Help Title

[Boe]

I was asked to start a thread about this to hopefully come to a consensus about the correct interpretation.

I'm only going to post the part in question as opposed to the whole help file.


Additionally your title should be an understandable sentence so that if a
mobile says it or yells it, as they sometimes tend to do, it will make sense.
Your title should be in character, and while the information can be used
IC, you need to determine if your character would know such a thing about
the character in question. The title is information that could be gained
by heresay for instance.

The concern that I have with this is the idea that one could derive the information through 'hearsay' and who has the right to say 'I heard through the grapevine...'.

The interpretation has been discussed with myself, another player, and an immortal all leading to the point that not a single one of us could agree. My personal opinion of this is that hearsay is relevant to the group of people that it applies to and those that it does not apply to should not have general access to that knowledge.

[Horace]

Title should be geared toward the masses, not toward a select group of people. Being this, I think nicknames are less likely and features/homelands/professions/faith/rank/race would dominate the list.

[Harroghty]

I believe that the first part of "help title" has no ambiguity.

This command allows you to set your title to the text of your choice. The
game supplies a title when your character is created. Your title should
state your name and your profession/occupation. It should not be a statement
of what you are currently doing. It should not sound like a want add.

Titles conforming to the first part will almost always agree with the second portion of the help.

Additionally your title should be an understandable sentence so that if a
mobile says it or yells it, as they sometimes tend to do, it will make sense.
Your title should be in character, and while the information can be used
IC, you need to determine if your character would know such a thing about
the character in question. The title is information that could be gained
by heresay[sic] for instance.

The only necessary modification from my point of view is to amend the first portion thusly:

This command allows you to set your title to the text of your choice. The
game supplies a title when your character is created. Your title should
state your name, your profession/occupation, or your claimed place of origin. It should not be a statement
of what you are currently doing. It should not sound like a want add.

I believe that people will generally be known by where they are from, what they do, and -in some cases- by a surname. Lancelot du Lac (of Lac), Ulrich von Liechenstein (of Lichenstein), or any of the examples in the current help file are instructive.

[Saranya]

I will stay out of this fray except to comment that this is an old help file and does not reflect how the title policy has been enforced or used in many years.

There has been a great effort in recent years (thanks Raona!) to correct errors in the helps and bring them in-line with current game policies. I am always surprised when the helps are referred to as an authoritative policy, because in almost every case that has been debated the help is changed to match game play...not the other way around. (I for one enjoy the flexibility with titles!)

EDIT - Since people are worked up enough to pounce on me with otells a second after I log on, I'll amend this to say that I know people are occasionally asked to change their titles. I have myself on several characters. I just meant it's not what it was in Sharni's day. Umm...peace out?

[Harroghty]

And a funny title once in a while is fine, but if this policy is being enforced then it needs to be adjusted to suit what is being enforced and it needs to be enforced across the board.