Not the name itself but what it is assosiated with and why we chose to call ourselves Exiles to begin with.Isileth wrote:1) Is the name itself actually preventing people from joining/making it harder to recruit?
What BD's trying to do with the Firefall group will be to a little bit different to how myself and others have recruited in the past on a person by person basis into an already formed and established guild. He'd be expecting quite a significant amount of people to form this new group with him and take on the exiles identity along with it. A name which regardless of what some peoples interpretations of it may be these days it is still and always will be linked to our separation from the Confederation and the shit that went down which was what caused us to leave and call ourselves Exiles in the first place. There's no denying this right?
When he's dealing with so many new people at once like this who would all be starting a group together, I can't imagine how a name discussion wouldn't come up in the conversation when he's trying to get them all onboard. What would exiles mean to these people? Absolutely nothing.
The Shattered Star name isn't a problem because that's who we've always been and is easy to fly. It's the exiles part which has the negative baggage attached to it.
I'm sure BD will come along and answer this as he's the one who will be trying to introduce these guys to this place but it just doesn't look good in all honesty. The name is linked to that split no matter how you look at it, that's a fact and those of us here from that time know it.And as a secondary point to this, if there are any actual difficulties is it because players are being told of something that happened 10 years ago with a totally different group of people like it still matters today?.
We named ourselves Exiles for a reason and imo that served its purpose. But when we're trying to sell the point that we're not like these other communities and that we're all about fun and friendship and all of this and yet we're still calling ourselves Exiles so many years after the place we left to become exiles closed and went about their business under a new name.. doesn't give a very good impression. What kind of message does that send out to people?
That's exactly what I tried to do when I wrote the "join us" page on the TOR site. Focus on what makes us different and our previous accomplisments and games we've played rather than anything negative. Taken out of context again but maybe if more people thought this way they wouldn't still want to hang on to the Exiles name which will forever be assosiated with such things.When recruiting can we not talk about what the group is now, its philosophy and playstyle, not its drama from the past
Yes if a group chose a name for themselves simply because it sounded cool to them. For us? No. Because we chose Exiles for a reason and there's no getting away from that. Your other point about "when most from that time have left and as many members have no clue what the whole issue about as those that do" just makes keeping hold of the name even worse in my eyes as you're right. I just see this as another point in favour of its removal.2) Can the name of the group not just be a cool name for a group and be left at that?
Exiles was a perfectly fitting name when we separated ourselves from the Confederation and kept the Shattered Star name in Exile. I feel it was just as important and relevant to myself and us as a group for many years after the event too. But since that place closed and we regained all of the domains attached to it? When there were no other Shattered Stars but us guys here?. No, since then I haven't seen myself as being exiled anymore or see the point in continue to go by that. Always a Shattered Star but not exiled. There is nothing for me to be exiled from anymore. It's not that I feel "bad" by being called one.but for those saying they have been "forced" to be an exile for the last 10 years do you really put that much meaning on the name that it feels bad to be called an exile?
Maybe forced is a strong word but it does sum up what I mean. If I don't consider myself to be exiled anymore because of those reasons then why should I or other people who may feel the same way still continue to call ourselves one when we don't believe we should anymore?. When it's not just any old name to me just as it obviously isn't for someone like Anny either (I'm assuming) since he's firmly against any change of it. To me it doesn't seem right to force, as it were, that name above our door and have everyone continue to go by it just because some people still feel as if they're in exile from something after all this time. Wanna call yourself an Exile individually? Fine. But why label the whole place as it after so many years and not just expect everyone else to do the same but to preach it to others too?
I saw "The Shattered Star" as the best alternative when trying to look at it from both sides which is why I started pressing that instead. Same name we've always gone by in some shape or form just without the negativity assosiated with the naming of Exiles. No new additions to the name here. No expecting people to call themselves an Exile when they don't think they should anymore. Just moving on as the Shattered Star. People can add exiles, society, community or whatever else they fancy in the games themselves if we wish just as they can now just the place we bring people back to simply refers to us as the Shattered Star. The part of our name which has always remained the same, hasn't changed or lost its meaning to some of us and its something which all of us are happy with.
I've tried not to be biased and listen to everyone elses point of view but I honestly don't see an issue with this suggestion personally.
And again I post: