ESO Lore Names in character names not allowed anymore

neverwalk

i've a toon with name of , Where is Molag Bal and it's still his name today.

Reistr_the_Unbroken

neverwalk wrote: »

i've a toon with name of , Where is Molag Bal and it's still his name today.

That is the best name I’ve ever heard of

D0PAMINE

My khajiit is named This Won. Does that count as lore friendly?

DanteYoda

Call him

Uncle Leo
Mr Dementia
Prince of Madness
Shivering Isles Madness..

Etc people will still know who it is..

16BitForestCat

Like others have said, this has technically never been allowed, but it's not something that's really policed--what usually happens is that some immature buttwad gets mad at you for killing them in Cyrodiil or getting to a chest before them or something and reports you, nothing to actually do with your character name at all.

There's a ridiculous amount of inconsistency around the whole thing too. Like, last year, I made a character based on my favorite character from another video game series as an anniversary tribute. I actually expanded upon the name so it's different from the original but still very identifiable to anyone who plays the games. (Pretend the original character's name is just "Lorelai," while pretending my version is named "Lorelai Of The Sea-kin," where "Sea-kin" are an actual race in the other games.) I posted screenshots that clearly showed the name on one of my social media accounts, and Rich Lambert and a handful of other devs complimented or "liked" my post. I'd be pretty irate if some customer service lackey forced a name change because someone got mad at me for snagging a Psijic portal that I didn't see them running towards, when the higher-ups freaking loved what I created. Heck, I've seen that some of the devs have outside fandom characters of their own in-game (been in guilds with some of them), so the whole thing's looking more than a little bit hypocritical at this point.

I don't have a problem with forcing name changes on offensive names or names where the player is using it for nefarious purposes. I DO have a problem with how the system is usually abused for petty vengeance. And I love seeing all the great names and character looks players come up with, including tribute names and looks, so I don't want all the "Gandalf tha Danks" and "Super Mario Funshines" to go away. Some rules are just made to be ignored. I could see having the rule in place for legal reasons, but just HAVING a rule and ENFORCING a rule are two different things.

Aesthier

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

a few months before Beta Zenimax made this announcement that you were not allowed to use not only ES names but ANY name of ANY game character name used anywhere. even such as "Spiderman", or even "homer Simpson" type names.

Well, ^ that pretty much means any names whatsoever are unusable especially common ones.

DaveMoeDee

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

a few months before Beta Zenimax made this announcement that you were not allowed to use not only ES names but ANY name of ANY game character name used anywhere. even such as "Spiderman", or even "homer Simpson" type names.

i do not know if it is in the T.O.S. but i am thinking it probably is and they are just recently focusing on it perhaps because some one reported your name.

for me, i prefer to use names just like you have, but, Zenimax might only be doing this perhaps for legal reasons to avoid lawsuits from other companies?
hard to say what the reasoning is on this.

Yeah, I remember this from long ago.

DaveMoeDee

DanteYoda wrote: »

Call him

Uncle Leo
Mr Dementia
Prince of Madness
Shivering Isles Madness..

Etc people will still know who it is..

Cheese Connoisseur

Note: had to Google spelling

npuk

Sheo`gruyere

Ilithyania

[img][/img]

RIP my crafter

Turelus

This is technically a rule in almost every MMO in the Terms of Service.

Some Services may require creation of a user name, such as a "UserID", "Display Name", "Character Name" or "Guild Name" to represent You in the Services, and which are tied to Your Account (collectively, "user name(s)"). You may not select the name of another person, any third party's trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property infringement, any name that could mislead other players to believe You to be an employee of ZeniMax or affiliated companies, or any name that ZeniMax deems in its sole discretion to be vulgar, offensive, or otherwise violates these Terms of Service. Subject to the Statutory Obligations (as defined below), ZeniMax reserves the right, in its sole discretion, (a) to delete or alter any user names tied to an Account; and (b) to restrict, suspend or terminate Your access to any Service or license granted to You, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.

It's just one of those things which seems to rarely be enforced in an MMO until a specific reason comes up.

ATomiX96

Kalik_Gold wrote: »

Can't use the word Naga also... was trying to incorporate it into my Argonian name.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Naga

I think it was removed due to real world racial issues.

lmfao

Moonsorrow

Hmm.. how about not-so-high-profile npc names then if wanna make character named:

Pact Siege Merchant
Pact Mage Guard

or something like:

Joy the Goat (Wayrest Undaunted enclave npc)

Wondering if those would have to rename also?

albesca

LMar wrote: »

This was indeed always the case. About a couple of years ago I had a guild mate named after the Khajiit version of Sheogorath and he had his name changed forcibly. Not long after he left the game

He left for unrelated reasons, I suppose.
While I understand growing attached to a character name, I have a hard time seeing a forced name change as a game breaker.

zaria

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

a few months before Beta Zenimax made this announcement that you were not allowed to use not only ES names but ANY name of ANY game character name used anywhere. even such as "Spiderman", or even "homer Simpson" type names.

i do not know if it is in the T.O.S. but i am thinking it probably is and they are just recently focusing on it perhaps because some one reported your name.

for me, i prefer to use names just like you have, but, Zenimax might only be doing this perhaps for legal reasons to avoid lawsuits from other companies?
hard to say what the reasoning is on this.

Zaria who is my account name and an character is also an alchemist in Falchreach Skyrim.
Pretty sure if you use name generators you will get lots of this as they use existing character names to figure out how the names are build up, even if Zaria dates back to Morrowind.

Simplest solution for ZoS is simply to add important npc to the list of caracter names in use so none can take them.

Elsonso

What interests me is @starkerealm and his lore-based naming policy. What happens if ZOS comes along and uses one of his lore-based names? Does he have to rename his character after ZOS moves in and takes it? Argonian lore-based names are going to be generated in massive quantities by ZOS for Murkmire, and lore-friendly people will have a tendency to use the "bites-his-tail" type names. The potential for overlap exists.

P.S. - I have several characters that have some lore component to the name, so this is of personal interest. I tend to assemble character names from places like UESP and various Elder Scrolls name sites. ZOS could, potentially, step on one of my names.

logarifmik

Fair enough. Personally, I don't understand people making such cosplays, but well. I think, that players who name characters like DARKlord666 should be forced to change such names, for free of course. Besides, a random lore name generator must be a thing during the character creation.

Turelus

lordrichter wrote: »

What interests me is starkerealm and his lore-based naming policy. What happens if ZOS comes along and uses one of his lore-based names? Does he have to rename his character after ZOS moves in and takes it? Argonian lore-based names are going to be generated in massive quantities by ZOS for Murkmire, and lore-friendly people will have a tendency to use the "bites-his-tail" type names. The potential for overlap exists.

P.S. - I have several characters that have some lore component to the name, so this is of personal interest. I tend to assemble character names from places like UESP and various Elder Scrolls name sites. ZOS could, potentially, step on one of my names.

I honestly only see ZOS coming after names which people report. They're not going to scour millions of accounts to find lore names and change them.
EVE Online was the same way, I knew loads of people who had names of celebrities, fictional characters or mock versions of in game characters. However CCP only changed them when someone reported them, because the effort of policing that would be crazy.

LadyNalcarya

This is just dumb. There are hundreds of npcs at this point, and if you try to create a lore-friendly name, chances are there is already a npc with that name.
What's wrong with cosplaying/roleplaying TES characters anyway? I've never seen a gamemaster, but loading screen says that they have a [Z] icon in their name... And only complete newbies can mistake a player for an npc.

Grimm13

Shiver'Me'Sheo

LadyNalcarya

Kalik_Gold wrote: »

Can't use the word Naga also... was trying to incorporate it into my Argonian name.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Naga

I think it was removed due to real world racial issues.

Looool.
But "naga" is not even Zenimax' property, it's just a Sanskrit word that means "snake" (or a specific type of snake, not 100% sure) and it's commonly used as a name of serpentine race. Warcraft, for example, also has Nagas.

Turelus

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

This is just dumb. There are hundreds of npcs at this point, and if you try to create a lore-friendly name, chances are there is already a npc with that name.
What's wrong with cosplaying/roleplaying TES characters anyway? I've never seen a gamemaster, but loading screen says that they have a [Z] icon in their name... And only complete newbies can mistake a player for an npc.

I think there is a differnece between a lore friendly name and a copy of a famous character though.

I use Tarvynus Vedralu "Tarvyn and Vedralu" are both directly from TES games and owned by Bethesda. However I very much doubt ZOS is going to come and force a change on me.

If I was however Mephala or Ysgramor then maybe they would be a bit more fussy.

LadyNalcarya

Turelus wrote: »

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LadyNalcarya wrote: »

This is just dumb. There are hundreds of npcs at this point, and if you try to create a lore-friendly name, chances are there is already a npc with that name.
What's wrong with cosplaying/roleplaying TES characters anyway? I've never seen a gamemaster, but loading screen says that they have a [Z] icon in their name... And only complete newbies can mistake a player for an npc.

I think there is a differnece between a lore friendly name and a copy of a famous character though.

I use Tarvynus Vedralu "Tarvyn and Vedralu" are both directly from TES games and owned by Bethesda. However I very much doubt ZOS is going to come and force a change on me.

If I was however Mephala or Ysgramor then maybe they would be a bit more fussy.

Still, I see nothing wrong with using those names. Roleplayers might want to incorporate daedric princes or deities in their story, for example. I don't think it can be harmful for ZOS, unless, of course, someone uses character names to impersonate ZOS employee or something.
In any case, there's no guarantee that they wont add a char named Tarvynus Vedralu in one of the next chapters. I have a char with an Ayleid name I made up and apparently there's a gryphon with a similar name in Summerset.

albesca

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Still, I see nothing wrong with using those names. Roleplayers might want to incorporate daedric princes or deities in their story, for example. I don't think it can be harmful for ZOS, unless, of course, someone uses character names to impersonate ZOS employee or something.

I'd say that roleplayers should object to meeting a bunch of Boethias or Nocturnals or what have you with fancy spelling variations, though I can imagine someone could want to roleplay a delusional Bosmer who thinks he's the Silvenar or the Green Lady, for example; the key word being "delusional".

LadyNalcarya

albesca wrote: »

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LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Still, I see nothing wrong with using those names. Roleplayers might want to incorporate daedric princes or deities in their story, for example. I don't think it can be harmful for ZOS, unless, of course, someone uses character names to impersonate ZOS employee or something.

I'd say that roleplayers should object to meeting a bunch of Boethias or Nocturnals or what have you with fancy spelling variations, though I can imagine someone could want to roleplay a delusional Bosmer who thinks he's the Silvenar or the Green Lady, for example; the key word being "delusional".

Well, those "Boethias and Nocturnals" could be used as "npcs" in the story, not as main characters, much like in tabletop rpgs.
And why cant they rp as Silvenar and Green Lady, for example? People like creating stories about characters they like, that's why fanfiction is a thing. I can understand that ZOS wouldnt want to see copies of characters that belong to other companies due to legal reasons, but if we're talking about TES characters, whats the problem?

Turelus

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

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albesca wrote: »

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Still, I see nothing wrong with using those names. Roleplayers might want to incorporate daedric princes or deities in their story, for example. I don't think it can be harmful for ZOS, unless, of course, someone uses character names to impersonate ZOS employee or something.

I'd say that roleplayers should object to meeting a bunch of Boethias or Nocturnals or what have you with fancy spelling variations, though I can imagine someone could want to roleplay a delusional Bosmer who thinks he's the Silvenar or the Green Lady, for example; the key word being "delusional".

Well, those "Boethias and Nocturnals" could be used as "npcs" in the story, not as main characters, much like in tabletop rpgs.
And why cant they rp as Silvenar and Green Lady, for example? People like creating stories about characters they like, that's why fanfiction is a thing. I can understand that ZOS wouldnt want to see copies of characters that belong to other companies due to legal reasons, but if we're talking about TES characters, whats the problem?

I'm fairly sure that most roleplayers would be able to overcome not having an exact name and still be able to roleplay.
As someone who does both pen and paper roleplay and has roleplayed in a number of online games I've always found it puzzling when people have to have exact things or they can't RP (like SWTOR not being able to use chairs). If you're invested in RP all you need is a way to communicate and common rules, everything else is a bonus.

LadyNalcarya

Turelus wrote: »

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LadyNalcarya wrote: »

albesca wrote: »

LadyNalcarya wrote: »

Still, I see nothing wrong with using those names. Roleplayers might want to incorporate daedric princes or deities in their story, for example. I don't think it can be harmful for ZOS, unless, of course, someone uses character names to impersonate ZOS employee or something.

I'd say that roleplayers should object to meeting a bunch of Boethias or Nocturnals or what have you with fancy spelling variations, though I can imagine someone could want to roleplay a delusional Bosmer who thinks he's the Silvenar or the Green Lady, for example; the key word being "delusional".

Well, those "Boethias and Nocturnals" could be used as "npcs" in the story, not as main characters, much like in tabletop rpgs.
And why cant they rp as Silvenar and Green Lady, for example? People like creating stories about characters they like, that's why fanfiction is a thing. I can understand that ZOS wouldnt want to see copies of characters that belong to other companies due to legal reasons, but if we're talking about TES characters, whats the problem?

I'm fairly sure that most roleplayers would be able to overcome not having an exact name and still be able to roleplay.
As someone who does both pen and paper roleplay and has roleplayed in a number of online games I've always found it puzzling when people have to have exact things or they can't RP (like SWTOR not being able to use chairs). If you're invested in RP all you need is a way to communicate and common rules, everything else is a bonus.

It's not really about what they should or shouldnt do. Thing is, there's no logical reason to forbid these names. All other restrictions are at least understandable: characters from other IPs are copyrighted and ZOS doesnt want any legal issues and it's also quite obvious why they don't want to see "Ted Bundys" and "Hitlers" running around...
I don't roleplay as a daedric prince (and dont roleplay in ESO at all), but I don't see why it's not allowed to add canon characters in your story.

Calsifer

Please, and official comment from a mod. Does this apply to PS4? Since you cannot even hid your PSN tag from others, I would hope this RIDICULOUS policy does not apply there. Due to the PSN tag being FORCED on PS4 players there is no way to impersonate Zenimax Staff. Also I have had a Character named after one of the in game characters of nearly 4 years now. 4 YEARS, take it away, and I would NEVER play ESO again. EVER.

albesca

Calsifer wrote: »

Also I have had a Character named after one of the in game characters of nearly 4 years now. 4 YEARS, take it away, and I would NEVER play ESO again. EVER.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Reading this discussion I realized that many people are far more attached to their characters' names than I am.

Universe

It's been like this since ESO launch and early access.
Though you can register an ESO lore based UserID without any issue.
I verified it via Customer Support several times

Spoiler

see my signature