Michael is a good biblical name. So is Joseph. I'd rather expect to see either in a medieval European setting. Of course, probably not in English - it was substantially different at the time. But those names were around.
This is exactly what I meant when I said that they appear to be accurate. I don't know much about naming conventions during the Middle Ages, but Joe is not one that I associate with it. And of course I am probably wrong, and I am being completely stereotypical, but in a game like this, historical accuracy is not always the most important thing.
Frankly though, the best solution i can see is peer pressure, not fiats from up on high. Refuse to interact with people who don't have names that you like. Or tell them that you're so sorry that they have to go through life with that name. Sooner or later, if enough people do that you may see some change.
This is probably a better way to handle it than having a few people in control of everything. Maybe it would have worked, and maybe it has worked. I don't know.
When I said "destroy the illusion", I was refering mostly to names like "pimp" or a whole Beavis and Butthead quote, that people would use just to draw attention to themselves. I don't know what the exact naming restrictions are in EverQuest, so I couldn't say whether they were unfairly restrictive. I assumed they were mostly for filtering out that kind of stuff.
I can't really say how this would apply to a generic fantasy like EverQuest, but it would seem to me that if you are trying to simulate a world based on a medieval one, or oriental, or something else, you would want the names to reflect that. I think that adds a lot to the illusion (whether or not the names are strictly ACCURATE to that time period, but as long as they appear to be). If I saw a name like Joe or Mike in a game I was playing that was medievalish, it would jar me back to the real world and defeat, at least in my mind, part of the purpose of the game. I can't say I would be upset.
What especially galls me though is the names. I've played characters in fantasy settings who had normal names. At the moment in the GURPS campaign I'm in, my character is named Mack. Another PC is Nate. Who came up with this stupid rule that all fantasy names have to sound like exotic chemicals and/or have apostrophes in them?
I've never played EverQuest or any other multiuser RPG, but I would be annoyed if someone told me that I had to change my name just because it didn't conform to certain rules. But at the same time, I wouldn't want people to be able to use ANY name, or you have what a lot of my friends would complain was wrong with Ultima Online. Many people would come up with names they thought were funny (I guess that was what it was), but really destroyed the whole illusion of the game, and made the experience less enjoyable for everyone else.
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This is exactly what I meant when I said that they appear to be accurate. I don't know much about naming conventions during the Middle Ages, but Joe is not one that I associate with it. And of course I am probably wrong, and I am being completely stereotypical, but in a game like this, historical accuracy is not always the most important thing.
Frankly though, the best solution i can see is peer pressure, not fiats from up on high. Refuse to interact with people who don't have names that you like. Or tell them that you're so sorry that they have to go through life with that name. Sooner or later, if enough people do that you may see some change.
This is probably a better way to handle it than having a few people in control of everything. Maybe it would have worked, and maybe it has worked. I don't know.
I can't really say how this would apply to a generic fantasy like EverQuest, but it would seem to me that if you are trying to simulate a world based on a medieval one, or oriental, or something else, you would want the names to reflect that. I think that adds a lot to the illusion (whether or not the names are strictly ACCURATE to that time period, but as long as they appear to be). If I saw a name like Joe or Mike in a game I was playing that was medievalish, it would jar me back to the real world and defeat, at least in my mind, part of the purpose of the game. I can't say I would be upset.
I've never played EverQuest or any other multiuser RPG, but I would be annoyed if someone told me that I had to change my name just because it didn't conform to certain rules. But at the same time, I wouldn't want people to be able to use ANY name, or you have what a lot of my friends would complain was wrong with Ultima Online. Many people would come up with names they thought were funny (I guess that was what it was), but really destroyed the whole illusion of the game, and made the experience less enjoyable for everyone else.