Name Purge

[Ravenplume]

I actually do not recognize that guy.  Guessing they called him Crow though...

[Ravenplume]

That's why I didn't recognize him.  Never been into wrestling (other than back in the 70s and 80s), so never heard of him.  :)

[ZemX]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow_(1994_film)

 

My guess is that after generic'ing a few Crow look-a-likes back in th day, the name probably got put in the name filter.  Then when they later made the Praetorian NPC they figured it was safe since they were creating an original character with a different look.   Not sure why it would be blocked on a pet, unless the game just uses the same name filter for character creation/naming as for pets.

Edited May 1 by ZemX

[Ironblade]

22 hours ago, Ravenplume said:

I actually do not recognize that guy.  Guessing they called him Crow though...

 

That's Brandon Lee as he appeared in the film 'The Crow'.

He was the son of Bruce Lee and died while making the film.

[Ravenplume]

Ah.  That explains it.  Only Brandon Lee film I ever saw was Dragon.

[Frostbiter]

2 hours ago, Ravenplume said:

Ah.  That explains it.  Only Brandon Lee film I ever saw was Dragon.

 

The Crow is well worth a watch. It's a great movie and also a sublime slice of the 90's Goth/Emo era.

[PhotriusPyrelus]

I know this is probably impossible because it's probably very fundamental to the way the game is designed, but it sure would be nice if the game was more like Star Trek Online, where the character and account names are conjoined so while one account cannot have two characters named "Steve", every account could have a character named "Steve", because the character's actual name is "Steve@<AccountNameHere>".

That would alleviate this whole situation, which is only going to get worse and worse as the game goes on.

[GM Crumpet]

11 hours ago, PhotriusPyrelus said:

I know this is probably impossible because it's probably very fundamental to the way the game is designed, but it sure would be nice if the game was more like Star Trek Online, where the character and account names are conjoined so while one account cannot have two characters named "Steve", every account could have a character named "Steve", because the character's actual name is "Steve@<AccountNameHere>".

That would alleviate this whole situation, which is only going to get worse and worse as the game goes on.

That would be nice, but we are stuck with the database functionality we have. Unless we wipe the database and start again with a new database (which I shudder to think how bad that would go down) it's probably impossible 

[PhotriusPyrelus]

11 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

That would be nice, but we are stuck with the database functionality we have. Unless we wipe the database and start again with a new database (which I shudder to think how bad that would go down) it's probably impossible 

 

 

Seems like this is a process that should be able to be automated: using the old DB to create a new one.  But I'm not a programmer, I just took a few low-end classes in college.  Times like this make me wish I'd stuck with it.

As I said, though, the problem of names is only going to get worse.  A moment of excruciating agony to avoid a chronic, increasing discomfort seems like a good trade-off to me if it's possible.  And this seems to me the only solution that doesn't rob of their names old players who may return, while not keeping good names in the dustbin of disuse from players who would like to use them.

As altoholic as this game tends to be, it's only a matter of time before numbers-as-letters and terrible misspellings become increasingly common even in non-robotic heroes.

[PeregrineFalcon]

12 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

That would be nice, but we are stuck with the database functionality we have. Unless we wipe the database and start again with a new database (which I shudder to think how bad that would go down) it's probably impossible 

You think the forum flames are bad whenever Rage is talked about, oh boy. I can only imagine what that would be like.  🔥 😱 🔥

[Bionic_Flea]

Sorry, but I don't want to have all my names wiped and I don't want to be Bionic Flea@Bionicflea.

[Troo]

15 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

Unless we wipe the database and start again with a new database

 

  New characters for everyone!!

[lemming]

4 hours ago, PhotriusPyrelus said:

Seems like this is a process that should be able to be automated: using the old DB to create a new one.  But I'm not a programmer, I just took a few low-end classes in college.  Times like this make me wish I'd stuck with it.

I trust the GMs when they say how wonky it is.

 

You'll have to put together a new DB, transfer all the data and update all the programming to work with it.

[Sanguinesun]

On 5/2/2024 at 2:15 AM, Ravenplume said:

Crow was blocked well before Praetoria.  My Ninjas MM in the Time Before was unable to name any of her pets Crow, to go along with Raven and Magpie, and that was well before Going Rogue

 

There is/was another reason and not some movie IP either that folks arent thinking on....

 

[ZacKing]

On 5/3/2024 at 6:10 AM, GM Crumpet said:

That would be nice, but we are stuck with the database functionality we have. Unless we wipe the database and start again with a new database (which I shudder to think how bad that would go down) it's probably impossible 

 

I'm not sure that you'd need to wipe the database to do this?  I get that the code is whacky, but this doesn't sound right.  I don't think I've ever come across a situation where I had to wipe out all the data in a database to start over from scratch with something.  I'm not a professional DBA, but I do know a thing or two about about SQL and databases.  There's no way to run an update statement to prepend the global@ to the beginning of character names?

 

16 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Sorry, but I don't want to have all my names wiped and I don't want to be Bionic Flea@Bionicflea.

 

You wouldn't be in the chat, unless you specifically wanted to see global names.   In chat, your name would still be Bionic Flea.  That's how it works in CO and STO.  You wouldn't see the global in the name floating above your character either.

[Snarky]

still commenting on this?  really?

Edited May 4 by Snarky

[Jacktar]

All the other Spartacus’s ingame are fake cause I am the real Spartacus! Honestly…….! 😇

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, ZacKing said:

You wouldn't be in the chat, unless you specifically wanted to see global names.   In chat, your name would still be Bionic Flea.  That's how it works in CO and STO.  You wouldn't see the global in the name floating above your character either.

I also don't want to see Bionic Flea(@Zacking) or Bionic Flea(@Snarky) either!  And that is exactly the point of this suggestion.  So that everyone can be Bionic Flea if they wanted to.  No thanks.  There's only one me.

 

[PhotriusPyrelus]

6 hours ago, ZacKing said:

 

I'm not sure that you'd need to wipe the database to do this?  I get that the code is whacky, but this doesn't sound right.  I don't think I've ever come across a situation where I had to wipe out all the data in a database to start over from scratch with something.  I'm not a professional DBA, but I do know a thing or two about about SQL and databases.  There's no way to run an update statement to prepend the global@ to the beginning of character names?

That's what I was thinking, but I *don't* know a thing or two about SQLs and DBs.

Seems to me the actual hard work would be in adjusting all the systems in the game that deal with CharacterName to deal with the new CharacterName@GlobalName format.

 

2 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

I also don't want to see Bionic Flea(@Zacking) or Bionic Flea(@Snarky) either!  And that is exactly the point of this suggestion.  So that everyone can be Bionic Flea if they wanted to.  No thanks.  There's only one me.

And *I* would rather see 100 people completely cloning my characters than not be able to use the name I want for the character concept I have, or seeing more and more ridiculous names with intentional misspellings or numbers-as-letters or bracketing Xes and _s.

There *is* only one you. And there would still *be* only one you.  You are not your character.

[wjrasmussen]

6 hours ago, ZacKing said:

 

I'm not sure that you'd need to wipe the database to do this?  I get that the code is whacky, but this doesn't sound right.  I don't think I've ever come across a situation where I had to wipe out all the data in a database to start over from scratch with something.  I'm not a professional DBA, but I do know a thing or two about about SQL and databases.  There's no way to run an update statement to prepend the global@ to the beginning of character names?

 

 

You wouldn't be in the chat, unless you specifically wanted to see global names.   In chat, your name would still be Bionic Flea.  That's how it works in CO and STO.  You wouldn't see the global in the name floating above your character either.

It is easy.  WHo is going to do the work mr armchair expert?

[Jacke]

7 hours ago, Jacktar said:

All the other Spartacus’s ingame are fake cause I am the real Spartacus! Honestly…….! 😇

 

NO!  I'm Spartacus!!!

 

Oh wait, I'm not.  😺

[GM Crumpet]

8 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

I also don't want to see Bionic Flea(@Zacking) or Bionic Flea(@Snarky) either!  And that is exactly the point of this suggestion.  So that everyone can be Bionic Flea if they wanted to.  No thanks.  There's only one me.

 

The idea of there being an influx of bionic fleas makes my skin itch. Normal fleas are bad enough 😛 

[Troo]

GM declares "fleas bad, Bionic Fleas worse". You heard it here first folks!

 

There's only one way to settle this... it's @Bionic_Flea -vs- @GM Crumpet in a classic City of Celebrity Death Match.. death match.

 

 

Edited May 5 by Troo

[Pleonast]

People in real life share the same name. It’d be nice if we could share names in our play space, too. 
 

Of course if you really wanted a particular character name, you could publish a comic book, trademark that name, and then have the moderators genericize whoever’s currently using it. It’s not that expensive too publish these days. 

[Lunar Ronin]

On 5/4/2024 at 5:05 PM, Bionic_Flea said:

I also don't want to see Bionic Flea(@Zacking) or Bionic Flea(@Snarky) either!  And that is exactly the point of this suggestion.  So that everyone can be Bionic Flea if they wanted to.  No thanks.  There's only one me.

 

 

I remember back on live when Matt Miller brought this up as a possibility on the old blue boards and asked if people would be okay with it.  People overwhelmingly shot it down, saying things like "There is only one Superman, one Batman, and one Spider-Man."

 

Fifteen years later, we now have at least four Supermen, at least three Batmen, and a gazillion Spider-Men running around in comic books.  Seems to be working okay for them.