What is in a name?

I’ve been accused of being an MMO elitist for numerous reasons. When I was enjoying a successful career as a hardcore raider and guild leader I pretty much heard every insult under the sun. I’ve even been called a group zealot (/wink at Tesh) and it is well known that I loathe the very sight of gnomes. I wear all of these labels proudly and I want to add another badge to my sleeve. Some of you may be unaware but I am also a pretty huge character name elitist. One of my favorite tasks as an EverQuest Guide was enforcement of the naming policy. I wonder what happened to that policy every time I see someone named Leetdeth run by. My assumption is that some deviant manager who wanted to make a little more money off the FPS crowd locked it up in a drawer never to see the light of day again.

We frequently get wrapped up in the acronym MMORPG and try to use it as a justification for our opinion of how a game should be. In this case it may be relevant, though. When did we decide it was okay for FPS culture to be acceptable in MMORPGs? Why did we take so much of the RP out of MMORPG? Have we as a community decided that role-players are so silly that we don’t even need proper names? I say no! We have to draw the line somewhere and I certainly would love to see customer service going after aberrant names again. Many may think they’re harmless but I believe they do a lot to destroy immersion.

I am by no means a role-playing MMO gamer but I do still play with the general knowledge that I have a character and not an avatar. The toon I play is not a physical manifestation of me in the world. It might shock you to know this but I am not a beautiful, blond haired, elf girl. That is just a character I play. Obviously, I’ll hear some of the “You can’t tell me how to play a game” argument but I can’t say I agree. MMORPGs have always been about that. You know that huge EULA you agree to every time you log in? That is the company telling you how you can play and, if they so choose, they can add to the name policy that already exists. I hope that someone in the future finds the old EQ1 one. Those were the good old days.

In EverQuest you were not allowed to have a phrase in your name nor could you use something based on an overly well known character. Yes folks, that means you couldn’t be Raistlin Majere or any bastardization of his name. This is by far a lesser offense and one that didn’t really bother me all that much. Obviously, people got away with it but in general we did a good job of getting rid of the more obnoxious ones. It was just part of a policy that we enforced. The real thing that upsets me are all the phrases and silly names that try to suggest the user pwnsyou. My general rule is: if your character doesn’t even have a name, it doesn’t own anyone or anything. Just say no to bad names.

The good: John, Joan or any other proper name. Even explanation names like Rushing Wind or Red Moon.
The kind of bad: Any spelling of Raistlin, Tasselhoff or Aragorn (try to develop your own unique character).
The bad: Tooleet, Pwnsauce, or anything else you see in a Modern Warfare 2 match.
The ugly: Homewreckertom (a real name from EQ1 that made me laugh), Myspourface (my spooge your face).

Editors note: I have been accused of Ferrel being a play on the word feral. This is not accurate and instead comes from EverQuest. I rolled a female and had to make up a name for one. I had a few names I used for male characters but I had never created one for a woman. In the character creator I just played with names. Ultimately I came up with Ferr’El which would be pronounced Fair El. EQ did not allow ‘ in the primary character name so I just typed out Ferrel and it has stuck for a long, long time. I am southern, however, so when I say it pretty much comes out Ferrall.

Consider discussing “What is in a name” on the Epic Slant Forum!