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General: What’s In a Name?

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

One of the first things we're asked to do on entry into an MMO is come up with a name. Our names reveal much about us as we content in Coyote's Howling today. Read on and then let us know your name and why you named yourself such in the comments!

There has always been one aspect of online gaming that bothers me. It stretches beyond queues and lag, and has nothing to do with graphics or storyline. It is a small, petty, minor annoyance almost not worth mentioning - but in the off chance that I save just one person from the downward spiral that society is being flushed into, I feel that I must.

Your names suck.

Read more Coyote's Howling: What’s In a Name?

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Comments

  • victorbjrvictorbjr Member UncommonPosts: 212

    I'm partial to roleplaying as Dodobrango, the Casanova Death Knight.

     

    Also, Sassy McPrissypants was something I used for all of five minutes in DDO once. :D

    A writer and gamer from the Philippines. Loves his mom dearly. :)

    Can also be found on http://www.gamesandgeekery.com

  • 77lolmac7777lolmac77 Member UncommonPosts: 492

    and of course the gold spammers who take eight lesser used consonants and combine them to form the hardest name possible to report.

    Or just the oddball who likes the name Xzzyxzyv

  • FangrimFangrim Member UncommonPosts: 616

    Sassy! I saw you! if it was around 1 month ago that is.....?


    image

  • LooleeLoolee Member Posts: 5

    I did see an "Obiwanbonjovi" recently.  That one made me giggle.

  • IcewhiteIcewhite Member Posts: 6,403

    Then, when the team wipes because of their inaction, they throw a tantrum and rage quit using their flawed perception of why everyone died to further fuel their own superiority. Which is actually a good thing as this should have been your intention the moment they joined group.

    The mistake being, of course, inviting them in the first place.

    Those names are a bigger flag than the players imagine.

    Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.

  • victorbjrvictorbjr Member UncommonPosts: 212

    Originally posted by Fangrim

    Sassy! I saw you! if it was around 1 month ago that is.....?


     

    It wasn't last month. Maybe a different Sassy. Hahaha. :D

    A writer and gamer from the Philippines. Loves his mom dearly. :)

    Can also be found on http://www.gamesandgeekery.com

  • TablixTablix Member UncommonPosts: 51

    What about the pvp names that reappear in every game you play,   PwndU  Uberzzzz Leetz and Gankz.  These people think that a name can intimidate or impress. 

     

    I find it is "generally" the younger players that feel  they have to treat themselves as a product or brand, older players I find are more likely to take a name from game to game as an online reputation.  I have had many persona's through countless games, and can understand how people get attached to them. 

     

    A related issue that I feel game developers miss is by allowing players to name a character, but so many miss the opportunity to help players avoid the situation of "name taken" at character creation.  Having characters with first and second names, rather than "using characters and spaces is not allowed", would allow people to remain unique rather than legolastwo or RaistlinMaijere.

     

  • SenadinaSenadina Member UncommonPosts: 896

    No, no no. The worst offenders are the vaguely dirty  names that cleverly escaped the filters. Names like rugmuncher, teasacker etc...So cute...not.

    How hard is it to just pick a name that fits the genre? Not hard at all, especially with most MMOs having a random name generator.

    News flash: none of you look cool with your oh so cleverly contrived names. You all look like asshats. Or should I say A$$hats?

    image
  • golabgolab Member UncommonPosts: 21

    Unless it doesn't work with the race at all I like names from old Norse or from the Icelandic Sagas or the Kalevala. I can always find something no one else is using on my chosen server no matter how many people are playing on it.

    As to hard names to report, I remember back when I played Lineage2 the bots I saw were all variants of illlliiililil, which is pretty hard to decipher onscreen.

    "As a foulness ya shall know them."

  • golabgolab Member UncommonPosts: 21

    Senadina

     

    Lol, reminds me of seeing a dranei named "Cameltoe" running around in wow a few years back, they were in their 30's before Blizz got around to forcing a name change on them.

    "As a foulness ya shall know them."

  • EcocesEcoces Member UncommonPosts: 879

    like someone else already said my favorite names are the "PVP l33t" names. Ipwnjoo, sirganksalot, Pwnzor. I miss my days back on Guinevere when names were actually changed because they had a stupid name.

     

     

  • astoriaastoria Member UncommonPosts: 1,677

    I've seen some pretty funny names in SWTOR lately

    A miraluka (the blind race that 'sees' thru the force) named Ray'Charles

    Obi Juan

    Jedi Clampett

     

    "Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga

  • NURTANURTA Member Posts: 21

    Cheesus, that was one of my favorites ;)

  • StormwindXStormwindX Member Posts: 168

    "But as a writer, role-player, and supernatural creature of darkness who can be summoned by saying his name three times into a mirror while holding the sacred chalice…"

     

    Coyote, Coyote, Coyote... 

    Nothing. WHY ARE YOU NOT HERE? You fake supernatural creature of darkness.

    On topic, I do agree with you on most points. I'm one of those "name your character in a way you'd name a real person/humanoid/alien/THING" people, and I find it just annoying to run into un-immersive names. Especially on RP servers... which is where I mostly dwell when playing MMOs. Curse you, faulty and/or lazy in-game name policing.

  • ZekiahZekiah Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    Naming policy FTW.

    "Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky

  • MMOGamer71MMOGamer71 Member UncommonPosts: 1,988

    Great post.  I often wonder, and laugh at people that use some of the names we see and I try to imagine the person that thought up (or lack of thinking for that matter) of the name.

  • rygard49rygard49 Member UncommonPosts: 973

    +1 for PCU reference.

    +10 for great article topic.

    -5 for only writing a column once per week... But, hell, you're up 6 so don't worry about.

  • rygard49rygard49 Member UncommonPosts: 973

    Originally posted by 77lolmac77

    and of course the gold spammers who take eight lesser used consonants and combine them to form the hardest name possible to report.

    Or just the oddball who likes the name Xzzyxzyv




     

    Like the anus who named this road:

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,435

    I hate names that are walking commercials, just saw SONY in L2 yesterday, and over the years names like Rolex, or Pepsi or anything else real world commercial mess with my immersion.

    Make a proper game name you morons! (even if its cute or funny) image

    Edit: Oh yeah, another major pet peeve, player names followed by 666.

    Not a funny joke, just stop. image

     

    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

    "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

    Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

    Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

    "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon






  • finnmacool1finnmacool1 Member Posts: 453

    If a name isnt offensive/racist/vulgar/copyrighted,etc i honestly dont care. In fact i think every uptight, anal retentive, busy body that feels the need to try and dictate what others should call themselves in a game should be sterilized if not shot dead.

  • karter64karter64 Member UncommonPosts: 96

    I don't mind creative names, even if they are out of character for the game. Like the Hunter named Dazed and his pet named Confused. (Dazed & Confused, hehe). That inspired me to roll a Hunter named Bonnie & I named my pet Clyde.

    I did have a guildmate once who would always start of a quest or dungeon by saying "OK, do we have all our ducks in a row?.  So I rolled a character named Duxina Reaux.

     

     

     

  • WhiteLanternWhiteLantern Member RarePosts: 3,306

    Originally posted by karter64

    I don't mind creative names, even if they are out of character for the game. Like the Hunter named Dazed and his pet named Confused. (Dazed & Confused, hehe). That inspired me to roll a Hunter named Bonnie & I named my pet Clyde.

    I did have a guildmate once who would always start of a quest or dungeon by saying "OK, do we have all our ducks in a row?.  So I rolled a character named Duxina Reaux.

     

     

     

    Made me laugh.

     

    I once tried to name my boar pet in WoW "Kosher". Game wouldn't let me. image

    I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil

  • TardcoreTardcore Member Posts: 2,325

    Meh. To me the whole naming controversey is a big load of "so f*cking what". If someone wants to pic a goofy name, no skin off my back. Its their in game actions that are important to me.

     

    I'm honestly not sure which faction in this little conundrum does more damage. People with mildly silly to outrageously silly names can indeed break game immersion for other players and that expression of personality can also foreshadow that they are one of the truly socially retarded that haunt these games these days.

    However I also feel the opposite faction of parsimminous, snobbish, dickweeds that make blanket and snap decsions about other players based only on a factor such as character name or a messurement such as gear score, without bothering to ever try to get to know the living breathing human being on the other side of the computer screen, are a major factor on why todays MMO comunities have become the festering snakepits they are today as well.

    Personally I feel vilifying and excluding other players for superficial reasons to be a shade worse for the over all gaming community than the player that decides he'd really like to name his personal character "Admiral Snackbar" or "James T Jerk".

     

    "Why do you ask, Two Dogs F*cking?"

    image

    "Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "

  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726

    You missed a few, the ones that use special characters in their names, mainly so you can't easily report them.  Also those that use all those "x"s and underlines surrounding a name.  Finally those that have to mix every other character with an uppercase one(nothing like announcing to the world you are 12 or under).

    Lastly this is a RPG you are playing, names are quite important to a lot of people.  So yeah, pick a stupid name and suffer the consequences.

     

  • ActusActus Member UncommonPosts: 48

    Originally posted by rygard49

     

    I knew I had seen that sign before... and now I remember that it's in the Cali desert b/w Barstow and Las Vegas... haha.  Named for the "town" that it goes to.

     

    On point though... I undertand the frustration and was annoyed for a long time... but now I kind of like the fact that these names speak volumes in a finite space, allowing me to either avoid or engage another player.  Stereotyping you say?  Hell yeah... when it works =)

     

    I would also point out names that are a little weirdly too lore friendly, though no examples come to mind (wracking my brain over where the hell that road is took a toll).  Heavy, heavy RPers can be just as douchey.

    Aurelion-Ellwaen-Aulric

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