COMMUNITY - FORUMS - GENERAL DISCUSSION
The REAL reason why surnames are becoming banned and causing confusion!

Guys, I have read many posts on COE, where players complain about having their surnames becoming unavailable although the surnames do meet the criteria and are not banned words.

Recently, I too have begun to reserve my surname, and although it was available at first, it quickly became banned.

It is extremely ironic because after I was first sent the email of denial, I quickly went to the surname generator page to check if the email was really true or not, and guess what? On the surname generator page, it was shown that the surname Joker was still available on all servers.

My initial thought on this was "Oh, maybe COE has made some kind of error or something," so I quickly reserved the name again. In about 5 minutes, another email of denial was sent to me, and the surname quickly became an "Invalid surname" on the surname generator page.

My conclusion on this matter is what COE studios do after they receive your surname is, yes, they do check if it meets the criteria, etc., but then afterward if they like the surname or something, they take the surname for themselves as for future events or story-telling.

It is an unfair method to do, but because of their rule: "May not include any of the names or words in Soulbound Studios' surname exclusion list (profanity, copyrighted names, Caspian, etc.)," Soulbound Studios can get away with anything. This is the real reason why players' surnames are becoming banned.

Now I am not trying to hate on COE or anything, but I already know people in the comments are going to defend them for this action, and go ahead. If anyone can provide me a reasonable explanation, I am willing to hear it.

By the way, to defend my theory, I will provide some counter-arguments:

1) Joker is a copyrighted name in the first place which is why COE took it away. - No, because I have used this name in plenty of multiplayer games, and the developer has never done anything about it. In League of Legends, my name is SSKG Joker too.

2) Joker was probably on the surname exclusion list in the first place. - I do not really know if the surname exclusion list really exists or not because I cannot find it, but if Soulbound Studios really had prior knowledge that this surname will be excluded from players, why did they not ban it beforehand rather than banning it after I had reserved it?

(P.S. I do really have the 2 emails of denial for the same surname Joker, and I tried to use the snipping tool to copy and paste the pictures here, but it did not work. If anyone really wants to see it, I can show it to them in their discord channel.)


3/14/2018 9:12:43 PM #1

The number of possible names to exclude is crazy long. It may very well be that they did not include it until you tried to use it, due to copyright. So number 1 is probably correct. It doesn't matter what other games do, don't try to compare. Here, they are reviewing all names by hand. They rely on reports in other large games. Also, seriously? Trying to get away with such a famous name? Please.


3/14/2018 9:16:37 PM #2

Maybe they just felt it wasn't in line the with the game atmosphere and would ruin immersion so they said, "No."

Alphonse Joker, while maybe not as bad as Adriana Tacoface, is pretty immersion breaking, imo.


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3/14/2018 9:24:41 PM #3

Posted By ThatRasputin at 10:16 PM - Wed Mar 14 2018

Maybe they just felt it wasn't in line the with the game atmosphere and would ruin immersion so they said, "No."

^^This

3/14/2018 9:26:57 PM #4

Everyone uses big, "famous" names. In most multiplayer games, you can find tons of people using the name Goku, Ryu, or Naruto. This is just how people create their names. They get inspired by something and want to use it.

There is another post about certain colors being banned too, and that was not a big name at all.

I doubt Joker being a big name has anything to do with it at all.

Posted By Ravenlute at 2:12 PM - Wed Mar 14 2018

The number of possible names to exclude is crazy long. It may very well be that they did not include it until you tried to use it, due to copyright. So number 1 is probably correct. It doesn't matter what other games do, don't try to compare. Here, they are reviewing all names by hand. They rely on reports in other large games. Also, seriously? Trying to get away with such a famous name? Please.


3/14/2018 9:30:09 PM #5

It is most likely due to ímmerson reason, like Codemaster, the host of the EU Lotro servers, changed all names on the RP Server, that didn't fit the atmosphere of Middle Earth.

3/14/2018 9:30:30 PM #6

CoE has a specific feel they want in the world. Names like Joker (or any of the ones you just mentioned) do not fit with the theme of the game, and it was in the FAQ that such names would not be allowed in.

As previously mentioned, the way SbS was screening names, they probably didn't have Joker on the exclusion list, and so when you brought it to their attention, they added it to the list and made the name invalid.

Highly unlikely they stole it. CoE is just not a game for names like that.


3/14/2018 9:30:52 PM #7

Posted By Zunjin at 2:24 PM - Wed Mar 14 2018

Posted By ThatRasputin at 10:16 PM - Wed Mar 14 2018

Maybe they just felt it wasn't in line the with the game atmosphere and would ruin immersion so they said, "No."

^^This

No offense, but I rather not use names like uidfsn' sretreg (smashing buttons here). I agree with you though, it does ruins the atmosphere, but I mean COE should have stated that you can not use English names at all in the first place.


3/14/2018 9:34:51 PM #8

Soulbound Studios reserves the right to approve or reject any submitted surname. All surnames will go through an approval process and surnames may be rejected that are inappropriate to the game world, even if they do not violate the above criteria.

https://chroniclesofelyria.com/news/23975/Surname-Reservation-begins-in-March

3/14/2018 9:36:03 PM #9

Rasputin is actually entirely correct. Certain names simply do not fit into the world the studio is trying to create or outright take away from. It was made clear long ago that certain surnames would be denied on that account. If you want a list of names that probably won't be approved, head to Google and look up "famous characters."

3/14/2018 9:37:45 PM #10

There is a reason they do a manual review, and it is not to 'steal' your name for their npcs, those names on their list would have already shown as 'invalid surname'. It is because they did not feel it fit with the theme and immersion of the game world, sorry this is a subjective category but you were warned since right when they posted the faq on surname selection that it was possible they would deny your name.


3/14/2018 9:41:43 PM #11

Thank you for your feedback, I suggest sending an email to [email protected] regarding surname reservations for further clarification and re-reading the Surname Reservation FAQ.

Q10: What if I don’t agree with a rejection of my surname request?
A10: All decisions are final, Soulbound Studios are the final arbiters in regards to approving surnames for use in game.

Q11: The availability system says my surname is invalid, but it doesn’t have any bad words in it?
A11: Exclusions include copyrighted names, Elyrian lore names, reserved NPC names, and more. All determinations of invalid words are final. Choose a different name.

Q12: I think there is a bug as my name has no issue and yet the system is still declining it?
A12: You can email [email protected] if you feel strongly there is a bug. However, all decisions made by Soulbound in response to your inquiry are final and cannot be disputed.

Locking this thread now.