Out of curiosity: RP Naming on Laurelin

[Llysombre]

Knowing that most people are a little too dull to play a game that requires both logic (the gameplay) and language (the roleplay) skills, the developers of every single MMORPG have created a vast majority of non-RP servers, and a few, token RP servers, where a few weak RP rules are meekly "enforced".

Do we really want the contribution of intelligent nerds to humanity, role playing games, to devolve into a simulachre of the "Idiocracy" movie just because dull people not only have to play a game not really meant for them, rather than soccer or rugby, but can't be content with *the vast majority of servers of every MMORPG*, and *must* invade the very few RP servers and mold them to their disrespectful, aggressive jockiness?

RPGs are for people who both love stories and numbers; if that's too complex for you, please go elsewhere, Turbine has provided tons of non-RP servers. It's incredibly arrogant to want to mold the few RP servers to your numb ways. Try to learn something if you want to stay, and contribute by raising the bar, do not destroy by lowering it. The few roleplayers are the free people, and you are the orcs, the barbarians at the gate.

I really believe that any gaming company who'd enforce a very strict roleplaying policy would see the roleplayers of every single game flock to *their* game, just to avoid this very constant phenomenon of jocks destroying nerds' amusement, over and over again in every single MMO; for example it is now one hundred percent normal to disrupt RP and insult roleplayers on a WoW RP realm, without ever any GM reprisal. Idiocracy indeed!

I don't want the same to happen in LotRO - Turbine, please act before it's too late - I know you won't add more rules needed to make RP a solid experience, but please, do strongly enforce the current ones at the very least!

Edit :

I forgot one thing, my apologies : two things are at odds in the renaming debate :

1) Respect of every single human being who plays on Laurelin
2) The name of a virtual mass of pixels on a computer screen

These two things don't weigh the same weight at all. If you are really concerned about the name of your pixels staying the same, rather than about respecting every single human being who plays on Laurelin with the Laurelin naming rules, you are not a nice person. You put some pixels above many hundreds or thousands of real human beings. You are in fact a bad, very bad person.

[Oelle]

the only problem with naming rules i see is the grey-zone. why not make it, that if a GM sees a reported grey-zone-name that he does not take action directly but first allows the character thats named with the grey-zone-name to defend himself. if he has good reasons to have the grey-zone-name, he may have it, if he took it to annoy those who like good names, he loses it. all cases that are not grey-zoned should be dealt with pretty fast and not relaxed. relax as much as you like with grey-zone, but deal with names that obviously break the rules, please. for obviously wrong names, it should not be needed to have a bunch of open tickets. one should do the job.

[HairytoesMcfluffyfoot]

Seeing this being dragged out on world regularly, I would like this to be put to rest once and for all, so i would have to say remove the special rules altogether its the only way people will stop arguing and using it

against other players for real or imaginary reasons, often perceived only by them. Also i think Gm time could be better spent.

[Wof]

it has to be a judgement call based on number of complaints

Why???

What difference does the number of complaints make as to whether the name is acceptable or not? So if for example, a character named "Hugeorgan" gets 1 complaint and a character named "Arthur" gets 20 complaints, then "Arthur" is more at risk of being renamed? What sort of policy is that?

Either a name is OK or it is not and the number of complaints should be irrelevant. If a GM can't make a judgment call based on the name alone, he shouldn't be influenced by the number of complaints. My friends and I could easily manage to make 20 or more separate complaints from different accounts about someone if we wanted to cause trouble. No GM should ever be influenced by the number of complaints, it should be an unbiased judgment purely on the name alone. And the policy should be consistent across all GMs. If a name (Arthur for example) is reviewed by a GM and accepted as OK and if that name is then reported to a different GM, it should not be renamed because of a different judgment call!

[Cordovan]

Why???

What difference does the number of complaints make as to whether the name is acceptable or not? So if for example, a character named "Hugeorgan" gets 1 complaint and a character named "Arthur" gets 20 complaints, then "Arthur" is more at risk of being renamed? What sort of policy is that?

Either a name is OK or it is not and the number of complaints should be irrelevant. If a GM can't make a judgment call based on the name alone, he shouldn't be influenced by the number of complaints. My friends and I could easily manage to make 20 or more separate complaints from different accounts about someone if we wanted to cause trouble. No GM should ever be influenced by the number of complaints, it should be an unbiased judgment purely on the name alone. And the policy should be consistent across all GMs. If a name (Arthur for example) is reviewed by a GM and accepted as OK and if that name is then reported to a different GM, it should not be renamed because of a different judgment call!

Don't cherry-pick the statement. As stated, there are numerous considerations, one of which is frequency of complaint. To find a better example in your statement, if Drimrak gets one complaint and IamironMan gets 20, IamironMan is more likely to fun afoul of the naming policy. In a perfect world GMs would be faced with an easy and clear binary choice, but obviously that isn't the case in a real game world environment.

[Erennor]

Seeing this being dragged out on world regularly, I would like this to be put to rest once and for all, so i would have to say remove the special rules altogether its the only way people will stop arguing and using it

against other players for real or imaginary reasons, often perceived only by them. Also i think Gm time could be better spent.

This is the kind of displayed attitude that ignites passionate and, as perceived, less welcoming reactions from Laurelin players and reasonably so. It is understandable that it was unpleasant that so many servers were closed, it truly is, and I say this as a player that used to be on other worlds, and I still find it a pity that so many servers were closed (I think 18 if memory serves well). Laurelin was not my first server, but the last. So I share some understanding about starting over from level one again on an entirely new world among a new community.

But Laurelin was from the very beginning of the game, nearly ten years ago, granted with these foundations and the visible RP tag next to its name in the server list: these things were destined to shape in a different way the onset and continuing growth of the community on this server. You do not realise what you are asking of them to do - of the implications that this would have for the dynamic of the server. And as it has been officially said both here and in former days with the server closures, Turbine will uphold this kind of enviroment. It is a lost cause to gainsay that when the game company itself has been clear about it, not once, but twice so far (and that is even with different community managers and executive producers, which is telling). Therefore instead of protesting for Laurelin to be cast down from what it is and offers, your time could be better spent otherwise, such as asking for the re-opening of another EU based non-rp world.

Why???

What difference does the number of complaints make as to whether the name is acceptable or not? So if for example, a character named "Hugeorgan" gets 1 complaint and a character named "Arthur" gets 20 complaints, then "Arthur" is more at risk of being renamed? What sort of policy is that?

Either a name is OK or it is not and the number of complaints should be irrelevant. If a GM can't make a judgment call based on the name alone, he shouldn't be influenced by the number of complaints. My friends and I could easily manage to make 20 or more separate complaints from different accounts about someone if we wanted to cause trouble. No GM should ever be influenced by the number of complaints, it should be an unbiased judgment purely on the name alone. And the policy should be consistent across all GMs. If a name (Arthur for example) is reviewed by a GM and accepted as OK and if that name is then reported to a different GM, it should not be renamed because of a different judgment call!

You bring forth good points, but it seems to me that Cordovan meant this in a different way: in cases that the name in question is not as clear enough to decide whether it should be renamed, such as with the obvious examples ('Funkylovin', 'Ishootzyou', 'Demigodess', and more), then it may be somewhat easier to decide if the GM draws some insight from the numbers of tickets. When he/she is not as certain (as before with 'Ipawnyoulol') on whether to change the name, instead of deciding entirely by him/herself, in an effort to make a more just judgement, he/she may then turn to the number of requests as a way to get a sense of whether or not these names are truly that much of a problem. It is not perfect, but I think, it is at least an attempt to be more careful perhaps, rather than deciding right away.

In the end, it is the 'Ishootyou', 'Pandazoo', 'Rolfcopter' that stir the scene the most and by large, and cause ripples of unrest in the community just like we saw before. As long as these kind of obvious examples are not ignored then I feel that the community will be at peace.

[LabadalofDorlomin]

Don't cherry-pick the statement. As stated, there are numerous considerations, one of which is frequency of complaint. To find a better example in your statement, if Drimrak gets one complaint and IamironMan gets 20, IamironMan is more likely to fun afoul of the naming policy. In a perfect world GMs would be faced with an easy and clear binary choice, but obviously that isn't the case in a real game world environment.

Were you never taught that vital lesson at CM camp, never stick your fingers in the hornet
nest.

You have now created a situation that, to be frank was at a converged state.

Now we are going to have disgruntled friends leaving game and back to the
witch hunts we all fondly remember !!

I remember a friend of mine who had a witch hunt against his name because
morons thought either they new best or were just plain griefers. He ended up
getting renamed and failed an appeal stating that it was nickname.
His name was based and derived from a character in the children of Hurin
much as my forum title is.
It was a nickname just the same as Turin called his friend.

All this was built into his bio, that he was some family branch and they all
had the nickname.

But, no GM and appeal said NOPE - naming police 1 - common sense 0

@Cordovan - can you please provide me with transfer tokens in readiness of
the nasty backbiting that is about to ensue in WD chat.

[miriadel]

now this is overreacting and jumping to conclusions too fast. Witch hunts? After the first weeks of transfers which caused problems, the server has functioned for a year and nowadays you can find borderline names all over world chat. Doesn't seem to me there are witch hunts going on currently. I feel that more than keeping the policy relaxed or enforced, there needs to be better consistency from the GMs who handle the name reports.

[Wof]

Don't cherry-pick the statement. As stated, there are numerous considerations, one of which is frequency of complaint. To find a better example in your statement, if Drimrak gets one complaint and IamironMan gets 20, IamironMan is more likely to fun afoul of the naming policy. In a perfect world GMs would be faced with an easy and clear binary choice, but obviously that isn't the case in a real game world environment.

So if a group of players wish to cause grief by reporting players to the GM over a possibly doubtful name, the rules will help them to grief those other players? This is definitely pandering to the "naming police" who caused so much trouble and ill feeling before and damages players' confidence in GMs. This most definitely doesn't sound like a fair policy that players who might have names that could possible fall foul of it could have any confidence in the system!

I was confident that the naming policy would get sorted in a fair way that would allow enough leeway that players could trust it to prevent griefing over names and that they could have confidence in the GMs that would administer it. I'm sorry to say that what you have said in your last couple of posts has severely shaken my confidence in the system and my hopes for a fair solution to how the rules may be administered.

[Starina]

In all this, I wonder what Tolkien would have to say... I did not know the man personally, but I know his work, as do many here, and I imagine him seeing names of characters moving through Middle Earth, in total violation of the pre given setting.

Laurelin has for most parts attracted players who wish to remain in keeping with the story. Some roleplay, some just enjoy the atmosphere created through years by a community, which overall appears to truly love Tolkien's work. Often discussions flare up, about Middle Earth, and certainly when I started, the overall language used in world chat was free of @%*#*. This too has been changing some, which I feel a true shame, and also see as a result of more relaxed rules.

There were many servers who did not go through the length Laurelin and its community has gone through, and I played on one of them for most of my years with Lotro. I loved my home server, do not get me wrong, but coming to Laurelin has enriched my gameplay beyond measure. I do not as such actively rp, aside from my character's bios, but now when I travel through the game world, I truly imagine my characters are living in Middle Earth - marvellous.

And this is made possible by a community which seems to share this love for Middle Earth, and also shows this love by sticking to naming rules.

Those here who want rules dropped even, I honestly do not understand why they would even choose Laurelin at all. Evernight exists, no rules there to sour their lives.

To start, I was a bit unsure about the rules, too, but meantime I have come to truly appreciate them, and if a name I have chosen falls victim, then that is a sacrifice I am willing to make for that special atmosphere Laurelin provides. I can raise my case with support, but if it fails, then maybe to just accept it for the better of that special server - and as I see it - in respect and appreciation of Tolkien's work.

That is how I view it, and I in fact just renamed a character of mine, because even though I had thought about the name when I chose it, the longer I saw it within the setting, the more I felt it was at odds and stood out negatively, regardless of the bio explaining it.

I'd say give all servers rules! But that would just serve my views.. so let players choose, but to have that choice, Laurelin must have those rules. Only then is choice actually possible for us players.
Even just relaxing the rules, will basically put Laurelin on a par with other servers.
That's removing choice.

[Belechael]

When I chose Laurelin to start playing it was a no brainer. I didn't want to play among xxxImgodxxx characters like in certain other games, neither did I want to call people by their nicknames, Shorty, Fatty, Hawkeye, Interceptor, etc. unless I specifically chose to. That would be my choice, not theirs.

After the mergers the situation has become very bad, and yes, I want Turbine to start enforcing the naming rules again, as strictly as before the mergers.

Thank you.

[Arabani]

Yes, right. But some people, a lot of people actually, ended here simply because we had no choice. Just two EU servers, and Evernight was overloaded at the beggining of migration. My friends and I tried to go there but the transfer system actually failed several times. Not to mention crazy lags on Evernight at that time. So, especially after the naming policy was relaxed, Laurelin was the ONLY choice.

So please give us free transfer for all our toons, not only three. Give us the choice.

[Llysombre]

Let me try again, since it doesn't sink :

Many human beings don't have time for leisure : textile Bengali workers come to mind, Brazil miners, chinese factory workers. Some are even slaves, for example, roughly 30% of Mauritania's population are slaves.

Amongst the many humans who do have time for leisure, there are millions of possible activities :
gardening, cooking, do-it-yourself, electronics, walking, team sports, solo sports, photography, reading, tv, the movies, making a website, a blog, and so many more that I don't even think of, or even know of.

One of these activities is gaming; this activity is composed of thousands of sub-activities :
the broader division is probably tabletop gaming versus video gaming. Video gaming itself can be divided in a ton of categories :
fps, tps, sandbox, city builders, puzzle games, casual games, solo games, multi games, rpgs, rts, tbs, point and clickers, and thousands I haven't thought of.

*One* of these thousands amongst thousands amongs billions is dubbed ROLEplaying games. There are literally tons of computer ROLEplaying games :
The Bioware Infinity Engine games, the old Wizardry games, the M&M games, the Fallout series, and thousands more for the solo ROLEplaying games.
WoW, LotRO, Conan, are these I know amongst the multi ROLEplaying games, but I don't really keep track. I know for a fact that there are many more : Allods just sprung back to my mind as well as that very succesful Korean game whose name I forget. There might well be a hundred succesful multi ROLEplaying games.

Amongst this rough hundred multi ROLEplaying games, all of them implement several servers. Which brings us back to a figure in the thousands, when we seek servers to play ROLEplaying multi games.

Amongst these thousands servers, every game editor has a policy to make MOST servers available for any player, and a FEW servers available for ROLEplayers in a ROLEplaying game... there is some sort of irony at work here

And some of you dare say that in a humanity

which still has slaves
but for those who ain't slaves and have leisure time
which can be spent in millions of fun and useful ways
including hundreds of thousands of games
including thousands of ROLEplaying games
including tens or hundreds or multi ROLEplaying games
including thousands of servers

some of you dare say that they NEED to play on the ONE ROLEplaying server of the specific LotRO ROLEplaying game, WITH A NAME VIOLATING ITS POLICIES?

Do you realize your arrogance? Go learn knitting until you are more humble!

[Dittany]

Alright here we go dearest Cordovan first of all thank you for stopping by and asking to be honest it means a great deal to us.
I've been on Laurelin since 2008 and i remember how much the community fought for the rights to become the roleplaying server Laurelin really is.
We have never been a server for people that calls themselves -misslorebreakerR'us- since we became the roleplay community we proudly could define as us.
It is already bad as it is now this days so it would be greatly appriciated if you guys can open up transfer once again for those who doesn't want to be here.
I'd like to see the naming policy get back to it's full glory.
Thank you kindly *bows*

I wish you all the very best.

[LabadalofDorlomin]

Perhaps you could please open a new server for non RP's if they
choose to leave Laurelin.
Let RP's go back to the empty server we had before.
RP's would love this as it doesn't affect them.
Their insular world and society is only interested in itself.

Whereas, I have had characters on Laurelin since 2009 and have
never rp'd but never interfered or inflicted any restriction on
their chosen gameplay. I and my fellows just got on with our
fun with the occasional blip from the naming police as kinnies
created new characters.

Currently the situation has been good and to be honest I see no
reason why things have to go back to where they were.
Times change, we all have to live together now and one play style
cannot out rule another.

Unless they open a new server for us forced
refugees to move to. (Evernight is not an option for me for many
reasons)

[TearMaker]

>>Cordovan

Maybe there is a technical way of resolving this.

Introduce a pseudonym system.

Anybody who has the RP tag enabled on their character is unable by default ** to see the character player name (official) but automatically sees a pseudonym.

Now this pseudonym can be changed by each player to a lore appropriate name or if not changed is given a random generated name.

Example: using previous posts in this thread...

Player calls his character "Podgie".
For all who do not have RP enabled, they just see Podgie running around.
For RP's they will see either a random generated lore appropriate name or whatever "Podgie" has nominated as his pseudonym.

Where it would get complicated is in Chat rooms or AH listings and so:

AH listings would always use the pseudonym because who cares what name is listed as long as you sell your goods?
Public chat (i.e. World)however would have to be (I'm guessing) real names and therefore if RP's are watching public chat channels then they are taking themselves out of the RP immersion anyway and it still wouldn't matter.
Regional etc could be Pseudonym.

Still keep the "stricter than normal server" but relaxed naming policy which will still prevent the silly names in either case.

I know it will take much valuable resources but if we go back to the witch hunts from years gone by, then it will pay for itself in not losing paying customers and lost time for GM and Community team arbitration.

I know it's not perfect but we are now in a position where we have to learn to live with playstyles that are different and even though this is a RP world, it doesn't count for 100% of the player base. This is due to circumstances beyond any player and therefore the onus has to fall squarely at the developers who created this situation with server consolidations and a poor attempt at explaining what will happen after. It was written on the forums but not everyone reads the forums.

** toggle to enable for those RP who don't care

[Macroscian]

Knowing that most people are a little too dull to play a game that requires both logic (the gameplay) and language (the roleplay) skills, the developers of every single MMORPG have created a vast majority of non-RP servers, and a few, token RP servers, where a few weak RP rules are meekly "enforced".

Do we really want the contribution of intelligent nerds to humanity, role playing games, to devolve into a simulachre of the "Idiocracy" movie just because dull people not only have to play a game not really meant for them, rather than soccer or rugby, but can't be content with *the vast majority of servers of every MMORPG*, and *must* invade the very few RP servers and mold them to their disrespectful, aggressive jockiness?

RPGs are for people who both love stories and numbers; if that's too complex for you, please go elsewhere, Turbine has provided tons of non-RP servers. It's incredibly arrogant to want to mold the few RP servers to your numb ways. Try to learn something if you want to stay, and contribute by raising the bar, do not destroy by lowering it. The few roleplayers are the free people, and you are the orcs, the barbarians at the gate.

I really believe that any gaming company who'd enforce a very strict roleplaying policy would see the roleplayers of every single game flock to *their* game, just to avoid this very constant phenomenon of jocks destroying nerds' amusement, over and over again in every single MMO; for example it is now one hundred percent normal to disrupt RP and insult roleplayers on a WoW RP realm, without ever any GM reprisal. Idiocracy indeed!

I don't want the same to happen in LotRO - Turbine, please act before it's too late - I know you won't add more rules needed to make RP a solid experience, but please, do strongly enforce the current ones at the very least!

Edit :

I forgot one thing, my apologies : two things are at odds in the renaming debate :

1) Respect of every single human being who plays on Laurelin
2) The name of a virtual mass of pixels on a computer screen

These two things don't weigh the same weight at all. If you are really concerned about the name of your pixels staying the same, rather than about respecting every single human being who plays on Laurelin with the Laurelin naming rules, you are not a nice person. You put some pixels above many hundreds or thousands of real human beings. You are in fact a bad, very bad person.

There is little of this to expand on.
Respect for the gamers who have spent years on the server must be top priority. If Turbine wants to swamp yet-another-place with names like FROOODO and XGANDALPH or SIRSUPERSALYER, simply open a sixth EU server.
No reason to break Laurelin. There never was a reason to adjust the naming rules.

[Hammadryad]

Well Cordovan, I'm sorry to say this but Turbine created this problem by their ignorance in not foreseeing what was obvious to so many of us. English is the predominant language in use in this game, so when Turbine decided to close two thirds of their servers they should have considered what this meant. OK in the US that is not a problem with five English speaking servers, but in Europe it causes major problems due to your lack of thought. Did it never occour to Turbine that the EU would be left with one French server, two German servers, ONE English server and ONE RP server? Did you honestly believe that all the English speaking players from eight closing servers would fit into the one surviving English server along with the population already on the most populated English server? Nine servers' worth of players crammed into one server without problems? It was blatantly obvious that players would overflow into other servers due to problems caused by overcrowding and that Laurelin as an English speaking server would receive the majority of these despite being an RP server rather than a normal server.

Unfortunately Laurelin will continue to be a problem server until such time as either;
1) Turbine opens another English speaking server for the EU players.
2) Enough disgruntled players quit the game and eases the pressure.
3) The Laurelin naming rules are relaxed enough that decent names can be found for everyone.

Using the 'random name option' when building a new character is totally unsatisfactory for finding decent names (it offered me 'Bundelmof','Ur' and 'Batamoga' as names for my female Hobbit I created just yesterday!) which leaves us trying to find or invent names that somebody hasn't already used and fervently hoping not to be renamed with some God-awful name assigned by a GM with the player having no say in the matter. It would help if we could submit names for approval before we built our new characters so that we don't have to live under the threat of a GM's axe. It would also help if instead of offering rename tokens, you offered a transfer token so we don't lose the names of characters we love and have used for years. I know you offer 3 transfer tokens, but that is no use when players have a dozen or more characters they have spent years building!

I moved some of my characters on to the French server despite not being able to speak French, because I have French speaking friends who moved there. However I am sure the French and German servers do not look forward to hordes of English speakers invading their servers. But since Evernight has its own problems and transferring to US servers is not an option, I have no better idea of where else I could move to. I don't know what you can do to solve the problems that you have created, but I do know that this mess is not going to go away (in fact it will get worse as more names are needed to be found for new characters). Whatever you do is not going to make everyone happy and I suspect you are going to lose even more players and money because of this issue.

[Oelle]

Well Cordovan, I'm sorry to say this but Turbine created this problem by their ignorance in not foreseeing what was obvious to so many of us. English is the predominant language in use in this game, so when Turbine decided to close two thirds of their servers they should have considered what this meant. OK in the US that is not a problem with five English speaking servers, but in Europe it causes major problems due to your lack of thought. Did it never occour to Turbine that the EU would be left with one French server, two German servers, ONE English server and ONE RP server? Did you honestly believe that all the English speaking players from eight closing servers would fit into the one surviving English server along with the population already on the most populated English server? Nine servers' worth of players crammed into one server without problems? It was blatantly obvious that players would overflow into other servers due to problems caused by overcrowding and that Laurelin as an English speaking server would receive the majority of these despite being an RP server rather than a normal server.

Unfortunately Laurelin will continue to be a problem server until such time as either;
1) Turbine opens another English speaking server for the EU players.
2) Enough disgruntled players quit the game and eases the pressure.
3) The Laurelin naming rules are relaxed enough that decent names can be found for everyone.

Using the 'random name option' when building a new character is totally unsatisfactory for finding decent names (it offered me 'Bundelmof','Ur' and 'Batamoga' as names for my female Hobbit I created just yesterday!) which leaves us trying to find or invent names that somebody hasn't already used and fervently hoping not to be renamed with some God-awful name assigned by a GM with the player having no say in the matter. It would help if we could submit names for approval before we built our new characters so that we don't have to live under the threat of a GM's axe. It would also help if instead of offering rename tokens, you offered a transfer token so we don't lose the names of characters we love and have used for years. I know you offer 3 transfer tokens, but that is no use when players have a dozen or more characters they have spent years building!

I moved some of my characters on to the French server despite not being able to speak French, because I have French speaking friends who moved there. However I am sure the French and German servers do not look forward to hordes of English speakers invading their servers. But since Evernight has its own problems and transferring to US servers is not an option, I have no better idea of where else I could move to. I don't know what you can do to solve the problems that you have created, but I do know that this mess is not going to go away (in fact it will get worse as more names are needed to be found for new characters). Whatever you do is not going to make everyone happy and I suspect you are going to lose even more players and money because of this issue.

you are wrong, if you list the servers like you do. there are two german servers and two english servers. One of each language specific servers is RP. Belegaer has the same naming rules like Laurelin. And in the EU, there are not many more people that have english as their main language than german. At least not 50% more which would be reasonable to have a third english server. or three times which would be reasonable to have three english ones and only one german and french one.

And there is another way that may relax the situation: Turbine finding the source of lag on overcrowded servers, reducing it and therefore allowing everyone that wants to play on Evernight do so without problems.

[mithelenthor]

I guess there comes a time when you have to put your big community manager pants on and make a decision.

You are going to lose players whatever you choose.

Get the accountants and work out which minority spends the most $. Those who were duped into moving here and are now trapped and in constant terror of going back to the old naming gangs out on the prowl, or the few RP's (minority of a minority) who want this draconian system back in play.

Big decision....

Good luck.

[miriadel]

you are making it more tragic than it actually is and painting Laurelin like some kind of prison inhabited by monsters. The server never attracted rpers only but people of all kind of playstyles, and we went for about 10 years along well, rules or not rules. No decision has been taken yet, so instead of panicking for no reason, wait to see what will come. And even among people who like the naming policy, not everyone feels they should be enforced the same way. Personally, I am fine with the naming rules being given more leeway, since it will help alleviate drama. But drama submerges the good things, so often. Calm down and wait for Cordovan's response.

[Tombpyre]

In my opinion you could go back to the roleplay name policy of previous days (note, not the lore specific enforced against turbinepolicy that a few GMs used last year around this time).

Remember to enforce on Kin names as well (x real countrys knigths and so on).

But please, wharever you decide - respect the players. Never gm enforce a random name as initial contact (one of mine got forcenamed tehovian (really dumb name, even if it is lorebased) last year, until i wrote turbine and they gave me back my roleplay acceptable(but not lore specific) name).

Communicate with the player, offer a token for free, give the player a day or 2 to pick a name and so on. You can escalate deadlines according to how off key the name is (is it on purpose or not, Lancelot should get a better treatment than NOOBKILLER).

I dont RP, but some names kills the gamefeel for me - normally i play without nameplates for immersion, but on some quests you need them up - thats when i dont want Gindolf-3 to ride by.

Id like to see a stricter policy reinstated - but not the random harrasment renaming from last year. Take your time on a rename offence, as stated above, communicate with the customer(player) and offer help. Its not an urgent matter unless racist name is picked.

Best regards Tom

[JimhadaUK]

At least people who think they may have a dubious name are being allowed the choice to contact a GM before the end of the month and request a name change token.
Thats more than a lot of people got when they made a name that was later reported.

[Nogen]

... we all moved to Laurelin when the servers were merged on the understanding that the naming policy was no longer in effect.

Ahem, understanding what? Not written English...

... my friend had called his character Podgie for roleplaying reasons... was forcibly renamed for breaking the naming rules.
I now have a character on Laurelin called Podgie...

Yeah, I can see how this makes a lot of sense... to you. What a protest, man. Look at the spirit in this one!
Or you just wanted that name so bad? (Suspicious...)

the name reporting community behave like 'nazis'

Today's Special: two labels in one!
Tomorrow: Replacing current tags, vote today for your favourite! Press 1 to change RP to RIP! Press 2 to change RP to WH (WitchHunt)! Press 3 to change RP to LN (LoreNazi)! Further options can be added on request, contact your local Turbine Office!
A new title has been bestowed upon you:
You will now be known as Podgie, Reaper of Names to those you meet in your travels.

If characters from the books were allowed on Laurelin server (the actual characters not players using their names) then the Hobbit Pippin would be forcibly renamed as he would fall foul of the rules because his name is really Peregrin and Pippin is his nickname. Nicknames are not allowed according to the Laurelin naming rules!

This one is my favourite! Like every time that character appears in LOTRO with a name tag above his tiny head it reads Peregrin Took (even if you try putting "Pippin" into lotro-wiki's search it redirects you to the page with the proper name). Sure NPCs and PCs refer to him in dialogues as "Pippin" but that does not make it his name. You think if Gandlaf had a passport it would say "Láthspell" or "The Grey Wizard"?
Just to clarify: a name is what is given to you upon or soon after birth. Under normal circumstances by your parents. It usually has very little to do with your appearance or behaviour. While there are exceptions, generally nicknames are given a little bit later in life once people have developed certain characteristics. Exactly like the following:

Podgie! A small Hobbit lass who took the name as a nickname after the boys kept calling her podgie because she had a large butt!

So what was she called before she had a large butt? Nobody cares how your (in-game) friends refer to you mid-conversation/while RP-ing or when writing a letter... You can have a gazillion nick-names for all the rules care.

... forcing players to quit the game!

Like with a gun to their heads? "Promise me, son: Never again! PROMISE ME!"

If Laurelin wasn't an RP server then the naming policy wouldn't matter...

But it is. So it does!

It's not as if I am try to use my real name, which incidentally happens to be "Dick".

... my husband has 37 characters.

So you role-play a hobbit lass in-game and married to a husband in real life. I don't know you personally so just gonna take a wild guess here: You are a woman called Dick?
No wonder you're a sad troll...

... Turbine created this problem by their ignorance in not foreseeing what was obvious...

Whoa! They created a problem by ignoring something (from the "obvious" future) that they could not see? You are one intelligent creature...

... an RP server rather than a normal server.

Yeah, you're right. RP is totally abnormal...

... I am sure the French and German servers do not look forward to hordes of English speakers invading their servers.

Why? Are they 'nazis' too? Have you polled them? Picking a server due to personal preference (for whatever reason) is called 'invading'? Their servers?
Have you taken your medications today, hon?

But since Evernight has its own problems...

Them too?? OMG you're surrounded exclusively by terrible choices... Restricted by rules, languages and other - server specific - problems no matter where you turn. You poor thing, how did you even get this far?

I have no better idea of where else I could move to.

Worry not, I do! Back under the bridge with ya!

I don't know what you can do to solve the problems that you have created...

Finally, a hint of honesty. Will you shut up now, so?

[Hammadryad]

Will you shut up now, so?

NO I WILL NOT!!!

I have invested 7 years into this game and literally thousands of dollars. I am bloody well not going to throw that all away and walk meekly away from it just to make you happy. If you don't like that then tough! There are a lot of things that I don't like either, but I don't tell the people spouting on about them to shut up. I have better manners than to deny them a right to have their say. Like telling players who keep saying that they want to strict rules enforced, should I tell them to shut up? Because I won't, they have the right to comment on here as often as they like, just as I have.