Name Restrictions

[GenericUser3777]

Dear Suggestion Box,

I have checked names that I like twice in the past day to be sure they are available and by the time I get to my character to change its name they are taken. People seriously LOVE to collect names by creating level 1 alts and hoarding names this way. Please allow us duplicate names on account of the disparity in level.

Sincerely.

[Aly-DN]

Umm. No.

First, you "checked names that I like twice in the past day to be sure they are available"? That's your proof? Did you actually try to make a character with that name or just search to see if any character with that name was online?

Second, how do you know that the character with the name you want is level 1? Every character on all but one of my accounts are level 80. Every single one. It's so easy to get to level 80 now that I would be very surprised if the popular name you are thinking of isn't being held by a max level character.

Third, after the last merge, all character names were reset. So any player that hasn't logged in since then has a merge name (a series of numbers and letters). Meaning all the characters with actual names are current-ish players.

[GenericUser3777]

19 hours ago, Aly-DN said:

Umm. No.

Yes, I tried to make a character and licked 'Check Name Availability', and they were. What happened was I was trying names on in Lakrum, just saying them to see how they look, and found one. Checked it's availability and then tried and got the error message. People are snatching up names so fast that we're running out and they're names I never see anywhere; names I thought were pretty original. We need to be allowed duplicate names.

You might be one of them. Name hoarder!

[Aly-DN]

Yes. That's me. I am holding the name 18d56392 on DN. It's mine. You can't have it. 

Suck it.

 

Still no. 

[Cheesecake-DN]

Dude, Aion is functionally dead. People aren't spam making characters to steal names on 10/23/2019 at 4am with no new class in sight anymore. I'm really confused at what you're saying that people somehow stole your name between checking its availability and then trying to make the character because, unless you're saying them out loud in a populated area and someone is trying to be a nyerk, the chances of it happening are next to none.

Also, when you do /whisper Cheesecake, and there are two Cheesecakes, what do you think is going to happen? Or Cheesecake 1 is "the real Cheesecake" and Cheesecake 2 is being a fooking tard just to grief Cheesecake 1 because the names are the same and no one can tell the difference? (Eternal apologies to Cheesecake-TM, who had to deal with the name + my reputation, even though they weren't me.) The database and game aren't set up to allow for multiple characters with the same name. I don't think any MMO allows for duplicate names on the same server.

[Arhangelos]

By the way don't try to name your char HitlerAdolf or AdolfHitler, it is regarded a "bad" word and they will rename your chars. When we had the first merge and we had to rename our chars, I put these names to check if they are eligible and about 1,5 years later or something (or more) they sent me a ticket telling me those chars need to have their names changed.

[Aly-DN]

5 minutes ago, Arhangelos-KT said:

By the way don't try to name your char HitlerAdolf or AdolfHitler, it is regarded a "bad" word and they will rename your chars. When we had the first merge and we had to rename our chars, I put these names to check if they are eligible and about 1,5 years later or something (or more) they sent me a ticket telling me those chars need to have their names changed.

NCWest doesn't proactively check character names. (Some games do and when you try to name your character F*ckityMcF*ckF*ck, the character creator tells you that you can't name your character that. Aion doesn't.) They rely on players to police each other. Someone had to have seen your name and then sent in a ticket for Support to even notice that you character shouldn't be named that.

That's why there are people who named their characters after various words for genitalia or imaginative sex acts and still titter behind their hands about how very naughty they are since they still have characters with those names. But one day they will log that character in for an event or maybe just to remind themselves about what a rebel they are years after creating them and will get a note from Support just like you did telling them that the name is inappropriate and that it needs to be changed.

Then someone else will see that the naughty name is now open and will name their character that. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Btw.. there are players who would be genuinely offended by a character named AdolfHItler and you knew that. Not sure how you didn't see that name change coming.

[Arhangelos]

2 hours ago, Aly-DN said:

Btw.. there are players who would be genuinely offended by a character named AdolfHItler and you knew that. Not sure how you didn't see that name change coming.

...how does being offended by someone's character name has anything to do with the company's policy though? What if I am offended by "Aly"? The company itself doesn't like the name and this is why they changed it, sure thing they didn't run a script searching for bad words so defo someone reported that character, but when the company decided it was not OK to have this name, it was their call.

I was tempted to tell them to rename it to AdolfHiitler or something but I didn't care about keeping the name obviously, I just put it for fun and it simply stayed like that for some time until they sent me a support ticket themselves that the name has to change.

They also did this for AdolfHitler only, so I told them in that mail that there is one more character named HitlerAdolf so they might wanna see that too, they even thanked me for that.

I usually turn into offensive mode when these types of policies hit, but I am not that active to care to pick on their policies.

---

In the end AdolfHitler is not an insult or a bad word, it is a name of a historical (bad) figure. I asked them in the ticket if JosephStalin was ok, I obviously got no reply.

 

[Aly-DN]

The process goes like this. 

• You create a character with a name.
• Another player sees your character and feels strongly enough about that name that they write a ticket to Support.
• Support gets the ticket and makes a company judgement on if the name is offensive by their definition.
• If so, you are forced to change the name.
• If not, you are fine.

So if you were to turn me in for the name Aly, Support would look at my name and make a company decision of the name Aly was in any way offensive. It may tick you off no end to the point that you are totally distracted, but the company would need to make that call for the whole of the gaming community. 

The name AdolfHitler is offensive to some players. Personally I would see someone with that name and figure they were a total tool and just ignore them. No need to turn them in. If they want to label themselves as a tardlet, let them. But I could also see another player being really miffed every time they saw that character to the point that the game isn't fun for them. I am sure no one needs to explain to you why that is.

The same could be said for someone that wanted to name their character nyerk or nyerk. Those are perfectly correct names for part of the body. No different than Leg or Ear. But a good number of people would find seeing that name all the time game breaking. So Support would ask those players to change that name.

It's a judgement call. 

Make a character name JosephStalin or MaoTseTung or PolPot and then turn yourself in on another account. See what the company's judgement is on those. Would be interesting if nothing else.

[Arhangelos]

1 hour ago, Aly-DN said:

Make a character name JosephStalin or MaoTseTung or PolPot and then turn yourself in on another account. See what the company's judgement is on those. Would be interesting if nothing else.

...