MMOSide Chat - What's In A Name? | MMORPG.com

System · July 2021

MMOSide Chat - What's In A Name? | MMORPG.com

Bradford examines what's in a name in this edition of our fireside MMO chat column, MMOSide Chat.

Scot · July 2021

Naming is important, almost a coat hanger to hang your avatar concept on. Names separate gamers from role-players though there are some interesting rules for MMORPG names which you don't find in table-top.

Always get your names early, work out a good name for every avatar you can have and allocate those straight away. That way you won't be making second one months later and find all the good names are taken.

Players in MMOs do not just speak English so watch out for what parts of your name can mean. Avoid having man/boy/girl etc as part of your name. This happened once to me, the letters "man" ended my name, the start of my name was a swear word in Dutch. The number of people who asked me in that MMO if I was from the Netherlands.

Don't take names too similar to big named characters in the lore of the MMO, in table top that sometimes makes sense, in MMOs it just looks naff.

Don't always pick the same name, I notice from his article Joseph does that, which just sets you up for disappointment when somebody takes your name. Also don't do what he did here, tell people your gaming names, people will go "I really like that name, I will use it in my upcoming MMO!". Obviously your guildies know your name, just don't advertise it on forums or social media, to me that is just asking for bad luck when you next try to pick it.

Funnily enough I choose a similar name to the one Joseph picked for Lotro, but for WoW, that name was changed by the admins because "It is the same as a well known character from Lord of the Rings" (guess who

). They did this while chatting to me, I was allowed to change one letter and keep that as the new name. From which I learnt two lessons. Firstly do not take names straight from any well known source as it can raise copyright issues and if the admins spot that you will get your name changed. Secondly even if you think you are not going to be roleplaying in a new MMO always assume you will be, I ended up doing roleplaying in WoW and was really glad the admins had made me change it!

Kyleran · July 2021

There is a Kyleran in every fantasy RPG (single or Multiplayer) I've played since I first "adopted" it from Wizardry 1 back in 1988. Actually it's Kylearan, I misspelled it somewhere early on in my MMO days probably because the original was already taken.

Another early favorite is Torment, borrowed of course from Planescape but it almost always is taken so Torrment is the usual spelling I go with.

Funny story from my first MMO, Lineage 1, I joined a year or so late, so one day I made an alt named Torment which to my surprise was available.

So a few weeks later I get a PM from a person who claimed he was the original Torment in the game but had recently deleted his character to reroll.

Well, since quite a bit of time had past and I was well into the 20s I declined to surrender the name back to them and I couldn't verify the validity of their claims.

Ended up getting harassed eventually by the guy's alt which was a mistake on his part as one of the paid NCSoft moderators was in my clan so he "resolved" the issue with a stern warning.

Sigh, that was about 20 years ago and sadly I can't recall that young man's name anymore.

Scot · July 2021

"Sigh, that was about 20 years ago and sadly I can't recall that young man's name anymore."

How many names of someone we met a few times in real life can we recall from 20 years ago? The more into our pasts we go the more selective our remembrances are.

Iselin · July 2021

My first ever MMO character in Asheron's Call I named Dieter and I tried to RP it as a German hipster but it was tough in a game without monkeys.

Iselin was a name auto-generated for my Theurgist by DAoC when I was at a loss for name ideas. At the time I had no idea that there is city in New Jersey by that name nor that there was a Norwegian supermodel named Iselin Steiro... bonus?

It stuck and I still use it as my main in all MMOs I've played since.

So there's something to be said for random generated names. Sometimes they stick. Good luck to you, Embers Adrift and Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness.

lotrlore · July 2021

Scot said:

Naming is important, almost a coat hanger to hang your avatar concept on. Names separate gamers from role-players though there are some interesting rules for MMORPG names which you don't find in table-top.

Always get your names early, work out a good name for every avatar you can have and allocate those straight away. That way you won't be making second one months later and find all the good names are taken.

Players in MMOs do not just speak English so watch out for what parts of your name can mean. Avoid having man/boy/girl etc as part of your name. This happened once to me, the letters "man" ended my name, the start of my name was a swear word in Dutch. The number of people who asked me in that MMO if I was from the Netherlands.

Don't take names too similar to big named characters in the lore of the MMO, in table top that sometimes makes sense, in MMOs it just looks naff.

Don't always pick the same name, I notice from his article Joseph does that, which just sets you up for disappointment when somebody takes your name. Also don't do what he did here, tell people your gaming names, people will go "I really like that name, I will use it in my upcoming MMO!". Obviously your guildies know your name, just don't advertise it on forums or social media, to me that is just asking for bad luck when you next try to pick it.

Funnily enough I choose a similar name to the one Joseph picked for Lotro, but for WoW, that name was changed by the admins because "It is the same as a well known character from Lord of the Rings" (guess who ). They did this while chatting to me, I was allowed to change one letter and keep that as the new name. From which I learnt two lessons. Firstly do not take names straight from any well known source as it can raise copyright issues and if the admins spot that you will get your name changed. Secondly even if you think you are not going to be roleplaying in a new MMO always assume you will be, I ended up doing roleplaying in WoW and was really glad the admins had made me change it!

The amount of times I've streamed for this site, my own stuff, and my character name has appeared in IGN videos, keeping it secret (keeping it safe) is long gone, lol.

cameltosis · July 2021

I'm bad with names.

When I was younger (teens), I just used to look at various albums I had lying around and took names from them. That's where "cameltosis" comes from, it's the name of a KoRn song. In my nievity, I associated the name with bad camel breath, rather than the other meaning. I no longer use the name, but am stuck with some old usernames.

"Anstalt" came from a similar source, from a band called Kiew. It's a German word meaning "Asylum" as in insane asylum / mental institute. Given it's german origin, it's rarely taken in MMOs so the name gets used a lot for melee characters.

"Jennifern Appledore" was my longest running main in any game. Jennifer was my favourite female name at the time, and as it was LotRO I just added an "n" to the end and said she was from Bree, as Bree folk used a lot of natural-sounding names.

"Spit" and "Scab" are names I still love, but they're reserved for Orcs and Goblins. Inspired by the warhammer universe which is full of Gutrippas and Slashers, I wanted some names that were a bit disgusting and aggressive, perfect for the greenskin races.

"Ragnar" is a name I use a lot in single player games. I'm a big fan of the Vikings TV show and a big fan of the main character, Ragnar Lothbrok. So much so, I grew a big-ish beard and a ragnar-style haircut in real life. So, if a game gives me the right options to create a ragnar, I will do so and name him appropriately.

That's usually about it. I don't really do alts very often, so as long as I've got a good name for my main then I'm set.

Pronounciation is also something I occasionally have to consider. In SWTOR, I called my main "Svard" thinking it was a nice Nordic name, but a couple of guys in the guild couldnt pronouce it properly and kept calling me "Savard", and sadly that stuck. Likewise, many struggle with "Anstalt", including myself. Apparently I sound like Sean Connery when I say the name, like "Anschtaalt"

Po_gg · July 2021

Interesting article, and personally I'm on the side what Scot described. Not even for the reason he said, the fear of name loss

Scot said:

Don't always pick the same name, I notice from his article Joseph does that, which just sets you up for disappointment when somebody takes your name.

It comes more naturally, from within...

Admittedly I never thought about it, and now after reading Joseph's take I had to scroll through my memory for long minutes to recite the names I used during my gaming career, and I'm almost certain I've never re-used character names.

And it really means something, considering I'm an altoholic, and game hopper as well, to make things worse...

Since the first MUD and MUSH characters in the 90s, I believe there are hundreds of alts in my past, all around the genre (I've played almost all the MMORPGs out there), and all of those characters have/had their own names.

Now I'm curious why is that, maybe it'd be interesting enough for a study or poll.

It's probably just different "wiring", I too have friends with Joseph's mindset, using one main name, for all the main alts in games /the forums / reddit / etc.

Probably it's related to roleplaying, the distancing between player and character. As one such friend said once: it's important for him to know, if anyone, in any game, sees his "main" name, they can be absolute sure it's him behind the wheels.

Which led to the point Scot mentioned too, he went in head-first in every new game just so he could claim "his" name, and in server merges he chewed his nails nervously "what if my name will be taken by someone else".

Actually I do have a few alts with the same name, but that's rather the exception (and only a handful of characters), since they're the same character in practice.

When it's a game with separated servers, and a group of friends (guild/kinship) decides to visit an another server for a visit.

LotRO is a good example, since it has really fun roleplay events on multiple servers, so one dedicated traveller alt of mine is present on 3 servers. The same character (same race, class, appearance and outfit), naturally with the same name too.

When I play with them on a roleplay event, I look at them as my original character taking a visit to distant cousins for a short time.

(And I'm not alone with this, Landroval even has a kinship for such characters, the aptly named "Visitors from another server" kin

)

But to use the same name on different characters, let alone in different games... nope, that's not for me. I'm just not the "One name to play them all" type I guess...

Ungood · July 2021

At one time I used the name Ungood, but, then I painfully discovered that it was a very dead ended name, and by dead ended, meaning that I could not use a solid naming Conviction to make it easy for people in my guild, or friends to know who I was.

So I started to make a new system that was much easier for me to work with and easy for others to know who I was, when I sent them friend requests, or guild invites and the like.

I still like the name Ungood, it's nowadays, unless it is a one shot name system, like how Trove worked, I don't bother to use it.

I also admit, I will make a new system from game to game as well.

Mendel · July 2021

I've used Mendel since my early tabletop days. He was named after Gregor Mendel, Polish mathematician and gardener. I was in a math phase. His mule was named Mendelbrot, a play on Benoit Mandelbrot, inventor of fractals.

My very first D&D character was Chaselon (1974), named for an obscure alien Green Lantern. (I was in my DC phase at the time).

mgilbrtsn · July 2021

My go to is Davros. However, there are a lot of Who fans out there and I rarely get it. Then Qbert, rarely get it, Anubis, rarely get it.....after a few more goes, I get mad as hell and get more obscure and still have the same result...'name already taken'. By this time I'm livid and can't believe this or that name is taken.

Of course I also think I'm being clever and try _ or - or . Meh, people were clever before me. Finally, I get a name, find out I don't like the class or look or something else. I decide to make a new character...

And the beat goes on.

Po_gg · July 2021

Nyctelios said:

Well... thanks to real id systems those days are over... or at least should be over. I really like it. Allows you to name your character whatever you want (in theory) and the hidden numbers of real id will make it unique enough without spoiling your fun... more companies should use real id systems on their games.

Yep, but as tzervo said it's more on the actual design, and it has its drawbacks as well, like

tzervo said:

For characters, what if the player then makes a character in the opposing faction? Or if the player does not want all of his characters added as friends? Maybe for example I wanted someone to add my toon "A" so we can go raiding but I don't want him to bother me every time I log with toon "B" when I come in game.

I prefer the character side, personally. Don't mind the other design either, it has some perks, but... sometimes I just need solitude

With examples, LotRO has the character-based design, no connection between them within the game - outside there is, naturally, all MMORPGs are just big databases.

It even caused some ruckus during the Turbine takeover, at that time Turbine's side had an external web-based tool for character check-ups, and it was Turbine "quality" so one could get out the background ID of the account through it, and after that check all the characters within the same account.

PvMP players went nuts when heard about it...

"After the account transfer over to the US, they will be able to tie my Monster characters to my Free Peoples characters, such horror!"

But Turbine closed off the site instead. Not a big loss, it really was a revolving door, security-wise.

On the other side of the spectrum could be Cryptic's @handle system, where character names are almost meaningless, one name identifies the player himself/herself, in all 3 games. It has its perks as I said, easier friend management and communication, but makes character-based gameplay quite irrelevant, and degrades characters themselves into mere tools.

And no solitude whatsoever...

Once, when the cross-chat was still available (yet another feature Cryptic removed from the games over the years, due to the lack of competence...) I was on a fresh-created hero in CO, when received a /tell from a friend who didn't even play CO, with "Nice, I see you're in, come help us with the Borg"

Since character names are irrelevant, everyone can find you even on fresh alts, in all the games.

I believe the character-based LotRO implementation is better, but just a personal opinion...

Po_gg · July 2021

tzervo said:

I personally prefer the player-based/real ID approach. But I can recognize that the character-based approach has its ups for some people, and I like how it can enable in-game shenanigans in games like EVE.

It really comes down to personal preference.

Yep, personal preference AND game's design too.

A game like EVE wouldn't work well if alt accounts could be tied to the actual player who owns and plays them

Same with LotRO's Ettenmoors, with the spies, scouts, etc.

Hmm... on a second thought, maybe it's more related to pvp design, and not the entire game's design?

Po_gg · July 2021

Nyctelios said:

Yup then people would actually see the game has as much player driven content as a room in Counter Strike 1.6 full of bots

Actually... 1.6 was maybe the last good CS, and bot programming was quite a feat

Spent quite some time to hone ours, for the practice sessions.

Man, it's almost 2 decades now since those years... time really flies.

Scot · July 2021

"Pronounciation is also something I occasionally have to consider."

I forgot that one, always use names that have obvious phonetic pronunciation, or your guildies will doubtless get it wrong.

Nyctelios said:

Well... thanks to real id systems those days are over... or at least should be over. I really like it. Allows you to name your character whatever you want (in theory) and the hidden numbers of real id will make it unique enough without spoiling your fun... more companies should use real id systems on their games.

I would not be happy having other players in the game with my name and I am sure for many that works both ways. So for me naming must be unique. Though I don't agree with the later point that was made against real id of it causing problems for people who want to play in multiple guilds... One MMORPG, One Guild should be a motto.

"I too have friends with Joseph's mindset, using one main name, for all the main alts in games /the forums / reddit / etc."

So do I, some of them are roleplayers as well though, naming is a very personal thing quite prone to our eccentricities.

Po_gg · July 2021

Scot said:

I would not be happy having other players in the game with my name and I am sure for many that works both ways. So for me naming must be unique.

Yep, that's an another built-in issue of the player-side design, part of the irrelevance of characters: nothing's unique.

There was a screenshot circulating in the first year of Neverwinter (Cryptic's game with the aforementioned @handle mechanic), about a meetup, with 6-8 Drizzt Do'Urdens

To rub some salt in it, they weren't even all elves, there was a dwarven Drizzt too, and a lady Drizzt...

But of course (preferences kick in) there's the flipside of it, for the other camp: with a setup like that, there's no such thing as "Name is taken"

If players are adamant in having a certain name for the main character, with that system it's guaranteed they can. Even if the world will have dozens of other characters with the same name.

Scot · July 2021

Nyctelios said:
Ok but, as I said, I never met someone with the same name (or same-ish even) in games with real ID.

BUT I've met a lot of people with similar nicknames in games with unique character system.

Think about it. Its a Xk player server. There is 1 "Plofterson Jr", he or she might even by offline since forever - what are the odds you'll meet?

Now, you enter in a town and is a galore of variations of the same name. It breaks immersion, it is silly.

I don't have enough data to make a case for myself, but the games I've played with real ID at least solved the issue of xXxDark_Sephir00t_666xXx

I know this will sound lame, but how about more education showing players how ridiculous that sort of thing is? I have seen threads on the official forums of soon to be launched MMOs doing just that, in fact I started some of them. Roleplayers don't do that sort of thing and they are the only group that bothers me when it comes to naming. What everyone else does is screened out by my "immersion filter". But I agree it is a flaw with the unique name system.

Po_gg · July 2021

Scot said:

[...] But I agree it is a flaw with the unique name system.

I wouldn't even call it a flaw, it's more of a property of that design decision.

They're basically two sides of a coin, mutually exclusive, both with pros and cons.

Neither of them are better or worse, it's up to personal preferences of the player which one suits better - but can only "take it or leave it" since the pick is made by the devs in the design phase.

If the character name is a unique identifier, it's easier to maintain on the DB side (and by my preference it's better for roleplay and immersion reasons

), but it's prone to collisions, fights over names, and even moreso when the game runs for long.

If the unique ID is one level above, and character names are just "flavor text", it solves the collision, but with taking away the importance of the name.

It's a question of preferences, which annoys you more:

-if you really want to name your character [insert name], but can't, because the name is already taken by others, or

-if you can use your [insert name] any time, in all games, and you never bump into the dreadful "Name is taken" message - but also any time you can see and meet characters with the same name...

ed. now to think of, probably I prefer the unique name design because (as said) I always use different names on my characters and have no "One name to play them all".

So when I type in a name, and it's taken, I just shrug and come up with an another, there's no feel of loss.

cameltosis · July 2021

Po_gg said:

Scot said:

[...] But I agree it is a flaw with the unique name system.

ed. now to think of, probably I prefer the unique name design because (as said) I always use different names on my characters and have no "One name to play them all".
So when I type in a name, and it's taken, I just shrug and come up with an another, there's no feel of loss.

There are a bunch of ways to look at it which no real correct answers. From my point of view, these are my priorities:

1) Privacy - I want maximum separation between my personal data and my characters. I don't mind if the studio requires a real ID as part of the account setup so that if I'm a dick, then can report me to the police. But, other players should never even get close to that data. That includes my other characters. If you friend me on one character, its only that character, and its entirely my choice whether to tell you about my alts.

2) Convenience - If I'm playing the game with a random character called "Ragnar Lothbrok" and I want to add him as a friend, I don't want to have to find out the guy's handle first, which could be @peterpan. That is inconvenient. I want a very simple /friend ragnar or a right-click on their name and "add friend".

3) Good name selection - I want to be able to play with the name I want. Duplicates are an issue, sure, but not a big one. Perhaps allow duplicate first names, but you have to have unique full names? So, there might be 10 Drizzts on the server, but only one Drizzt Do'Urden. Plus, if you play for more than a few months, chances are all the other duplicates will quit anyway.

This last point is the part that causes technical issues. If you allow duplicate names, what does a player type when they want to add you or DM you? If they only know your first name, how do they pick you out of the list of duplicates?

I'm pretty sure there are fairly easy technical solutions, but I also like that this kinda feeds into roleplaying a bit.

Think about the real world. I've met 100s of Marks, Alexs, Jonathans, Ben's etc without remembering their last names. So, you make other associations: "the one with the blond hair", "Emma's friend from school" etc.

I think it would be good to put that sort of thing into the game, so that if you were searching for someone you couldn't remember exactly, you'd be given info like race / gender / class / mutual friends etc. It starts you thinking about the character as a whole, and not just as a name.

Kyleran · July 2021

Mars_OMG said:

thesauruses rock. :P
I also block people really stupid names.

Language translators can also help, if "torment" is unavailable there's always the french version, "Tourmenter"

Scot · July 2021

Kyleran said:

Mars_OMG said:

thesauruses rock. :P
I also block people really stupid names.

Language translators can also help, if "torment" is unavailable there's always the french version, "Tourmenter"

He is just showing of now.

Seriously you will get French guys, texting you, "are you French?" But unlike my example you won't have to explain that you didn't realise your name meant ******man in Dutch. So not a biggie.

Po_gg · July 2021

cameltosis said:

This last point is the part that causes technical issues. If you allow duplicate names, what does a player type when they want to add you or DM you? If they only know your first name, how do they pick you out of the list of duplicates?

Yep, that's how I meant it's mutually exclusive.

You have to have a unique key, there's no bypass for it. And it's either the character name, or not.

(there are other possible implementations in the background, but they all just make things more complicated, and as far as I know games usually go with a simple key)

And that "either-or" defines our two types here.

If it's the character name, then it has to be unique (either on one server, or in the whole game, there are examples on both implementations), which brings itself the issue of late arrivals might not choose the name they want, since it's taken already.

If it ain't the character name, then you can use anything you want - so does everyone else. Which in return turns the character name into mere fluff.

You ask how other players DM or friend you? They simply just use your actual unique ID, like the handle in Cryptic's games... or TSW had something similar with the nickname next to the first name+last name combo.

Same with regular chat, you usually refer to other players by their @handle name and not the character name which they currently play.

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Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

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Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV