Greetings Earthlings. I'm currently working out the details of a game concept that I've been tossing and turning in my head for over a year. I'll cut out the long corny introduction though and start with what the subject line indicated: I seek input on some of the ideas for it- but they are mostly just logical questions because I've got 80% of the concept worked out and know how to get it done... but, as many of you might know, the last 20% require 80% of the overall time ^_^ Here's Number 1: It's a MMORPG that will be done in PHP with MySQL, without any requirements towards the user other than having an internet browser on their computer and knowing how to use it. No downloads required (not even Flash Plugins). The game has a strong focus on the community, to a point where new users will mainly be joining by being invited by existing users (only a small group of outsiders will be "drawn" from a pool of applications every now and then- kind of like the greencard lottery ^_~ )... so here's the thing: I want Name Heredity. To do this, I was thinking about basing the names (that the players can choose) on syllables (each syllable referring to a letter in the alphabet, thus allowing each user to invite a maximum of [only] 26 other users)... and the last syllable before the new one is the one that the inviting user once picked. This means, the first user ever to join will have a short name (one syllable), corresponding to the letter "A". The second user will be "B", etc. The first user that user "A" invites, will have the name corresponding to the code "AA", the first that user "B" invites will be "BA", etc. Of course the users don't see this internal code, they only see the name made up from the corresponding syllables. But this concept is a bit... weird. I don't want people to be able to completely make up names (partially to prevent mockery, profanity, etc.) so it's a good start, I think- but syllables make the names sound odd and it's not "round" enough. The game will be "a tad bit" technical- so some illegible code as a name might work too... but I am still gathering ideas. The reason for the Heredity is because I like the concept of seeing how the system grew- and to have a closer tie between the users in the community- by carrying the same "family name" (precedent syllables), kind of. But I'm thinking that in the 4th or 5th depth, the names will be really long- even with just 2-letter-syllables, that's still already 10 letters. Can any of you give me thier input? I'd greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions on the details or background of the game, let me know ^_^ Best regards, Marcel

Why don't you simply just use the method society already has in place: take the last name. Allow the first batch of players to develop their own names (using some sort of screening code), and then all players they invite would have last names...with slight variations as more and more generations go on. So the "root" would be there, but it would be slightly different. As players distance themselves from the root family, the name could change more.

Example:

Generation 1: Denerville
...
Generation 5: Dennyville
...
Generation 15: Dennyfeel
...
Generation 20: Dennyfield

(obviously, a litterary spin-off ;))

Another simple example is my family name. McKnight, over the ages, has formed many different variations. Check 'em: MacKnight, MacKnyght, MacNaught, MacNaight, MacKnaught, MacKnaight, MacNight, MacNyght. As you can see, they all contain the same "root" idea...but are slightly different.

That might be pretty cool. Infact, you could create a "marriage" system. Married couples get 2 invites. As you "marry" out of your blood, your name becomes more and more diluted. Something like that would be pretty freakin sweet.

That is actually not a bad idea at all-

I was already thinking to maybe just *internally* keep the information who invited who and not make it visible- and your idea adds a nice touch towards "making it a community" with the feeling of belonging to a family (literally, in this relation), while still preventing too-long, pretty much nonsense names (through syllables).

Some added info that might be neccessary for nameing-ideas:

The users will be "living" in virtual compounds- kind of like cities, you might say... and those cities grow larger in size as more users enter them. But as I already indicated (by using the plural of city), there are several of those systems and they can eventually "meet" at the outskirts through expansion.

Now I will definitely name those cities- or maybe name them after the first user to start a new one (which, so far, is planned to happen automatically, when more users join than the system can hold)... or maybe at that point, the new city will be the new family name and the name of the users (kind of the "first names") in it will still grow according to the syllable-system within the city.

So on one end there will be the name of the- let's call it city- and then the name of the users (or rather, their avatars) living in it... I'll give this thought some further consideration ^_^

Another one of the reasons why I thought of making it a syllable thing is so that someone can tell you've been around a long time, because your name is short... kind of like a founding member, you might say ^_^

Stay tuned ^_~