Naming Rules?

Discussion in 'Archived Topics' started by Robert Reise2, Mar 22, 2013.

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  1. Grimkor

    Grimkor Avatar

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    <b>Titles</b>
    I assume that there will be a system that one will be able to unlock the usual titles of Lord, Lady, Baron, Sir, etc. or maybe those are just for Kickstarter? Anyways, if they are a title in game they should not be allowed in a character name.

    It would be nice however if we could get some tool to create/use some of the more uncommon or even unique cognomens that would be unlikely titles in game. Maybe not have it be part of character creation, but something added on later that we could unlock or buy?

    <b>Numbers</b>
    None,
    Roman numerals as a suffix are fine in my opinion

    <b>Special Characters</b>
    I think ' . - and the various Non-English characters should be fine, anything you see in a normal or fantasy name should be okay really. (!@#$%^&amp;* etc. should be right out)

    <b>Spaces and Capital letters</b>
    I would like to see at least two spaces available within a name, and the ability to use multiple capital letters within a characters name. Also, I think that the first letter of the name should be forced to be a capital

    I also would like to avoid seeing pop culture names and what I call "Internet names" (XxGrimkorxX) (GrImKoR)


    These are just my suggestions based on my playstyle,
    Anyone with similar views think I left anything out?

    I think that the tricky part is going to be enforcement of whatever rules are in place, if that is going to be up to devs/mods or the community to report


    Edit:

    It would be nice too if we had a different even optional field for Surnames at character creation. This way it would be easy to add a feature for changing ones surname ingame (I am sure that the RP community would love a feature like that)
     
  2. uk_uk

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    There must also be a strict rule to get rid of insulting or offending names in Multiplayer... I do not wanna play with people called Adolf Hitler (or "sort ofs" like Hilter) or Mr. NAZI. Imo all kind or real, historic or known-fantasy-names should be banned too.

    - Hey, Aragon, whats up?
    - Nuthin, Aaragon... just waiting for Ahragon... but there is Lee Go Las. Huhu
    - Hi, Did you hear what Raistlin said to Raystlin???
    - No... that old story about YourFat Mommy again??

    I also know that some americans have a "thing" for german names... in the official Greyhawk-Setting (a D&amp;D- World) there was e.g. a villain called Zahnarzt! Sounds great in english, but just means dentist oO


    Meeeh!
     
  3. Sarizaddi

    Sarizaddi Avatar

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    I don't think there really is a right way of doing names, just a least wrong way.

    For example, some actual religions, some actual cultures, a person can have many names. There is a person, for instance, that has 25 middle names. There are Arab that are Name1 al Name2 al Name3 al Name4 al Name5 (Person son of Person son of Person, etc).

    Then there are people with names that have Suffixes indicating their family, where their family hailed from, where their family hailed from before that.

    Then there are people with hyphenated names, indicating heritage of both parents.

    And then there are people with special characters in their name, often regional dialect or pronunciation. Bah?'u'll?h for example. Or Jos?. Or R?mani.

    And there are people with titles as names. Lord Byron. Baron Trump. God Shammgod.

    --------------

    But there is a flip-side. The flipside is what is easy to represent in game, what is realistic for a name, what allows for the least hardship both playing and representing a person.

    -------------

    So in synopsis I believe a player should have 2 names.

    The first name be able to use an apostrophe or a hyphen and a player should be able to use any of the alphabet special characters, but no other alpha numeric characters and no space. I believe a person should be able to use Bah?'u'll?h if they wanted. For the name, certain names should be restricted such controversial names like Hitler or story names like Iolo, but otherwise unrestricted so a person could be named Santa or Lord or Baron or even God (If you want to be Lord Lord, more power to you).

    Easy fix to special characters is that they may display with their name but are ignored when sending a message or mail to the person. You type the name without special characters, such as [/whisper Bahaullah]. But note this would in effect be the same as saying B?la is the same as Bal? is the same as Bala, so if the name is unique to a person, the name is unique regardless of whether they spell it with or without special characters and no one else can have that spelling with or without special characters. If there is a 'Tom-Tom', then I can't name my character 'Tomtom' or 'Tomt?m'

    And then the person has a second name which they can do anything they did with the first name, but can also add a space. So First name [Rosalind] Second Name [Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson]. This way a person can have all the familial or cultural or territorial flare they want without impacting the game mechanics negatively. Second names should be non-Unique, in my mind.

    I think the minimum number of letter for a First name should be as little as 2 (Ed, Bo, Al, Mo, Ma, Jo, Pa, Ki, etc etc) but the apostrophe or hyphen exempted (no one name D- or B' ) and the max characters should be reasonable like 11 to 14.

    I think the second name should have minimum of two letters and max should be somewhat non taxing, but reasonable long (say 64 for example).

    ------

    I think the player should be able to select whether to display their last name or not. A person could walk around just being [Bob].

    I think a player should also be able to select whether he sees the last names of others. I should be able to decide not to be subjected to the people that elect to use those 64 characters to put a super long name that spams my log.

    I think there should be a Report a Name feature in-game, to report inappropriate names.

    -----------

    I don't think there is any fair way to prevent "internet names" like 'Xxgandalfxx' or 'Vvsephinrothvv' or 'Oodeathoo', and there is no good way to keep people from sentence naming like 'Yourmomma' or 'Waitforit' or 'Lordofevil'. But there can certainly be excerpt requesting people not use them...and maybe even make them reportable as inappropriate names.
     
  4. Grimkor

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    @Sarizaddi

    Right, I dont think there really is a way to prevent names... These things tend to be more reactive.
    You can have a bank of "forbidden names" but there will be ways around them, and that is up to devs/mods/gms to deal with

    The important thing is being very clear as to what the rules are, and giving the players tools to report names.

    I am sure that a temporary solution could easily be made where... as an example, people who you report (for anything)
    are removed from the pool of players that are able to join your shard.

    Heck if you are going to allow names like XxgandalfxX to be within the rules for the game. Maybe give players a tool where they can flag other people as lower and lower down on a roleplaying totem pole. That way like minded people tend to be grouped together
     
  5. Viconius

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    Since naming will be unique, I would suggest the name be three fields. This is how it works in Secret World MMO, and it allows the game have multiple same first names and surnames (allows families). Of course we do not know how game world lore works yet, but this is me presuming people have first and surname.

    First name="non unique"
    Surname="non unique" (or some sort of system that you could pick people who can be part of your family, thus share surname)
    Nick ="unique for identification"
     
  6. Ayan Thymonte

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    I like the idea of grouping people with inappropriate names down the role playing ranking, so that unimaginative can play together and leave more serious role players in peace. However, could you imagine if someone abused the reporting tools and sent a hard-core role player down into the pits with the internet speak crowd? That would be a hellacious experience!
     
  7. Grimkor

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    @Viconius

    I kinda like the idea of a (perhaps hidden?) modifier for your name or something,
    I think it is going to be quite hard to get a name that you are happy with, because everyone is going to be on one mega server. Though if they stick with one character only, maybe that will help

    I know they do that with RealID/Battle.net 2.0 for Starcraft II for example


    @Ayan Thymonte

    Alas, I could not imagine a worse fate...
     
  8. Viconius

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    I think that is the only way to go, especially as Richard Garriott speaks about how he wants people to hang on their characters.

    Big problem in UO was that people were really stuck with their names, which they did not always think too hard. So ability to change name somehow, would also be good. So perhaps the unique "callsign" was permanent, but you could adjust your characters first and surname?

    I do not really see value of people trying to invent as unique names like "Johnny" and "Johnn" etc because first person has exclusive on first name "John". It would feel more natural if especially the first name was not unique.

    Then people like playing as part of same family, that is why surname is probably wise not to have as unique as well.
     
  9. Unreal2

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    I'm partial to the whole 'you have a main account name, and your character has a name that does not need to be unique, and my friends message me using my main account name, not my character name'.

    I think what this does is eliminate names like we see in old MMOs like EQ1 where people's names are like 'Ioghkliolk' since they could not make what they really wanted.

    I also think this system helps keep names like 'Rainz' 'Rainzor' 'Rainzors' 'Rainzkilla' from needing to exist, there could just be 500 'Rain' characters.
     
  10. rschultzy80

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    I don't think adding any form of self title in character creation should be allowed. If I want to be the Glorious Lord Merlin then I should have to work for it. If I want to be the Dread Lord Merlin well I had better be pretty evil. Don't see how it can be any other way in an RPG.

    Names should be unique, no duplicates.

    If I understand it correctly titles such as Pioneer, Baron, etc will be shown differently than Virtue/rep/karma titles. Like your name wouldn't be Pioneer John Doe, It would "Pioneer" like above your head separate from a paper doll type title
     
  11. Robert Reise2

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    I don't like the account name and separate character name. I understand it is possibly more practical for naming rules and stuff, but it serves little purpose and is redundant if we are only aloud 1 online character which seems to be the way the Devs are leaning. Why have 2 names for 1 account, 1 character?

    Secondly, I am my character, my name in game is my persona. It don't want an email address or an @Robert.734638 account name which is what people are interacting with. I want my own unique name to be unique and that's it. No in between account messaging. If you talk to me, you are talking to me, if you send me a letter, it is a addressed to me, not some soulless, blank, computer correlated account name.
     
  12. Nietzsche

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    I read someone here suggest your name is blank until you introduce yourself. This is a rather novel approach. Imagine a PC stopping to chat, with the word "Stranger" above their head. you as a player have an option on your GUI to reveal your name, or "introduce yourself" as you will to the other PC "Stranger" you are speaking too. Players who you have spoken to before name will be revealed because you have already talked to them, but new players will be refered to as "Stranger"

    This will make it eaiser to role-play shady characters, makes you cautious of "strangers" just like in the real world.. and give a sense of immersion in the world unparalleled by the typical approach with MMO games. This goes in the games concept of playing with a few friends, and sets it apart from the standard MMO everyone is familar with.

    Another Idea. maybe like online poker. have a notes section where you can write notes on the other PC characters you meet. there name is "Stranger" and until they physically say "my name is Nietzsche" only then can you manually edit their name...

    Might deviate too much from what the regular player would expect, and perhaps arguably so, make the game less "social" I do feel this would be rather unique though...
     
  13. Nietzsche

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    Maybe have a game mechanic when you request PC name and a dialog box opens with other player choice to reveal your name you can be honest, positive karma. or lie about your name, if your dishonest you lose karma.. as a way to stop people lying about who they are all the time...
     
  14. An_Corp

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    I really don't care for "first and last names". People will find ways to circumvent this anyway(Davidjohn Johansson). I like the no special character rule with limited characters including spaces.
     
  15. uk_uk

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    Hmmm... "no special character"/"limited characters"

    Are Umlauts (?,?,?) special characters too? If yes if they would be disallowed you might have problems with german, swedish (?), islandic, finnish, turkish etc. players.
     
  16. Grimkor

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    @uk_uk

    I would assume that they should be allowed. With the game having only one worldwide server I dont really know a good way to deal with the various diacritic marks. I like seeing them in names, I am sure other languages that use them will need them... That being said, I hate having to look up an alt code to invite a person to a guild, or send someone a tell.

    Now that I think of it, how did UO handle this? I dont remember running into any non-english speakers.
     
  17. 3djake

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    @High Baron Elvish Dragon
    people should be allowed to use pop culture if it does not break the immersion, I use "Jake the Muss" and "Jake da Muss" in a lot games, it is from a movie but my name is Jake, and muss is just sort for muscle, I do not want people reporting me for having a name just because its from a movie. Besides people seem to call me "Jake the Muss" in real life for some reason and sometimes "Jake the Snake", if its fits your character then it should be ok.
    Some times I use Bela Lugosi as well which is the name of a actor but I do not think that breaks immersion either.

    I would agree that something that sounds sci-fi would break immersion like "Luke Skywalker" but there is nothing wrong with being clever and changing it to "Luke Forestwalker"
     
  18. Sir Frank

    Sir Frank Master of the Mint

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    I guess I favor some sort of flag or slider I can set myself that indicates RP or non-RP.

    If I want to call myself something silly that amuses me, and RP'ers don't have to see me, that's fine.

    I'm not going to get bent out of shape if I see Darth Vader wandering around. I'm not going to think much of his creativity, but it also isn't going to bother me. Can copyright be enforced on player names?

    So, there ought to be a reporting system to weed out offensive names, but I really don't think they can enforce stupid or silly.

    If I want to use a common name like Frank, I'm sure there are more Franks out there. Won't take too long before every form of Frank is used, and somebody will have to make up something else, which begins to lead to taking names from books, movies, cereal boxes, etc.

    I hope they leave the naming system pretty open.

    If the visible names aren't unique, that'll rule out having a mail system.
    I'm glad there are smarter people in the world to figure this stuff out.
     
    Time Lord likes this.
  19. Sarizaddi

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    @Train
    I almost completely agree.

    The major problem I would see is people impersonating others. Prime example...There are currently 16 people in the U.S./Canade named Richard Garriott. So yeah, two people could feasibly be named the same. But there is a difference between that, and someone that named themselves Richard Garriott to impersonate Richard Garriott. (or anyone else impersonating anyone else for that matter).

    @Viconius

    Has the right idea. I think having a third "middle" unique nick-name would be good, for the purposes of mail and messages. That name should always be as visible as the rest of their name. That way you could tell the difference between Richard "Lord British" Garriott and Richard "An Imposter" Garriott. But just as much that there can be as many Stephen or John or David in the world as there is, and as many Smith and White and Lee in the world as there is.

    But I still want to say it should be taken one step further, that the last name should be more open and full and vibrant as a person's history, or culture, or other naming convention might be.

    @Nietzsche

    I'm not sure how debilitating or lag creating it can be to attach notes to other characters. One person might have been very popular and around quite a long time, so many many players have posted notes about this person. Each person can only see their own notes, but they are nonetheless attached to that player. So then is there a lag issue when that very popular person enters the area, regardless of the fact that you can't see all the notes attached to them, or otherwise is it that the longer you play the constant more and more lag you get entering populated areas because more and more notes are attached to by you to them?

    Either way, a notes system, I always thought, can be a lag perpetuating system. Better maybe that we have journals, and those notes are kept in our journals. Maybe even that a Journal is searchable for keywords (names). But otherwise, it is a book you can put away or leave at home when it becomes to thick (laggy) to carry.

    @uk_uk @Grimkor
    That's why I suggested that apostrophy,hyphen, and spaces are ignored for the purposes of mail and messages, and special characters are treated as their non accented counterpart (i.e. G?nther, sending a message Gunther). It negates the special character for those times when looking up an Ascii chart is too gross. Granted, the system might be nice and Auto-correct, so you send mail to Gunther and when it gets to G?nther, he sees G?nther in the title block. Or else, likewise for tells/whispers.
     
  20. tekkamansoul

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    I like the idea of having a first and last name separate from your account name. It is really irritating when you create a character and have to play with different spellings because someone 4 years ago took the name you wanted even though they never play anymore.

    Plus, there's going to be tens of thousands of players creating characters. You aren't just betting against the odds that one person on one server doesn't have your name, but one person out of everyone who plays the game, period.

    Seems like it would be necessary to keep them separate if you ask me.
     
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