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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I'm cool with that. Just give me the ability to have that name.
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Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
But by all means. Be average and common. Just be aware that if you can't find a version of the SAME NAME ALL YOUR FRIENDS WANTED... it's because it's average and common.
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How is "be uniquer" a fallacy? Isn't it just a mindset? What's false about coming up with more unique names? Is it not an adequate way of circumventing the supposed issue of "running out of names"?
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I'd say "be uniquer" is a fallacy because it is simply something not everyone is capable of. If your task is to compose music, how useful or valid is the advice to "compose better" or "be more creative?" If you aren't wired that way, it is pointless advice. It's like telling a color blind person to pay more attention to the colors.|
Originally Posted by Obsidius
How is "be uniquer" a fallacy? Isn't it just a mindset? What's false about coming up with more unique names? Is it not an adequate way of circumventing the supposed issue of "running out of names"?
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And no, such a person is unlikely to "want your help," which is a common response in threads on this topic.
More importantly, naming is a matter of preference. "Be uniquer" is just another way of saying "settle for something else" or simply "want something else." More often, on this topic, people are simply saying "be more like me." Truly ironic, when the topic is uniqueness.
While "being more unique" is a type of solution to this problem, it is not the solution for everyone. Changing the system is an equally valid one and a potentially profitable one. And more often than not, people who are so vehemently against changing the system cannot articulate why it would be bad or why they are so vehement.
The evidence in the CO forums appears to squelch the possibility that the system would somehow be mis-used. It appears, in my view, to be purely an aesthetic preference. If that is the case, I propose that what I name my character is more important to me than the names you have to look at on other people's characters is to you.
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I'd say it's a fallacy because it's impossible. "Unique" is an absolute. There's no such thing as being "more unique". Something is either unique or it isn't.
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Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
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I hope that this game never does anything like CO's naming system. I like being unique.
"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho
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Too late: someone else came up with it first. Start over. Think OUTSIDE your narrow box, please? If all you want is to be thought of as the same guy as 77 other people with that same moniker... well.. *shrug* Gotta be slightly more original in this game, and that's a good thing.
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Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
I'm cool with that. Just give me the ability to have that name.
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Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
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That's the thing about names though. Their beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The name "Robotic Pirate Ghost" means something to me, as it was an in-joke between me and my friends back in high school. |
Originally Posted by BrandX
I don't think many, and I mean no offense when I say this, would think those are good names.
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The name "Red Ones Go Faster" is a reference to Warhammer 40K Orks, who believe that a vehicle that is painted red will move faster than a similar one that is painted a different color.
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No thanks. I do not have to conform to your way of thinking. I do not want to be special. I want one particular non-copywrited name. No other name will fit my concept. What's so hard to understand about that? What's so bad about a narrow box, or simply being particular? Maybe a wide box just isn't for me.|
Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
Too late: someone else came up with it first. Start over. Think OUTSIDE your narrow box, please? If all you want is to be thought of as the same guy as 77 other people with that same moniker... well.. *shrug* Gotta be slightly more original in this game, and that's a good thing.
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Being forced to settle is NOT a good thing. And guess what? We're five years into this game. At this point, all potential new players are late to the party. Yet we want new players, don't we? Let's offer something to them besides a thesaurus and a "good luck."
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I love this quote being next to your standard-issue crab-pack and Arachnos helmet. |
Originally Posted by Vega
I hope that this game never does anything like CO's naming system. I like being unique.
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No, but you do have to conform to the rules of the game.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
No thanks. I do not have to conform to your way of thinking.
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Sorry, Charlie.
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/agree|
Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
Too late: someone else came up with it first. Start over. Think OUTSIDE your narrow box, please? If all you want is to be thought of as the same guy as 77 other people with that same moniker... well.. *shrug* Gotta be slightly more original in this game, and that's a good thing.
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I was so bummed when I 'Black Ice' wasn't available for my Ice/Rad Controller, and I wailed and bemoaned for all of the oh minute it took me to plug in Sable Drift instead. Which I prefer to the nth degree.
I just made a Freakshow-esque Electric Brute the other night. Of course the name "Statix" was taken, as was "Statikz," and several other permutations that I tried.
But rather than going the l33t route, I just chose a different name.
So far, I'm really loving how much fun it is to smash people's faces in with the name "Snap Crackle PUNCH!" 
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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LOL|
Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
I just made a Freakshow-esque Electric Brute the other night. Of course the name "Statix" was taken, as was "Statikz," and several other permutations that I tried.
But rather than going the l33t route, I just chose a different name. So far, I'm really loving how much fun it is to smash people's faces in with the name "Snap Crackle PUNCH!" |
Love it.
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Well, in my oppinion, intentional misspellings can add to the immersion. When I misspell a name because the original spelling was already taken, I try to come up with a reason for it in the characters back story. |
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
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.
I really, really dislike deliberate misspellings, numbers substituting for letters, etc., and consider those names immersion-breaking. |
As an example, take We R Legion. Currently, this is just a placeholder character (because I want this name for my Demon Mastermind). When I make the actual We R Legion, her back story will state that her real name is Wendy Rose Legion. When she became a villain, she simply shortened her real name to We R Legion.
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People were "late to the party" exactly 5 minutes after the game launched. Five years later, nothing has changed. I tried a whole bunch of fairly obvious names back in May of 2004 and they were all taken. Little has changed.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
Being forced to settle is NOT a good thing. And guess what? We're five years into this game. At this point, all potential new players are late to the party. Yet we want new players, don't we? Let's offer something to them besides a thesaurus and a "good luck."
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And, really, you consistently fail to address the problems of usability related to using non-unique names. Forget originality - it's simple utility where this idea utterly fails, and Champions Online is a shining beacon of that failure. I couldn't stand to look at my name in chat, nor read other people's names, because the system they picked to differentiate between same-name players (and you NEED one) sucked. Frankly, I can't imagine one that DOESN'T suck.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Unique monikers are not that difficult to come up with, it merely takes people willing to use the resources available to them and that many posters here have mentioned.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
And no, such a person is unlikely to "want your help," which is a common response in threads on this topic.
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Someone who spends their time wailing and gnashing their teeth because they were unable to use "Insert any common name of your choosing here", but are unwilling to use the resources mentioned has a problem, and it's not the games unique naming structure.
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How is "coming up with a real good name that isn't like all the others out there" "settling"?!|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
No thanks. I do not have to conform to your way of thinking. I do not want to be special. I want one particular non-copywrited name. No other name will fit my concept. What's so hard to understand about that? What's so bad about a narrow box, or simply being particular? Maybe a wide box just isn't for me.
Being forced to settle is NOT a good thing. And guess what? We're five years into this game. At this point, all potential new players are late to the party. Yet we want new players, don't we? Let's offer something to them besides a thesaurus and a "good luck." |
Look: your idea for a name was not yours to start with. Obviously - if it's already taken then do something different.
We've offered repeatedly to help out, and actually gotten some really good names out of it for folks. If YOU don't want to have a better, new, actually-original name... that's not the game's issue it is in fact yours.
Get that thesaurus. Why? Because it'll help you in the real world too. If you can't get your mind around using a different term for "red" or "fire" or "ice" or "hitting"... the problem is not with the game. It's with your lack of knowledge of the huge variety of words out there available for use.
Example:
I want to name a character "Fire Strike". But it's taken! Oh noes!
What about "Fire Strikeout" "Flamestrike" "Flickerhitter" "Luminescent POW" ... it just keeps going but they all basically mean the same thing: fire strike.
To me, and to most of the rest of us in this game with literally hundreds of original characters on our accounts, "settling" does NOT mean 'having to think up a new different name'. It means "having the same dull commonly used name as 90 other people already thought of". THAT is lame, imho, THAT is settling.
Is your name John Smith? Why can't it be Jalil Shakar? In the game, you have the CHOICE. If YOU choose to want the name "john smith", ... well, join the ranks of all the others - but be warned that it's just gonna be "john smith 12" for you.
How original.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
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Setteragic Oroblram was a ranger I created back in the day when I was playing Everquest. Peeps have mentioned several ways to "develop" a unique name but I didn't see any suggesting this method.
imnsho if you can't come up with a new name its simply a case of lazy or not even trying to be creative. Name purging or Vets having priority over others will not change that.
...just my 2 inf
<for those still wondering what "this method" is? reverse the letters in Setteragic Oroblram>
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Well, to play devil's advocate for a minute, there is merit to be found in picking a name and being able to use it immediately. Not everyone is interested in having good, original names (as all the Wolverines will attest), and I can certainly see how someone might just be turned off a character if he can't get the name that pulls it all together.|
Originally Posted by Cuppa_A61Sun
imnsho if you can't come up with a new name its simply a case of lazy or not even trying to be creative. Name purging or Vets having priority over others will not change that.
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I can see that, but within the current system, it's still not as big a problem as people make it out to be. It's certainly not a non-issue, but it is definitely not a showstopper, and I have so far not seen a solution to it that doesn't lead to a dozen other problems, all of which will then plague ME when I have no problems with the naming system now.
Still, let's not chastise people over unoriginality and stubbornness just because they want a specific name. Wanting that is very understandable. I'm not sure there's a good solution to it, though.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Jumping on this forum and asking for help.
Jumping onto google and searching "name generator".
Clicking the link to "reference.com" and hitting 'thesaurus'.
You can do those things while sitting in the character generator. I have a stack - and I mean a stack - of dictionaries, foreign language as well as English, thesaurus, books on gods and goddesses, baby name books, hell even just turning my head to the left and seeing my CD collection can inspire a new good name that no one else has.
It really, really isn't that hard. And I suppose that lazy isn't the right word. Stubborn perhaps.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
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Glad I'm not the only one that does that. |
Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
Jumping on this forum and asking for help.
Jumping onto google and searching "name generator". Clicking the link to "reference.com" and hitting 'thesaurus'. You can do those things while sitting in the character generator. I have a stack - and I mean a stack - of dictionaries, foreign language as well as English, thesaurus, books on gods and goddesses, baby name books, hell even just turning my head to the left and seeing my CD collection can inspire a new good name that no one else has. It really, really isn't that hard. And I suppose that lazy isn't the right word. Stubborn perhaps. |
I have a Roget's that I bought back in '77 and only now am I starting to worry about loose pages. Happened across a mint condition one that I snatched up and tucked away. Don't care for the new format, so I'm glad I came across a second one.
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Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
Jumping on this forum and asking for help.
Jumping onto google and searching "name generator". Clicking the link to "reference.com" and hitting 'thesaurus'. You can do those things while sitting in the character generator. I have a stack - and I mean a stack - of dictionaries, foreign language as well as English, thesaurus, books on gods and goddesses, baby name books, hell even just turning my head to the left and seeing my CD collection can inspire a new good name that no one else has. It really, really isn't that hard. And I suppose that lazy isn't the right word. Stubborn perhaps. |
That still doesn't address what people want.
And I think you know this.
Does using a theasarus help? Yes.
I wanted the name Striptease for my WP/SS Tanker (power concept was...she got stronger the more her skin was exposed to the air).
The name was taken. Used a theasarus. She's now called Divest. I like the name, still not the one I originally had planned. Though when I thought up the concept, I figured it was taken anyways. So I wasn't worried.
Do I love the name? Why yes. I do.
But I never would of settled on a name like "I Strip For Justice" or "5triptease" or some such non-sense.
Those who suggest such names, I have to wonder, do you even read comics?
This is the reason alot of people want the one word names. Because that's usually what superhero comics are about?
And this isn't the 50/60s anymore. You won't see the use of "Hero Lass" or "Hero Lad" anymore
The use of a real name?
Yes. It's done. Off hand, I can think of "Jean Grey" or "Nick Fury" but that's really more of the exception than the rule, in superhero comics.
And just because someone else has thought of using the name, doesn't make it unoriginal. The concepts could be different.
Before there was ever an Image comics. I was writing stories, and PnP RPing about a superhero called "Backlash" ...now look. I can't even bring that character to CoH, because the name is trademarked.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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I'd have tried "The Ecdysiast" first, personally, but that's just me.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
I wanted the name Striptease for my WP/SS Tanker (power concept was...she got stronger the more her skin was exposed to the air).
The name was taken. Used a theasarus. She's now called Divest. |
(Well, okay, I wouldn't have come up with that concept in the first place, because, you know, T-rated game and all, but you see what I mean.)
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Yes, I do.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
That still doesn't address what people want.
And I think you know this. |
What they want is to have the same "great name" that many others have wanted.
Only one of us gets that "great name".
To me that merely means that the name wasn't so great if I thought of it *second*. Or *eighth*. Or *twentieth*. It means to me: something else will make MY character stand out where that one might not.
People want *common*. But this game is about anything BUT commonality. It's about originality, difference, color, amazing combinations. Names should logically follow that.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
It is one thing to speculate on what the problems might be, but I decided to look around CO's forums to see if people are reporting actual problems. I found mainly positive comments, and no complaints of people using the feature to spoof people or harass them (with one limited exception described below). Nor were people complaining that they were seeing multiple people using the same name - I saw two different posters who stated they have seen that happen once apiece. Though limited in scope, and certainly Cryptic's petitions on the issue would be more definitive than forum poster complaints, this more or less confirms my gut: fears of harassment or multitudes of clones are misplaced - it just doesn't happen that often.
The one interesting exception was in the PvP arena, where certain people have started using the strategy of using identically dressed and named toons to make up their teams. So, for example (an actual example described), you could be facing several identical black-clad opponents named "Ninja" - but each would have different powers and serve different roles, so it would be harder to pick the correct one to gang up on or target first. Interesting and exploitish, but not a problem that would affect my game very much. Just another challenge to overcome in that context, IMO.