We change names that are deemed highly offensive, and we try to change them before level 15 to keep a player's reputation intact.
As far as stupid names, I consider them a big flashing neon sign above the character's head. If I change it to something normal, you may end up grouped with the person. It's still the same person playing the character. Would you like to group with someone named Nandkel and find out in the course of game play he's really a Dodohead?
I understand the "Immersion" factor. If you are good at it, you should be able to ignore these annoyances.
We are playing classic EQ, and this is a classic discussion:
http://www.angelfire.com/zine/surreality/eqnames.htm
Quote:
Ever Quest Naming Convention: A Pathetic Display of Creativity? Or just plain stupid? You decide!
This has been crazy. The names that I've found while playing EQ have been outrageous and the list just kept growing and growing... For a while, I got a little self righteous and decided that I wanted to make a point about the VI naming policy-- Or as I've found, the lack thereof. I really don't know why they bother to stop people from naming themselves whatever they want since they do it anyway but, since there's a farce of a rule in place, it's only fitting that both it and the people who break it get a little publicity and some humorous description to help those of us with names that fit in the boundaries of the rule cope with those who don't.
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