Red Valkyrja

Not to mention, if it hadn't already been equated to Phoenix, my pronunciation of Fhenix would have been "Phen" (as in the pharma phen-phen) and "icks" not "Fee-nicks".

Positron already has...

What's in a name? (pt1)

Naming your character in an MMO is a sacred thing. It’s probably the single most personal thing about your character. Especially in an MMO that does not allow for a lot of character avatar customization, where your name is probably the only real differentiation from any one else of your race/class combo. MMO designers should take this seriously, and make sure that you have the player’s interests in mind when you come up with your naming rules.

A lot of games bake the character’s name into the database lookup for that character. I mean, it seems obvious to do it this way, right? This means that every character name needs to be unique, which is a design goal of many games, but also will bite you in the butt should you ever allow players to change their character’s names.

Why have unique names as a design goal? Well, it grows from traditional MUDs and having a social reputation tied to your character’s name. If you are a griefer or troublemaker, players know by reputation to avoid you. If anyone else could have your exact same name? Well, they can masquerade as you and destroy any good reputation you might have established in mere minutes. Of course, the more popular your game is then you might not have that name you want available.

Names then become a commodity. MMOs might offer “early name reserve” for people who pre-order, or at the very least a headstart period that is attractive to players who want to get their ideal name. You might squat your ideal name on every server so you are a unique snowflake in that MMO. No one else will ever have your exact name. For some people, that is a form of enjoyment. Others see that sort of practice as passive griefing. You have a name used on a character that you never play, for the sole intention of preventing anyone else from using it. Personally, I can see both sides. When a new race or powerset is unveiled for an upcoming expansion, you might legitimately squat names that you intend to use in the future on those new characters.

A popular move for MMOs nowadays is to let any character have any name. Obviously this is the way of the future, right? I mean it builds upon the lessons learned from the past of all the headaches unique names have caused players, eliminates the need for name purges to “free up some names”, and makes everyone happy in that they can always get the name they want. Well, I wouldn’t be so sure. For a lot of players the fact that their name is unique is more dear to them than the fact that they could get any name they wanted. In addition, it is so traditional now that your name is unique that most of your players (who didn’t do the research on how names work in your game) assume they are and are seriously confused when they see any other character with their exact same name running around the game world. That might generate a customer service ticket, and that’s the last thing you want your design decision doing.

What's in a name? (pt 2)

In part 1 I discussed the various ways of designing how characters get named in an MMO. In this part I will talk a little bit about how your perfect name might not be perfect for the game and you will be forced to change it.

For fantasy games, it’s pretty easy to come up with a name. Just jumble some syllables around and you have a name. Most fantasy games ask you not to use real-world words in your (or as your name). “Role-Playing” servers can see some pretty strict enforcement on these name rules as well. For a modern, or superhero, game, words are the order of the day. Unfortunately there have been superhero comics for over 50 years, so a lot of names have been trademarked by various companies.

Which brings me to my next point, where do we draw the line in what names are acceptable, copyright and TM wise, and what are not? It’s a very blurry legal area we are treading into, and since I am not a lawyer, you have to take everything here with a grain of salt.

Obviously if a copyright or trademark holder asks that a name not be made available, as it might damage the brand associated with it, then you are not going to be able to name your character that, or anything even remotely like it. Wolverine, and \/\/01\/3r33n are the same thing in this case. A good rule of thumb is to avoid any names of characters that have had movies made about them in the past 20 years. Those are “top tier” characters with high visibility, and a game company will enforce them even if the copyright holder hasn’t said anything yet. If your character shares the name of a lower tier character, but is obviously not a “remake” or “homage” to the original, trademarked, character, than you have a better chance (not 100%!) of seeing it slide. At the end of the day, the game is that of the publisher’s. If they feel that your name is a violation of their naming rules, take a deep breath and move on; come up with something else and enjoy the game.

Now offensive names are another matter entirely. There’s two types of offensive namers, those who want to “life grief” people by reminding them of tragedies, and those who think the name is funny and want to see what they can get away with. The first type really are a type of player that isn’t doing your game much good. Your customer service should track how many times they need to get a player to rename their characters, and if a pattern has developed, then you need to consider your options. Do you really want a brand new user to see names reminding them of the holocaust, Columbine, or 9/11? People play games to escape that sort of stuff, just because a name filter didn’t “catch” something doesn’t mean it should be acceptable to name your character that.

The other type of offender is the one that tries to slip in the phrases, or the misspelled swear words, or stuff that only makes sense if you look it up on Urban Dictionary. These guys do it to be silly and to offend those who have their chat filters still enabled. While both of these types of namers are immature, these seem to be even less so. They are not “getting” anything out of it other than a “ZOMG, look what I got away with hehehehe” mentality. Yes, these guys generate CS tickets too. I really wish they didn’t.

So there you have it. Two posts on character names from the development perspective. I hope future MMOs are getting something out of these posts, I really do enjoy putting this information out there.

I bet someone out there thought I was going to post about ReadID as well. Gotcha!

As for the comment about the HeroCon attendees having a knee-jerk reaction lacking any thought behind the question posed. Those same attendees are the same ones that have been on the forums discussing this same issue, on the occasions that it comes up. They (me included) did not have to think about their answer when responding at the Con, because they had already thought about it.

You do realize that foes also take fall damage, right?

I mean sure, if they fall off of a 4-story building, you'd think they shouldn't survive. But this is a game, things don't work in here like they do in the real world.

Unless that KB does damage, then no amount of fall damage will kill you...





You can leap/fall/get knocked off of the tallest building in all of CoX (or the floating CoT temple during I14 Beta,) and no matter how much damage your character takes, he/she/it will always be left with 1 hp of health.

Landing in a mob at the bottom is another case.

Seriously, I mean that's what newsgroups are for...

The poster Forbin mentioned actually budgeted for skinflicks.

CoX 2.0 <---> Issue 20

Is what I'm thinking.

Make sure you log on to your NCsoft Master Account, and update your status daily, even if it's just to comment that is hasn't been fixed yet.

...and pron.

Funny you should mention him, that post was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. XD

As for "DDO did so should we", DDO was on the verge of shutting down their servers and turning off the lights. CoX is not even close to that.

I never understood it either.

That's what I pay to go to the movies with a popcorn and soda, alone.

Not to mention, I don't pay $15 a month, I sub yearly so it's less than $12/mo, not to mention the 9-10 months I've gotten free for different purchases/loyalty packages.

That made me laugh so hard, Ironblade.

We miss you too, BB.