AoC Naming Policy
Funcom has posted their character naming policy (within their Rules of Conduct):
The goal of the naming policy is to promote the feeling of being immersed into the world of Age of Conan. These policies apply to all player names, regardless how long it has been since they were created. Use of the following will be restricted:
1. Names that are profane, racist, drug references, trademarks or obscene are not allowed; this also applies to any homonym, phonetic misspelling, obvious spoonerism, combination, or reverse spelling.
2. Names that are created to defame or impersonate another character are not allowed. This includes names of GMs/FoAs/Funcom employees.
3. Names that are created using terms and/or items that do not exist in the world of Conan. Such as “robot” or “ninja”, or “Robotninja.”
4. Names of NPCs already existing in the game or any of the related works associated with Robert Howard and the Age of Conan game world. This includes any of the deities associated with the Conan pantheon.
If you wish to appeal a name change please send a mail to nameappeals@ageofconan.com. Include your previous name, new name, server name, and account name.
This doesn't surprise me really, Funcom seems to put a lot more RPG into their MMORPG than most of their competitors. I appreciate that these rules apply to all servers and not just the RP ones, although who knows whether they'll follow up on them or not.
When I see a player run across my screen with a name like "Ipwnnoobs", "robotninja", "lolsmiter" or "myfunpaly" my immediate thought is this person cares little for the game and the other players within it. I don't mind a ribald sense of humour, I've tried clever names myself now and then, plus some nicknames that stretch it a bit. But have a little imagination and try to fit into the world by not using a sentence or otherwise throwaway name.
Immersion and story are a big part of any RPG game, whether you intend to actually roleplay or not. Silly names that don't fit into that may be a relatively minor way to tear things down, but if you're starting out with something destructive... well it's a poor precedent for the rest of the time (usually significant time too) you'll spend in the game.
Sorry what?
This is what happens when you name your character "Sorry". I seem to collect a bunch of tells (in this case offline ones) from a variety of players that forgot to include the name of the player they were sending to. GMs are not immune to this either it seems.
Insert the word Sorry in front of each line to complete the sentence. =)
Choosing a name
While poking around the files from the Age of Conan early access install (I was looking for music to play), I noticed files for the random character-naming suggestions. This reminded me that I should start coming up with names for my characters.
As both a writer and an avid MMORPG player, I highly recommend The Writer's Digest: Character Naming Sourcebook. I've had it sitting on my desk for years and recently purchased the second edition.
Names are sorted by racial / language categories, which makes it perfect for choosing a character name for Age of Conan. You can generally cross-reference the names this way:
- Cimmerian = Celtic. Scottish, Gaelic and perhaps Norse would do as well.
- Aquilonian = Roman (Latin), Greek. It's a big empire, much like Romans, so you can go with most any latin-based names or areas that empire covered, which includes Spanish, German, French, etc..
- Stygian = Egyptian. Persian works too.
Names in the book are also listed along with variations and a basic definition source. For instance Conan is a celtic name with many variations that means "dark-haired wise man". Don't expect to use that name of course, Funcom has already reserved it. =)
