A few weeks ago in MRP, I got bwoinked over the name “Cap’n Jack Morgan”. Specifically the “Cap’n” part.
I did change it following a 1 day ban, and a forum post where the name “Adolf Driggers” was defended, but apparently Cap’n was banned. Nevertheless, I did change “Cap’n” to something else.
Forum post here if you want to see someone rant about 2d Spessmen names.
During that whole back and forth, At one point I had asked about another character name:
“Alexei Chernobyl Rasputin”.
This is specifically because there was another person with “Rasputin” in their name during the round in which “Cap’n” was brought up as an issue.
To my recollection, I was told by multiple admins (no screenshots that I know of), that this wasn’t an issue.
Fast Forward two weeks, I am now getting admin messages over the character of Alexei Chernobyl Rasputin.
So here’s the problem:
It seems that character names are almost entirely at admin discretion.
To clarify, I’m changing “Alexei Chernobyl Rasputin” to something else. I’m not disputing that particular point, just using it as an example.
I think it is a good time to clear up the Character names rules a bit. Because it seems admins are being put in a situation in which they’re being asked to basically censor names, but the guidance is not entirely clear, and what is fine for one admin, is not for another.
Case in Point: Some would defend ‘Adolf Driggers’, but bwoink “Rasputin”.
I think this gives admins a ton of discretion with what is and isn’t acceptable.
I get that this puts admins in an awkward position, I get that the first person to get a bwoink over this is no doubt going to scream that there’s 50 other people with joke / offensive / borderline offensive names. And admins have better things to do in a round than be name police.
And I get that this seems to be a new effort to clean up the names on MRP to separate it more from the LRP server. I think the goal of that is a good one, but I question the implementation.
That said, this no doubt annoys the playerbase because people who have been playing with a character one day, have no problem, play 20 rounds, no issue, then get a different admin, and suddenly that character is NOT OK. I also realize that there’s no possible way that you can cover “every situation” but a bit more clarity is needed.
I’d also note that seems to have started being enforced only in the last month or so. Perhaps I missed a memo or announcement? If so, please link that, or make one, so that the playerbase is more aware of the changes.
Without more specific guidelines with some examples, I either see this as going really strict, or having to be scrapped. I think putting these thoughts here on the fourms might go some way towards untangling that.
This basically is for some guidance in regards to the following rules and subsections:
Rule 3, Paragraph 5:
Racial and homophobic slurs are not permitted.
What about borderline names cases? Example: Adolf Driggers.
Rule 4, Paragraph 4: "Use a lore-friendly name, and follow the naming conventions for your species. Do not use the names of famous real/fictional people/characters. Naming yourself after pop-culture items, icons, or references is also prohibited. Only clowns can use meme names.
So how is “Adolf” followed by anything not an issue? I can only presume that George Floyd is probably right out.
Define “Naming conventions for your species”.
If someone could link that, it would be appreciated.
What about “Jack Morgan” ? Those are both extremely common names.
But individually each is also a part of an alcoholic beverage? “Jack Daniels”, “Captain Morgan”
Does this mean we ban the use of the name “Jack”?
It seems this is a pretty big “catch all”:
“Do not use the names of famous real/fictional people/characters. Naming yourself after pop-culture items, icons, or references is also prohibited. Only clowns can use meme names.”
I mean pretty much any name, will have been used by someone relatively famous at some point? How might you define this? This seems to cover literally any name under the sun.
Case in point:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Probably the four most common names on the planet. But when you put them together like that, they’re referencing 4 famous individuals.
Or: Matthew Perry
-Common name, but also name of not 1, but two famous people in two different centuries.
One: Was an actor.
The Other: Opened up Japan to International trade.
I think it would be good to get some sort clarity on some of this…or in the very least set out some precedents that can be adopted. Particularly if there’s a push for tighter enforcement. Tighter enforcement and looser rules seems to be a good way to get very arbitrary and wildly varying results.
I also think (If we don’t have one already) a splash screen when someone logs in that says “This is MRP, This is a different server with different rules and bigger restrictions” please go read the rules on our forum here: " may be a good idea.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.