05-03-2005, 06:52 PM
I think the GM's do review names, occasionally. My brother had a Tauren Shaman on an RP server and the name was "Acow." It got changed to Gwind after about a week. RP servers definitely have stricter rules...my brother has a Rogue named "Elimgarak" (Kel'Thuzad) and he met "Thomasriker" in Stormwind once. Of course, maybe the GM's aren't Star Trek nerds, but you'd think somebody would notice.
I must admit I'm quite amazed that Blizzard doesn't have a more effective system for filtering out names with non-ASCII characters, total gibberish, and pre-existing names (now, true, it's not that hard for somebody to come up with a slight misspelling of "Gandalf" to get past the filter but jeebus!). And if they're going to ban a name, BAN the name...don't change one person's name, especially not on a petty complaint. After all the names that I've seen I'm surprised that Blizzard even has time to go after the Parzivals of the world.
I must admit I'm quite amazed that Blizzard doesn't have a more effective system for filtering out names with non-ASCII characters, total gibberish, and pre-existing names (now, true, it's not that hard for somebody to come up with a slight misspelling of "Gandalf" to get past the filter but jeebus!). And if they're going to ban a name, BAN the name...don't change one person's name, especially not on a petty complaint. After all the names that I've seen I'm surprised that Blizzard even has time to go after the Parzivals of the world.