PlaneShift

Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: Karistina on March 25, 2005, 08:30:25 pm

Title: Inappropriate character names
Post by: Karistina on March 25, 2005, 08:30:25 pm
How does one go about reporting inappropriate (vulgar or non-RP) character names? Would that require a petition, or a /report or here in the forums or what?
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 25, 2005, 08:37:06 pm
Not sure how we should report them but I just tell whichever GM is on at the time.
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Post by: Karistina on March 25, 2005, 08:38:46 pm
Since I haven\'t had a need to look for GMs in-game, how would I go about determining who is currently on?
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Post by: Keyaz on March 25, 2005, 09:09:47 pm
type /who and anyone in the \'game masters\' is a gm ;) or another good way is join #planeshift ion irc.freenode.net and tell there
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Post by: Platyna on March 25, 2005, 09:31:47 pm
I asked same thing once, and I was told: \"Petition them!\". ;)

Regards.
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Post by: Karistina on March 25, 2005, 09:34:54 pm
Thanks all :)
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Post by: Efflixi Aduro on March 26, 2005, 12:45:28 am
I hate the horrable names i saw when i was able to play cb. I some ideot named rolling stonz,yea, you\'re cool now ideot...
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Post by: discochimp on March 26, 2005, 08:14:31 pm
i really don\'t see why theres such a big problem with non-rpg names? what skin is it off your nose? so what if a player wants to have some indaviduality and not conform? i\'m not talking about offensive names here. i fully aggree that they have no place in the game. however i do think that non-rpg names are no big deal.

frankly i\'m quite happy to RP, but i find the fantasy RP names dull and generic. alot of the time they\'re a mash of random sylables stuck together because they sound fantasy-ish. if a name has meaning to the player and represents something to them i think it\'s unreasonable to ask them to change.

i\'m sure i\'m going to get flamed for this but like the name it\'s my opinion and i\'m entitled to voice it. luckily i have the precaution of a flame retardent suit.
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Post by: Gentooligan on March 26, 2005, 08:36:26 pm
I agree with discochimp. If the name isn\'t offensive, leave them alone.

Furthermore, nobody likes a snitch. Reporting someone b/c you don\'t think their name is \"RPG enough\" is childish. I had someone threaten to report me for this reason yesterday (I just ignored him). After stepping away from the keyboard for a minute, I came back to find this clown yelling \"Is there a GM? I found someone called \'Gentooligan\'!\"

Give me a break. It\'s a GAME. Anyone who gets that bothered over a name like mine really needs to get a life.
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Post by: Moogie on March 26, 2005, 08:56:59 pm
We are trying to create a believable fantasy world and emphasis proper roleplay as much as possible. Real-world references detract from the feel of the game and remind us we\'re just playing on a computer- which is not what we want, if it means Yliakum would seem any less \"real\" or immersive.

Reporting bad/non-RP names is encouraged. The more players who have believable fantasy-medieval names that fit in the world of Planeshift, the better. It also encourages newcomers to look at their own character and consider it in a roleplay perspective. If everyone was allowed to have names like \"Chimp Banana\", \"Iam Cooldude\", or \"Pamela Anderson\", it would shatter the immersion that all roleplayers are trying to achieve in PS. Believe it or no, silly names affect everyone who comes in contact with them. And since PS is a RPG (purposeful emphasis on the RP there), Roleplayers\' needs are extremely important to us.
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Post by: Efflixi Aduro on March 26, 2005, 09:02:53 pm
Quote
Originally posted by discochimp
i really don\'t see why theres such a big problem with non-rpg names? what skin is it off your nose? so what if a player wants to have some indaviduality and not conform? i\'m not talking about offensive names here. i fully aggree that they have no place in the game. however i do think that non-rpg names are no big deal.

frankly i\'m quite happy to RP, but i find the fantasy RP names dull and generic. alot of the time they\'re a mash of random sylables stuck together because they sound fantasy-ish. if a name has meaning to the player and represents something to them i think it\'s unreasonable to ask them to change.

i\'m sure i\'m going to get flamed for this but like the name it\'s my opinion and i\'m entitled to voice it. luckily i have the precaution of a flame retardent suit.


Well, you see. We don\'t care what you think and the devs and gms want everything their way.

Just get an rp name its not hard. The devs even made a god damn name gen for guys like you who still dont know that ps is for ROLE PLAYING. This is NOT like the other rpgs. You dont run around saying S>133t hammner or omfg help.d

As moogie said, ps wants to immerse people in a rp world and its a little hard when you have ideots coming by you and yelling things like S> ALMOST ANYTHING and stuff like that.

Just get over thew name thing and play ps how it was meant to be played. Yes, ps was meant to be played a certain way, and thats rp\'ing.
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Post by: Keyaz on March 26, 2005, 09:23:43 pm
you could have put it a wee bit nicer Efflixi  :rolleyes:
but at least its honest on most peoples views, if you want to run around like a insane retard with a name like \'full-bong kenobi\' your gonna get your head kicked in :|
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Post by: Gentooligan on March 26, 2005, 10:13:03 pm
And my name has been changed :(

My biggest problem with the whole scenario was the childish manner in which the other character threatened to \"tell on me\" (much like a 6 yr old crying to his mommy)

The GM that had me change my name, on the other hand, handled the situation politely and respectfully, and granted me the option of choosing another name.

If reporting other players is encouraged, it should be done so more subtly
No need to point and yell \"I\'m gonna tell on you! Nana Nana Nana!\" Just quietly report it to a GM instead.


Just my opinion.
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Post by: Efflixi Aduro on March 26, 2005, 10:24:06 pm
Ok you think we would run around doing that? That person is probably a newbie who knows tone rule, the name rule, because he had his changed too. :P

I personally get quite b*tchy at people with non-rp names. Nothing i can do about it though. And, ofcourse, i talk it out in pm\'s because the general chat section is for rp chat :)
But the funnest thing to do is go by a group of non-rp\'s and start roleplaying. They eventually think you\'re insane and 1-run away or 2-constantly challange you :P
Man, i wish my updater worked :(
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Post by: Seytra on March 26, 2005, 10:57:46 pm
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Originally posted by Gentooligan
If reporting other players is encouraged, it should be done so more subtly
No need to point and yell \"I\'m gonna tell on you! Nana Nana Nana!\" Just quietly report it to a GM instead.

Maybe he was simply trying to give you the chance to ask for a namechange yourself, which would have made you look better than being reported does.
The shouting might have been due to him not knowing how to contact / recognise GMs, so it micht have had it\'s reason as well.

But yes, I simply silently report bad names.
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Post by: Niavard on March 26, 2005, 11:27:32 pm
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Originally posted by Gentooligan
And my name has been changed :(

My biggest problem with the whole scenario was the childish manner in which the other character threatened to \"tell on me\" (much like a 6 yr old crying to his mommy)

The GM that had me change my name, on the other hand, handled the situation politely and respectfully, and granted me the option of choosing another name.

If reporting other players is encouraged, it should be done so more subtly
No need to point and yell \"I\'m gonna tell on you! Nana Nana Nana!\" Just quietly report it to a GM instead.


Just my opinion.


That was me, Gentooligan, and i did not run around screaming \"I\'m gonna tell on you!\" actually i said something along the lines of \"as much as i like linux (I\'m a slacker myself) I\'m afraid your name is unrpish and I\'ll have to report it\", you didn\'t answer at all (which I\'d probably consider more childish than trying to obey the rules of the game and tell someone before I reported them), so i repeated my statement several times in different ways before reporting (you still didn\'t answer at all thought), but I did not say something like \"I\'m gona tell on you nanananana!\" (actually i thought i was rather polite), at first i tried /telling Tmed, he agreed that it was a silly name and that it should be changed, but said he didn\'t have the rights to do so, and since i didn\'t feel like quiting the game to go to the irc, and didn\'t know petitions was meant for that, so i shouted to ask if any gm was online, I didn\'t threat on you in any way, and no i have not have my named change earlier because of having a silly name, and well, if you consider \"I\'m afraid I\'ll have to report you\" childish you\'re extremly polite...

EDIT: this whole thing is probably just a mistake, I did not try to taunt you, i said it several times because you didn\'t answer, i dunno why i told you that i was going to report you at all, but it was not to taunt you, it was more of a warning...
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 27, 2005, 01:17:34 am
I can see why some people like to use names from their favorit shows, moves, and literature; but most of the time the names are going to be out of place in an RP focused game. This not to say that I have a problem with obscure character names only a literarure affinacado like myself would recognise but there is a differance between useing such names and useing such names as \"Fullmetal Alchemist\" (name of an anime show)and \"Kurgan\" (bad guy from the first Highlander movie) both of which I have seen ingame recently.
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Post by: Kaseijin on March 27, 2005, 12:14:26 pm
hmmm i agree with full metal alchemist thing

but what\'s wrong with kurgan...it sounds very rp and not out of place. If it\'s ok to use a name from a less famous book why not from a less famous movies? Let\'s face it highlander is all but forgotten.
However i would go on record that i am against non-rp movie names like vincet vega, or clark kent...or some uninventive copy paste name, or Linus Tolvards.....though i would see nothing wrong somebody using this as inspiration to create a  name let\'s say Lunicious Tholvarde.
Or if i saw a person called smigol q\'dsar  i would see no problem, it\'s entirely appropriate. If we can\'t get our inspiration from appropriate books,movies and games. Where are we suppose to get it?
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Post by: Moogie on March 27, 2005, 12:49:46 pm
Read his post again, Kaseijin, and notice he worded the sentence as \"There\'s a difference between and \". He meant that Kurgan really isn\'t bad.
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Post by: Trober on March 27, 2005, 09:28:57 pm
Fourtunatly for me, the literature I read IS fantasy, so I have alot of experience with fantasy naming, but yeah, I have seen some stupid names in RPG games, and I would like to keep them out of PlaneShift.  Names like \"Fullmetal Alchemist\" and \"Rolling Stonz\" are ones that I see as stupid, not because they are IRL names, but because they sound more like they should be guild names.  I can completly see an okay name being INSPIRED by a real name, like instead of \"Pamela Anderson\" have \"Pameilia Ankarath.\"  See?  Not hard to do, not much effort, people, and if someone is too lazy to do something as easy as THAT, they have no business in an RPG, but they should still have the chance for a name change to rectify their mistake.  And thus, the hyper Squirrely one\'s opinion.
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 28, 2005, 09:23:55 am
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Originally posted by Moogie
Read his post again, Kaseijin, and notice he worded the sentence as \"There\'s a difference between and \". He meant that Kurgan really isn\'t bad.

Actualy the actual wording was ----but there is a differance between useing such names and useing such names as \"Fullmetal Alchemist\" (name of an anime show)and \"Kurgan\" (bad guy from the first Highlander movie) both of which I have seen ingame recently.----

Kurgan realy is not that bad in fact it is a great rp name, however it is both well known and copyrighted. Tell me would you like to see a Conan ingame? Or a Red Sonya? Or perhaps a Mordred Pendragon would be  better comparison. That said I am useualy not going to complain about such a character name unless it is taken from modern contemporary culture.
This does not mean, however, that I like seeing such names in game as I tend to expect such people to act in a predesrcibed way, or to put it a little more plainly here is a quote from the D&D Hero Builder\'s Guidbook

\"Stealing the name of a well known character reduces your character to a mere clone of the original. Similarly, applying a familiar name to a wholy new character creates the different problemof raising false expectations in everyone who hears the name.\"
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Post by: Under the moon on March 28, 2005, 09:35:18 am
I don\'t see why people can\'t think of their own names. For crying out loud, I created 21 completely unique names just for my story. (I googled) And that doesn\'t include the two I created for the Sheeples. Or all the ones I will create for my next story. It\'s not that hard. Soooo....

*glares around the forum*

Keep your grubby hands off my names. X(  :P
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 28, 2005, 09:44:43 am
No Under the Moon its not hard at all.

Look people easy name creation 101:
Take an ordinary name \"Charley Brown\" now add,and, or remove some letters from the name.
ex: \"Char Bronin\" See people its not hard at all just use your heads a little.
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Post by: Kurgan on March 28, 2005, 12:32:05 pm
I guess you have a problem with my charecter name.
Might i remind you that the Kurgans were a race of people from the steppes of russia who were paticularly savage. The name is a historical referance that was later used in Highlander. I dont believe that there is any kind of copyright on the name as that would be kind of like copyrighting a term like \' japanese \' or \'american\'. But hey, dont take my word for it , look here
http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Kurgans.htm
I didnt think anyone would mind me calling my charecter that as when i was running around on my first charecter ( who got stuck in a hole .... ) i saw lots of people with names that didnt even have any vowels in like XlNthrX ( thats only really an RP name if your playing Cthulu :)  ). if a GM wants to change my name , cool.  But Seeing as i tried for about half an hour to find one that wasnt already taken plz give me some warning to put my thinking hat on :)
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Post by: Burntleaf on March 28, 2005, 02:02:06 pm
I am slightly worried about the username i wish to use as some may find it inappropriate for rp. Burntleaf is the name i use for every game i play though i thought you people may not like it. I am only posting this as the game is taking ages to download and i dont want to get kickd off the game after waiting this long. Cheers for any replies.

I also agree with kurgan and believe it should be allowed unless it gives offence to any peoples anywhere.
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Post by: Slagle on March 28, 2005, 05:28:25 pm
Hey, one of my char\'s last names is Coalshard, is this illegal since it has the word coal in it?

Oh....and while in the plaza, I have seen alot of stupid names. Example: Sexenator :/
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Post by: Kiva on March 28, 2005, 05:42:27 pm
Those things (burntleaf, coalshard, etc) aren\'t names. They\'re nicknames that you find cool. What people are encouraged to do here, is find a NAME for their character. Like John or Bruno or Smith. We don\'t want Star Trek people running around or LOTR people. They have their names (and they\'re trademarked and copyrighted, by the way), and we at PS have our names. And again, if you have problems finding a name,  use the ingame random name generator. It\'s there for a reason.
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Post by: Arkhaz on March 28, 2005, 09:04:45 pm
well I don\'t see why you couldn\'t have burntleaf as a last name and another as a first. My characters name is Arkhaz Dustbrow and well Dwarves tend to have a strange lastname such as Doomhammer or such... is that also \"illegal\"? just wondering :)
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Post by: Valbrandr on March 28, 2005, 09:35:18 pm
I do get tired of names like Flying Penguins and the like but sometimes they take it a little too far.  One of our guild members was named Ishita.  His name was changed because it had a bad word in the middle.  Most of the time the name is just dumb though.
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Post by: Keyaz on March 28, 2005, 09:37:50 pm
surnames are let off a little bit more then first names, and for dwarves even more because of their clan name history etc.
 but as its been said before planeshift is a role playing game and we must keep it that way, and i know for a fact you wont find penguins anywhere in yliakum, and as for names liek Ishita we cant make exceptions that would be unfair, so dont make this hasle harder then it is :)
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Post by: Cyl on March 28, 2005, 10:08:09 pm
I just hope that Cyl is okay.

But well having guys like strong blacksmith or lookat me running around is inacceptable.

Why not name Ishita Ishkita?
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Post by: Keyaz on March 28, 2005, 10:57:18 pm
do i have to spell out the rude word?  :rolleyes:
not my case however, i did not rename him, take it up with the gm who did.
Cyl is safe by my books
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Post by: Slagle on March 29, 2005, 01:24:52 am
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Originally posted by Gronomist
Those things (burntleaf, coalshard, etc) aren\'t names. They\'re nicknames that you find cool.


Hey now! I thinks Coalshard is a perfect name for a dwarf miner.
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 29, 2005, 02:01:23 am
Quote
Originally posted by Kurgan
I guess you have a problem with my charecter name.
Might i remind you that the Kurgans were a race of people from the steppes of russia who were paticularly savage. The name is a historical referance that was later used in Highlander. I dont believe that there is any kind of copyright on the name as that would be kind of like copyrighting a term like \' japanese \' or \'american\'. But hey, dont take my word for it , look here
http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Kurgans.htm
I didnt think anyone would mind me calling my charecter that as when i was running around on my first charecter ( who got stuck in a hole .... ) i saw lots of people with names that didnt even have any vowels in like XlNthrX ( thats only really an RP name if your playing Cthulu :)  ). if a GM wants to change my name , cool.  But Seeing as i tried for about half an hour to find one that wasnt already taken plz give me some warning to put my thinking hat on :)



Ufortunatly as a charecter the name Kurgan will be copyrighted as long as the Highlander copyright remains in place. However when it comes to nameing yourself after the people (and yes I know who they were) that is about the same as nameing yourself Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian, or Nubian, or Persian, or (do you get the drift by now). Not to mention that a character named Kurgan would fall under the stigma of the Highlader Kurgan.

As for haveing a difficult time finding a name: Stop trying to use standard names; the majority of those would certainly be taken by now anyways. Instead start with an ordinary name and remove or add a few letters to make a more unique name. ex: Kurgan=Kurdan see how easy that is.
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Post by: Socrates Demise on March 29, 2005, 02:10:21 am
When I try to think up a name I just go mull some sound over in my head untill i find a combination i think fits the charactor I\'m wahting to make

Here are some examples

Salrik
Gorton
Hals
Brakon
Joste
Bramtik
Verstosh
Halcomb
X\'rator
Klempti


Feel free to use any of these names for you char if you can\'t think of any.
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Post by: Suno_Regin on March 29, 2005, 04:29:37 am
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Originally posted by Moogie
We are trying to create a believable fantasy world and emphasis proper roleplay as much as possible. Real-world references detract from the feel of the game and remind us we\'re just playing on a computer- which is not what we want, if it means Yliakum would seem any less \"real\" or immersive.


I agree with Moogie for once, in another game I play, you see people with names like \"Bob438436\" which isn\'t really a good name for a huge adventure like that, so with RP names its a lot better and fits the story going on in the game better too.
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Post by: sesmi on March 29, 2005, 05:04:47 am
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Originally posted by Burntleaf
I am slightly worried about the username i wish to use as some may find it inappropriate for rp. Burntleaf is the name i use for every game i play though i thought you people may not like it. I am only posting this as the game is taking ages to download and i dont want to get kickd off the game after waiting this long. Cheers for any replies.

I also agree with kurgan and believe it should be allowed unless it gives offence to any peoples anywhere.


Don\'t worry your name is fine. First nations have names like \"swatting duck\" and \"screaming cow\" just say you\'re a yillakumian first nation  :P
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Post by: sashok on March 29, 2005, 05:41:04 am
I think kurgan is fine. Ignorance is a bliss :)  If you all didn\'t tell me here that he\'s from highlander I would never know and think it\'s a cool enough RP name.   Did you think that everyone knows who Kurgan is?  Maybe you should also judge from the popularity of tv show too lol.  Now, Conan Barbarian is famous in my eyes, while Highlander sucks.  Kurgan is safe as far as I\'m concerned, too bad I\'m not GM Kurgan.
By the way, Zano Zlo, good enough RP name? I can\'t say that I thought really hard about it.  

Zlo, from russian word means Evil.  RP: (Although I was cursed with such a last name, I\'m far from evil, just misguided.)  That\'s what my char would say
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Post by: cunumen on March 29, 2005, 10:38:11 am
It also would seem silly to have names that all look like a mess of random indo-european acceptable syllables (there has to be a word for that).  Are there any sort of ideas about languages in the game?  It seems like it would make more sense if certain groups (races, I suppose?) were named in their own language.
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Post by: Cyl on March 29, 2005, 10:54:24 am
Well there once was a thread about this,

http://planeshift.oodlz.com/wbboard/thread.php?threadid=11135&boardid=1&sid=63f498429e968934474671ffd8be622d

Here we have it.
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Post by: Moogie on March 29, 2005, 05:41:33 pm
I need to clear things up a bit here:

Names like Burntleaf are fine, providing you post a suitable history of your character in the RP section of these forums, that details how and why your character came to be named \"Burntleaf\" instead of a \'normal\' name.

This applies to all names that are made up of words, or which sound like titles.

A story/history must be posted in this instance for several reasons. Firstly, it is public. Other people, who do not have/want to write a story, will complain that other characters have been allowed to keep their names. They can be pointed towards the RP forum and see why we have deemed the name acceptable.

Secondly, other GMs may not be aware that you\'ve been spoken to already. You can safely point them to your thread in the RP section and they will not change your name.


These exceptions allow people who have used a particular name for a long time to use it in Planeshift, providing it fits with the game\'s setting (No Penguin Lords please), is not offensive, and can be explained in an RP way. Like I\'ve always said, none of us should be \"Name Nazis\", and these things exist not only to be fair to you, the community, but also to encourage roleplaying in our world.
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Post by: cunumen on March 30, 2005, 01:54:53 am
Why would the name you gave, Burntleaf, be so peculiar?  Lots of names have meaning to them that we use in real life (though we tend to forget that).  Mine for example, Nicholas, is another \"word-name\" from greek nike and laos, victory people.  Ashley is just a name after the tree.  From Justin you can see the root for justice we still use today.  It might seem strange to just make a name out of modern words, because we\'re so into using ancient words or foreign ones instead, but I really don\'t see what the problem with it would be in a fantasy world like the one here, assuming that the English used on the server is just a representation of another language that the characters are actually speaking.
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Post by: Externals on March 30, 2005, 02:17:30 am
Very well said cunumen. But you must remember, some names are sometimes off a bit.
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Post by: Efflixi Aduro on March 30, 2005, 02:35:22 am
Quote
Originally posted by cunumen
Why would the name you gave, Burntleaf, be so peculiar?  Lots of names have meaning to them that we use in real life (though we tend to forget that).  Mine for example, Nicholas, is another \"word-name\" from greek nike and laos, victory people.  Ashley is just a name after the tree.  From Justin you can see the root for justice we still use today.  It might seem strange to just make a name out of modern words, because we\'re so into using ancient words or foreign ones instead, but I really don\'t see what the problem with it would be in a fantasy world like the one here, assuming that the English used on the server is just a representation of another language that the characters are actually speaking.


Yah but guess what, there weren\'t many Justin\'s or Ashley\'s in midevil times.
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Post by: Hatchnet on March 30, 2005, 08:13:17 am
Quote
Originally posted by Efflixi Aduro
Quote
Originally posted by cunumen
Why would the name you gave, Burntleaf, be so peculiar?  Lots of names have meaning to them that we use in real life (though we tend to forget that).  Mine for example, Nicholas, is another \"word-name\" from greek nike and laos, victory people.  Ashley is just a name after the tree.  From Justin you can see the root for justice we still use today.  It might seem strange to just make a name out of modern words, because we\'re so into using ancient words or foreign ones instead, but I really don\'t see what the problem with it would be in a fantasy world like the one here, assuming that the English used on the server is just a representation of another language that the characters are actually speaking.


Yah but guess what, there weren\'t many Justin\'s or Ashley\'s in midevil times.


 Yes, thats true Eflixi. Which is where \"earned names\" come in. Such titles were sometimes given to exceptional people who\'s true names were difficult to use or simply unknown. However Moogie has already covered that such names in PS require a backstory were people can read and understand it.
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Post by: Externals on March 30, 2005, 08:20:58 am
Well, maybe this should be required in the character setup. It would be wise to do so. Making a background description of your character leading to his last name would be nice :)
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Post by: keder on March 30, 2005, 04:48:57 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Gronomist
Those things (burntleaf, coalshard, etc) aren\'t names. They\'re nicknames that you find cool. What people are encouraged to do here, is find a NAME for their character. Like John or Bruno or Smith. We don\'t want Star Trek people running around or LOTR people. They have their names (and they\'re trademarked and copyrighted, by the way), and we at PS have our names. And again, if you have problems finding a name,  use the ingame random name generator. It\'s there for a reason.


many cultures based their names on something from their past. probably one of the most easily recognizable examples would be from the movie \"dances with wolves\" all of the names of those in the tribe were words or phrases that had some meaning.

if suitable meaning is associated, why would you deny such a name?

--- keder maloy
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Post by: keder on March 30, 2005, 05:26:37 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Moogie
... snip ...
Names like Burntleaf are fine, providing you post a suitable history of your character in the RP section of these forums, that details how and why your character came to be named \"Burntleaf\" instead of a \'normal\' name.
... snip ...


is there anything ingame to provide this, or will all who choose such a name be then forced to also register on yet another page?

--- keder maloy
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Post by: Externals on March 30, 2005, 08:34:58 pm
Simple, just make a background story about your name if theres any conflict with GM\'s. Period.
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Post by: Seytra on March 30, 2005, 09:07:56 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Externals
Simple, just make a background story about your name if theres any conflict with GM\'s. Period.

However, the story must be believable and realistic. An interstellar traveller (or worse things) would surely stick my craw when it is first used, but if ten people use it, this is just ridiculous. ;)

As for the names with meaning: Yes, some yultures did / do, but they only do it if
1) the person is somehow associated with the event (i.e., backstory requirement)
or
2) the event is not recent or
3) the item has had, for some reason, been part of the family for a long time (smith, for example) -> backstory

Taking words from english isn\'t always OK even then, because

1) english contains a lot of words which would never be present in medieval times. Don\'t call yourself \"Nerd Transistor\", for example.

2) most, if not all, of these names that consist of english words are in fact nicknames from chatrooms or FPS games, where the name refers to the player / user instead of to a fictional character living in a fictional world. Therefore, they are constructed to sound cool (depending on perspective, that is), but aren\'t suitable for a medieval fantasy RPG.

Hence, while Coalshard might be alright, Burntleaf sounds more like a ShadowRun pseudonym to me, but might be acceptable if the background is alright.

However, I don\'t know where this \"dwarves have strange lastnames\" thing comes from... after all, dwarves in PS aren\'t required to be like dwarves in other games, as elves aren\'t like other elves as well... does PS silently accept a stereotypical view of these races / species, or do I just miss some explicit information?

Anyway, it is my opinion that the naming rules should be stricter than they are now, in that no common words should be allowed (at least not as the whole (first/last)name, like \"Strawberry\"), but I\'m obviously somewhat alone with this.

@ keder technically, you can edit your ingame description to feature your backstory, but I wouldn\'t advise that, because these are things everyone can see and is AFAICS meant to be some sort of visual description like what you\'ll get when overlooking someone IRL. IMO it would be better to post on this forum, because this will be less susceptible to data loss and also more readily attainable for everyone.
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Post by: Externals on March 30, 2005, 09:30:39 pm
Seytra, I completly agree with you but you also have to remember that you want your name to be a cool, old, and fun name to have for your character as well. Of course your not going to have \"strawberry\" as your name but burntleaf actually sounds like something you would use in a game like this.
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Post by: keder on March 30, 2005, 10:13:15 pm
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Originally posted by Seytra
... snip ...
@ keder technically, you can edit your ingame description to feature your backstory, but I wouldn\'t advise that, because these are things everyone can see and is AFAICS meant to be some sort of visual description like what you\'ll get when overlooking someone IRL. IMO it would be better to post on this forum, because this will be less susceptible to data loss and also more readily attainable for everyone.


placing it here doesn\'t necessarily make it more accessible... i had to ... adjust ...  the company firewall to get here, though the game itself is not blocked. anyone who is in the game can get to some kind of description that is ingame, however, they may not be able to get here to look up someone\'s history... it isn\'t everyone who can ... make adjustments ... to a corporate firewall.

i do understand the backup concerns, though i have always made a habit of retaining my own copies of data posted to remote servers. (btw, copy/paste would be a nice thing to allow in some areas, hint hint)

--- keder maloy
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Post by: Seytra on March 30, 2005, 11:15:37 pm
@ keder In terms of accessibility I am not referring to the questionable use of corporate networks for gaming purposes. ;)

What I am referring to is the fact that the information ingame is available only if you are online, and also only to those who happen to be close to your char ingame.
On this boards, the information will be browsable anytime, even if you decide to abandon the char or leave PS.
Also, when the account / char is deleted, the information will be gone, whereas it won\'t on the forums.
It is a fact that people who lose interest in a game will not bother to save anything, because they, well, lost interest. Others, though, who either liked the stories or are somehow connected to them, might need / wish to refer to it for years to come, and a personal copy will not be the best way to preserve it.

@ Externals: I want my name to
1) sound nice to me
2) fit the race and origin of my char
3) fit the setting of the game
4) fit the expected environment of my char
5) be not limiting to my chars development, whatever it may be

Therefore, in a game like ShadowRun, a char name I would choose might be Janet Mulligan or Jonathan Sondwood, while their pseudonyms (street names) might be Burntleaf or NetRider.
Since the SR society the char will be in will use the street name as primary way to address the char, that would be it\'s \"name\". The PS society, on the contrary, uses the real name of a person as primary means to address them, so that\'s the \"name\". Thus, a PS name must be something that your PS parent(s) could reasonably have given you, whereas the SR \"name\" could be anything constructed to sound \"cool\".

It is very possible to create a fantasy name that you think sounds \"cool\". Just as with pseudonyms like BurntLeaf, everyone who gets to know it will individually decide whether they think it\'s cool or not.
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Post by: Under the moon on March 30, 2005, 11:20:26 pm
Quote
Originally scrawled by Efflixi Aduro
Yah but guess what, there weren\'t many Justin\'s or Ashley\'s in midevil times.

There weren\'t many Hatchnets, Efflixis, or Moogies either. ;)
Quote
Originally scrawled by Seytra
However, the story must be believable and realistic. An interstellar traveller (or worse things) would surely stick my craw when it is first used, but if ten people use it, this is just ridiculous.

Better not say that around Monketh. Your libel to end up in the brig. ;)

What I do sometimes, is to start with a name, and tweak it a little. Others, I just stat throwing syllables together until I hit something that sounds vaguely like a name, then tweak it until it does. Sometimes I\'ll end up with fifty variations of the same name.

Other times, a name just pops into my head. Like Jakkar, Burgas, Lowen, or Jhayda. (All characters from my story.)
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Post by: Externals on March 30, 2005, 11:31:02 pm
Well you make a very good point. You definetly dont want messed up names in PS. That justs blows it for everyone.
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Post by: Seytra on March 30, 2005, 11:37:54 pm
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Originally posted by Under the moon
Quote
Originally scrawled by Efflixi Aduro
Yah but guess what, there weren\'t many Justin\'s or Ashley\'s in midevil times.

There weren\'t many Hatchnets, Efflixis, or Moogies either. ;)

Aye, and, AMOF, I have some trouble with certain names of some oldbies.
Quote
Originally posted by Under the moon
Quote
Originally scrawled by Seytra
However, the story must be believable and realistic. An interstellar traveller (or worse things) would surely stick my craw when it is first used, but if ten people use it, this is just ridiculous.

Better not say that around Monketh. Your libel to end up in the brig. ;)

Well, well... I didn\'t know about him yet, but he wouldn\'t be the only one featuring such an extremely... far-fetched and improbable \"backstory\". :rolleyes:
And no, I will not accept the usual pointless \"It\'s fantasy! And it\'s a game!\" stereotype answers.
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Post by: Keyaz on March 30, 2005, 11:40:59 pm
you know what you could do.
Read what Moogie said, and deal with it that way.
nuff said