What is with this?

[spawnloser]

Okay, I have only encountered it once...

What is with people giving names for their characters that are not their characters name...without having it set as a keyword?  Of all the twinky ways to keep yourself from being contacted/attacked or whatever, since noone knows the real name.

Other's thoughts?

[Carnage]

They thought of it on the spot and never set an alternate name as their character's keyword and you're blowing it out of proportion?

[Tamarin]

Okay, I have only encountered it once...

What is with people giving names for their characters that are not their characters name...without having it set as a keyword?  Of all the twinky ways to keep yourself from being contacted/attacked or whatever, since noone knows the real name.

Personally, i have no problem with someone who offers a name that is not in their keywords.  It adds mystery to the game, and forces you to actually read their main desc (if they are cloked/facewrapped).

[Callisto]

I see no problem with this practice.

Seems like the ideal way to avoid the all too common problem of one person learning your name key and ruining your criminal/spy career. Keep your non-sdesc keys to yourself and people won't know if you're dead or alive unless they actually see you.

I don't much care for the Way, it is just such a massive gray area that lets people know too much with absolute OOC certainty, which usually translates into IC certainty.

That's a whole other thread though, I guess.

[spawnloser]

Yes, but one can't contact someone who does this when one should be able to.  That is using code for IC advantage, which I believe is what Sanvean said was the definition of a twink.

[Kalden]

Yes, but one can't contact someone who does this when one should be able to. That is using code for IC advantage, which I believe is what Sanvean said was the definition of a twink.

That's true... if you've seen the person, you should be able to contact them, no?

Oh well. It's just something that has to be worked around.

[Agent_137]

I don't know . . .if they don't want to give you their real name . . .they don't want you to be able to way them. What's wrong with that? It's like a shady deal in the rinth, it's absurd to expect these characters to give out their real names. I imagine everyone would go by aliases. A criminal doesn't want to hand out his real name, eh? There's nothing twinkish about not giving out your real keyworded name, no more than it's twinkish for a girl to give out a fake number. Kinda shady, kinda cheap, but certainly fair play.

[mansa]

I think it's being a twink, not allowing someone to access you with a keyword.

Example:  On the first war, when Allanak took over Tuluk, the few people left alive were the ones with keywords that were hard to find.  Mustached.  Curvaceous.  Effeminate.  Statuesque.

Because in the nitty gritty of it all....nobody is going to type out
'k i l l  m u s t a c h e d'.   They will type out kill blue or kill red or kill ugly.
It's an advantage that people set up, knowing that they won't be attacked if you can't find a keyword.

...

If someone you've been interacting with for a long time (a.k.a. over a RL month) and you're still guessing at a keyword, because the 'name' they've been giving you is a fake, non-keyword name...  Email the mud account explaining your situation.  Get the mud account to attach the fake name to the character.  

I make it a nice policy to make characters, and have my 'nicknames' be apart of my 'keywords' that I pick at the start.   Of course, that's just me.

[EvilRoeSlade]

I do this.  I'm doing it now, in fact.  If we meet numerous times over the period of a month, I'll give you a real name.  I have no other option if I don't want every templar and his dog contacting me, because of the flawed way that psionics are coded.  Where do you draw the line, at being able to contact somebody due to keywords?  If I give somebody an alias that has a keyword, and they tell somebody else my keyword, should that person be able to contact me whenever they want?  I don't think they should.

Also, from my understanding there are nasty things that can happen to someone who's birth name is widely known.  People more conscious of this fact (or perhaps merely superstitious) could be cautious indeed when choosing who knows their name and who doesn't.

[Anonymous]

I've never done this, but I know of at least one PC that was doing it for a good year at least and was anything but what I would assume was an under-monitored PC.  Based on that PC alone I'd have to assume this isn't a bad practice.

There's a lot of assuming here that the Way functions in a manner that is dependent on the person initiating the psionic contact.  What if the Way has nothing to do with the schmoe typing 'contact Mr.X' and everything to do with a the contactee's consciousness and the name that the contactee associates with themselves?

Edit to add - I have no clue how the way -truly- works, this is only a supposition of mine, the staff has said over and over they leave it intentionally vague.

[wizturbo]

In this situation, i'd just say that the person in question's mind is difficult to find, or hidden in the way.  Bring it up IC, depending on how you'd react to that.

[Forest Junkie]

Yes, but one can't contact someone who does this when one should be able to.  That is using code for IC advantage, which I believe is what Sanvean said was the definition of a twink.

Holy fuck man, let's find this booger and lynch 'em!

On a more serious note, don't be so quick to pass judgement. Perhaps it is a simple mistake on their part, hrrm?

A solution to your problem, I think, would be to:

Use one of the words from their desc, perhaps?  :roll:

[Gilvar]

Ive in the past made up names for my character on the spot, using different names for everyone I met. I don't know that I could have like 100 keywords, and I didn't feel like going through the trouble of putting in a keyword request every day or so that I introduced myself to a new person.

On the flip side it was fun. Everyone who would talk about me would confuse each other with the different names they knew me by.

Yes codewise it adds some difficulties, i.e. the way, but combat is not reliant no names, though it helps.

Not sure if its a big deal to make sure you refer to yourself by your keyword name.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Just as a quick note: It is said in the docs that many folks are afraid to give out ther names, since they have power. Given that your name can let others contact you, this would then fit into the puzzle, yes?

Stop whining about twinks. It's a bloody name. There are a great many folks in the world, and some of them have the same real name. If I choose to give you a fake name, that is just your tough luck. But I've done it before, and I'll do it again.

If you really wanna find me, you will.

[Armaddict]

Agree with Venomz.

It's a name.  Sure, it will be -harder- to use the way with them, but not impossible.  Their keywords are still useable.

With criminal careers, or even with people who don't want everyone and their mothers to know their name, it is nice to have the option to give out a false name.  The beauty of it, is no one -should- know it's a fake name, IC'ly.

I don't see it as twinking, personally.

[John]

The guy could be mis-spelling his name. I know I've done that in the past with hard-to-spell characters. One time I had a name that was similar to a previous char, so at first I was dishing out the wrong name. Boy was that difficult to RP once I realised what I was doing  :roll:

[X-D]

Shrug, Because of the way keywords are coded, and the docs stating that people would be wary of giving real names, I normaly have several alias's or nicknames in the keyword list of my chars when I make them, if one was to become too hot and since it is not a -real- name, I figure I could always have it removed from the keyword list.

Though I don't have a problem with somebody making one up on the spot, I think it would be neat to have the title command for yourself, allowing you to have one keyword that you would have to set but would go away when you log out.

[Boggis]

I don't see a problem with giving out fake names even if they aren't a keyword. I'm not sure exactly how the Way operates but personally my characters generally won't contact somebody unless they've gotten a look at their description or they're returning a contact from that person. My interpretation of the Way is that you need to have the idea of the person you're looking for in your head or it is impossible to filter through all the minds out there to land on the right one. So if the person is not cloaked or masked in any way and they give me a fake name then I'll just use their sdesc to contact them because I have the idea of them in my mind. If they're hooded up and give me a fake name it depends on how long I've been in their company. A brief conversation will leave me with little to go on and I won't be able to contact them. I play it that I need to have an idea of the person in my mind before I can contact them and I'm not sure how somebody telling you their name is Paul or whatever is suddenly going to aid you to find their mind. If I'm talking for a while to a hooded person then I'll play it that I've gotten a bit of an idea about what they look like (hoods don't hide everything forever) and I might try to read through their description and pick out what I think might be a keyword. Maybe I'll get lucky or maybe I won't - kind of fits in with me not having a good idea yet of what this person looks like. If they're fully masked up then I haven't got a clue. My last PC would always make anybody he met lower their hoods, etc. so he could get a proper look at them before he would start using the Way with them. It used to annoy me a little sometimes that somebody would contact my PC saying "Eh.. are you so-and-so?". I felt that somebody who goes to some lengths to cover up their description should have a measure of protection from people just using your name to find your mind. Anyway, all this is just my personal take and the docs on the Way have been left very vague to allow for players to make up their own minds.

[Callisto]

I think it's being a twink, not allowing someone to access you with a keyword.

Unless his short description is The Man, you have a whole selection of description keys to work with.

If you don't know them well enough to have taken a good look at them without hoods and veils, then you probably don't know them well enough to contact them in the first place.

[My 2 sids]

Yes, I believe it can indeed be twinkish, even if the pc is using an alias.  The reason?  Let's think about this realistically.  If you give a person a name other than your own, to make it believable, you've got to answer to that name more often than not.  If I tell you my name is Bob, that means I need to respond accordingly when you call me Bob.  Now if you give me a name, just to give a name, fine.  But, expect to react accordingly when people start to wonder if you're not being truthful.  

Suggestions?  Well, when people are creating a character, add an alias.  Even if you don't ever plan to use it, it's always there.   Or, keep better communication with the Staff... ask to have your keywords changed.  

:idea: As for the code itself, could we have it changed to echo names instead of descriptions?  That is, instead of "you contact the short, fuzzy man." one would see "you contact Yuba"

[RideTheDivide]

I'm surprised there's been no mention of barrier.  Those who wish to not be contacted have an option there...

[Tamarin]

I'm surprised there's been no mention of barrier.  Those who wish to not be contacted have an option there...

There's a "flaw" as it were with barrier...if you use it, you'll know what I mean, otherwise I won't go into it.  At any rate, it will not prevent people from contacting you.

[spawnloser]

It will temporarily...and the max stun drop is part of the magick.  Go with it, do it...don't give 'keywords' to people that are not keywords, I say.

[Carnage]

There's a "flaw" as it were with barrier...if you use it, you'll know what I mean, otherwise I won't go into it. At any rate, it will not prevent people from contacting you.

That's because it's a skill. The better your skill, the less chance people will get you.

[Lazloth]

It'd be nice if you could add to the keyword list on-the-fly (note: I'm not saying the reverse is true).  I run out of my @application aliases too early and it's clumsy to hunt them from the main menu.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I like the idea about contact showing the name, as opposed to the short desc.

I will also continue to give folks fake names if I feel like it. There is nothing twinkish about this.

[Bestatte]

The Way is one thing. But if the dark-haired man tells me that his name is Joe, and I

tell joe (nodding) Nice to meet you.
and I get "there's no one here by that name"

Then I'm gonna KNOW that isn't his name. That he's lying. OOCly, I will know, without a doubt.

ICly, my character is trying to "tell joe" something. There's really no way to translate that in text. ICly, it's awkward because I know, without any possible shade of doubt, that Joe is not his name. ICly, if I had to stretch it, I could assume I'm trying to catch his attention by "telling joe" and he isn't answering me. ICly, this is the only way I could explain the coded name keyword not working. And ICLy, that would justify my accusation that he is not, in fact, named Joe.

If you -really- want to be anonymous, either don't give out ANY name, or add a nickname to your list of keywords. Whatever it is you answer to, be it Joe or Poopie or Bestatte, that's the name that should be on your list of keywords. If you answer to 5 names, have 5 keywords.

I don't think that should be an issue.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

The Way is one thing. But if the dark-haired man tells me that his name is Joe, and I

tell joe (nodding) Nice to meet you.
and I get "there's no one here by that name"

Then I'm gonna KNOW that isn't his name. That he's lying. OOCly, I will know, without a doubt.

ICly, my character is trying to "tell joe" something. There's really no way to translate that in text. ICly, it's awkward because I know, without any possible shade of doubt, that Joe is not his name. ICly, if I had to stretch it, I could assume I'm trying to catch his attention by "telling joe" and he isn't answering me. ICly, this is the only way I could explain the coded name keyword not working. And ICLy, that would justify my accusation that he is not, in fact, named Joe.

I disagree very strongly here. When you type into your editor, "tell joe (nodding) Hello.", you are not trying to talk to Joe, the name. You are trying to talk to Joe, the person. The person is not a name, s/he is a object, a being. A name is a moniker. If you, "say (looking about the room) I know a guy named Joe." then I agree that you are talking about Joe, the person AND name. But when face to face with this person, telling them something, the Name has no bearing on anything whatsoever, and you as a PC, not the player, wouldn't even think about it on that level.

[SpyGuy]

If they don't want you to contact them or at least leave you in doubt they have two options:

1) Give a fake name
2) Give no name at all

You can't force the man in the dark hooded cloak to give you a name, if you tells you to call him 'Spike' you'd ICly call him spike.  I personally think its a little twinkish to think that since you OOCly know that isn't his real name because of code (look 'spike' doesnt register) you think that they're trying to "cheat the game" or the like.

Lesson to learn: Use other keywords or gain someones trust.

I personally think non-keyword names should be for anyone wanting privacy, keyworded names should only be used for nicknames that are immediately associated with said person.

[Anonymous]

So, Bestatte, when you use 'tell <sdesc term>' you're doing the same thing?

The bestatte-like woman says, in sirihish "Hey Sinewy man!"

I reject any stretch of logic that somehow has your PC knowing someone is lying to them because you cannot target them with the tell command by given name.

[Carnage]

As for the code itself, could we have it changed to echo names instead of descriptions? That is, instead of "you contact the short, fuzzy man." one would see "you contact Yuba"

Why don't we just drop the whole sdesc system too while we're at it?

[Nadav]

As for the code itself, could we have it changed to echo names instead of descriptions? That is, instead of "you contact the short, fuzzy man." one would see "you contact Yuba"

Why don't we just drop the whole sdesc system too while we're at it?

Nah, just remove the whole emote system.

[Anonymous]

So, Bestatte, when you use 'tell <sdesc term>' you're doing the same thing?

The bestatte-like woman says, in sirihish "Hey Sinewy man!"

I reject any stretch of logic that somehow has your PC knowing someone is lying to them because you cannot target them with the tell command by given name.

Agreed, it's an ooc concept you just have to play around.

[EvilRoeSlade]

The bottom line is, don't criticize, practice.  I believe it says somewhere in the documentation "If you think that dual wielding two large weapons is unrealistic, then don't dual wield two large weapons.  But don't go around telling other people not to."

The same rule can apply here.  Even more so, since I don't think anybody can say with authority exactly how the way works.  It's left up to the imagination of players.