sudden name change

[chickenlover]

it is obvious that the game is FREE and we shouldn't be complainning but abuse by GM by changing a character's nick for no apparent reason is not right. i understand if a newbie comes in with "undesirable" nick,and immediate nick change is fine but WHY IN LAANX MOTHER-IN-LAW BUTT would a GM change the nick of someone who has been in the game for months and months. AT LEAST have the courtesy to give reason for the force nick change.

After talking to one GM after another none seems to be the wiser why the sudden nick change. FREE as the game maybe, please stop the abuse.

[Gharan]

Just out of curiosity, what's your name?

Might be a valid reason for the name change you never know.

[LARAGORN]

I dont think it is common for a GM to sit around and go through the list of names of every player. The reason for the sudden name change could be a GM finally spotted you, or someone finally reported the original name as either offencive or unfitting.

It would give everyone a better idea of why, if you did share the original name with us.

[Eila]

it is obvious that the game is FREE and we shouldn't be complainning but abuse by GM by changing a character's nick for no apparent reason is not right.

You make it sound like GMs have nothing better to do than scan for new nicknames all day.
Have you ever considered that maybe there was a reason for the modification?

Have you looked at the rules insofar as naming convention is concerned?
http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=21538.0

Eila

[Idoru]

Well, if your name was Chickenlover It would certainly explain things

And you also arnt allowed to discuss GM activities such as this on the forums.

[neko kyouran]

GMs will change a name if they see that it should be changed regardless of how long the character has been around.  From what I understand, they typically will spend some time cycling through the who's online list for names and whatnot so that names that need to be changed are typically caught in a timely fashion, but some names can go undetected for awhile due to many reasons such as, the character is on during a time when GMs aren't currently present, due to the size of the GM team.

Players should familiarize themselves with the character naming policy before naming their characters to prevent issues with their chosen character name from occurring.

[bilbous]

If you are allowed to have the name of not one but 5 Ancient Assyrian kings Shalmaneser then I guess there should be no problem me calling myself Tutankhamun. I could call myself Mohammed or Saladin or Nero. Face facts buddy you got away with one there and I am not suggesting it should be changed just don't try to act all innocent.

[zanzibar]

If you are allowed to have the name of not one but 5 Ancient Assyrian kings Shalmaneser then I guess there should be no problem me calling myself Tutankhamun. I could call myself Mohammed or Saladin or Nero. Face facts buddy you got away with one there and I am not suggesting it should be changed just don't try to act all innocent.

Karyuu is a word in Finnish or some other language for "Fire Dragon".  Your moniker is based on a Tolkien character.  And you're right, my name DOES have a real world meaning -- though I've only EVER had one person call me on it in game, and Verrliit did so because she knew it was from a book by John Brunner which you might want to read one of these days.

But yes, you're right.  Changing a character's name after a year and a half of use is NOT allowed.  So you're right, the GM was wrong, thank you for agreeing with me.

[Rayken]

As far as real life references such as Shalmaneser or Tutankhamun go, it is largely about how well-known a reference the moniker is.  In this case, I would say that the former is obscure enough while the latter is too-well known to let go.  Obviously, this is completely subjective, but there is little we can do about that.  It's a tough call, because while we definitely want an immersive environment, and such names can definitely detract from that, we do not want to disrupt the environment ourselves by changing names unnecessarily.  Often when a grey-area name is petitioned, the petition will sit for a number of days while we try and get several GM opinions.  In these cases, the majority usually rules.  Not by any means a perfect system, but probably the best we can do.

Also, everything is something.  Ralas means something in Portugese or Spanish, but I had no idea when i picked the name.  This can be very difficult to avoid, so we try and be as lenient as possible in these cases.  Again, it's subjective.  I hope i've cleared up the process we use and the intent behind it. 

[Suno_Regin]

Unless I misread the first post in this thread, I thought he said his name was Nick ingame? Why would a GM change that?

[bilbous]

Why can't I be Bill?
I think you misread it however.

[Karyuu]

Suno: "nick" was used to mean "nickname."

[zanzibar]

Why can't I be Bill?
I think you misread it however.

We could do a freaking poll if you wanted to but intention doesn't count.  If someone sees your moniker, there's a good chance they'll think of Bilbo, just like how I think of the Athenian leader "Solon" whenever I see Solone's tag.  Quit being so anal retentive.  If you truly can't resist following me around the forums being a prick, at least do a better job of it.

[bilbous]

I was responding to Suno_Regin.

Common English names are reserved in the character creation screen so that nobody can have them. I thought that was mentioned as being policy somewhere but I do not see where on casual inspection, which is all this discussion rates. At any rate where the game only counts the first name as significant, it limits the options.

The laddie doth protest too much, methinks.

[zanzibar]

I was responding to Suno_Regin.

Common English names are reserved in the character creation screen so that nobody can have them. I thought that was mentioned as being policy somewhere but I do not see where on casual inspection, which is all this discussion rates. At any rate where the game only counts the first name as significant, it limits the options.

The laddie doth protest too much, methinks.

Here's an idea!  If you're going to make ambiguous statements, quote what you're responding to.