This official news post is copied verbatim from the WoTMUD website. It is copyrighted by wotmud.org.
Over the past few weeks, there have been several characters made in the game whose names can and will most likely crash us. When we come to you and tell you to make a new character, we're not picking on you. We're protecting the game, and our sanity, because we really don't want to be inconveniencing the player base at large, chasing down bugs and rebooting the game when we don't need to, just to accommodate you.
As a reminder, the names rule that you see both at character creation and in the Silly Names Room is this (bolded for specifics that have been trouble lately):
Quote:
NAMES
Names on this mud should be appropriate to Robert Jordan's timeline. Names
are to be a first name only as you can choose a last name or a title at
level 20. Also names should only have the first letter capitalized. Names
are to be actual names, not ideas, concepts, verbs, adjectives or anything
that could be confused with mobiles or code in the game. Some examples of
good names are Erengol, Arim, Galdor and Warlan. Some bad examples are Atom,
DarkAngel, WolfBrother, You, BOBBY, Flamewielder, Justicebringer, Sword,
Did, Spock & Bigass.
Characters on the mud are also not allowed to use names from the book or
any close deviation of the name. So MatrimCauthon or Matt or Perryn is not
allowed. If you are in violation of any of these guidelines, you should
quit now and create a character with a proper name. If you keep an inproper
name, the Mud Staff will remove you from the game. So doing this simple
procedure now will save you some time and hassle.
If you are having trouble thinking up an acceptable name then just go on
the web to http://wotmud.org/names where the custom-made 'Wheel of Time
names maker' will make 100 random wot-type names for you. They are not
guaranteed to be perfect (random generators can come up with REALLY
silly names too), but it should give you some good ideas.
Thanks for helping us keep to a high standard. Please enjoy playing the
Wheel of Time MUD!
We do NOT do name changes for characters made after a certain date. They are a pain in the behind to do, they mess us up even further, create havoc with the game to forum interface, and have been known to corrupt player files beyond getting them back in regards to storage, etc. Don't ask us for one. We want to do them as little as possible.
If you are re-making a name that once existed, that violates the names rule now, we're going to take you out of the game. The -original- character was eligible for a name change under the rule; you as a re-creation in 2012 or 2013 are not.
I want to specifically state that using in-game terms is NOT okay. It has not been for over 10 years. Don't make 'asaw' for example. Characters named after combat terms also fall under the "could be confused with mobile or coding" issues; we have a lot of stuff that if it sees the output of 'smite' for example will set off coding that can make a big mess if a character named 'smite' keeps popping in and out of a room or a mob's location.
Thank you in advance for following our Names Rule. We know that most of you would rather have a fun game to play, instead of one that is constantly crashing because of a player's poor name choice.
Vivienne