And that would be a good thing although it might affect UO-UHall poster counts!

J/K ing!!!

Personally I haven't known of many other famous Adolf Hitlers. If I am wrong, point me in the right direction.

I'm offended by that name the same as I would be by the name Jeffery Dalhmer (sp?) or Jack the Ripper. Sorry if you are offended that I think mass murderers should not be deified or glorified. Am I offended enough to page on them? No, I just leave. I choose not to hang out with people who name their chars such, just like I am not overly fond of names like 'EaT mE' or some such nonsense. If they want to look foolish, more power to them.

Plus, I didn't say anything at all about German people. That would be like someone pointing at me and saying I must have killed Native Americans since I am a white person in the US. It doesn't wash. Unless, of course, someone was personally involved in such things. I imagine they are all dead by now. I don't care what someone's family members, ancestors, people from the same heritage, or anything else. I believe it is a person by person basis. That's like pointing a finger and saying everyone from the US is mentally ill just because I have bipolar disorder.

I've sometimes been conscious of the decision that somebody somewhere may get offended that I named my main character Arjuna, which is at least as famous a character in the world as Jesus Christ. But the way I see it is as long as I try to live up to the real Arjuna, then I'm doing him a compliment instead of an offense.

Did you try to live up to the name Jesus Christ? And if so, then I don't really see a problem. If you didn't, I could see how people would get offended.

Although I don't actually agree with the ToS regarding what is and what isn't acceptable for character names, I accepted the rules as soon as I made a character.

This is not an infringement of my freedom of speech. It is a "house rule" which I agreed to. There is no ultimate freedom of speech within UO.


Sadly, "getting offended by names" is currently the most fashionable form of ingame greifing, which accounts for the current rash of forced changes.

I have been hit with this griefing method: I have a character name which is a mishmash of the Welsh and Yiddish words for "sneak thief", and so looks very "foreign".
I was paged-on, presumably by someone who thought I was trying to avoid the filters and say something nasty. The GM told me that the name was offensive, and that it needed to be changed. I responded by giving the address of an online translation service - the GM then agreed that the name was OK.

We don't have to like political correctness, but we do have to abide by the rules we all signed-up to. If your name doesn't break the rules, then what do you have to fear from the malicious page?

Well, anyway, Sendero Luminiso is a Peruvian Communist party. But I find it amusing that people are likening the name of Jesus with Hitler. (Not so amusing is the references to Dahmer or other serial killers.) With the state of things in America (and probably in other countries, too) organized religion can readily be linked to facism. Both historically have been overbearing doctrines.

It never fails to amaze me how much effort is put forth into propegating the Christian holiday mythos (Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, etc.) so that myths featuring a char who is representative of a holiday is okay... but...

Well, let's put it this way. In the 50s comics were deemed to be decadent and evil. They were accused to promoting criminal behaviour AND homosexuality (Batman & Robin) as well as sexual deviancy. More recently, Harry Potter is being accused of promoting witch craft and devil worship. Who is so inclined to believe this myth about HP? People who HAVEN"T read the books or seen the movies (if they did, they'd obviously see that the movies make a big deal out of Xmas).

And, considering Tolkien's stance against allegory, it ticks me off how obsessed people are with insisting LotR is representative of World War II. Tolkien was a historian and linguist among other things, so I think he could have cited dozens of examples of wars in history & mythology that could have indicated a battle between "good & evil." (This ofcourse is a matter of perspective.) Then again, speaking of allegory.... his Silmariillion does kinda blur the line a bit further with its heavy influence of a creation myth with its multiple "gods." And Morgoth certainly smacks of a satanic character... but I digress.

Oh and don't get me started on Elves or Dwarves. Ask the average person what an elf does? "He works in Santa's toy factory." *groans* Dwarves? "They make keebler cookies." *double groan*

So, well, kudos to EA for letting us play as elves since ML... it does seem atleast they do get what elves are really about. (To an extent.)

I'm surprised you found a GM who actually would put forth that amount of effort to investigate something.

But, anyway, I still don't understand what's offensive about having religious names. Forget the fact that the rules say this isn't allowed. Okay, if I had decided to play JC as a PK, "The Murderer Jesus Christ" might have been offensive as well as contradictory. But the very fact you can play as a PK does tempt some people to actually name their char after an actual murderer.
So... I do question the lacking in liberalism.

Anyhow, my favorite PK name so far has got to be "Britney Spears."

And, honestly, where are the religious people who are offended by the massive resurrections going on in the game?

I underlined italicized and enboldened the part you seem to be missing.

God isn't against the rules.
God's hoochie Is

Jesus Christ is not against the rules.
Jesus christ sux Is.



And sclo I wasn't refering to 'the' jesus but snikkering at what it would say in party if you were killed by a player named jesus christ.

K. Tell that to the GM who told me I had to change my char's name two seconds after he'd already stated very clearly I didn't have to have it changed.

You don't have to understand or like the reasoning behind the naming restrictions, but you DO have to agree to abide by them.

The ban on (paraphrased), "real-life politcal and religious figures" seems reasonable when you consider that a percentage of players would genuinely be offended, and that an equal percentage would set out to try to offend.


Removing the restrictions would almost certainly result in names / guild titles / guild names like:

David Duke / Lyncher / KKK
Mohammed Atta / Guild Pilot / Twin Towers
Himmler / Gasman / Final Solution
Jesus Christ / Water Walker / Nail-Em-Up


Although I would not personally page on such names; (I would simply think of the player behind the character as a sad, small, person looking for a bit of anonymous internet notoriety); such names WOULD be offensive to a proportion of the UO playerbase.

We are here to play a game, and thus take a break from everyday concerns, including race / religious / political issues.
Keep the naming rules as they are.


(The inconsistent enforcement of the rules is another matter, and is something which should be looked into by whoever is in-charge of the GMs)

Believe it or not, Atta is actually in game as an NPC name, just by itself. Don't know what the devs were thinking.

I guess chosing a name like Adolf Hitler or Jesus just BEGS (with big capital letters) for renaming by a GM. I think if you chose a name like that you have no right at all to complain. You wanted to provoke / offend / grab attention / whatever so deal with the risks that it carries.

Also the ban on real life names seems to make sense when you consider this game was actually marketed as online RPG. But maybe that changed now and it's just a MMO without the RPG - which wouldn't surprise me as the RPG part isn't really easy to find in UO.

Jesus Christ - 120 Carpentry

Artifact - Lance of Longinus , Christ slayer +200dmg to religious figures

lawl

rofl