Ns Identity Consistency

[scooter-blue]

Flayra just did something that I consider to be very, very strange.  He made a post saying that they've redone the NS site and that the new one will be put in place soon.  Okay, cool.  But here's the thing:  On the new site, your forum name will only be allowed to consist of upper case letters, lower case letters, and spaces.  According to his calculations, this will affect 34% of the names.  He's also encouraging people to use the same name on the forum, in IRC, and in game.

This just strikes me as very peculiar.  I have never heard of any other game community doing anything like this.  There's just no clear reason I can think of to not allow numbers, clan tags, more than 4 capital letters, underscores, hyphens, or whatever else in a name.  What gives?  Is this stage one of the B.U.S.?  :lol:

Anyway, if you have a name on the NS.org forums that violates the new naming codes, you can check what your new one will be set to here:
http://www.unknownworlds.com/handle_analysis.html

And here's Flayra's post:
http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/in...showtopic=85585

[holy_devil]

perhaps its a step towards trying to make the names appear more mature or acceptable, since he IS starting a company after all. just a random thought, tho.

[Malevolent]

Yeah, it probably has to do with the BUS or just starting the new company. If it has to do with the BUS, it's probably so everyone will know who you are no matter where you are (IRC, etc.). And it might have something to do with stat tracking, too.

[rad4Christ]

Well, my forum name on NS is .tim., so I lose periods, but no prob. the thing is... that's REALLY general. and radFORChrist just leaves something to be deisred...

[Mr.Bill]

It's pretty obvious lfayra is just getting us ready for his futuristic army for wwhen the kharaa find earth, I mean come on, first he trains us, now he's almost labling us, so we have specific names, then e'll make squads (consties?) and bam he'll have an elite army of commando ninja's ready to do his bidding....

[Niteowl]

i think NS, more than the other games i've played, kinda demand you to have a name that's pronouncable (yes, i know, i know [OldF]Niteowl-TSA is a mouthful), but the zillioins of variations of leet speak names and gobbly gook that make it HELL on a commander to give orders, really is painful. Likewise it makes it hard to ask so and so to get to double, or please drop another DC, or just go fade already.

in short, his restrictions make names that are usually easier to see at first sight.  

but, uh, i'm not sure why he's setting that restrictions for the site.

[TheMunch8]

Nightowl is just fine, Or Owl

He takes off the clan tags because they change so often for most people.  He Will insert clans elsewhere, and have 'official ns clans' which you register on the site etc.  
His new game might also have to register on the site, and then your name shows up in game, who knows.  He is consolidating the community to get ready for a move to a new game.

[Guspaz]

i think NS, more than the other games i've played, kinda demand you to have a name that's pronouncable (yes, i know, i know [OldF]Niteowl-TSA is a mouthful), but the zillioins of variations of leet speak names and gobbly gook that make it HELL on a commander to give orders, really is painful. Likewise it makes it hard to ask so and so to get to double, or please drop another DC, or just go fade already.

in short, his restrictions make names that are usually easier to see at first sight. 

but, uh, i'm not sure why he's setting that restrictions for the site.

[snapback]33685[/snapback]

I think your name would become "OldFNiteowl TSA" or maybe "Niteowl TSA" or "NiteowlTSA" or something.

But Flayra said he'd definitely allow people to change their name after the corrections are made, so you'd be able to change it to "Niteowl". Or "Niteowl TSA" since spaces are allowed.

Many of us are unaffected though. Like "Guspaz". Nothing changes. Cheez loses his !, but I don't think his forum name had that either.

And yeah, somehow I suspect this ties into the BUS, and somehow these names will be used in-game.

I listened to that interview the other day (the one from the 15th), at this point 3.0b6 is expected to have phase one of the BUS implemented in code (But disabled and hidden), and at that point Flayra said they'd let slip a bit more info since the BUS will be closer to completion.

Flayra was also saying pretty grand things about the game though, saying that no other game has done it before, and it will change the way that ALL games are played. He said it may not be as unique or different as the FPS/RTS hybrid genre he helped define, but still pretty big.

[Necrosis]

Well if its forum/irc/game integration then it would be pretty big.

In pure gamer terms tho I think its handy for communication between people you know on a forum and people you know in the game. Perhaps means popular or well known players can be spotted, as well as spotting griefers.

[LowCrawler]

He probably just wants the whole thing to sound more professional and mature. Flayra mentioned on the interview what NS forum is like vs a CS forum or steampowered forum, and hes absolutely right. the other places are nothing but a buch of snobby geeks with their numberspeak and all that crap...

as for the BUS i havent the slightest idea what a BUS even means. Only kinda BUS ive ever heard of is on NS_ayumi and it has cool music.

[Niteowl]

my name on both forums is the same, plain old niteowl. he of the paunch with the glasses and neato flying owl vehicle (btw, the name of that vehicle is.. ARCHIE!! OMGWTFBBQHAX!!)

[Reasa]

Can't seem to get in the forums at all now, but these changes sound interesting, wonder what he has up his sleeve.

[confused!]

i have tragically lost my exclaimation point, which makes me sad. now i am merl confused its so much less emphatic:(

[TheMunch8]

The forums and site is down right now

[Reasa]

Does anyone else get the thing asking for a password when they try and get onto the site?

[TheMunch8]

Flayra is switching to the news ite, so only people with the password can see it till it is ready.

[X-S-Z]

Great, im X S Z now.  

[SwiftSpear]

I didn't agree with the removal of numbers or the -

Athough I agree compleatly that clan tags have no place in a forum and also with the excessive capitols being really annoying.

We'll see how everything turns out.

[Necrosis]

People might respect others more if there's no prejudice created by the presence or absence of gobbledegook before and after your name.

[Malevolent]

You know, that is why plain old regular words capitalized at the beginning make so much sense.

/me points at my name.