I think this GM handled your whining rather well and should be applauded for not telling you to shut the f$#@ up.

Hate to break it to you, but this is standard amongst ALL MMO games that I have seen with naming policies.  All you can do is report a name and hope a GM takes care of it.  It is up to the GM to see if a name violates.  Some GMs are strict, others relaxed.

I remeber in DAOC I had a few nice names changed.  Valixta Servantchild had to be changed to Valixta Silentchild, because someone might be offended by the word servant.

I see people running around in WoW with names like Flamehammer and Fart Smasher, and they reach level 70 on an RP server with such name violations.

 GMs will never tell you their policy or inner workings.  those are, amazingly, company secrets, and only manager are allowed to answer such questions.  In the gaming world, answering such a question can give a hacker, botter, griefer loopholes into the system.  They could use those loopholes they discover from the information the GM gave them.

Face the fact.  RP servers don't get the coverage they need.  The only true difference between the servers are the rules you agree to in the TOA.  The GMs rarely enforce those modified rules unless they recieve a lot of complaints.

The forums are the place to ask about policy, and procedure.  Don't expect an answer from the mods there though.  It is up to them whether they feel it is safe to disclose that info to you.

---

Originally posted by TheSheikh 
You obviously did not read what the GM told you, because he answered your question entirely.

---

No, he did not.

You're of course free to comment on my perceived level of fail as much as you want, but that doesn't change the fact that the GM response was wildly out of context.

Here, all explained for you, so I don't have to do it again:

---

Originally posted by WSIMike

He asked the GM a perfectly reasonable question, and got an irrational response...
He asked how they apply their guidelines... The GM confirmed that yes, they do.
It's like saying "What's up?" to someone and they reply "Hey, great!". The response seems a bit out of context. They're answering a question you didn't ask.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't interpret the OP's question as "how do you guys handle name violations?".. which seems to be how some here took it. He asked "how do you apply the guidelines regarding name changes" which, in the context of the rest of his questions, makes sense.
And, yes, when two different GMs take opposing sides on one such incident, does seem to make it seem inconsistent and a bit arbitrary. That would make me curious as well.
Personally, I saw nothing wrong in what he asked.

---

When you ask about the procedure taken in handling name changing, that is basically the same as asking how they change the name. 

Everyone knows that they change a name by opening an account and.....changing the name.  so the only other thing is what their evaluation process is in determining a name change.  No company represenative will tell you such info.  Those are company secrets, in a way, and could open them up to exploiters who use the system against them.

Yes he dodged the questions in an odd manner.  But even if he did not dodge the questions he was never going to answer anything about company proccess; no matter how simple the question was or how easy an answer would have been.

I will say this, you asked very valid questions, which I would also like to hear real answers to. But you came across as very aggressive and annoying. Being polite will get you further!

OP whas trolling the GM. OP is wrong.

To [Zerstorus]: Hi.
To [Zerstorus]: I wonder how you actually enforce the naming policy on RP servers. So far it seems completely arbitrary.

[Zerstorus(GM)]: Yes, there is a policy. If you encounter players with non RP names, please inform us and we will change them immediately.

To [Zerstorus]: That wasn't what I asked. I asked -how- you enforce this policy, and -why- you enforce it so arbitrarily? GMs don't act consistently amongst each other, and you let obvious policy-breaching names live while you go out of your way to change names that are perfectly fine but were reported by someone with a personal OOC grudge. Why is that?
 

For the HOW -

He told you exactly how they enforce the naming policy. You tell the GMs, and they will change them immediately. I fail to see how you did not understand this one.

For the WHY -

The GM is not going to tell you anything more than how they go about enforcing the rules. That is just how things work, believe it or not. He did tell you, however, that they do not go about changing them unless they are notified by the player-base. So obviously the problem is not GMs arbitrarily changing names, it is a failure of the playerbase to report these things.

Welcome to an MMO, where players report others they do not like for having OOC names.

(p.s. Galadriel most likely violates nothing on an RP naming policy, it is simply a name. Perhaps we should also report all of the characters with anime names, or anyone who uses a name with an outside relation of any kind. I don't think you would have very many friends if this was the RP naming policy.)

http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=2431&table=CONTENT

It's vague, but I think it would be within the limits of reason to say that a name identical to that of a pivotal character in a well-known work of fantasy literature which is most likely subject to copyright legislation is a violation of the RP server naming policy.

Originally posted by Lichthammer

http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=2431&table=CONTENT

It's vague, but I think it would be within the limits of reason to say that a name identical to that of a pivotal character in a well-known work of fantasy literature which is most likely subject to copyright legislation is a violation of the RP server naming policy.

This still does not change the fact that you were trolling that GM needlessly.

If you think Galadriel is such an immersion breaker as to post about it on a forum, by god go report the name first and do something about it. Even the "disappointing" GM told you to report bad names.

Why are you here anyway? Because you don't like Funcom? Or just to whine because someone named Galadriel didn't like you (or your name) and successfully reported you for breaking the rules?

i've played a bit on RP servers and this is exactly what bugs me the most about them...i've used names that i've gotten off of random name generators when i've felt lazy about naming and it seems that someone on RP servers will ALWAYS find the book that i "stole" that name from and demand i change it. as for the massive influx of legolas (or legomyeggolas...that guy pwned) and gimilis running around out there, who cares? really? they are being lazy or they think its cute to be named after that character...hell, how do you know, they might be acting out some odd role playing story where characters from another story get trapped in this world....let them have their fun for christ sake....its not the worst thing in the world. just because they don't adhere to YOUR set of RP rules doesn't mean they should be punished.

oh, and while i can't stand funcom or its customer service, i have to agree with most of the other posters here in saying that you were in the wrong, not the GM

oh, and for the record, i've had to get my name changed back to gryjin by a GM after someone complained that my asian sounding character name did not fit with the lore of the continents currently in game...so yeah, this particular kind of QQ is my least favorite kind. thank god the GM i talked to realized that boats existed and agreed that my RP biography made sense

oh, and just for an added bump...if you really consider yourself a true RPer, you shouldn't have the damn names being displayed anyway.

Originally posted by TheSheikh

Originally posted by Lichthammer

http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=2431&table=CONTENT

It's vague, but I think it would be within the limits of reason to say that a name identical to that of a pivotal character in a well-known work of fantasy literature which is most likely subject to copyright legislation is a violation of the RP server naming policy.

 

Why are you here anyway? Because you don't like Funcom? Or just to whine because someone named Galadriel didn't like you (or your name) and successfully reported you for breaking the rules?

He's here for the same reason many others are here... to present something to the community for discussion. It was discussed and people gave their opinions. There was some disagreement and a bit of back-and-forth of points-of-view.

Sounds like a pretty typical forum post to me.

That said...

You clearly didn't read this posts thoroughly as he explained earlier in the thread that it wasn't him that had his name changed. It was someone else and he was purely curious about why things transpired as they did.

And, since you're asking it of him... I'll ask it of you.

Why are *you* here? So you can call the OP a troll and whiner because you don't approve of what he asked a GM or how he asked it?

No one forced you to read or respond to this thread. So the hostility is really uncalled for.

To be fairly honest, that happens in other games as well, WOW for instance on the RP-PVP servers you see idiotic names and guilds, when petitioning them nothing happens. I'm not an RP nerd but IF you're going to roll on an RP server, have some decency and respect towards other players and the naming rules. Because the GM's obviously don't enforce them.