You may have seen in this morning’s Patch Notes that surnames are now available to be issued.
Surnames are a second name which goes after your primary name, separated by a space. It has to follow all the same rules as your primary name (e.g. no special characters, 12 characters in length or less, etc.) Your surname appears with your primary name on your in-game avatar. Your primary name is still the way the you will appear in Fellowship listings, friends lists, etc.
Unlike primary names, Surnames can be shared among multiple players. However, the first person to “establish” a surname has to agree to anyone else using that name. Once a surname is issued, it cannot be changed.
Finally, to qualify for a Surname you must a) have at least one combat class at Level 20, and b) have a primary name that follows the entire Name Policy, including the “We prefer” parts:
If you are Level 20 and would like to receive a Surname and have followed the Name Policy, please PM me with your Surname request. I will grant them in the order in which they are received.
It’s certainly more for roleplaying than anything else, so I guess it depends on your definition of “pointless.” Some people really care about that sort of thing, others don’t.
If you’re an old-school MUD player then it should be a pretty familiar system to you. But basically it just allows you to further customize your character by adding an additional “family” name. You can be the only one running around or you could have others in your family if you want (not necessarily marriage, but just like cousins or whatever you want).
Word, pretty interesting to see more role playing elements make their way into the game. I’d like to make a second character and just roleplay on t probably would be fun for a while!
Hmm. I guess I was in a hurry to play and didn’t notice a name policy when I created my character. Is there a way to change your name or is the only option to start a new character?
Hmm, I named my character by his imagined last name since I prefer to be called by it and I didnt realize there was a surname feature later.
If, in the future, i qualify and attempt to register a surname, could I change my first name so as not to have a weird double name?
Example: Name is Smith because I wanted to be John Smith. Petition surname of Smith, which would make me Smith Smith, which is terrible unless I could also change my first name from Smith to John at the same time.
No, you haven’t violated it, if you read the Name Policy, basically names like “NerV” are fine, they just don’t meet the “preferred” naming scheme, so it wouldn’t be eligible for a surname, but we also wouldn’t make you change it. If you want to change it when you’re eligible for a surname to be more like a real name so you can get a surname that’s fine.
probably would be fun for a while!