Naming Rules – Do You REALLY Know the Rules?

Do you actually know the Rules?

 

EA/BioWare has published their Rules of Conduct: — Very important and useful documents that most players skip over in their excitement to get into the game. I’ve already covered the EULA in a previous Article

Most of the rules are pretty common among MMOs, and if you are a veteran MMO player, you won’t blink twice at them. However, a few of the items are a little different than you may be used to, and are worth looking at a little closer, so that you don’t run afoul of any of the rules once Early Access (and Launch) hits and you find yourself actually playing the game.

 

One of these items that deserves a closer look is the Naming Policy. Now, we have known for a while that BioWare isn’t going to enforce Role-Playing Naming, even on RP Servers. To many RPers that was a disappointing decision, but those names can be subjective at times, so I can understand their stance. But, what rules ARE they going to enforce? Well, if you read the Rules of Conduct, and make your way down to Section D, you will find out. It reads as follows:

 

 

 

 

D. Naming Policy

When creating a character or guild name for Star Wars: The Old Republic, it is encouraged that you select a name that reflects the theme of the game. The guidelines listed below outline the types of names that you can NOT use, and apply to both player or character names, as well as guild names.

1. You may not use any names that violate the General Rules. This includes the use of names that are hateful, defamatory, racist, ethnically offensive, obscene, vulgar, sexually explicit, or any other language that is offensive in nature.
2. You may not use names that are harassing or defamatory to other players or employees of EA, BioWare or LucasArts, e.g. EASUX, Timsretarded, and Biowaresux.
3. You may not use names of any EA, BioWare, or LucasArts employee or service related to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
4. You may not use names of copyrighted or trademarked characters, materials or products, e.g. Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper.
5. You may not use names from popular culture or media, e.g. Lady Gaga or George Lucas.
6. You may not use names that are religiously or historically significant, e.g. Jesus, Winston Churchill.
7. You may not use proper names of areas within Star Wars for character names. Guild names, however, MAY use the proper names of specific areas to help promote role-playing and realm pride, e.g. Defenders of Tython or Protectors of Hutta.
8. You may not use proper names of non-player characters within Star Wars: The Old Republic, e.g. Darth Malgus, Satele Shan, Yoda, Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker.
9. You may not use names containing titles or ranks within them, e.g. General Supertrooper, Captain Tim, Darth Timmy, Knight Wakey.
10. You may not use names that refer to drugs or that are drug related.
11. You may not use names that contain an inappropriate phrase, sentence or any fragment of a sentence or Leet speak, e.g. uberhaxer, xxspeederxx, lolface, rofl, Noobwhacker, TimmyF**k, kock, fuk.
12. You may not use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the above rules, e.g. Hamsolo, Yooda, DorthVader.
13. You may not use gibberish names when creating character, e.g. ajsdu, rifndsw, qweszs.

So, as December 13th approaches, remember these rules as you think up the names of your characters. Oh, and anyone planning to play SanHolo, Vaadar, DaarthMall, LukSkyywlkr or any variation thereof…you better have a backup name planned.

Tags: Daelda, Naming, Rules, swtor

19 responses so far

19 Responses to “Naming Rules – Do You REALLY Know the Rules?”

1. # Drakai88on 12 Dec 2011 at 3:24 pm

   

   Lol good I saw alot of that in beta

2. # Daeldaon 12 Dec 2011 at 3:32 pm

   

   Ya – I like the rules! I wonder how many will violate 11 – 13? That’s why, in a large part, I wrote this article – to give people some warning that, “Hey, there are rules that specifically address that.”

3. # Torinon 12 Dec 2011 at 3:40 pm

   

   I’m especially appreciative of numbers 11-13. The others are standard fare in naming; those will just make a nice quality-of-life improvement. 🙂

4. # Andyon 12 Dec 2011 at 3:56 pm

   

   Hmm, I was planning of using a name of the extended universe that most likely nobody will recognise, now I have to use a search engine and hope the name exists outside of Star Wars…
   But I think the rules are well made, I saw Lord Jesus (darkside sorcerer…) in the game and think the Force will be enough religion…

5. # dwismon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:10 pm

   

   hehe, Hamsolo. Old one i’ll bet, but new to me.

6. # Rakhmanon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:14 pm

   

   Hmm so I wonder if you are allowed to use a name, which when combined with an in-game title, would make a sexual reference. But which on its own is perfectly innocent. That is not covered there, but I suspect a GM would notice and make you change straight away.

   I am of course thinking of the name “bates” or “baytor” for a Jedi Knight, which can have the title “Master”. I am guessing this will get banned.

7. # Tolyreon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:21 pm

   

   I’ve been told that apostrophes and dashes have been removed, is this verified anywhere?

8. # Daeldaon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:27 pm

   

   @Rakhman – I would say that will likely get you either re-named, suspended, or banned.

   @Tolyre – Last I heard it had not been removed, but I could wrong. What was your source on that?

9. # Coldon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:30 pm

   

   Nice

10. # Rosieon 12 Dec 2011 at 4:46 pm

    

    Well maybe this will minimize the “yourexwife” and “n00buster” to some of the down right offensive ones that i will not even mention. I am glad for it. People will have to be a bit more creative for a change.

    Rosie

11. # Tolyreon 12 Dec 2011 at 5:09 pm

    

    @Daelda it was a guildmate who had been in Beta since early. So, unconfirmed, guess I can find out when I try and make my name 🙂

12. # Anexxiaon 12 Dec 2011 at 5:27 pm

    

    Love these guidelines. I think they do a great job of spelling out, with examples, exactly what names won’t fly.

13. # KaelWolfcryon 12 Dec 2011 at 8:34 pm

    

    While not the level of enforcement that I would love to see as an RP’er (We can make special rules and enforcement for PvP’ers but not for RP’ers?), I am glad this will funnel down some of the sub-standard to sub-par names that the oh so clever come up with.

14. # expoon 12 Dec 2011 at 8:47 pm

    

    just recently i created an acct, apostrophes were not allowed but, dashes were.

15. # Davidon 12 Dec 2011 at 10:51 pm

    

    OK, can you tell us how many characters a name can have including dashes?

16. # Jimon 13 Dec 2011 at 12:55 am

    

    I was also wondering if you could have a space, or capital letter in your name. Or both.

    AKA: Jim Smith or JimSmith

17. # Daeldaon 13 Dec 2011 at 1:04 am

    

    @David – Not sure how long a name can be, sorry. I *think* it is somewhere in the 12-16 character range. However, I have learned to advise people to try to use shorter, easier to type/pronounce names – even if you just call it a “Nickname” (And I’m a guy who had a Character once named Kalzedhan). Think of it in these terms – “Hey, should we see if Kalzedhan is free for this run?” “Sure!” “Umm…anyone know how to spell it?” These things can happen. Even the Chiss shorten their names – so try to think of shortening yours.

    @Jim – You can’t have a space, or capitalization within your name, other than the first letter being capitalized. Sorry. Remember – you will get Titles and even a Family Legacy later on. And who knows what else?!

18. # mmsockon 13 Dec 2011 at 4:12 am

    

    Are names unique like in WoW or tied to account name in CO?

19. # Aimeeon 13 Dec 2011 at 3:44 pm

    

    Day 1 of early access Ive already seen 11 and 12 Violated a bunch.