And the thing that strikes me most, is the fact the guild called "La Horda" is approved of. Which basically means everything in another RL language, other then city names is allowed. Maybe Berne isn't such a bad thing after all ey?
The name of that guild has already been changed from "La Horda Hispanica" to "La Horda". As explained by Hadfael, since there is nothin OOC about that name anymore, it goes.
Disallowing names that mean something in foreign languages is just too much, perhaps Proglin means something in Suaheli...
In the guildname "Survivors of Berne", Berne is a reference to a city that once existed in Yliakum but no longer does. It makes no reference to a city in Switzerland. As ignorant as i am, i didn't know this city existed until a couple days ago. Now, if i make no mention of the country of Switzerland and make Berne a distant and lost city in Yliakum (as i already did, read the history), is that a reference to anything OOC?
It is, for people at first glance. Imagine you were from Switzerland, saw your guild's name. What would be the first thing that comes to mind?
On another point, i contacted a couple GM's about this and i have recieved very different responses, and even their ways of telling me i needed to change the name was very different. And now this post actual gives me hope that i could possibly keep the name. My preference, obviously, is to not change it, but i am very willing to accept it, but i reallllllyyyyy don't want to change it if i don't have to.
I bet those responses varied depending on whether the GM knows Berne or not. We GMs are only a few people, we cannot hold a meeting for every name in question, so it is in the end up to the particular GM to interpret or apply a rule.
Any rule leaves room for interpretation.
1. The timing of things.. i was told that my guild name needed to change two days ago. After months of having this post on the forums. I made this post weeks before i could create the guild in game because i needed the manpower to begin with. I feel if we are going to enforce this type of policy we should strive to be a bit more timely.
I totally agree, the timing is/was awful, but I honestly never stumbled across your guild before (maybe I spend too much time in npcroom
), but we can hardly say "Meh, missed that one for so long, so let's just let it" - as for the 'why', see below.
2. A clear answer from GMs. I know many of the GMs and i respect them and what they do, whether it works for or against me. I don't mind sacrificing for the community.. at all, and they do that on a daily basis. But i feel that the GMs i spoke with had two very very different reactions when i asked them about this issue. I don't know.. i just think it'd be best if the GMs were moreso "on the same page".
As much as we'd all like to give the same reply when asked the same question, we are individuals and will always have different opinions on subjects. For me, Berne was/is a reference to some place outside the PS world. Yes, I did read your story, and I already told you that I like it and that I can see how you can come up with the name without actually meaning to refer to the place in Switzerland.
But in the end, this is the pickle - we cannot make a difference based on the intention.
It would not be fair to those who did get renamed, and suddenly "oops, didn't know this was a real place" would be such an easy excuse to keep a name that would otherwise violate the naming rules.
So I got to stick as close to the rule as possible when implementing it, and that says "No names of popular culture (fictional/non-fictional)", whether it's intentional or not.
The next person will call their guild "Pleasure of Jihad", which of course doesn't go either whether the guild leader knows what Jihad is or not. I will rename, he will the point fingers and say "But hey, I'm Swiss, there's those other guys that have an ooc reference too - how come you allow that?". Not exactly a win-win situation.
I hope you can understand the reasons why I had to ask you for a name change a bit better now.
This will probably not help you, but "Uyaem" wasn't my first choice name either...
