Ship Names

[Lè Neal E.]

I always wondered why I can't name my Ship Enterprise or so is it because the name is Copyright protected or is it because the Enterprise F has the name already?

[Dave of Infamy]

yes its copyright you also cant use alot of the names from ds9 on your ships or alts...

this is why i have ship names like
I.K.S. Bain Of Kirks Perenium
U.S.S Deaf-I-Aint
U.S.S. Donkey Punch
I.K.S Assimulated Gagh

etc

[Running-Target]

you could use a 1 for the i in Enterprise.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by Lè Neal E.:

I always wondered why I can't name my Ship Enterprise or so is it because the name is Copyright protected or is it because the Enterprise F has the name already?

Originally posted by Dave of Infamy:

yes its copyright you also cant use alot of the names from ds9 on your ships or alts...

It's not copyright - you can't copyright individual words, that's trademarking, but you also can't really trademark the name "Enterprise" for use on a ship since it has been used as the name of many actual ships over the years. CBS has the specific term "USS Enterprise" trademarked, however... but even that is only protected in specific areas of commerce.

The answer is that Cryptic takes a "better safe than sorry" approach with certain names to avoid rubbing CBS the wrong way in the same way they did with popular superhero names in City of Heroes. They also don't want stupid people mistaking other players as official representatives based on them having famous ship names, though that was more a concern in the earlier days of the internet than it is now (most people aren't that stupid anymore).

[SotF]

I believe that it blocks out all of the named Trek ships because they're already in universe...so you see a few people with modified versions of the names

[cap-boulanger]

Doesn't really have anything to do with copyrights or trademarks actually.

The game has an internal "black list" which consists of the names of most canon ships, most canon characters, and several common swearwords. If you try to use a word that is on the list (even as part of a longer name) the game will disallow your change.

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by cap-boulanger:

Doesn't really have anything to do with copyrights or trademarks actually.

The game has an internal "black list" which consists of the names of most canon ships, most canon characters, and several common swearwords. If you try to use a word that is on the list (even as part of a longer name) the game will disallow your change.

I suspect most people understand that software can refuse to accept certain input... and that when they ask why they can't use a certain name they're really asking "why am I not allowed" not "holy cow, it didn't let me use a name.. what sort of sorcery could this be??"

[Smokerbait]

If this was a pure single player game, then I'm sure Cryptic would have no problem letting us all be the captain of our own Enterprise, but as it stands right now, approaching Earth Space Dock in your U.S.S. Enterprise and seeing 50 other ships also named U.S.S. Enterprise would really kind of suck.

The quickest way to make something less special it to oversaturate the world with it.

That's not the primary reason they restrict the name, but it certainly is a bonus.

[Taran Tatsuuchi]

Way back during the beta I used the 'Exitprise'.

[wilder125`]

Originally posted by Lè Neal E.:

I always wondered why I can't name my Ship Enterprise or so is it because the name is Copyright protected or is it because the Enterprise F has the name already?

try Interprise. it'll verbal pronounce the same way

[Uncle David]

On the U.S.S. NONPROFIT risk is not our business.

[CBRattler13]

Enterprize works

[NavFamG]

Pretty much every IP game has those limits in them. If the name was used in the books etc... than it's blocked in game.

[every1hasnames]

All you have to do is change the names in some way.


If you want Enterprise. You are allowed to do stuff like. NterPrize Or even simply adding numbers to Enterprise or any of the other ship names that you cant use.

[startrekmike]

As unpopular as it might be to say, I think the game would have been better (and more immersive as a Trek gaming experience as a whole) if players were required to choose from a constantly growing pool of ship names that follow the general vibe/conventions we see in the franchise as a whole. I get that this is (at its core) a standard issue MMO with a thin Star Trek coating on the top but it really pulls one out of the whole Trek thing when they see "USS DarkFalconSwordStar" commanded by "Raven Dreadkiller the former anti-Borg special forces super-spy who is daughter of Vash and Picard and the best Captain in all of Starfleet!".

[SotF]

Originally posted by startrekmike:

As unpopular as it might be to say, I think the game would have been better (and more immersive as a Trek gaming experience as a whole) if players were required to choose from a constantly growing pool of ship names that follow the general vibe/conventions we see in the franchise as a whole. I get that this is (at its core) a standard issue MMO with a thin Star Trek coating on the top but it really pulls one out of the whole Trek thing when they see "USS DarkFalconSwordStar" commanded by "Raven Dreadkiller the former anti-Borg special forces super-spy who is daughter of Vash and Picard and the best Captain in all of Starfleet!".

Most of the ships have randomly generated names following the normal conventions there for them...same with boffs, but you can change them to be, pretty much, anything you want outside of some minor restrictions.