4 Years of Identity Lost - Roleplayers Beware!

TeIvanni · July 2019

It is saddening to see that Zenimax/Bethesda would ban lore friendly and roleplaying names in their MMO.

Over this past weekend I had a very trying experience.
My account username "@ TeIvanni" <- (third letter is a capital i) was banned.
I have had this account name for over 2 years now without incident.
Additionally, most of my character names were banned as well.
This included my very first character that I leveled to 50 "Enar Telvanni" a sorcerer.
Enar was my favorite character, one that I have had for over 4 years.
It was the first and only character that I ever reached Veteran Rank 16 on, back when veteran ranks were a thing.

This is a portion of the message that ZoS sent to me initially:

I was understandable confused. How could any of these names possibly be offensive or construed as offensive?
I responded politely and asked if they could elaborate further as to the reason for the Account and Character name bans.

This was the relevant portion of their response:

I could understand why ZoS/Bethesda would prohibit us from naming our characters after existing NPCs and Bosses.

However, my favorite character and long time in game identity "Enar Telvanni" is not a character in any of the Elder Scrolls series or any other franchise.

The closest thing I could find to this name was an "Enar Releth" who was a low ranking member of Dunmer society in The Elders Scrolls Morrowind.

It is concerning that lore appropriate names in a major roleplaying game are at risk.

Roleplayers beware! This could happen to you too!

Update:
I recieved another message from ZoS/Bethesday this afternoon:

At first glance this was very reassuring, I was overjoyed! Enar was coming back!
But unfortunately, I am still unable to name my character "Enar Telvanni" again. As i get "Invalid name".

On the bright side "Telvanni" surnames are confirmed to be permissible. So we have some relief there.

DocFrost72 · July 2019

I have plenty lore friendly names that never got removed.

The @name I can see them coming down on. I have one guess why you used a capital "i" originally, tell me what it was if you feel comfortable doing so?

Character name sanction is dumb though. Unless the full name is an actual TES character, having house names should be allowed and I'll agree there.

Dalsinthus · July 2019

What was the sanction they hit you with? Forced you to change user and character names? Or was it something more severe?

Elara_Northwind · July 2019

Dalsinthus wrote: »

What was the sanction they hit you with? Forced you to change user and character names? Or was it something more severe?

I think that having to change your characters names is pretty severe! Although I suppose that is probably a personal thing. I would be really upset if ZOS made me change any of my characters names, one of which was created on day 1 of early access! I am super attached to them and in all honesty, it would likely drive me to consider quitting the game if that happened to me! But then again, I know people who probably wouldn't care if they had to do that, so I suppose it depends how attached to your characters you are!

I also don't see how that name is in any which way offensive! I've seen a character in game named 'Banker ***' and that was allowed, and yet Enar Telvanni is not? Strange logic

hedna123b14_ESO · July 2019

The game is run by idiots...

Streega · July 2019

What kind of roleplayer are you if you can't even come out with your own lore-friendly names, instead of stealing them from the game? And on top of that you now play innocent victim on the official forum, breaking TOS again... Seriously?

Marginis · July 2019

I have a lot of different character names that are at risk of getting banned if that is the sole reason they were banned. I sincerely hope this does not happen to me. Of course, I take care not to troll with these characters, and they aren't my @ name, so hopefully I remain safe. I love hearing the joy in people's voices when they react to my character Ma'iq standing next to M'aiq, and I get to roleplay Ma'iq as M'aiq's twin brother.

Benzux · July 2019

Streega wrote: »

What kind of roleplayer are you if you can't even come out with your own lore-friendly names, instead of stealing them from the game? And on top of that you now play innocent victim on the official forum, breaking TOS again... Seriously?

What part of OP's character names were "stolen" from the game? The use of a Dunmer surname? Does that mean that if I create a character with a particular surname, and that surname happens to appear in a TES game, I'm "stealing" names as well? That... just does not make any sense lol. OP created this character name themselves, and just decided to use a surname that appears in-game to make it lore-friendly.

I have a Telvanni character as well, though I haven't been contacted by ZoS yet to make me change his name :P
I fully understand not allowing the names of actual NPCs and bosses, but names created by us using already existing lore-friendly names? That is a bit ***.

Jaimeh · July 2019

Gosh that sounds like a nightmare--I assume they've provided you with name change tokens at least. Still, it sucks having to change the names of your beloved characters, it's part of their personality and backstory, and new ones will take getting used to. I could understand if the names in question were derogatory, offensive, etc., but since this is a TES game, players wanting lore-friendly names is to be expected. There's also another caveat about this policy: I distinctly remember in a similar thread someone saying how they had an old character with a name like an NPC from a newly released content, and were wondering if ZOS would ask them to change it, but in that case, the player character's name came first... It's a nonsensical policy, I hope they will rethink it in the future.

Integral1900 · July 2019

Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by ZOS being as dense as a lead brick 🤓

TeIvanni · July 2019

DocFrost72 wrote: »

I have plenty lore friendly names that never got removed.

The @name I can see them coming down on. I have one guess why you used a capital "i" originally, tell me what it was if you feel comfortable doing so?

Character name sanction is dumb though. Unless the full name is an actual TES character, having house names should be allowed and I'll agree there.

The name I wanted "TeLvanni" was taken. but "Teivanni" looks pretty much the same ingame.
I know someone has the actual @ TeLvanni name in game. I can't tell you how many times I've lost mail because of that.
I wonder if they will get their account name banned as well. I hope not! They've had to have that username since like early access.

TeIvanni · July 2019

Dalsinthus wrote: »

What was the sanction they hit you with? Forced you to change user and character names? Or was it something more severe?

Jaimeh wrote: »

Gosh that sounds like a nightmare--I assume they've provided you with name change tokens at least. Still, it sucks having to change the names of your beloved characters, it's part of their personality and backstory, and new ones will take getting used to.

Yeah thankfully it was just a mandatory username/character name change.
And I am very relieved the forced name changes were "free".

But it still hurts losing a character identity you've fostered and embraced over the course of 4 years.

I hope other players with lore friendly names don't have to go through this as well.

SirAndy · July 2019

Watchdog · July 2019

I am now worried about my own lore friendly characters.

TeIvanni · July 2019

Marginis wrote: »

I have a lot of different character names that are at risk of getting banned if that is the sole reason they were banned. I sincerely hope this does not happen to me. Of course, I take care not to troll with these characters, and they aren't my @ name, so hopefully I remain safe. I love hearing the joy in people's voices when they react to my character Ma'iq standing next to M'aiq, and I get to roleplay Ma'iq as M'aiq's twin brother.

Yeah unfortunately it is names like that which are at the highest risk of getting removed/changed.
Those are actual NPC names/look like actual NPC names and very likely considered a "reference to a popular character".

But it seems like ZoS doesn't have any sort of automated system to detect these "inappropriate" names?
So you're probably safe unless someone has it out for you.

I genuinely hope they don't take that away from you! Ma'iq is an awesome idea and i love it!

Bherdani · July 2019

Streega wrote: »

What kind of roleplayer are you if you can't even come out with your own lore-friendly names, instead of stealing them from the game? And on top of that you now play innocent victim on the official forum, breaking TOS again... Seriously?

I thought most games people can RP as the characters. Or is this something specific to ES?

Jaeysa · July 2019

Bherdani wrote: »

Streega wrote: »

What kind of roleplayer are you if you can't even come out with your own lore-friendly names, instead of stealing them from the game? And on top of that you now play innocent victim on the official forum, breaking TOS again... Seriously?

I thought most games people can RP as the characters. Or is this something specific to ES?

Because it's an MMO they do require your characters not be named after other Elder Scrolls characters. Which, most of his were. Let's run down the list:

Telvanni - Dunmer House but in general I wouldn't think it would be a problem since I don't know of anyone named straight Telvanni.
Lokkestiiz - Gear set
Yolnahkriin - Gear set
Telvanni - with a fancy i
Saint Felms the Bold - Trial Boss
Saint Olms the Just - Trial Boss
Saint Sotha Sil - An Elder Scrolls Character
Shade of Z'Maja - Trial Boss
Nahviintaas - Trial Boss
Assembly General - Trial Boss
Uulkar Bonehand - Dungeon Boss
Rolis Hlaalu - An Elder Scrolls Character and seller of pretties
Enar Telvanni - There's no character specifically named Enar Telvanni. There is an Enar Releth who is of the Telvanni house.
Z'Maja - Trial Boss

They probably saw that MOST of the characters violated the TOS and someone went ban-happy on the names

Marginis · July 2019

Jaeysa wrote: »

Bherdani wrote: »

Streega wrote: »

What kind of roleplayer are you if you can't even come out with your own lore-friendly names, instead of stealing them from the game? And on top of that you now play innocent victim on the official forum, breaking TOS again... Seriously?

I thought most games people can RP as the characters. Or is this something specific to ES?

Because it's an MMO they do require your characters not be named after other Elder Scrolls characters. Which, most of his were. Let's run down the list:

Telvanni - Dunmer House but in general I wouldn't think it would be a problem since I don't know of anyone named straight Telvanni.
Lokkestiiz - Gear set
Yolnahkriin - Gear set
Telvanni - with a fancy i
Saint Felms the Bold - Trial Boss
Saint Olms the Just - Trial Boss
Saint Sotha Sil - An Elder Scrolls Character
Shade of Z'Maja - Trial Boss
Nahviintaas - Trial Boss
Assembly General - Trial Boss
Uulkar Bonehand - Dungeon Boss
Rolis Hlaalu - An Elder Scrolls Character and seller of pretties
Enar Telvanni - There's no character specifically named Enar Telvanni. There is an Enar Releth who is of the Telvanni house.
Z'Maja - Trial Boss

They probably saw that MOST of the characters violated the TOS and someone went ban-happy on the names

There may also be the possibility that what we see in this post isn't the full story - perhaps OP was using the characters in inappropriate contexts *notes ERP in OP's forum signature* or for trolling - but I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt. The enforcement of the TOS in this way is somewhat troubling considering that it depends all too much on the enforcer's whim for my liking, regardless of what happened in OP's case specifically.

jircris11 · July 2019

I always come up with custom names to avoid this very thing. Zeni technically owns the name telvani so yea.