Name censor is quite strict

[Sinmir.6504]

There is an option to report for inapropriate names. With what we can and can't use, I don't see that report option being used much. A while back I made my engineer, wanted her to be Kiriko Yoshitoku. Quickly found what was wrong, decided to swap the k and t, Kiriko Yoshikotu. Half understandable, still the name Yoshitoku apparently means "Good Ethics." Nothing to do with what Cartman took on Mr Garison's desk.

Another censored name is anything that contains Usama. Which surprised me. Even with a space, the character I was trying to name has a name that ends in "usa" then the family name begins wit "Ma." 

I was thinking maybe the filter could be toned down a bit. In my case, I told a colleage at work  Yoshitoku wasn't allowed, wrote it down for him, he didn't get it, I needed to circle the bit that cause it to be filtered. Remember, we do have the option to report for inapropriate names. If somebody thinks a player is trying to swear in their name they can report them.

Or what if there was some typoe of appeal option? If you think a name is innocent but has a string of letters within it that forms a swear, an option to have it manually looked at? Maybe  the character slot could be locked until it is looked at, if it gets approved the character you made becomes available with the name, when you play as them for the first time you get the opening cutscene and tutorial mission as you would upon creating them.

[Gehenna.3625]

You'd be surprised how creative people get with names, in spite of the filter. Then again, the filter is set to American English rules so when you use "bad words" in other languages you can get away with it but when you use names that are fine in other languages, but contain English "bad words" (like your first example) then you can't use them.

But then, I feel that the USA is a country in the West that worries most about those things and Anet is in the USA, so I feel that it makes sense for them to filter on those words. And the filter is a one-size-fits-all solution, which isn't great. The alternative, I think, would cost too many resources that Anet can't assign to it.

So I've learned to deal with it and to be honest, I haven't run into that many names of mine that were considered "inappropriate". 

[Fueki.4753]

The Usama part could be explained due to similarities to a certain terrorist's first name.

That'd be in the same vein as banning the family name (in some games his first name as well) of a certain Austrian man who became Germany's political leader in the first half of the last century.

In GW1, they even renamed a Grawl boss because his original name was a slang word for female parts in some part of the world.

So, while the censorship might seem excessive, there probably are reasons for it, even if the reasons seem outlandish to some people.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

5 hours ago, Sinmir.6504 said:

There is an option to report for inapropriate names. With what we can and can't use, I don't see that report option being used much. A while back I made my engineer, wanted her to be Kiriko Yoshitoku. Quickly found what was wrong, decided to swap the k and t, Kiriko Yoshikotu. Half understandable, still the name Yoshitoku apparently means "Good Ethics." Nothing to do with what Cartman took on Mr Garison's desk.

Another censored name is anything that contains Usama. Which surprised me. Even with a space, the character I was trying to name has a name that ends in "usa" then the family name begins wit "Ma." 

I was thinking maybe the filter could be toned down a bit. In my case, I told a colleage at work  Yoshitoku wasn't allowed, wrote it down for him, he didn't get it, I needed to circle the bit that cause it to be filtered. Remember, we do have the option to report for inapropriate names. If somebody thinks a player is trying to swear in their name they can report them.

Or what if there was some typoe of appeal option? If you think a name is innocent but has a string of letters within it that forms a swear, an option to have it manually looked at? Maybe  the character slot could be locked until it is looked at, if it gets approved the character you made becomes available with the name, when you play as them for the first time you get the opening cutscene and tutorial mission as you would upon creating them.

You can appeal names.  Some restrictions have been removed in the past for that very reason.  Contact the CS Team via the 'Support' link above/below.

Good luck.

[Lottie.5370]

2 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

In GW1, they even renamed a Grawl boss because his original name was a slang word for female parts in some part of the world.

 

Speaking of GW1 and censoring (sorry it's a bit unrelated but it reminded me of it), I always found it funny they had to censor Captain Quimang's name (a Crimson Skull NPC in Factions). I didn't even know it was a bad word, but wondered why it came up with "Captain ----ang" in the dialogue.

 

But I agree - there's clearly reasons for the censorship. They're not going to spend time greenlighting names with swear words (like in Yoshitoku), it makes more sense to just not allow the words.

 

It's annoying that you can't get the names that you want when it happens, but I think it's better than having people run around with offensive names and having to spend time reporting them all.

[Vancho.8750]

Kind of a shame this happened.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

46 minutes ago, Vancho.8750 said:

Kind of a shame this happened.

 

Not really, it's right in the User Agreement: 

You may not select a Name that is: ...an actual person (including religious or historical figures)...

https://us.ncsoft.com/en-us/legal/ncsoft/user-agreement

[Vancho.8750]

23 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Not really, it's right in the User Agreement: 

You may not select a Name that is: ...an actual person (including religious or historical figures)...

https://us.ncsoft.com/en-us/legal/ncsoft/user-agreement

I know it is in the thread, there is some bit about some guy using his real name Mohammed  and getting a forced change, there is examples in there that fit this thread , also the Jokes are fire.
 

[Valisha.8650]

This is what you get for keeping this game pegi 13+

[Krzysztof.5973]

You can name your characters after your favorite 'adult content artists' and not get forced to rename or even use foreign slurs in your name. Most people report you for "inappropriate character name" because they don't like what you said in the chat.

[Antycypator.9874]

21 hours ago, Krzysztof.5973 said:

You can name your characters after your favorite 'adult content artists' and not get forced to rename or even use foreign slurs in your name.

Actually, if you explain why is it inappropriate, then your report will probably work.