So, today, I was on Team Fortress 2. I pick a server, start playing like a good little Spy. (Hehehe...my bloody suit...) Suddenly, out of nowhere, an admin demands that I change my name because it "might offend someone..." Before I elaborate, lemme explain my name.

My name is Super Jesus or Super Jeezus, based on the name. I came up with it randomly. I put an adjective with a noun, "Super" with "Jesus". It has been my name on all games ever since about mid-August of '07. It is me, online.

So this guy is yelling at me to change my name because it might offend someone. I said, "No. If it offends someone, that's their problem. It is my name everywhere. If you run into it, I was there. Shut up, lemme play."

The admin, the guy who was being difficult with me, kicked and banned me from that server. Because of a name.

Now, I would understand if my name were "Fucker of nubs" or something, but here's the question.

Should you kick/ban people solely on names?

Well, I mean, you do have those sensitive types online, who can stand continually being call 'fuckwad', several 'ur mom' jokes and variants, and so on, so forth, but who, at one mention of religion, and the ridicule, will cry to their religion of choice, and it'll become something which Jack Thompson and the like will pass around like a used condom. /sarcasm

No, seriously, I don't think the admin should've banned you. I've got a friend whose gamertag is something along the lines of 'plastic jezus'. It's a name, and as long as it doesn't offend directly, like say 'fukthejews' (or any racism or sexism), I believe it should be allowed.

I think that if the name is bad enough, like the example you gave, than kick/banning them because of it is totally justifiable.

No one with the name "JewsRGhey" is going to be over the age of 12, and they will likely start spouting rascist or generally offensive material in order to get attention. I would kick them just so no one else in the game would have to deal with that, and could play in peace.

I think it has a lot more to do with how you reacted to him asking you to change it. Would it really have been so difficult to change it? or to politely explain where you stand, not be a jerk about it. If you'd choose to fight over a silly name like that than just play the game you are playing for all the wrong reasons to start with.

^_^

AnGeL.SLayer:
I think it has a lot more to do with how you reacted to him asking you to change it. Would it really have been so difficult to change it? or to politely explain where you stand, not be a jerk about it. If you'd choose to fight over a silly name like that than just play the game you are playing for all the wrong reasons to start with.

^_^

I did, in fact, explain nicely. He was just too "offended" or somethin.

That guy was totally over the top. I remember on XBL some guy was going mental at another because his name was "racist Jew" or the like. So bob? Yes lets call him bob, anyway he was yelling at they guy saying that he was been bad to Jewish people, even though bob himself wasn't Jewish. It went on for a while until somebody who actually was Jewish yelled at bob to stop been a jerk.

If you think somebody's name will cause trouble you should watch them, and only ban them if the name is trouble and wont be changed. If the mod/admin is offended, tough shit. They're meant to be impartial.

ummm only if it is really offensive or mildly offensive combined with dipshit behaviour eg: purposeful team kills

Only if the name actually attacks a group (or a specific person), contains racial/sexual/etc slurs, or is otherwise excessively crude. (Or both.)

Screen names do reveal a lot about the people who choose them, but the only circumstances under which booting someone for their name is justified, in my opinion, are the ones I mentioned; simply containing something that might conceivably be offensive to particularly touchy members of group X, Y and/or Z is no crime in my eyes.

It's entirely situational.

I'd demand a kick/ban of anyone who uses an indeterminate number of spaces in their name to make it harder to squelch/kick/ban them, or other forms of trying to bypass authority. Likewise any name used as a method to impersonate mods/staff/members, or assfucks who use their names as advertisement, ban on the spot.

As to simply offensive names, harder to say... For anything in the universe, there is at least one person who is offended by it. It's impossible to cater to everyone, worse if you respect freedom of speech/expression... My take is what is the game/clan's collective opinion should be law. *I* don't have a problem with Jesus in the name, I could care less truly, and would side with you to defend your right to use it... But I am an athiest who loves pissing off churchies... On the other hand, anyone with 50cent in their name, I'd wish dragged out into the street and shot. So do we go with my opinions, or the clan as a whole? I'd like to say mine, but in all fairness I'm not the only one who exists... Except when I'm on a solophism kick.

x434343:
My name is Super Jesus or Super Jeezus, based on the name. I came up with it randomly. I put an adjective with a noun, "Super" with "Jesus". It has been my name on all games ever since about mid-August of '07. It is me, online.

So this guy is yelling at me to change my name because it might offend someone. I said, "No. If it offends someone, that's their problem. It is my name everywhere. If you run into it, I was there. Shut up, lemme play."

The admin, the guy who was being difficult with me, kicked and banned me from that server. Because of a name.

Now, I would understand if my name were "Fucker of nubs" or something, but here's the question.

Should you kick/ban people solely on names?

SuperJesus were a good Australian band. I don't remember them copping any grief over their name.
Plus, I'd much rather see the gamertag Super Jesus than Loser Jesus ;-)

One thing I've come to learn about the state of the world in my short life is that people are weird, and people are stupid. All of us. Otherwise we'd be boring. Every single thing that we do is considered both weird and stupid by at least one person, eg. we're weird to some people because we like gaming, but some people are weird to us because they don't like gaming.

You think this admin is an idiot for banning you for simply being yourself, and this admin thinks you're an idiot for using a religious name. I happen to think Super Jesus is an excellent name; whos going to walk past you in-game and not notice? Whether they're praising you or damning you, they're not going to forget you, and that's something you can be proud of.

So my answer really is that people with power can use it however they want for as long as they have it. The question isn't should or shouldn't he, but can or can't he, and as he's obviously proved, he can! Personally I think the man is dumb for banning you, but there's nothing you or I could do about it. You're always going to cop flak from stuck-up people for choosing a name like yours, but I'm Catholic and I can smile at it. Keep the name, and don't change it for anyone. If you want to be Super Jesus, OK. IF that Admin wants to be Sir Ban-Happy, OK. If I want to be Captain Never-Shuts-Up, OK.

(Although if your name WAS 'Fucker of Nubs' then we'd have a wee bit of a problem.)

My name is either Reterdopooplick or Crap_hat or Zeke or Zeke_haT

Never been kicked for any of them. I've been kicked cause I'm a twat.

That whole situation sounds as if the admin was being a tosser. The only reason there someone should be kicked for their name would be if it was something like "loljews4r3Gh3ylol" but isn't that a given by now?

Kicking someone because their name is blasphemous is correct and justifiable by god.
...No, Of course not.

Being offended because someone's name is the same as your imaginary friend's is just dumb. I have a pink teddy bear called Fluffz who I believe is my lord and savior but if someone joins my server under the name of Super Fluffz, I'm not going to ban the guy, But that may be because I'm not a complete retard...

If I had a server and everyone came in with different names based on different religions, f.ex: Super Jesus; JewsRGhey; MohammadIsASodomizer and Budda=Fatass. I would not kick any of them. If they started arguing about religion on my server however, I would ban their asses without hesitation, because I will not tolerate general ignorance on my server!..

I'd kick for names that are a direct insult to a person. I've had a whole load of people join with XXIsGey, XXFucksHisMum type nicks. (Replace XX with someone's name / handle)

If I were an admin, I WOULD kick based solely on name, but it would have to be an exceptional circumstance - I'm talking stupidly blatant racism or sexism here. Any instance of the words n**ger or c*nt in particular would be instant banhammer material for me. Hell, I'd warn people for any vulgarity in the name at all (which is odd because I cuss like everyone else in real life).

There's a time and a place for swearing. Your username is neither.

"Super Jesus" would be perfectly tolerable under my system. Whether or not anybody gets offended by it really is their problem. Hell, the name implies that Jesus IS super which, y'know... he IS. Dude walked on water. Dude was the frickin' SON OF GOD. Sounds pretty super to me.

I'm going to go with "It depends."

If it's my server, I like to run a clean ship. You can't always tell a lot about a person based on their name, but some things do shine through. I'd kick a guy named "Fart Sniffer" (or whatever) because it's clear that his humor isn't going to mesh with mine, and furthermore he's probably under 14 and I'm just a bit too old to be hanging out in that age bracket.

I probably won't kick you if your name contains Dark, Stab, Shadow, Claw, Raven, Talon, or Black; but I'll definitely roll my eyes. If your name is something like "Ravenstab Darkclaw" though, you're getting the ban for being a little too retarded.

Is it elitist? Of course it is. And so is this forum, which is why I come here. I don't like hanging out with hooting idiots.

- J

It is his server he pays for it. For example if some on lets you in their house but has a no shoe rule, you would politely take off your shoes. Or you could argue, no these are my shoes, I identify with my shoes, they are who I am. In that case I would say this is my house I demand respect or get out. Which, it seems like he did.

This is not to say I think is ridiculous based on your name, Jesus in your name would make me think twice of shooting you. But please remember to a lot of people this is actually God. A holy being set apart who's name should not be used in vain. I do not care what you believe in but respecting other people's beliefs seems to be the cool thing right now. So why not with Christians.

On another note, why do people make so much of us Jews ; ; (not at you guys, you are just pointing out what I too have seen).

Yay, a reason to listen to my thinking music!

I'm going to assume what happened here was a mutual misunderstanding. You and the administraitor have different ideas of what entails "mouthy", and thus you were banned. It's better than thinking the mod was a dick, I think.

And if the mod was, in fact, a dick, then you have my wholehearted sympathy.

Apologies abound.

only if its racist/profane/both. Then its kick-ban before they even say hello...

Mine in BF2 was Rommel_44, since he was an excellent general.
And yet, nobody complained, even though he was a Nazi.
You should ban people like "fuckchristians" or "jewkiller", but not many others.

this is one of those catch 22s, everyone likes to be a smartass, no one likes to see a smart ass. personally, I'm on your side, it could have been a worse name, like (jesusisdead-getoverit), but people are rather eager to jump on other people these days.
that's why I stick to something obscure. known only to the scots and the celts.
KNUMPIFY!
it looks innocent enough, but that in itself is a partial insult. it's an extention of knumpty, or numpty as the scots spell it, and it means to make someone look like an idiot. I've never been banned for this, and often do explain it when asked. I don't get why super jeezus got the boot.

"No, except under certain circumstances" - those circumstances being if it's really offensive. So in other words: yes.

I am called Piconjo, and nobody has complained so far.

Although most do not know him, because he was the scourge of Newgrounds, I just thought the name was funny.

I can understand if a player was offended and complained to admin, but admins banning for slightly r-rated names, like "shit in the ocean" which i got banned from 3 servers for, just seems pretentious. "Super Jeezus" isn't even pg-13. That's less than PG-Kindergarden. If that gets banned i guess names like "Killing Tigers" and "Wanking off" would be banned too.

I'd kick based on name if the name looks to be chosen to deliberately offend others. If so, then I don't need to add more experience with online jerks... the Internet will provide that in more-than-sufficient quantities thank you very much.

If I'm in a sufficiently bad mood, I may also kick based on name if I note a pile of "x"s and "I"s bracketing the name, as (to borrow a line I saw in another forum) "it's like stripes on a wasp's ass, nature's warning that beast is poisonous."

-- Steve

In all, the names I've used for online games are "IT", "It of all things", "Vizral", "Anarchemitis" and "Almost a Hero". I would be thouroghly surprised if I was booted on behalf of my name. Although in Star Wars Battlefront, it seems everyone is a little... odd in a way, to randomly boot people.
There's a player that is well known for his characteristic behaviour that gets him booted and banned from many servers almost instantaneously.

I say report to another admin of TF:2 and explain the situation if you remember his name.

Depending on what the name is, why would it matter? There are plenty of people with names like "DevilMaster","GodofGaming",ect.... so apparently someone should change his/her name if the name is "GameLord" because it might be offensive to someone else because they thought they were awesome?

But ofcourse, there are limits, like rasist and other types of names.

I just stick with my name, Jumplion, mainly so my friends and I won't get confused that WobleWoble is really Jumplion, or Pwnzors436 is really Jumplion.

Depends on how annoying the name is. If I ran a server, I would run the thing like the bastard that I am. Oh, and for the record, your name is kinda stupid, but it wouldn't constitute a kick because it might offend someone. In fact, I would probably use you to weed out the idiots with a mental capacity small enough to take offense at that kind of thing.

Nidenel:

This is not to say I think is ridiculous based on your name, Jesus in your name would make me think twice of shooting you. But please remember to a lot of people this is actually God.

Umm, to me it is actually God. I am a Catholic. I like this name.

@bodb: Muahahaha, let's do it. We can then spread to all server admins people with tiny ental capacity and therefor keep PC gaming the elite master race!

This is Ironic, I was listening to a podcast recently about this exact subject, only what were debating here is kinda reversed. So theres this guy that the hosts were playing with on Company of Heroes who was very very religious and would host theses online games and start telling people they had demons and that he could help remove them. But moving on to the name related business, the hosts would often join his games because he was a relatively fun guy to play with. But when ever they'd see a player join with a much higher victory count then their own, they'd find some way to convince the host that the player's name was blasphemous and disrespectful towards Jesus and sure enough, the host would kick them. The way they told it made it sound really funny, its GFW from 1up if anyone's curious.

I've seen this sort of thing online all the time, and i personally believe it shouldn't be an issue. Unless its something like IeatJEWS4DINNER then obviously the guy is asking for it, otherwise just leave things be and let people do some fraging.