True Definition of Impersonation and how it affects gameplay

[Simon.]

   Impersonation is by definition the act of pretending to be someone that you are not. I was recently banned for "Impersonation" however using a similar name to someone does not fit the definition of pretending to be them. If someone were to ask me while I'm in game as "King_James_of_Tripoli" if I am the "real" James I always responded with something like no or no I'm King James of Tripoli, not Acre. So that brings up the question, does an admin who I am "impersonating" have the right to ban me for having a similar name? No. I do not think they do. Pretty much anyone you ask will say that we were not impersonating, and that when asked if we were the "real" ones we always responded with the simple answer no, and made it clear we were not Acre.

They actually were very specific in chat that they were not Acre. They said repeatedly they were from PW and that they had not affiliation to Acre. Yes they did use your names, but to parody ya'll, not to impersonate.

Can you really copyright/trademark the name "james" in crpg? Strange times we live in...

To sum this up, were we really impersonating? In my opinion I do not believe so, however if you think otherwise feel free to explain why you feel like that.
   

[Penitent]

We have people posting cheats in the main forum, and encouraging everyone to use it -- he gets a warning.

We have someone using a similar name as someone else and he gets a ban.

What is the world coming to?  Crpg -- what have you become...





Edit: to be fair, the current "cheater's" fate is being discussed by admins.  How much discussion did this ban get?

[W0LF]

I like how other admins saw it as fine but, James sees it fit for a ban.

[Duster]

This seems like a pretty clear-cut case of admin abuse in my opinion. The guys doing this were obviously not impersonating acre players, but the joke got under James' and acre's skin so he used his power to make them stop.

When "Zlots" was banned, the ban made sense. The impersonation was obviously done to try and get the real zlots banned. In this case, however, James is working against the spirit of the rule because he was upset. I, and many other crpg players, would like to see this case reviewed as well as James' adminship.

[Torben]

wait what, james banned james? 

[mcdeath]

If they were really trying to play like the members of Acre they were impersonating then they would have been on the bottom of the scoreboard every map.

[Moncho]

wait what, james banned james?

If only...

[Sandersson Jankins]

Yeah, I ain't down with this.

I mean shit, it ain't even CLOSE to recent impersonation bans or cases in history past. Like, Arclegos got a ban for copying Daruvian's name with the classic o-0 thing. Some motherfucker got banned for impersonating Zlotz in the same manner.

This motherfucker here made a pretty funny, albeit REALLY confusing (especially to those not sober during its posting) meme on the forums and did nothing aside from re-use "King James".

Dog, I should be able to make my name as King_James_Taintrider if I jolly well want to. My middle name's James, and I bet you ain't even got it in your full name!

Edit: Renamed STF to New_King_James_Version in solidarity

Oh also view my signature for an appropriate explanation of events taking place

[Artyem]

I guess I'll jump in now.

Assuming you had only taken James' name, I probably wouldn't have even considered it impersonation.  However, there are several alts with the names of Acre members and they've all been seen in-game, and James has had to clarify several times that they are not actual Acre members.

W0LF has Knight_Chumley_of_Tripoli and Knight_Brutus_of_Tripoli
Sitvek has Marshal_Joan_of_Tripoli
Simon has King_James_of_Tripoli
Blackpanda has Viceroy_Mathew_of_Tripoli
Tristan has Prince_Mcsanders_of_Tripoli
Ufoinsky has Duke_Bauer_of_Tripoli
(there was also an Axeman character, but they changed their name)

Whether intended to be a joke or not, you're literally just ripping the names from one clan and throwing a different set of tags on them.  Did you have permission from them to do that?  Apparently not, and that's ultimately what matters in a case like this.

While your intent may not be malicious, it's still technically impersonation and you are expected to change your name.  Nobody should even need to be banned over this, it's common sense, which is the golden rule.  Change your names and that'll be the end of it.

I like how other admins saw it as fine but, James sees it fit for a ban.

This is incorrect, HungryNBroke and myself both agreed on forced name changes before James even took action.

I mean shit, it ain't even CLOSE to recent impersonation bans or cases in history past. Like, Arclegos got a ban for copying Daruvian's name with the classic o-0 thing. Some motherfucker got banned for impersonating Zlotz in the same manner.

You're right, it isn't the same situation at all.  I don't think that anybody should be banned over this, and I certainly wouldn't put down anything longer than an hour just to see a name change put through.  James himself agrees with me on that, and as far as I know that's all that has happened so far.

[Simon.]

I guess I'll jump in now.

Assuming you had only taken James' name, I probably wouldn't have even considered it impersonation.  However, there are several alts with the names of Acre members and they've all been seen in-game, and James has had to clarify several times that they are not actual Acre members.

W0LF has Knight_Chumley_of_Tripoli and Knight_Brutus_of_Tripoli
Sitvek has Marshal_Joan_of_Tripoli
Simon has King_James_of_Tripoli
Blackpanda has Viceroy_Mathew_of_Tripoli
Tristan has Prince_Mcsanders_of_Tripoli
Ufoinsky has Duke_Bauer_of_Tripoli
(there was also an Axeman character, but they changed their name)

Whether intended to be a joke or not, you're literally just ripping the names from one clan and throwing a different set of tags on them.  Did you have permission from them to do that?  Apparently not, and that's ultimately what matters in a case like this.

While your intent may not be malicious, it's still technically impersonation and you are expected to change your name.  Nobody should even need to be banned over this, it's common sense, which is the golden rule.  Change your names and that'll be the end of it.

This is incorrect, HungryNBroke and myself both agreed on forced name changes before James even took action.

W0LF was on just a few minutes ago as Chumley and James didn't say anything. I see this as more of James being angry that someone is using his name since he clearly doesn't care if they use Chumley's. Other than W0LF, myself, and Sitvek last night I don't think any of the others have even been ingame after the first day we did it either. As I quoted in the original post, we were VERY specific that we were not Acre. Not once did we say we were associated with them in anyway, although the names were the same the first day after james threatened to ban me, most of them changed the spelling. As well as Bauer doesn't even play anymore so that shouldn't be a problem.

[W0LF]

This was literally just a lighthearted joke, and everyone seemed to be fine with it. Chumley even went along with me being him, and asked our group for a picture when we were all in duel. I doubt we really caused any harm to anyone. Its not like we are going around tk'ing in the hopes of getting Acre members banned. Pretty much everyone in game knew it was a joke and seemed to be fine with it. The stupid part is that all we need to do is add one letter into our names for it to be ok, like that one letter makes all the difference. I guess Chumbley will fight on now.

[Artyem]

Yeah, it's a joke and even I laughed at your first thread.  That's why nobody has been banned for weeks / months like in previous cases.  Most of you are getting the chance to put in a name change request without even being banned.

[Sandersson Jankins]

Although I think the rule is pretty silly, at least you guys that got the admin's shitstick can be reasonably sure that it wasn't because of favoritism, at least, if you'll listen to me.

I've done plenty of grey-area shit before, although nothing TOO heinous (at least blatantly in order to get caught :^)), but I've only been banned a few times. Once was Partyboy when he got admin from Shik, in which my whole clan playing that night got banned for using the word "racist frenchman". Personally, I took the ban for saying "i am a tremendous cock-mongling racist frenchman". Worth.

Another was when I spammed I-chat with incredibly racist epithets. Really for no reason; I was very drunk. Grannpappy didn't know who it was because I was on a random STF, but once I messaged him he actually apologised to ME and unbanned me, rofl.

Oh, anyway, the only real ban I've gotten was for teamkilling a clanmate (against while drunk) blatantly at 3am. Artyem banned me for a while. He was, uh...in teamspeak with me at the time.

The only time I've been banned in earnest is from Artyem, who was in my strat faction at the time and also a good internet homie.

Of course, I think the rule is fucking shitty and this is a decent sort of style of banter that shouldn't be worthy of any enforcement or punishment. But there's a difference between ass-tier admin codes and admin abuse through personal motivation.

[Tristan_of_Erzoth]

the dumbest ban i've ever gotten myself into was at like 2am after getting purpsefully TK'd by an admin, the next round I went hard core edgy teenager and ass annihilated as many team mates as I could in spawn. I got banned obviously but got unbanned like 30 mins later after agreeing to come back and apologize to everyone personally.

[vipere]

HI, I know it's NA Drama in there, but, can i come in ?

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