not trying to RP that exact same character, backstory and all, at which point its borderline copyright infringement.
....and there were other points I wanted to bring up, but I can't remember them at the moment.
....and life goes on
Yep, exactly the reason UL taken names should not be allowed in Rec. There's also the possibility of a controller not playing Rec when it comes out that played UL, and another controller hijacking their 'unreserved' character name and immitating them. That would be really lame, and would cause confusion and problems. Since Rec will be at another time period, the UL names are pretty much all in the history books, except for possibly recurring GM characters as I stated in the above post (Tzayak lives forever...?).
Also about the names from other stories and such. I'm sure pieces of names couldn't hurt being borrowed from other stories, but there's no reason for Captain JeanLuc Picard to be a Ruler of HC, heh. Maybe mix up names if someone's thoughts were dry, like Bob Picard? Bad example I know, but you get my idea.
Folks could even play with suffix and prefix of a name, like make a character called Othellus or something, no need to stick Othello in. And yeah actually fitting in other stories into the Rec roleplay is just stupid. And I totally agree about numbers, clan names, all caps, etc. Perhaps a filter at character creation could help with this, such as allowing only alphabetical characters except for maybe adding hyphens. Caps protection filter would also have to allow the occasional capital letter in a single word, such as the name JeanLuc (however you spell it).
Call me a snob if you will, but at any time I see someone using a name from a book, a show or (worse still) a video game, the mental process in my mind is "This person is not original. Therefore they're probably a really boring rper." Thus, I tend to avoid said people. There's only so many Drizzt dark elves or Aragorns or insert-japanese-anime-name-here names I can see running around in a world before I get rather annoyed and lose interest in the game.
It might be common to see Jeanluc ingame IF the people in Rec were human; but they're not. They're a different species entirely, with their own culture, customs, and names. Thus, I wouldn't expect to see anything stolen straight out of a movie either in names, or concepts (i.e. could we have a few less my-lover/boyfriend/wife died a tragic death and I'm a loner" types, please?).
Not to mention the use of said names from other stories and movies or what have you are usually protected by copyright. Thus, most games cannot allow anyone to use them (sad but true; I know of more than one custumier who received a cease-and-desist letter for even using the name Arwen to describe a dress).
So, originality would be nice, please....not only from the blatant stealing of a name from somewhere else, but I'd extend it to the UL characters and their names (as again, snobbery rears its head, but how unoriginal can one be to create one's exact same character over again? Even going so far as saying "Oh but he was my great great grandfather fifteen times removed" when it's obvious the character concept is the exact same as your old char?)
Innovation means just that...if this is a new game, please let it BE new...don't drag old hackneyed stuff in.
Exactly
This thread, in a more summarized, cleaned up fashion should be on the character creation portion of the game. You could literally think up hundreds of original names in no time if you play with words enough. Think about different cultures around *our* world just for suffix and prefix ideas. Use a thesaurus, and find something remotely similar to your character's personality or traits or something, then put a big twist on the word to find something original and cool, just for an example. Hit Google and find different names worldwide and put a twist on those. Who knows. I'm saying this for folks that may have trouble coming up with names on their own; I've already come up with a few ideas for my future characters.
I think we shoudl learn from the makers of GuildWars for naming thing.
First Guild Wars you are force to use a 2 part name.
for example Dura Cuire is my character name in Guild Wars and still if i wanted i could create this, Dura Cuire Jr. if i wanted and still be accepted. Or Dura Brown or John Cuire. Those are all acceptable in Guild Wars.
But you know you should go one step further, allowing the family name to be owned within the game by the first player that creates it? or even sell the family name so if other players want to role play a family then they could... anyways just letting you know on how far some games have gone forth with the naming conventions.
I think the whole family thing in Underlight was extremely detrimental to the roleplay. No two dreamers were ever really supposed to be from the same shard, or at least on vast large shards they never known of each other, for the protection of roleplayed beliefs, like in Dreamstrike. I know in-game families (across shards) have always been more or less made up by accepting folks into their family as a brother, sister, son, daughter, etc; but bringing things in like having childbirth roleplays in the dream was completely ooc as far as the roleplay of the game goes. Everyone's name for their characters are composed of their name on their shard, without a last name of an Underlight family. I suppose this is just my strong opinion though, since these in-game families did become pretty popular. The whole family idea in the game should be spelled out though roleplaywise by Lyra to spell out what's acceptable IC and all.
Not sure if that's what you meant by last names and all Josh heh. Maybe, though, some shards don't use last names, and everyone is just named in a unique way? Maybe some shards have five names for their people? It's kind of tough to implement conventions for names in Rec considering shardic life from one shard to another was potentially much different, with their own conventions, whereas in a game like Guild Wars everyone's from the same 'shard' for lack of a better word.
I have to say that family RPs are fun (not the adoption/marriage ones). I started off in ul in a family RP that was orginally started by my brother and a friend, and both my sister and I were brought into it. It was fun while it lasted and has been interesting to keep up with over the years. If I had the chance to do it again, I probably would. This also goes for Rec, if the opportunity arises that a player wants to RP same shard RPs, I think they should be allowed if they're maybe approved of by Lyra first hand.
If dreamstrike were in game, I can see where that would be an issue. But then you could always agree to whatever terms that if someone in the same shard was struck, you can't speak of them in regards to strike. Might make things way too complicated though.
As for names, I think if someone wants to use a name from books, movies, etc, they should be allowed to. Not everyone is going to be creative enough to come up with their own, and not everyone who uses a specific name is going to follow the same background. They should be given just the same opportunity as others.
Numbers shouldn't be allowed though
Numbers, no no no no no no no no no NO! Please please please PLEASE, limit it to english only characters.
That in mind, I think Reclamation should not bar UL names, except perhaps a community created "Blacklist" of names that shouldn't be in the game due to the dreamer's impact with the option of players reservering their names. The fact remains, it does block out a lot of names which could be hit upon originally enough, but years of UL and randomly generated names have slowly limited the choices.
I have a list of names I recycle for use in RPG chars, every once in a while in a MMO I'll use one of them, like "Destion" and it'll come up used. And I'll sit there scratching my head a second wondering if I had done the game and forgotten about it, or if it was just sheer coincidence that someone else thought of the name, or perhaps I'm being treated to the most sincere form of flattery (mimicry). It is interesting though.
I wouldn't force two part names though, not without expanding the character limit on names. Even then, large names make for harder locating.
Maybe you did come accross Iago on your own, but when I saw you whipping by in the threshold, the first thought that ran through my mind was "Who the hell would name their character after the most vile, sinister, manipulative villian in all of Shakespear's plays." He's the villian of Othello if you do not know. I find this mildly ironic which brings a chuckle to me, so let us count this as a good thing.
Now, my suggestions on naming. These are very strict and would probably take a block of code to enact, but perhaps you can skim out the best. I tried to cover all ground here.
That's everything I can think of that someone would exploit to make a silly name.
Because only someone as deranged as me would have a rubber chicken Named Alfredo Sanchez
So THAT'S what that parrot's name is, I forgot his name.
In Othello Iago is thoroughly evil and vile, but the worst sort of vile, he acts as an innocous guy who's always giving "good" advice while in the background he gets underhanded and two faced with his dealings.
I have a part in the SUNY Maritime production of that play which got put on hold and they were going to put it back up in the summer. In any case, the subject is fresh on my mind.
Because only someone as deranged as me would have a rubber chicken Named Alfredo Sanchez
nuts, went to post and I got logged out, so here's the short version of what I was gonna post.
Agreed and beating the horse: Numbers, AlTeRnAtInG CaPiTaLS, and extra spaces before and after name should be filtered out.
The fence sitting: Not all names from UL, just the big ones. Again, if someon happens to think up the a name that I used in UL but no longer played or really got anywhere with, they can have it (you'll have to take my word that they are original names). Solution, here's hoping that Lyra will allow the UL players a chance to reserve, for whatever reason, one or two names. As stated before, I will not create another Iago for Rec, but at the same time, because of the effort that went into him, I don't want some yahoo trying to mimic or create an OOC confusion with the name. I know, I'm not that important, but my ego says otherwise.
Popular Fiction and Historical: Some names should be "reserved", and I'll leave it to Lyra to decide which. That being said, I did, fully knowing Shakespeare's character (the realization of Alladin and Gargoyles came later), choose Iago as a name. Lews and Bilbo Baggins are great examples of overcoming known characters, and taking the names within UL and making them thier own. They are largly part of the reason why generally it doesn't bother me to do this, especially since they don't RP the known backgrounds. I myself am confident that those who have delt with Iago know that the only similarity between what I've done and Shakespeare character is the name. I also knew that choosing that name would set me at a disadvantage, as Brain pointed out. I don't think it a lack of creativity on the controllers part to name a character after a known one (1995 Fishbourne and Branagh in Othello, when Branagh looks into the camera at the end of the beach scene, it was very inspirational), its a lack of creativity to RP that character as it is known for. What cracks me up is that Iago is not even my original.
And I remembered what it was that I aslo wanted to post earlier, Families: The Rec sight is very clear that it is extremely rare that more than one dreamer from the same shard attained the dreamstate in the same time period. Alright, I'm done for now.
edit: fine, it was the somewhat shorter version
....and life goes on
Character names that have been dreamstruck shouldn't be in Rec
It's not that difficult to create a name, most games even have automatic name creation systems. If making an original name is too difficult....blimey I'd hate to see what sort of hackneyed rp folks come up with! (I'm sorry, seeing anyone named Bilbo Baggins, I'd not have anything to do with them. I'm sure they're nice, etc etc, but crikey...) Of course names are going to come up which are used elsewhere (Mary, Ophelia, etc) and that's not really an issue. But if I see one more Koshugawa-Whatsit-Anime when said controller isn't even Japanese....GAH!
The rules you wrote down Strikes are pretty much givens, but nothing beats people ingame actually seeing a ripoff name and then reporting it. You're not going to be able to catch everything, and there's always at least one person out there who spends more time trying to get through loopholes than actually playing the game. Policing won't ever be perfect, but at least it would be a bit of a deterrent. With all the rules in the world, they're no good until people follow them, or until other people make sure they're followed (and I've seen text speak used in UL, believe it or not, and the bloke wasn't told any different apparently!).
We'll see how it goes.
Yep I agree with both Strikes and N'rella. About naming rules, I'd also have to add 'No strings of capital letters'. Remember the character 'THE REBEL'? That's all capitals, and five spaces imbetween. How annoying is that, and this was a prominent character in Underlight.
Pmares have a half decent system for creating random maren names for new mares. If this was tweaked quite a bit, and used with more english-like prefixes and suffixes, and maybe throw in some sensible letters imbetween (lacking the vocabulary for this
) , then we could have a decent naming generator for folks kind of clueless about what to name their character. Even at least to steer them with a general idea.
As for all the names already taken in Underlight. I sort of have to agree that during the mplayer years, TONS of names were registered. I still think if all the names were banned, we wouldn't run into trouble creating some totally original names with the ideas brought out earlier in this post. But if there were a blacklist, I think those that should automatically qualify would be characters that were:
A) Lyrans dreamer or mare
Teachers
C) Those that held any sort of rank in a house
D) Those that at least made first or second sphere
E) Those that have played at least X amount of months
F) Those that have actually *paid* to play
G) Prominant non-GM short-term roleplayed characters
I list those six options as possible criteria for a sort of blacklist, just to throw them out there if not all UL names were banned. Maybe just blacklisting Lyrans and Paid Players would be good enough. I have the suspicion that tons of those character names were taken by curious mplayer folks. Not sure if Lyra would have the capability to filter these out though.
Well the thing is Polo, that's the beauty of having something automatically take care of capitalization in a name. It would force those all caps names into lower case on everything but the first letter.
And forall those people who accidentally forgot to capitalize the first letter of their name, the system picks it up automatically, let's face it, it just looks a tad off if you are "joe" instead of "Joe"
And yes, the stuff should be common sense, but I put it all down on electronic paper nothing slips through the cracks. It's all common sense and would make names much more saner.
Yes, THE REBEL was a nuisance with that name.
I remember once when Biggie Z was turned into a girl, and TR didn't buy the story, so he groped for biggie's goods. I was in the room and absolutely surprised, yet biggie reacted properly, he threw a knee to REBEL's groin for every space that fellow had in his name.
Because only someone as deranged as me would have a rubber chicken Named Alfredo Sanchez
I must have missed that ruleset in your previous list.