I love this game, and appreciate the hard work done by the immortals. I have played this game off and on since 1994, and over that time I've had a variety of character names good and bad. I can understand how a name like Whoopyourfarginass would not be a good name to allow, but short of stupid names, at least in my opinion a name like Sepia is far better than just some random crap I spewed out later in the conversation below. Does the name policing to this extent really add anything to this game? Since the name Sepia is actually a color of brown that takes away from people's experiences? To me I'ld rather be playing with people whose names were Indigo, Hazel, etc... than Abjyicoteu. Sorry to make a stink about this, Inerayo, but man this one just hit a nerve.

Inerayo tells you 'Hello there. Your name choice does not really fit with our naming rules. Sepia is a color of brown and not exactly original. If you can give me another name you would be interested in having...'

Inerayo tells you 'We'll get it changed for you. Also, so you know, it might be wise to make sure your name is original by putting it in a google search to see if anything comes up before you choose a new one.'

You tell Inerayo 'Hmm, perhaps I should just delete then as my roles are all written for this name etc...'

You tell Inerayo 'The color brown aye? I just heard a lady speaking on NPR last name with the first name of India'

You tell Inerayo 'I've heard of people named indigo as well.'

You tell Inerayo 'But whatever you wish.'

Inerayo tells you 'If you want to delete, that's up to you. You could explain the name change in a role update, though. Saying something like "As she traveled to new lands, she became known as _______, leaving the name Sepia behind"'

You tell Inerayo 'Did you know that Ako Si Ine Rayo is the manager of PCLR Computer Center?'

You tell Inerayo 'Sepia sure seems like a more acceptable name than others that have been allowed'

Inerayo tells you 'That may be true. We don't catch all of them all the time. We did catch this one and are trying to get it taken care of before you get too far into the character.'

You tell Inerayo 'Well it is a good thing you caught me then.'

You tell Inerayo 'So I didn't ruin the role play experience for anyone.'

You tell Inerayo 'With a name like Sepia.'

You tell Inerayo 'Why don't you pick a name for me then?'

You tell Inerayo 'Inerayo is far better than Sepia.'

You tell Inerayo 'How about Agrbcia?'

You tell Inerayo 'I'm quite positive that you won't find anything on google with that'

You tell Inerayo 'Well maybe something.'

You tell Inerayo 'And so much better than Sepia.'

You tell Inerayo 'Far better to roleplay with.'

You tell Inerayo 'Yes, Agrbcia.'

You tell Inerayo 'Or Buhricafhi.'

You tell Inerayo 'Either of those will work for me.'

Inerayo tells you 'Which would you prefer?'

You have been renamed Buhricafhi!

You tell Inerayo 'What a god awful name.'

You tell Inerayo 'But this to you is better than Sepia?'

Inerayo tells you 'Please make sure you make note of your character's new name for when you log back in. Thank you for all the cooperation.'

You tell Inerayo 'You will sleep better at night with me being named this?'

DELETE DELETE

In theory, I agree with you. If I were the imm online at the time, I would have ignored your name and if asked my opinion by a lower level imm who was on the fence, I would have stated such. But the policy is the policy and it is up to the subjective decision of the imm doing policy enforcement at a given moment. Your name did technically violate the name policy and the policy was enforced as written. Getting into an argument about your broad disagreement with the policy at large with a lower level imm like Inerayo accomplishes nothing. He did his job.

In the future I would recommend just avoiding discussion by choosing something similar that doesn't technically violate the policy, such as Sepiah, Saypia, etc, and move on. By the way, I've had this happen with my mortals as well, and for far less obvious breaches of policy such as it's-the-same-as-a-town-somewhere-I've-never-heard-of, and I do exactly that. Any player who favors simple names who plays CF long enough probably will end up experiencing a debatable rename. It happens.

If you wanted to have a broader discussion about the name policy in general, that can certainly be had on the forums, without it being framed in reference to a single bee in your bonnet.

Sorry to Inerayo, sorry to everyone else. I didn't mean to be a big douche bag like I apparently was.

Which is fine. Just how you went about it was a bit piss poor. GLWYN.

I still need to roll up fiargint the fire sword spec and dorkelv the dark-elf dagger spec and full sac everyone.

Your description is:
A truly brutish looking fir giant. He has great orange hair braided to look like a big hair flail. His beard too is flail like and is braided with fragments of past flails. All around his belt is flails. Big flails, small flails, giant flails, sharp flails, blunt flails, OH MY! When he dances like a balerina they explode in a frenzy of spinning flails. A veritable tutu of flails. A technique reserved for fighting only the worst of enemies. He sure is big, orange, and hairy. With a closer look you can see he is very
constitution, like a stout flail should be.

civilized <100%hp 100%m 100%mv 2244tnl (6.50%) 7 AM>
role read 1
Subject: Flailing Flails Flail
Added Tue Oct 16 15:41:51 2012 at level 2:
Chayne Flay'le of the flail clan. Honorable warrior of the flail has
dedicated his life to flail study in the flailyceum. Yesterday, flail clan was attacked by flying flails. Despite flailing our flails as best of the flails, we flailed to foil the attack. My flail clan has died. I am now the last flailing warrior of the flail clan and I hate magic flailers.

But make him an axe spec.

Roleplay earnest confusion when confronted about it.

ntnt

nt

nt

I honestly can't imagine any way in which you think you're a good guy in this log.

Inerayo was the picture of professionalism, every step of the way. He was extremely polite, even when you were being a douche.

And the fact remains, you DID choose a word that is in the dictionary. You also lied, when you stated at character creation that the word was not in the dictionary.

In other words: Your name broke the rules of the game. Period.

You had an extremely polite and courteous Imm explain the situation to you, and offer you an easy correction. You instead chose to be a #### to him, for absolutely no reason. He didn't write the rules, he didn't tell you you're an asshole for picking a bad name. He just tried to do his job. And you gave him #### for it.


Honestly, you should just go away from the game forever. Your ####ty ass "It's always someone else's fault" attitude will never bring anything productive to the game, and I'm pretty sure our playerbase could go on happily with you never existing.

But if you DO intend to stay, then show some respect when it's clearly being given to you, and follow the ####ing rules. They're really not complicated.

Buhricafhi is indeed a terrible word vomit name, but that's the one you came up with. Not the guy talking to you. You.

You picked a dumb name, you got mad when you were called out on it, and so you picked an even dumber one.

Not sure why you think anyone would ever think even for a second that you had any kind of legitimate complaint at all.

Is your name a dictionary word? y/n?

If yes, you're getting renamed. You were literally asked this at character creation. Just do a quick google search of your name before using it.

Take a chill pill. It was a name change not herpes.

Seriously. One of the rules is no dictionary words. It's right there when you make the name. You ignored that, and you have to be renamed.

I do not think its a problem to enforce these standards. I had to rename a duergar of mine who was named Draegur because it was too similar, and I think I have far more reason to complain.

But I don't, because it's a ####ing name and I'm not a petulant child.

I didn't ignore that. I honestly didn't realize Sepia was a dictionary word. Yes, yes I know that not only makes me a petulant child but a poorly educated one at that. You do realize that Twist is a dictionary word as well as Scarabaeus Sacer? I think it is foolish you had to rename your duergar named Draegur too.

You do realize that Twist is a dictionary word as well as Scarabaeus Sacer?

You do realize you're comparing your level 1 Sepia with an immortal that was created 19 years ago?

(I assume I don't need to make explicit what I'm implying here?)

Level 51... Brown

.

No doubt you're familiar with the concept of grandfathering, considering it's part of how law has worked in the real world for centuries or more.

.

It's possible to disagree without being a jerk about it. I don't think you succeeded at this today.

I could totally see you getting named as Buhricafhi at the moment you said that since it was pronouncable. You should have just asked them to change it to Zepia or something.

And i have regularly pushed the envelope of acceptability. I played Macaca, Mauz, and even Homard is the French word for "lobster" (he was a pincersvirf.)

I have found that the best way to play a character with a questionable name is to have a description and several role chapters entered before you even do the academy. This, along with RPing from the first moment make it easier (IMO) to be given the benefit of the doubt.

I think everyone, players and staff, would prefer to have a well-RPed Sepia than a Ilthornagon who goes OOC after every fight.

Now, it's possible that you did all this and still got nailed for it. As far as I'm concerned it would be much better to give questionable names the benefit of the doubt and spend more time cracking down on crappy roleplay, which I feel doesn't happen nearly often enough.

Frankly, I think the worst name I've seen recently is "Twootie" and even that didn't bother me enough to do more than joke about it over CB.

I had a description and several role chapters of good length :( She was born to a family that she loved and wouldn't have wanted to change her name. But look for me when you play in the future... I'll be the characters with the really original names like:

buyadljiscfh
aoiuystyfrgamb
souadljasdhfywls
gyadsackywlcywch
qweyasdchgythrkchyn

nt

Personally, I think that "Sepia" is far better and less "distracting" than a large percentage of the names that are actually used in the game.

But it's still a dictionary word, ergo, unacceptable.

I mean, it wouldn't be as trivial to make such a change as it would be for a level 1 mortal, but definitely doable.

Is it a dictionary word? Absolutely.

Does that mean that instead of a jumble of letters it's actually evocative? It does.

It's the hidden and not-so-hidden meanings in names that is the reason we like them.

It's why "Ender" is a better name for your protagonist than "Elmertichalvial."

"Ender" (and "Twist") have associations that give the brain something to work with before they've ever met the character in question.

I tend to think that this is a good thing.

...I find it hard to apply to this name.

How about naming yourself Bash? Or, say, Rake?
"Twist" is a common word. For me at least it doesn't evoke anything except what it means as a common word. Just like the aforementioned "Brown".

P.S. To be clear I'm just stating my opinion, not demanding anything changed.

There is no subjectivity. The rules are pretty simple, follow them.

And honestly, if you're trying to "cheat the system" by using foreign words, or coded messages or whatever the ####.. why? It takes a few seconds to come up with a unique, pronounceable name that fits in Thera. What's the point of fighting that?

I think that the naming rules encourage the use of bland, terrible, typical fantasy garbage names.

I feel that even contemporary genre literature is filled with godawful names, by and large. "Rand al'Thor" is both a crappy name and a name that breaks CF's rules and it gets worse from there.

Even the names found in A Game of Thrones tend to be simply recycled normal names. Failing that, they, too, approach the realm of the bland. Asha, Osha, Arya and so on.

Personally, I'd rather run into characters with names like Krunk or Humbert than with any of the names that I see on the first page of the graveyard.

Does anyone really think that Krunk's name detracted from the quality of the character, despite the fact that it is in clear violation of the rules?

The naming rules were clearly a result of a time when the names had gotten wildly out of control, but I think it might be time to look at how much good they're still doing.

Sepia remains a better name, as far as I'm concerned than 99% of the names that are acceptable.

If he was named simply Brown. Would you have a problem with it because there is no difference. Different word same meaning.

Implying that they are to make a point is what Pro would call "intellectually dishonest."

They're both evocative, which I think is good, but whereas "Sepia" runs to evoking a sense of the past, "Brown" pretty much evokes poop or UPS.

And a sense of the past is a great thing in CF. Poop or UPS are not (sorry, Stevers.)

I'm not in favor of allowing any name. Fist, Fart, and ####, not to mention Fyst, Fyrt, and Fyck all manage to be evocative in the wrong way as well.

The truth is that there really isn't a hard-line stance on names. Kale is allowed, but Sepia isn't? It seems to come down to the whim of whomever is scanning the who list at any given time.

I'm in favor of opening up the naming rules, so that names like Natalie, Krunk, Charlee and Sepia are allowed (which they seemingly mostly are today) while still keeping out the Swordmeisters, Chayne Flayls (sorry, Matrik) and Browns.

I also could say a tangerine is an orange. True they aren't the same but they are both fruits that look the same, taste sort of the same, and both give vitamin C. Just because the word looks different it doesn't change its meaning. Sepia is a color. Just because its what photos used to look like doesn't change that is brown. If you say that it isn't brown you are lying to yourself. Also never knew Sepia was the color of old photos.

Oranges and tangerines are remarkably different.

And while sepia may be referred to as brown by people wholly lacking in imagination, so can toro at a top notch sushi place be referred to simply as "fish."

Both of these usages do a disservice to the color or food in question.

But if you want to reduce things to the bare minimum of acceptability, go ahead.

I know that in my world, though, when a client asks for "tangerine," "sepia," or "toro," if I gave them an orange, brown, or fish, I'd have a big problem on my hands.

If they asked for those things and you gave them rocks, quartz, and fake diamonds. They wouldn't be happy. They may look nice but its not whats expected and thats the bottom line.

I think some common words can be fine. I think Sepia is a fine name. One issue there is actually enforcing a rule. I'd be okay with a rule that just says "Your name must not suck" and let the staff interpret it willy-nilly. That would catch stupid things that are legal and allow reasonable things that are presently illegal. Unfortunately, that would create a mountain of tears shed by people who want to name their characters things like "PeeLolPoop" and would also try to argue that their (awful) role justifies it.

The other big problem is that every 13 year old wants an AP named DoomSlayer. Those would get hard to police.

Finally, while we've never done it, I would kind of enjoy if the staff laid out some kind racial naming style. Right now we sorta kinda have that, but not really. It wouldn't be a rule that you have to have a name inline with your race's norms, but your role should probably say why you dont. I think it would add atmosphere if there were some simple guidelines like:
Most fire giants have names like "Bargror, Denrak, Korvag"
Most arials have names like "tirtekket, Akilitili Ackwaridich"
etc.
Individually those are bland fantasy names, but the overall effect of it would be interesting. Then again, the NPCs aren't named that way, so it would be a big project making guidelines like that true.