For many players of City of Heroes and City of Villains, creating our own heroes and villains is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying aspects of the game. As mentioned in the End User License Agreement (EULA) for both games, though, there are several important rules governing player-created characters, particularly their names.

We’ve done our best to make the EULA as clear as possible (within the restrictions of a legal document), but there remains a degree of confusion and misunderstanding about this subject. This article is intended to clarify the rules regarding character names in City of Heroes and City of Villains.

Character Names
The most relevant section of the EULA is this one, in Section 4 (Account):

(e) Customer ingame ID. In order to use the Service, the Customer will have to create avatars and choose for them Customer ingame ID so that they can be identified by other Customer. He may not select as his Customer ingame ID the name of another person, or an ID which violates any third party’s trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other Customers to believe him to be an employee of the Publisher, or which the Publisher deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. The Publisher reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Customer ingame ID or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.

In simple language, what this means is that you need to come up with your own unique names for your characters. More specifically:

• Do not copy the names of or refer to existing fictional characters from outside of the games. Please bear in mind that as well as comic characters, this includes those from other media, including movies, books, television shows and games. Please note that alternate spellings or variations are also to be avoided – no ‘VV0lv3r1n3’, for example.
• Do not use brand names or registered trademarks of other companies.
• Do not use the names of real people, particularly those with a high public profiles such as movie or TV stars, politicians, authors, musicians and the like.
• Do not use vulgar, racist, sexist or otherwise offensive names.
• Do not copy the names of NPC characters that already exist in the games. This is particularly important when it comes to signature characters like Statesman and Lord Recluse, but also covers the names of individual critters. You can, however, refer to existing groups – ‘Blood Brother Slugger’ is not allowed, for example, as it’s the name of a specific type of Hellion, but ‘Hellion’s Bane’ would be fine.

If in any doubt about a name you wish to use, the first thing to do is to run the name through a good internet search engine, such as Google, and see what comes up. If you don’t find any references to that name being used elsewhere but still have concerns, feel free to create the character then immediately send a /petition asking our Customer Support team whether the name is okay.

Character Costumes
As with character names, there are some rules governing the costumes you design for your characters. The most relevant section of the EULA is this one, in Section 4 (Account):

(f) Customer-created ingame data. While accessing the Service, the Customer may have the possibility of creating Customer-created ingame data. He may not create Customer-created ingame data that is the name/description/title of another person, or which violates any third party’s trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which may mislead other players to believe him to be an employee of the Publisher, or which the Publisher deems at its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. The Publisher reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Customer-created ingame data or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right.

Again, in simple language, what this means is that you need to come up with your own unique costumes for your characters. Most of the notes above about character names apply.

Character Bios
Please also bear in mind that the same section of the EULA quoted above applies to your characters’ bios, as well as their costume. Please avoid referencing characters, brands, or real people from outside the game, copying the back stories of existing fictional characters (particularly well-known comic characters), or anything offensive or vulgar.

Violations
All violations of the EULA are dealt with by the GMs on our Customer Support team. In the majority of cases, if the GMs judge that some aspect of a character is in violation of the EULA sections discussed here, they will simply ask the player to change that aspect of the character (typically the name, although costume and/or bio changes may also be required in some cases).

In these cases, you will not lose the character, nor will you be stuck with a ‘generic’ name.

The ‘generic hero’ and ‘generic villain’ names are only used as temporary ‘placeholders’. In some situations, the GMs will temporarily change the name of the character to ‘generic...’ and send the player an email asking for alternate names for the character. As soon as the player supplies a valid, legal name, it will be applied to the character.

As with all violations of the EULA, each case is investigated thoroughly and judged on its merits. More severe disciplinary action may be taken in some situations, especially those that involve repeated violations of the EULA by the same player and/or are particularly unpleasant or offensive.

Reporting Violations
If you ever come across a character in-game that you feel may be violating the EULA in any way, you should use the /petition command (or select ‘Support’ from the in-game menu) to report this to our GMs, who will then investigate.

Conclusion
We hope that this overview of the rules governing character names and appearance helps to clear up any confusion. Our aim is for City of Heroes and City of Villains to be fun and enjoyable games for all our players, and ones that encourage and reward the creativity that makes our community so vibrant and exciting.