Character names becoming hard to come by
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2009-09-30 09:22 in Suggestions and Ideas
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This is an easy way to get into difficulty. The worst that could happen is that someone who knows the language a bit better will find your machine translation awkward or ungrammatical, like that Latin is. I know what it's trying to say, but you really want the genitive case there. The English word order makes it sound more like it's ice made of a girl, rather than a girl of ice. Puella glaciei would be better.|
Originally Posted by BaronVonSavage
i think the Thesaurus/Dictionary route is a good one to take. Also, try an online latin converter like:
http://www.translation-guide.com/fre...glish&to=Latin Ice Girl = glacies puella Works for me  |
You could wind up with unexpected double entendres or just look bad. I am especially suspicious of Japanese or pseudo-Japanese names. Remember the classic site making fun of Japanese people trying to write English, or using it for decoration? This works both ways.
I've never run into problems using historical, mythological, or literary names. Some of my more recent characters on Victory include:
William Shakespeare rad/arch def
Madame Nhu widow
Betsy Ross spines/wp scrapper
Spaghetti Monster warshade
Yansan electric/shield tanker
Ranavalona claws/wp brute
All of these names are based on mythological or historical figures, although one is from a slightly more recent mythology.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
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Ditto. |
Originally Posted by stever
Nope.
5 years of heavy altitis, and I just never have hardly any trouble coming up with names. Quit trying for Fire Man, Ice girl and such? Go ahead and put a couple of the names you are looking for here. Many people who keep starting a thread like this have let us help. You will get good suggestions. |
5 years . . . multiple accounts . . . and I have rarely had to try more than twice to get a name. On the rare occasion when the name was the most important feature I was easily able to find it available on one of the eleven servers.
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I got Working Class Hero and Luddite Overlord just last week. There are plenty of good names to be had out there.
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Originally Posted by Jadeus
I have noticed that when I create a new character that the hardest part of character creation has been finding a name that is not already in use. If there is anything a player wants it is unique character with a cool name. I do not like the idea of throwing a number after a name just to have a certain title. How about a name generator or giving veteran players some priority on names. I am sure there are pleanty of dead accounts that are soaking up some very cool names. Just a suggection.
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"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
I *always* have trouble with names...but then I suck at making names.
I do have my moments though. Just recently created an alternate version of an old character, his concept is his mom created a specialized magitech suit for him. My back-up was going to be something dumb like Magitech-Swordsman but luckily Golden Ronin was available (which describes the yellow electric armor).
Another suggestion, try adding colors to your names. We only recently got color customization so that's a resource not too severely tapped yet...at least I haven't. And there are so many names for colors...
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^^
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Originally Posted by Obsidius
I'm a vet player, and I have no problem coming up with unique names. And they don't even include numbers or weird characters or anything
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Last weekend, I rolled an insect-themed Shield/SS tank. I already had Wikipedia open to look up alternate names, specific species, etc. Imagine my surprise when I got "Shield Bug" on the first try.
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Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
I got Working Class Hero and Luddite Overlord just last week. There are plenty of good names to be had out there.
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@Roderick
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That is an excellent name.
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Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Working Class Hero
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"That's a full day's work, lad... and don't you forget it!"
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Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Working Class Hero
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Character index
The "be uniquer, let me help" crowd aside, there are plenty of people who either (1) would like the script to be run more often, in case that might help (though, for all we know, it could be run daily), or even better (2) would prefer a non-unique naming system.
Nothing breaks immersion faster than not being able to get the name you wanted, or even a logical variation of it. And don't even get me started on numbers substituted for letters or extraneous periods. Every time I see one of those walk by, I curse our restrictive naming system.
I'm sure there are brilliant people out there who can think of alternative names, but there really is no point in retaining the status quo. The brilliant people can continue being unique even if the system were changed.
Personally, considering how often this complaint comes up, I think that non-unique naming would be a financial boon for the game. Not only would people be more inclined to stay in the game if they could have their desired name, but renaming tokens would sell like hotcakes.
At least, I'm assuming hotcakes sell well. I see Waffle Houses and IHOPs everywhere, but I have no hard sales data on hotcakes.
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This is the perfect example of how people just see this problem differently. You see the naming examples above as the solution, and a good one. I see it as a symptom of the problem. |
Originally Posted by treboreleets
When I have trouble getting a name I want, I usually just misspell it and it gets me the name.
Examples: Desired name = Crimson Angel. Name I used = Krimzon Angel Desired name = We Are Legion. Name I used = We R Legion Desired name = Chaos Black. Name I used = Kaos Blak |
I really, really dislike deliberate misspellings, numbers substituting for letters, etc., and consider those names immersion-breaking.
Meanwhile, other people would have a big problem with non-unique naming in that seeing a second Crimson Angel down the block would grate on their nerves. However, I think its a bit of a fallacy to think you would see the latter happen often - I can't recall the last time I saw two similarly-named characters on the same day.
All I can say is that a feature like non-unique naming would be a draw to me, and I suspect others. Except in extreme cases, I can't see it driving people away, even if they don't see the need for it. I hope the developers consider it as a future feature.
I very seldom have trouble coming up with a name that I like.
Examples within the last few months:
Snowstrike, Magmaflow, Magnetic North, Realityburn, Amplified (that one surprised me)
All good superhero names, and all were available when I tried, spelled correctly even.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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Then you should have no problem renaming all of your characters when someone takes the names you chose away.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
The "be uniquer, let me help" crowd aside, there are plenty of people who either (1) would like the script to be run more often, in case that might help (though, for all we know, it could be run daily), or even better (2) would prefer a non-unique naming system.
Nothing breaks immersion faster than not being able to get the name you wanted, or even a logical variation of it. And don't even get me started on numbers substituted for letters or extraneous periods. Every time I see one of those walk by, I curse our restrictive naming system. I'm sure there are brilliant people out there who can think of alternative names, but there really is no point in retaining the status quo. The brilliant people can continue being unique even if the system were changed. Personally, considering how often this complaint comes up, I think that non-unique naming would be a financial boon for the game. Not only would people be more inclined to stay in the game if they could have their desired name, but renaming tokens would sell like hotcakes. At least, I'm assuming hotcakes sell well. I see Waffle Houses and IHOPs everywhere, but I have no hard sales data on hotcakes. |
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| All I can say is that a feature like non-unique naming would be a draw to me, and I suspect others. |
Another point about non-unique names is that, for no fault of their own, people with one of the more popular ones may well find themselves lumped together.
By which I mean:
I team with Drizzt79, who turns out to be an idiot.
I then team with Drizzt21, who unfortunately also turns out to be an idiot.
The next day, I have a chance to team with Drizzt34 (who is actually an excellent player and all round good egg) but pass because of the association in my head with the others of the same name.
However, it turned out that Smith was not a time-travelling Terminator
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Every now and then I see a character with an "obvious" name and a low level. Sometimes I'll shoot them a tell, asking if it's a reroll of a placeholder or other old character. Quite often, it's not.
My characters at Virtueverse
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