NPC names vs PC names

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Hey everyone.

Any idea why playable characters names can't have "the" or "of" lower cased but NPCs names can? I've seen tons of names like "Kol the Valiant", "Wovil the Frostpaw", and always find it annoying that for our characters it has to be like "Kol The Valiant", "Wovil The Frostpaw". 

[Sobx.1758]

Because npc names are a constant assigned by devs and the pc names are not. Apparently the devs just wanted to have the "Name Surname" pattern available to the players.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Danikat.8537]

I think it's just because when someone at Anet is naming an NPC they don't use the same system we do for naming characters so they don't have the same restrictions. They could probably put anything they like in there, but of course want the names to be lore friendly and appropriate.

The automatic capitalisation is annoying. It's probably good that no one can call a character something like iHaVeAnAnOyInGnAmE or maybe more importantly LiIy (that's a capital I, not a lower case L, good luck reporting them if you can't click on them) but it's annoying that it also throws up problems like this.

[Gehenna.3625]

The names are set a certain way, so after every space comes a capital letter. It's standard formatting for names. I'm sure that Anet has their reasons for it. It's a bit odd at times but it doesn't bother me really.

[Zephire.8049]

4 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I think it's just because when someone at Anet is naming an NPC they don't use the same system we do for naming characters so they don't have the same restrictions. They could probably put anything they like in there, but of course want the names to be lore friendly and appropriate.

The automatic capitalisation is annoying. It's probably good that no one can call a character something like iHaVeAnAnOyInGnAmE or maybe more importantly LiIy (that's a capital I, not a lower case L, good luck reporting them if you can't click on them) but it's annoying that it also throws up problems like this.

To add to this, the forced capitalization makes it so people can't do something like "GM Name" ("G M" is blocked but it's harder to blanket block "gm" from existing in a word without collateral damage) to scam people or use l and I to evade reports. People can still use accented and similar looking characters right now to make reporting them without an account.#### annoying but the current system is still better than people running around with names like IIIllIlI llIIIIl and lIIlllII lIl IlllllIl and llIIIIIIllllIlIlllIIIl.

[Linken.6345]

4 minutes ago, Zephire.8049 said:

To add to this, the forced capitalization makes it so people can't do something like "GM Name" ("G M" is blocked but it's harder to blanket block "gm" from existing in a word without collateral damage) to scam people or use l and I to evade reports. People can still use accented and similar looking characters right now to make reporting them without an account.#### annoying but the current system is still better than people running around with names like IIIllIlI llIIIIl and lIIlllII lIl IlllllIl and llIIIIIIllllIlIlllIIIl.

If I remember right gm is indeed blocked in gw2

[Danikat.8537]

10 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

If I remember right gm is indeed blocked in gw2

I think you're right. I know GM with spaces either side is blocked and both G and M on their own is blocked, but I have a feeling people have also run into a problem trying to get names which happen to have gm in the middle, although I can't log in right now to double check.

All this talk about GM in names is making me think there should be something in the game to tell people how to recognise real Anet staff. Elder Scrolls Online has a note on loading screens about their GMs having a special tag even though I don't think they're ever visible in-game. Anet people are sometimes seen in-game and have a special tag they can show (a modified guild tag) and I think it would be more effective to tell players that than try to restrict all variations on GM in names. Then they'd know if someone says they work for Anet you can ask them to turn the tag on to prove it.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Danikat.8537

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

If you play another game for a few minutes, you'll know. I don't need people in my party named something like oOoOoOooOoOoOo where its hard to even address them.

 

I don't need to see someone's password as their name, either. (An old tactic in online games for players who are bad at remembering their password is to use it as their character name.)

 

The system has its faults but it generally encourages using actual names. From what I've seen this game has the highest proper name turnout of any game I've played, and a huge percentage of players using actual in-context names, lore friendly and all.

 

That's extremely rare in MMOs especially.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Hannelore.8153

[Scavarius.6059]

18 hours ago, TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

Hey everyone.

Any idea why playable characters names can't have "the" or "of" lower cased but NPCs names can? 

the commander is just that much greater than some random pleb from the streets.

[Danikat.8537]

There's also a lot of silly names. I once found that both Abcdefghijklmnopqrs and Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa were taken, as well as several variations on Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Oh, and currently both Per My Last Email and As Per My Emails are taken. I haven't checked in a while but Already In Use was taken as well. So while it cuts out some options I'm not sure the restrictions on capitalisation have a huge impact on the range of silly names.

If Anet can set rules to disallow things like G M I imagine they could also set rules that allow a lower case letter first only in words like 'the' and 'of'.

(Ideally I'd like them to also allow one hyphen or apostrophe so names like O'Connor or Mary-Beth are possible.)

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I think you're right. I know GM with spaces either side is blocked and both G and M on their own is blocked, but I have a feeling people have also run into a problem trying to get names which happen to have gm in the middle, although I can't log in right now to double check.

All this talk about GM in names is making me think there should be something in the game to tell people how to recognise real Anet staff. Elder Scrolls Online has a note on loading screens about their GMs having a special tag even though I don't think they're ever visible in-game. Anet people are sometimes seen in-game and have a special tag they can show (a modified guild tag) and I think it would be more effective to tell players that than try to restrict all variations on GM in names. Then they'd know if someone says they work for Anet you can ask them to turn the tag on to prove it.

Well there whispers are yellow are they not?

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

Well there whispers are yellow are they not?

I don't know, I've never gotten a whisper from an Anet person. But if so that would be worth mentioning as well.

I have seen them in-game sometimes, usually just after a new release, and then they've been using map or say chat to talk to people around them about the new stuff and about the game in general. (And how they're not allowed to give out free legendaries or spawn champions in the middle of LA.)

I'm just thinking it would be helpful for players to know how to identify genuine Anet staff, especially since the tag is something no one can fake. It's good that scammers can't put GM in their character name, but it won't completely stop them trying to pretend they're a GM or otherwise work for Anet, but if everyone they're trying to scam knew to check for the guild tag that would make it pretty much impossible.

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Well there whispers are yellow are they not?

Are they?  New players (and probably a lot of veterans) may not know that so if someone whispered a player from a non-GM account which was labeled as G-M or such, then a maliciously intended person might be able to get account information from someone.  It's best, on Anet's part, to err on the side of caution.

[Linken.6345]

34 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Are they?  New players (and probably a lot of veterans) may not know that so if someone whispered a player from a non-GM account which was labeled as G-M or such, then a maliciously intended person might be able to get account information from someone.  It's best, on Anet's part, to err on the side of caution.

And nothing I said was anything about it being a negative that gm was not included to be used at all in character names.

If you just read the post above in the comment chain you would have seen Danikat was actualy responding to me.

So maybe read the whole conversation it is not like they were far apart they were right next to eachother just abit further up in the thread.

Edit

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_Support_Team

All GMs have Display Names of the form "Gm ___.####".

GM whisper text is golden rather than purple.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Linken.6345

[Sobx.1758]

All this discussion and here I am, wondering why any of you feel the need to make a character starting with "GM" 🤔

[Danikat.8537]

12 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

All this discussion and here I am, wondering why any of you feel the need to make a character starting with "GM" 🤔

The few times I remember it coming up it's been something like someone trying to call a character T I G G E R, because Tigger was taken and that's their nickname, or someone trying to use a 2 word name where one ended with a G and the other began with an M and wondering why they couldn't.

[Linken.6345]

Well it could be in the middle of the name like Sigrid Figmender for example

[Ashantara.8731]

23 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Apparently the devs just wanted to have the "Name Surname" pattern available to the players.

No, that's inaccurate since neither Sylvari nor Asura have surnames.
 

@ confused person: That's a fact.  Read up on the lore. Gorrik also mentions it in LWS4:

• Gorrik: "First of all, it's just 'Gorrik.' Asura do not have surnames."
   

Edited July 7, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Sobx.1758]

3 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

No, that's inaccurate since neither Sylvari nor Asura have surnames.
 

@ confused person: That's a fact.  Read up on the lore. Gorrik also mentions it in LWS4:

• Gorrik: "First of all, it's just 'Gorrik.' Asura do not have surnames."
   

What's inaccurate? That the devs made it that way, so apparently that's what they expect from the players? What I wrote has nothing to do with lore, rather dev expectations and set limitations made on the naming of any player character. Not only that, but the pattern of words always starting with a capital letter doesn't lock you out from making a single-word character nicknames in any way, so... 🤷‍♂️

3 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

The few times I remember it coming up it's been something like someone trying to call a character T I G G E R, because Tigger was taken and that's their nickname, or someone trying to use a 2 word name where one ended with a G and the other began with an M and wondering why they couldn't.

I see having ALL CAPS nicknames slightly harder to make as a rather low price to pay tbh 😄

Edited July 7, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[mindcircus.1506]

3 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

No, that's inaccurate since neither Sylvari nor Asura have surnames.
 

@ confused person: That's a fact.  Read up on the lore. Gorrik also mentions it in LWS4:

• Gorrik: "First of all, it's just 'Gorrik.' Asura do not have surnames."
   

"Asura do not have a last name, instead opting to use job titles, a krewe name, or honorifics to differentiate themselves. Those who choose to take a last name of a style similar to humans are rare and are considered eccentrics, and their surname is often ignored by other asura."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Asura

Asura may absolutely use a last name and be lore-friendly

Edited July 7, 2022 by mindcircus.1506

[Zephire.8049]

6 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

All this discussion and here I am, wondering why any of you feel the need to make a character starting with "GM" 🤔

I'm not sure anyone in this thread has any interest in a character whose name starts with "GM" but scammers have been tricking people out of items/gold/accounts in MMOs by making characters that start with "GM" and pretending to be a game moderator since MMOs began.

No point making that all the easier in GW2 by allowing people to capitalize/lowercase any letter they want. "Alexander The Great" may not be as correct as "Alexander the Great" but it's worth it if it prevents people from getting scammed and saves support from getting swamped with tickets wanting scammed items back, people reporting scammers, and trying to deal with said scammers on top of everything else.

[Sobx.1758]

19 minutes ago, Zephire.8049 said:

I'm not sure anyone in this thread has any interest in a character whose name starts with "GM" but scammers have been tricking people out of items/gold/accounts in MMOs by making characters that start with "GM" and pretending to be a game moderator since MMOs began.

No point making that all the easier in GW2 by allowing people to capitalize/lowercase any letter they want. "Alexander The Great" may not be as correct as "Alexander the Great" but it's worth it if it prevents people from getting scammed and saves support from getting swamped with tickets wanting scammed items back, people reporting scammers, and trying to deal with said scammers on top of everything else.

Yeah, reading "Anet people are sometimes seen in-game and have a special tag they can show (a modified guild tag) and I think it would be more effective to tell players that than try to restrict all variations on GM in names." and subsequent ideas/information about "how else GMs can/could be recognized" pulled me into the line of thinking that all of it is the justification for not needing the "G M" sequence locked, mb. 😄 

[Danikat.8537]

17 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Yeah, reading "Anet people are sometimes seen in-game and have a special tag they can show (a modified guild tag) and I think it would be more effective to tell players that than try to restrict all variations on GM in names." and subsequent ideas/information about "how else GMs can/could be recognized" pulled me into the line of thinking that all of it is the justification for not needing the "G M" sequence locked, mb. 😄 

That was me, I meant it as an addition to the current measures, not a replacement for them.

Considering real Anet employees usually don't have GM in their name (or at least none of the ones I've seen did) I don't think a scammer needs GM in their name to pretend they work for Anet. But if everyone was told how to identify real Anet employees it would be a lot harder because then they'd know what they should be looking out for. (Like how all mail in-game is clearly labelled as either coming from Anet or from another player.)

[Ashantara.8731]

8 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

Asura may absolutely use a last name and be lore-friendly

Titles or nick names aren't surnames.

Professor Lexx, Gorrk The Inventor or Troublemaker Tazz are all valid choices, but those are not surnames.

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Titles or nick names aren't surnames.

Professor Lexx, Gorrk The Inventor or Troublemaker Tazz are all valid choices, but those are not surnames.

Did you read the rest of the post you're quoting? The Wiki (quoting Regina Buenaobra) says some asura do choose to take a last name, in the same sense that humans do rather than a title or nickname. They're considered eccentric by other asura, but presumably that doesn't bother them. (Considering most asura seem to consider most other asura either idiotic or insane I doubt they care about other asura's opinion of them.)