What I dislike the most
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-06-12 15:26 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
When the name I want has already been taken, what I hear is "you're thinking along the same lines as 32,547 people before you. Think differently."
Why would anyone WANT a name that everyone and their 3rd cousin has? I can't think of anything more dreary.
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Originally Posted by CactusBrawler
If you have to change your origin story to match a name, that isn't being creative that compromising to a sucky name system.
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Originally Posted by Traska
One more thing: Before this goes any further, can we please pledge to break the cycle of how these threads usually go?
A: "I think that we should have a more open naming system." B: "You suck." A: "No, I just think that with the age of the game, we should take into account that the perfect name is no longer sitting out there." B: "That's because you're stupid, unimaginative, and you suck." |
You are also the only person I've seen use the word stupid. No one is claiming people are stupid.
Unimaginative might be inferred from my repeated comment of Be Creative, but even unimaginative people like me can Be Creative.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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You haven't "built" anything until your character enters the game world.|
Originally Posted by Traska
It's the very definition of being destructive: tearing down what you've built and building something different.
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The game has a limited toolset and creativity within the game world is defined by how you use those tools. You might like a hat that looks like a golden Unicorn head, but you can't have it because it isn't in the game.
You can either make do with the existing options (aka be creative), or you can sit down, make a pouty face and wait for the Name Fairy to come along, wave her wand and make everything all better.
I know which option I prefer, and it's worked well so far.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
I will say the hardest thing for me to do is get a good name.
Not in the "man someone took my name already!" way but in the...."crud...what do I want to name my Energy Blast/Sonic Res. Corruptor?" way. 
In fact, I had that dilemma this morning...just randomly did Sound Intensity and wa-la I'm in the game.
Sure there were times when I had "the perfect name/costume" but then someone already had the name...meh, *looks up thesaurus...ah okay that will work*....
*shrugs*
Could it be better? Sure I don't see the issue with Bob @Energizing Ion and Bob @yourglobalhere. Have an option in the options to not show the global name...or maybe have an option to only show the global name over the character.
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991
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I have had that "problem" too. I adapt. I choose a different name, and in many cases, it has mildly influenced me to change the backstory and I usually end up with a more interesting fun to play character.|
Originally Posted by Traska
My "shortcomings" include a vivid imagination where the character virtually writes itself. Thus, having a character concept in mind, going to make said character, and finding out that because the game is eight years old and therefore the name is taken, that I can't name the character is something of a wet blanket on the entire process.
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I have almost never had an issue coming up with a name for one of my characters. Click the symbol in the center of my sig and scroll through my character list on the Ouroportal. I know I like all of my character names.
Also, this:
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Originally Posted by _eeek_
When the name I want has already been taken, what I hear is "you're thinking along the same lines as 32,547 people before you. Think differently."
Why would anyone WANT a name that everyone and their 3rd cousin has? I can't think of anything more dreary. |
It's not a problem of creativity (I have near every server filled with characters, so I'm making them), it's a matter of not being able to play the character you want to play.
In non-superhero games, this generally isn't a problem... the chance that you're going to have the same fantasy based name as someone else is remote at best. But in the superhero genre, names tend to run along lines. Flame, Blaze, Fire, Spark.... Ice, Chill, Freeze, Frost... Mental, Mind, Psi, Psy... Using ice as an example, I honestly cannot think of a single comic-book hero or villain with ice powers that doesn't have some version of cold or ice in their name. It's just the genre.
Now, one can break genre (and go with a normal name like "Jenny Lewis" or "Jack Parker"), but I'm willing to wager than most people who play this game are superhero comic fans, and most of those fans started this game with the idea of playing the kind of character they'd read about. The problem is, the game makes it increasingly difficult to find an in-genre four color name. And saying Be Creative is all well and good... but that's precisely what I mean about in-genre. The vast majority of superhero names are:
- Based on main power
- Based on an animal or creature of myth
- Mister/Miss/Doctor/Captain fill-in-the-blank
- Color +fill-in-the-blank
- fill-in-the-blank man/woman/boy/girl
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Break genre, eh? Like Black Tom Cassidy? Like Jean Grey? Like Luke Cage? Like Nick Fury? Like... you get the idea.
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Originally Posted by Traska
Now, one can break genre (and go with a normal name like "Jenny Lewis" or "Jack Parker") [...]
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The need to adapt is caused by the system, ergo it's not the fault of the creator.|
Originally Posted by QuarriosSoul
But honestly? Unwillingness to adapt in general is the fault of the creator, and not of the name system.
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Originally Posted by Texas Justice
Unimaginative might be inferred from my repeated comment of Be Creative, but even unimaginative people like me can Be Creative.
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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
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Originally Posted by Traska
The thing is, I like four-color superhero names. And there's a limited pool of them to go around. (Don't believe me? Try making someone with a fire themed name that sounds even vaguely superheroish. Good luck!) |
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Originally Posted by Traska
My "shortcomings" include a vivid imagination where the character virtually writes itself. Thus, having a character concept in mind, going to make said character, and finding out that because the game is eight years old and therefore the name is taken, that I can't name the character is something of a wet blanket on the entire process.
A name is important. If The Flash had been named "Runs Really Fast Man", or if Cyclops had been named "Laser Eyes Man", who here would take them seriously? A superhero name is more than what other people call you... it's insight into the character. Thing, Superman, Juggernaut. All three have immense strength, but all three are utterly different characters. The Thing is unsophisticated, Superman is more than just a pile of muscle, and the Juggernaut is unstoppable. A name is part of the core character concept. Change the name, change the concept. |
How long have superheroes been around in the four-color comics? Since 1938 or so?
Someone today comes up with a concept for a new character and it practically wrote itself. They go to pitch the character (and perhaps a series with it) to a comic publisher and the exchange goes something like this:
P(ublisher): What's the character's name?
W(riter): Superman
P: Already in use.
W: (thinks quickly) Ultra-man
P: In use
W: (thinks a bit longer) Miracle Man
P: In use
W: (thinks for quite a while) Hyperion?
P: In use
W: Prime
P: ... Well Gerard, I think we can make this work. You and Len work up a few issues and I'll put you in touch with Norm Breyfogle. I think his art style will fit really well on this.
Sure, Gerard Jones likely didn't start out wanting to call his character any of those names, but he still found a way to find a unique name that fit a character concept he wanted to make over 50 years after superheroes first started appearing in four-color comics.
But the age of the system and how many names were already in use didn't stop him from coming up with a unique name for his character.
But let's look at it from a slightly different viewpoint.
What if he'd come up with the name before or even with the initial concept and gone to pitch it to that publisher. The publisher liked the concept and the name but then before they got started on the process another comic publisher came out with a character with that very same name. They'd likely go back and try to come up with another name that fit the concept, possibly by adding a minor bit of a backstory that accounted for the different name or possibly not needing to add anything.
That's all part of the creative process.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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I was rather surprised to get Texas Tech for a robotics MM about a year after CoV came out.|
Originally Posted by Tenzhi
It's not being any more creative to get Texas Noun when someone else can't get The Inquantumite. |
It's not always Texas Noun either.
Eyes of Texas
Yellow Rose of Texas (also created about a year after CoV came out)
Sometimes it is Texas Noun.
I've tried creating characters on a different server to try to play with some friends. I tried using 3 of my established characters names and all were taken. I was still able to come up with a name I liked that fit the character without much trouble. Then most of them quit playing so he sits there abandoned.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
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this sort of rhetoric is why complaints like this are not taken seriously.|
Originally Posted by Traska
A name is important. If The Flash had been named "Runs Really Fast Man"
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Your choices are not "Flash" and "Runs Really Fast Man". If "Runs Really Fast Man" is the only alternative you can think of, the failing is yours - not the systems.
using a rhyming diction to just add another word to the name I get
Brash Flash
Flash Dash
Flash Moustache (Now I want to make this character)
Slapdash Flash
Flash Whiplash
Switching to using beginning rhymes (which I prefer)
Flash Flag
Flambe Flash
Flannel Flash
Flashback
Flashbulb
Flattop Flash
Flatter Flash
Flaxen Flash
Using the old superhero standby of colors
Crimson Flash
Amber Flash
Azure Flash
Flash Blush
Brass Flash
Cerulean Flash
Fulvous Flash
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Why care if 1 million poeple running around with the same name? As long of you get a good name that you like it don't matter if anyone has it.
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Originally Posted by _eeek_
Why would anyone WANT a name that everyone and their 3rd cousin has? I can't think of anything more dreary.
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How much sense does it make for a world to have fifty thousand John Doe superheroes, even if they happened to have different powers?
People wouldn't be able to keep track.
They would, just need to add global names =) make it so we have to type their global names. Kinda like Champions does =)
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Hmm, I guess I can do it that way. Oh, take words and smash them togrether like I do with Fantasy games :P Suporcomon =p or something, I done better.
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Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven
Break genre, eh? Like Black Tom Cassidy? Like Jean Grey? Like Luke Cage? Like Nick Fury? Like... you get the idea.
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I was surprised to get "Bad Blood" when "Hemotoxin" was unavailable (that character is currently on the backburner now that I know Bio Armor is in the works). And I have to admit that I like "Bad Blood" better.|
Originally Posted by Texas Justice
I was rather surprised to get Texas Tech for a robotics MM about a year after CoV came out.
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I was unsurprised when "Crimson Arrow" was taken right after Archery came out, and was already prepared to fall back on that character's real name "Eustace Black".
It's rare that I get stumped on a name. But the person who got "Crimson Arrow" wasn't being more creative than me, and I certainly wasn't being more creative than the next person who might want "Bad Blood".
And being willing to compromise certainly isn't being creative, and by its very nature compromise isn't the ideal solution.
Being creative isn't the ideal solution in this environment, being first is. Which is ultimately not an ideal environment, regardless of the number of ways to cope with it.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
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This is coming from a player who is, has and probably always will be horrible at creating names for his characters: I think you're wrong. Creativity is a broad entity that takes no specific shape or form that one can easily grasp the same as others or using the same process. The very definition of creativity is taking new approaches. If your approach to naming a character does not get you the desired result, using another method to creating characters isn't 'destructive', it's just taking a new approach. Is eating foods you've never tried destructive? What about meeting new people or taking a trip to a place you've never been before? Many creative minds keep their muse sharp by doing the *opposite* of what they normally do at times.|
Originally Posted by Traska
It's the very definition of being destructive: tearing down what you've built and building something different. Which is usually inferior due to being hastily slapdashed together.
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That isn't to say one who never changes their approach isn't creative, you're just going to eventually be dipping into a shallower well of creativity unless you keep yourself on the ball...that is, unless you're some infinite well of creative muse that never dries or empties, which if you are, can you help me with some names?
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Originally Posted by Traska
a) I like names like "This Is A Dark Troller LOL", so the naming system is perfect.
b) I like names like "Susan Walker", so the naming system is perfect. c) I like using words from an obscure South Pacific Islander language that only three people with internet access int he world even know, so the naming system is perfect. d) If the name "Darkness Rising" is taken, I just go down the list until I get to "Darkness Rising 312", so the naming system is perfect. e) You can just add your account name after it already, like .traska, so the naming system is perfect. f) There's nothing wrong with the naming system, so the naming system is perfect. g) It's not going to happen, so don't even bother posting this. h) I've got mine, so the naming system is perfect. i) You suck at naming (and I am awesome at naming), so the naming system is perfect. |
j.) So many people make dumb joke names, I've stopped caring what the character's *visible* name is, so the naming system is fine.
If we got a change in the naming system so we could use/share names in some fashion, I wouldn't be against it. I honestly care very little about names since, to me, they are taken as a 'joke' by the majority of the players. You'll find my characters with unimaginative names like Quick-Strike, Shadowcat-Shocker, Tesla-Cat, Nightmare-Strike, Flora-Thorn, Demon Revolver, Maverick Reploid, Cerberus Wolfe and Dread Dragoon.
I think the only creative name I got was Ectenic Hood, which is a Kin/EA stalker with colored kinetic attacks pink/purple to emulate telekinetic energy. I got the base 'ectenic' from another poster who posted about their character doing the same so I stole it and added 'hood'. Guess what he wears, where he resides and what he typically does (hint: hood, the hood and may be related to a certain legendary thief/archer...). Funny that, I can't even play the character anymore because the core concept of the character was swept from under him. Repulse was the root effect of all his power and it was replaced with Disrupt which makes no sense for him or his primal earth counterpart. -sigh-
I'm still keeping the name though
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Such insults are the desperate escape of the inferior debate.|
Originally Posted by Traska
A: "I think that we should have a more open naming system."
B: "You suck." A: "No, I just think that with the age of the game, we should take into account that the perfect name is no longer sitting out there." B: "That's because you're stupid, unimaginative, and you suck." |
You will not find a topic requesting name lock at any game that has global naming. That should tell you a lot. The advantages of such a system are obvious, while the only disadvantage is that you may need to get a thicker skin if a person copies your name. However, I can say it has never been an issue in any global name game I have ever played. There really are no reasons not to do it.
I would bet dollars to cents that if COH2 has global naming, a lot of the people who hate the idea now will not have a problem with it a year down the line, just as what happened when they did the right thing and made the market merged.
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
Oh, and in threads like this, I always suggest my idea as a compromise:
Placeholder name. Upon character creation, you click the new 'generate placeholder' next to the name field. It gives you a randomish name which you can later change if you are eventually inspired. It'd be like the GM generic function where your name is forced to be changed but you can decide later what you want to officially be called.
I'd probably use such a feature a lot when I come up dry on names/frustrated with dozens of attempts. Rather than settling on Generic-generic as a name, maybe later I can think of something cool or a friendly player may toss me some ideas.
This most recently happened when I leveled my Dark/Thorns dom up to 36 during the x2 XP weekend after the dark control set was released. I couldn't figure out a name so just said ****it, and named him Midnight Doom. I saw so many interesting names for other dark doms/controllers then, I practically kicked myself for not trying harder...and I'm not rerolling the character...and I'm not paying for a rename token for a side-rolled character. I just have to settle...you'd think a friendly character creation system would try and help you out every now and then 
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If you're not using your transfer tokens for anything, you can rename a character with two of them.
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Originally Posted by Leo_G
.and I'm not paying for a rename token for a side-rolled character. I just have to settle...you'd think a friendly character creation system would try and help you out every now and then
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Ahhh, this thread again.
No, "All the good names" are not taken. Yes, be creative. No, I don't agree that copying champions would not be a good idea. In pretty much anything.
Let's see, of the last few characters created (and avoiding a few intentional name-names,) in the last... month? Perhaps a bit more than that, I've managed:
Huntsman's Bane - Beast mastermind. First try. Of all of them lately, I *really* expected this one to be taken.
Voidbreaker - Surprisingly given my Khelds, not a Kheld, but someone who found an alien exploration ship (it's the rough translation of its name. Made to play with mecha armor.)
Daughter of Dusk - Double meaning, as this is the daughter of another character (Duskvolt,) and IC-wise, she prefers "hunting" starting at dusk. Dark/Psi Dom.
It's Demon Time - ok, this one's one I picked up just to see if I could, and because I found it amusing I actually could. Three guesses as to the power sets.
Dr. Dreamtime - Dark/Time controller.
Not listed: Four name-names (four as part of a Family splinter group, one as a remake of a character from another game.) One Italian "name" for the same group.
Just off the top of my head.
And LOL at the "Being creative isn't the ideal solution in this environment" comment. Creativity, how evil! >.<
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... and WHY did the market merge? Not because "it was the right thing." No, it was because we were about to get a THIRD, separate currency (Information) and a third, separate market, that currency was going to have to be held/converted, that the initial plan of letting Rogues and Vigilantes be "gun runners" wasn't working out - it became the *less* complicated and *less* problematic option. |
Originally Posted by ChaosExMachina
just as what happened when they did the right thing and made the market merged.
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It wasn't just "Oh, well, we should do this now." If they'd never come out with GR, I'd be willing to bet we'd still have seperate markets and currency, or gone the TOR route with a third "global" market (with Freedom, probably a VIP/Tier somethingorother reward.)
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I've done that before. My main's name was first Quick-Striker because what I had felt like I'd settle on was Quick-Strike but was taken...then Exalted came around much later, I made a Quick-Striker there then transferred the main to Exalted and finally took the r out of his name!|
Originally Posted by MajorDecoy
If you're not using your transfer tokens for anything, you can rename a character with two of them.
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But anyway, I'm not sure transfer tokens accumulate...at least not the free ones. I could be misremembering though.
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You are.
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Originally Posted by Leo_G
But anyway, I'm not sure transfer tokens accumulate...at least not the free ones. I could be misremembering though.
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I regularly use a thesaurus when choosing a name for my characters. (Being an unrepentant Altaholic, I make a lot of characters.) Most of my starting names have two words, and I just make sure that I've got about three or four synonyms for each, and just start mixing and matching until I come up with an acceptable one. So far, I have yet to encounter a pairing where ALL the combinations I came up with are taken.
If I am really coming up blank, I use a super hero name generator to provide a seed (there's one on the Seventh Sanctum website that is excellent for getting that starting point.)
And, of course, I'm not above using Xtreme Kool Letterz to get a name I want. Or using a Dash between the two words of a name. Or heck, smashing them into one word, with or without capitalizing the second word.
Really, with all the characters I can end up making, if I can still make get acceptable names? Then there's nothing broken in the system.
-This Space Intentionally Left Blank.-