@Anet - Forced Capitalization in Names. Can we get rid of it?

Lets say you wanna make a character called Bob the Mighty. The game will force you to spell it Bob The Mighty which looks a lot worse (in fact, NPCs using this format do not captialize the "the" just to rub it in your face!).

So... can we please get rid of it? Pwetty please?

And yes, I realize what a very personal nitpick this is so there is no need to make a comment just to point that out - I am well aware.

Seems like a hassle to program. I kind of like the auto-capitalization, as I have the same reaction to usernames without any capitalization.

Before we get: bob the mighty, BOB the MIGHTY or bOb the mIGhty.

Well X the Y is a unique case really.

As I said, the NPCs in game follow the "rule" set up for it grammatically.

I was going to name my character using name such as Smitey McSmiterson found out that I cant and it frustrated me, Smitey Mcsmiterson or Smitey Mc Smiterson just dont feel right.

Isn't a name always capitalized? So it maks sense. Even song titles are often capitalized, because it is a name - of the song.

@"ardhikaizecson.3697"As far as I read into the topic, "Mac" can be used just fine: Smitey Mac Smiterson is actually (one) proper spelling, with the caps.

@"Zedek.8932" said:Isn't a name always capitalized? So it maks sense. Even song titles are often capitalized, because it is a name - of the song.

But if the word "the" comes up in the middle of the song title, it's not capitalized. That's what the OP is referring to. Those small subset of words that aren't capitalized in proper nouns unless they are the first word.

@Seera.5916 said:

@"Zedek.8932" said:Isn't a name always capitalized? So it maks sense. Even song titles are often capitalized, because it is a name - of the song.

I just read how it is done, and there is more to it, even though are right about what you said.But still, I'd simply put it as my name then, I mean, he is literally free to choose any name he feels like. Maybe "The" is, uh, a funky spanish part of a name (not using the soft TH). Now that's what I call stretching reality.

Excelsior.

nO ThAnKYoU, tHe Sy5tEm is fINe aS iT $taNdz

Hah! I wish everyone cared as much as you. I see people with truly abominable names.

@Zedek.8932 said:

@Seera.5916 said:

@Zedek.8932 said:Isn't a name always capitalized? So it maks sense. Even song titles are often capitalized, because it is a name - of the song.

And it's obvious in the example that it is the English word "the" and not Spanglish as there is no Spanish word "the".

And I never said he wasn't able to choose a name he wanted. He's just complaining that the name he wants can't be grammatically correct and wishes ANet would allow for the first letter of words to not have to be capitalized.

Duh.Isn't it pretty obvious I was not even remotely serious?My bad for not putting winking emoticons at the end. I expected you to realize it by yourself. Apparently not.Also never said you were saying anything about any restrictions about his name. Where do you read that from?

Let's also be honest here: Do you think aNet changes most probably hard-coded stuff for such a minor thing? And I kept reading further, ardhikaizecson's name still is fine with a capitalized Mac.

Excelsior.

@Seera.5916 said:

@"Zedek.8932" said:Isn't a name always capitalized? So it maks sense. Even song titles are often capitalized, because it is a name - of the song.

Yeah. Also things like human noble characters with "von" or "of" in the name.

It is simply better looking if you don't capitalize those words in a name.

My new character would totally be: IlIIlIlIIlIIlIIl (L + I)

Bob The Mighty > bob the mighty

@Alehin.3746 said:Bob The Mighty > bob the mighty

Bob the Mighty trumps them both.

@"Oglaf.1074" said:Yeah. Also things like human noble characters with "von" or "of" in the name.

It is simply better looking if you don't capitalize those words in a name.

This! I've had to live with my main being Donari Mal Di Bette in game but canonically it's Donari Mal di Bette. Unrelated issue: his sister is Salvina Lucia Bette in game for length reasons, even though she's Salvina Lucia di Bette canonically (nickname Lucy, so I get confused when people say "thanks, Salvina" in Map, lol). But I can't complain about the 19 character limit, it's pretty generous and I guarantee I could come up with names too long for most any rational name length restriction. Still, if it fit, she'd also be dealing with Di rather than di (pronounced dee).

And I do have a character with a the in the middle, Mirth The Mouse (not at all her birth name, but when you grow up on the streets, you get odd monikers). I'd rather not capitalize the T.

@Donari.5237 said:

@"Oglaf.1074" said:Yeah. Also things like human noble characters with "von" or "of" in the name.

It is simply better looking if you don't capitalize those words in a name.

Yeah when the game launched I was amazed you could use spaces in the names. No other game I’ve played up to that point let you do that. I really commend Anet on their naming system in general. I just wish they’d “fix” this. I mean, they name NPCs the proper way and everything....

@"Oglaf.1074" said:Lets say you wanna make a character called Bob the Mighty. The game will force you to spell it Bob The Mighty which looks a lot worse (in fact, NPCs using this format do not captialize the "the" just to rub it in your face!).

So... can we please get rid of it? Pwetty please?

And yes, I realize what a very personal nitpick this is so there is no need to make a comment just to point that out - I am well aware.

It's a personal and not necessarily accurate nitpick. The rules for title case aren't universal by any means. Some style manuals for some institutions insist that Title Case = Initial Cap, some allow for definite articles (e.g. "the") and certain prepositions (e.g. "or"|"and"|"of") to be lower case, some allow fewer exceptions (some more). There's no rule of thumb that applies to all uses.

So "Bob The Mighty" is 'correct' depending on who is judging.

Personally, I prefer "Bob the Mighty" or, I'd really prefer, "Bob the Not-as-Weak as Robert", but we don't get hyphens either.

tl;dr grammar rules are arbitrary anyhow; I've gotten used to ANet emphasizing the "arbitrary"

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Oglaf.1074" said:Lets say you wanna make a character called

Bob the Mighty

. The game will force you to spell it

Bob The Mighty

which looks a lot worse (in fact, NPCs using this format do not captialize the "the" just to rub it in your face!).

So... can we please get rid of it? Pwetty please?

And yes, I realize what a very personal nitpick this is so there is no need to make a comment just to point that out - I am well aware.

A personal nitpick I share with Anet when it comes to NPCs and it makes me green with envy. :(

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:Seems like a hassle to program. I kind of like the auto-capitalization, as I have the same reaction to usernames without any capitalization.

Before we get: bob the mighty, BOB the MIGHTY or bOb the mIGhty.

Huh? Why would removing it be a hassle? It is REMOVING something that alters the input.

edit: I would remind anet if they do this to make sure they do a case insensitive comparison to existing names or you will have the headache of both 'Bob The Mighty' and 'Bob the Mighty' at the same time in no time flat.

No thanks, a lot of people would make really stupid names with random caps.

@Echoherb.6528 said:No thanks, a lot of people would make really stupid names with random caps.

People do this already, and the trade-off would be people like myself creating really “good” names that we currently can’t, sooo..

This can not be changed.

Part of the way to know when you're dealing with an actual GM is because their name will be "GM [somename]". Only a GM can have the double capital letters like that.

If they changed this, you'd have people trying to make fake GM characters. I'm sure they can put in other checks to help avoid this, but at that point it's a whole other can of worms.

Pretty sure “GM” is on the list of disallowed words in your character’s name already.

@Oglaf.1074 said:Pretty sure “GM” is on the list of disallowed words in your character’s name already.

That would make sense. But back when the game started, they did state that the double capital letters were a sign of a real GM, because the naming system didn't allow players to do it.

Meh. Maybe they'd consider letting that go, and let the system change.