Unsatisfactory last name choices

Like to see some Italian names.....I mean more.
Problem is monga geeks always scream for them so LLabs is half brained to givem to them. LOL whats funnin gis a guy avie 2.9 m tall with a girls first name and japanese last name i told him it was a females name and he just said a few childish remarks of insults. Oh well.....

They're all "star trek" aliens: humans in rubber suits. Even the quadrupeds and things like probe droids and glowing energy balls have a human avatar controlling them.

Try making a pack of Tine from A Fire Upon the Deep some time.

I'd wouldn't mind trying, but there wasn't a picture at the link, and I'm too lazy to search... =P

That said, I've seen some pretty deformed avatars, it wouldn't suprise me one bit if someone made something that had no resemblance to a human. Simply use animation replacer scripts that replace all the default animations, and some creative attachments.

I agree with Moopf. We even can change the way we look in SL, so why not pick your own name, or even change it when you want to.
People use group tags to express themselves, why not let us change our names? I'm sure there is some kind of UUID linked to your avatar, so a new name doesnt mean your friends loose you on their friends list (but maybe that could be implemented too... change your name and you dont appear on other ppls friends list... could give some privacy in SL).

I dissagree about name changes. If name changes are to be allowed, it should be only once.

See, many other online games have grappled with this problem for a long time. If someone could change their name as they wished, what becomes of accountability? If the only real means we have of identifying someone is as easily changed as their eyecolor, how do we keep away those we know are trouble makers?

As for the possibility of people coming up with innapropriate names? To start, that's been a problem with every other game since the dawn of online gaming. Lindens would have to police names. The other option, and my favorite to be honest, is the idea of a random name generator.

I've never seen a picture of a Tine member. I think of something like an otter and a wolf and a rat and a seal... but the shape of the member isn't the problem, so much as the fact that a Tine individual is a pack of 4-6 members, you would need to replace the single humanoid avatar with half a dozen separate animated characters moving in synchrony, smoothly and realistically...

In a scenario such as Second Life, people purchase non-transferable items. It would be awesome to be able to keep your non-transfer stuff. This is where name changing comes in play cause it will keep your existing UUID. Unfortunately, "some" things will break due to LSL and how some objects are scripted. Just a small factor you will have to live with until LL created a workaround for the name change situation OR just decide that you will have to accept this kind of result.

Realize that trouble makers can still create alts and that alt account fee isn't going to stop them any bit. They will find one way or another to cause trouble regardless. So, to keep it pretty straightforward allowing name changes seems to be a less "policed" and logical route as far as accountability goes. Unless I am not grasping some other reasoning behind this.

ANY kind of hindrance, and the extra account fee qualifies for this, WILL keep at least some of the trouble makers at bay. Of course there will be ways around that, but they'll take some kind of effort, and as long as that's true, it'll discourage those not willing to make the effort.

I'm still against name changes. I'd only encourage allowing them because people who took a last name they weren't happy with would feel slighted if the system changed dramatically enough that it would have provided them a more acceptable name.

Oh, I think you're being way to technical here with the definition of what a Tine is. Or perhaps not technical enough? According to the definition, a Tine unit is 4 to 6 seperate biological beings. Thus, if you're looking to create a Tine accuratly, you'd simply have 4-6 residents using a Tine avatar, and they'd have to roleplay as one. Alternativly, you could script Tine attachments/followers/bots to act as the rest of your single "Unit."