Naming Policy

[Uberom]

This is sort of a spin off of Taxi Driver's posts in a previous thread regarding his ban. Apparently he was made to change his name, he fought it and ended up getting banned for insulting the staff. Obviously I'm missing details, but this is essentially what happened.

I think it is important to explain that it is not my intention to flame DEVS/GMS in this thread, unlike other threads that I have previously engaged in. I just want people's honest opinion. If you plan on flaming or trolling, just head back to Raren's thread. Thanks.

My question is: Why is there a naming policy?

For some names I would make exceptions. If you have a name that is openly offensive, for example one that contains the word "fuck" or something, then obviously it needs to be changed.

However, I don't see how a name like Taxi Driver is offensive? Why would a name like that be subject to the policy? It is my earnest opinion that a name change like this, trivial, takes something away from the community. I like to see clever names. It's almost a form of art.

If any of you can explain how that name is offensive in general, or offensive to you personally, please do so.

Even further, why enforce a naming policy on a private server? The DEVS don't make money from the population, so they don't have to cater to people's QQ offended meter. I've learned this through my own experience. Games like World of Warcraft have to enforce that kind of stuff because it all comes down to money, and probably legal aspects as well. (Terms of Service?) But why here? This population is filled with EQ addicted degenerates, myself included, and I think most of us give a fuck less if you have a clever, slightly racy name. In fact, I encourage it.

My personal experiences with Taxi were always extremely pleasant. Last summer, when I started on this server, I used to get ports from him ALL THE DAMN TIME. He was very active in the community. I actually had him on friends list. At the time, I was poor, but he always was grateful to receive any tip, no matter how small. I was also grateful that a druid would respond to my tells, knowing that his tip wouldn't be that great. I thought it was kind of funny having a druid named Taxi Driver porting you around Norrath. Very clever, kudos to him. For the record, I don't personally know Taxi. I am not a close EQ friend of his, or something along those lines. He just ported me enough to where I remember his name half a year later. For me, him being banned is a loss for the entire community.

Also, I have a personal experience with the naming policy:

I had a Rogue named Thieving Basterd. I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently my name was reported as being offensive. It is my belief that nobody was offended by my name, but rather offended at the fact I was using Pick Pockets in a group. For the moment, let's ignore that detail as its discussion would take the thread off track.

When the GM came to change my name, and I believe it was Rogean, he was very pleasant and patient. Kudos to him. I mentioned that my name was meant to be a first name / last name combo. Without the last name, my first name meant nothing. I asked if, because of this reason, I could just change my entire name. He agreed.

During our discussion, I asked why it was offensive and to whom? He didn't really have much of an answer, just that it had been reported by several people as being offensive. My main question to him was: How come IB can have "Basterds" in their guild name, but I can't have it as my last name? His response was something along the lines of "We haven't begun to enforce the naming policy on guilds."

.....right.

I'm not mad or anything, in fact I actually like my new Rogue's name better! Thanks, haters! But I do think its strange how a player named Thieving Basterd is offensive and therefore subject to name change, but a guild named Inglourious Basterds is not. And Taxi Driver? I'm lost.

:::SIDE NOTE:::

This goes out to the forum community. All you people who suck ass to the GMs need to stop. Your shit is weak. One minute your all friendly to the druid who's porting you around, but when he gets banned for something trivial, everyone jumps on the forums and slams him. This isn't an isolated incident, it happens daily. Quoting Uthgaard or Rogean in a thread, and then posting "YEA TAKE THAT" or something along those lines, doesn't make you part of the "in" crowd. You're still a fucking loser, and nobody likes you. All you kiddies need to get off the GM's dicks, stand on your own two feet, and speak your mind, not agree with theirs. Nobody wants to hear the peanut gallery chime in every time Uthgaard or Rogean makes a post.

You may be scared to abide by this suggestion, for fear that you will be banned or suspended. I can tell you from personal experience that this is very likely to happen. However, at least if you go down, you contributed something to the community. A voice, an idea. Not just a fucking silent dog cowering behind the GMs. They have 1000 people playing on their server, I doubt they need a bunch of fanboys and groupies to boost their ego.

In closing, just remember two things:
1. Community consists of players, not GMs.
2. Real *****s do real shit.

[Tumdumm]

not even gonna read this either

[Swishahouse]

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

2. Real *****s do real shit.

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Uberom]

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

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[IMG]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8000/real*****sdorealshit.jpg[/IMG]

[Tiggles]

tl;dr

[Zephys]

This is a free to play server with 0 RP, so I do have to admit that naming stuff should be nonexistant on the GM to do list.

[Estu]

It's not a matter of being offensive so much as it's a matter of taking people out of the game. One of the great things about EQ, at least to me, is the immersion. There are a lot of factors that contribute to it - the difficulty, the large zones and relative lack of fast travel, the actual landscapes and sound effects, and so on. If you see someone with a cheeky name that doesn't make sense in the context of the game, it takes you out of it a bit and can be irritating. I know not everyone feels this way - a lot of people don't care - but I believe that this is the spirit behind the naming policy. For the record, I'm not into MMO roleplaying either, at least not in the sense of talking like my character is supposed to talk or something (although I try to kill things that make sense for my faction).

After the naming policy was released, I started reporting people for having names that violated the policy when I ran across them. I don't think I reported Taxi Driver, but sure, it's the kind of name I would have reported. Why did I do this? Like I said, the names took me out of the game, and there was an actual policy in place, saying "these are the rules", so I figured that the GMs and administration were interested in having a server with game-appropriate names.

At first when I did this I would get tells back from Uthgaard saying something like "fixed" shortly after; the person's name was changed. Some time later, I got a tell from a GM (don't remember which) along the lines of "we don't really care about name violations except for the really obscene ones", so I stopped reporting those and just reported names like "dickbutt" or what have you. Then finally a couple days ago after a petition about a name like that, I got a tell from Uthgaard like "we really don't give a shit about these names, there are more important things to deal with". So fair enough, I've stopped reporting entirely. Granted, this might have just been because they were dealing with the DDOS madness, but fuck it, it's clearly a minor issue and if the GMs don't really care about it then it's not my place to spam them with petitions about it.

Now, am I obsessed with these names? Do they piss me off? Not really. The obscene ones kind of do, just because it's so stupid and tasteless to name a character "suxdick" or whatever it might be, like scrawling swear words into a desk at school. It's such a middle school mentality. The non-obscene ones take me out of the game somewhat, enough that when the naming policy was put up on the forums, I took the effort to report them when I saw them. But if the GMs are saying that they don't care about the naming policy after all, I'm fine with that. It doesn't matter that much one way or the other, honestly; it's kind of a minor issue from any perspective. The reason Taxi was banned was because (apparently) he insulted the GMs, not because of his name policy-violating name; that's just what triggered it. Whether or not we have an enforced name policy? not really a big deal.

[epicentre]

Personnally, I've used to be very frustrated when participing to various forums, inline games, guilds, allies and privately run communities.

Then I finally understood and accepted that such a community isn't a democracy, but is rather something like a monarchy. Once you get it, when you understand these rules and play according to it, you have a better online life.

My 2 cents, do whatever you want with it.

[RapidScotch]

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

This is a free to play server with 0 RP, so I do have to admit that naming stuff should be nonexistent on the GM to do list.

Yeah, if they quit running around answering everyone's petty petitions and camp disputes/arguments as soon as possible (hell it was a God send if you could get a response to a petition within 72 hours on live back in the day) we would have KUNARK much quicker!! :P

I say let the masses fend for themselves for awhile, anarchy is awesome. Usually people get blacklisted and ppl just won't associate with them if they pull some stupid ass stunts.

[Yak]

It is my understanding that as long as it's not an offensive name than you are fine. However, it is what the GM's determine is offensive since they own the server. This is rightly so as they are the owners. It's not about money but they want to have a good community in general. However, being that we allowed to cus and say woulds like "fuck" on the forums, I would imagine they would be adult about it. Again it's their server and I respect they have the final say. I can't speak about the Taxi Driver name as we are missing the entire story. However, I would love to hear it as I am sure it's more complicated then that.