Name Changes

[loramin]

Originally Posted by SunDrake [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To elaborate, I have always felt there is a privilege given to those who spend more time on the forums than in the game. Don't care how much you edit the Per-Level Hunting Guide [thanks for that, though, Loramin]

I'm glad you've enjoyed the Per-Level Hunting Guide SunDrake. I didn't make it to curry any special favors or treatment, I just did it because I saw a million threads asking where to hunt, and I figured there must be a better way to answer them. But unless you count getting two items that I accidentally lost restored recently (yes, I'm a moron) I've gotten no special privileges here.

Originally Posted by Lhancelot [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That being said, I don't think Loramin has an awful personality or is nasty, I just think his love of his own name has blinded him from reasonable thinking in this circumstance.

I do love my name/character. I mean, I loved him so much I re-created him here exactly as he was on live, with the exact same name/face/race/class/deity. But I don't think I'm blinded by fear of a name change: when I similarly re-created my ranger here his name was already taken, so I added a silent "h" and moved on. I'm sure I could do something similar if I had to with Loramin.

I just think ... look what seems to get forgotten is that the staff are people, not blind rules-following automaton. A staff member can look at a name like Loramin and think "that sounds like a random fantasy name and not anything I've ever heard of in the real world". That same staff member can also look at Winchester (for instance) and think "you know, I think I may have heard of that ..."

So yes, I do understand that the rules say a name can be changed for being the same as a trademark. But as I mentioned before, there are 10k new trademarks issued every quarter in the US alone. If the staff was a bunch of rule-enforcing robots they would write a script to match character names against every new trademark as it comes out ... but that will never ever happen because they aren't robots trying to ban every trademarked name.

What they are is people, people who love this game so much that they volunteer their own free time, spending some of it to change obviously recognizable names that don't belong in Norath so that everyone else can enjoy the game more. That basic fact makes me feel my name is relatively safe, but at the same time it also ensures that I'll feel no ill will if it does get changed. And I really think it would help a lot if everyone else here also tried to keep that basic fact in mind when having these discussions.