What I dislike the most
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-06-12 15:26 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Vert Flame Guy (green flame guy)
Auburn Flame Guy
Bronx Flame Guy
Fallow Flame Guy (Fallow is a brown color)
Gold or Golden Flame Guy (not to be confused with Golden Girl)
Mighty Flame Guy
The Great Flame Guy
American Flame Guy
Flame Guy Gus
etc, etc, etc....
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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I also wish I could get the names I want for my characters without having to resort to plumbing the depths of alternatives. There are many times when the name that exactly fits my character's look and concept is already taken. "Be more creative" is a condescending suggestion, and about as useful as the equally obvious "just pick something else". If the best name for my character, in my estimation, is Thunderfist, then I don't want someone telling me that I'm somehow creatively deficient for not wanting to use an alternative.
But the reality is that CoX is designed so that no two characters on the same server can have the same name. It makes a lot of sense from a software implementation point of view, and it makes a decent amount of sense from an in-game milieu point of view (only a handful of Marvel or DC characters ever shared the same name, and rarely were they active at the same time). To my mind, this "problem" isn't one of poor game design or lazy implementation, but is purely a product of having too many player heroes in the same environment together. There are more active players on any given server than there are main characters (i.e., starring roles) in any city in the Marvel or DC universes. Name conflict issues are an artifact of overpopulation (too many damn heroes), not a software bug.
NOR-RAD - 50 Rad/Rad/Elec Defender - Nikki Stryker - 50 DM/SR/Weap Scrapper - Iron Marauder - 50 Eng/Eng/Pow Blaster
Lion of Might - 50 SS/Inv/Eng Tanker - Darling Nikkee - 50 (+3) StJ/WP/Eng Brute - Ice Giant Kurg - 36 Ice/Storm Controller
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I'd agree, none of those names grabs me. If anything, that little list there all sound like joke names and Meson Inferno sounds rather like some of the generic names I throw on my characters.|
Originally Posted by Traska
This is what I was saying about not all names suit all people... out of that list of names, only Meson Inferno would grab me. There's nothing wrong with those other names, they just don't suit my style. As someone mentioned above, the vast majority of character names I make I try to visualized splashed across the top of a comic book cover.
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That isn't to say those names are bad, but nothing you'd expect to see on the cover of a manga or comic.
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Originally Posted by Smurch
I'd love it if every name I came up with was available all the time. That'd be awesome. But it's not the case. Yeah, I spend way too much time mulling over character names and it takes forever to find the right one. And I hate that.
But I'd hate it more if everyone could run around with the same name. I think having the names be unique is the lesser evil here. |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
In the spirit of the challenge, I was thinking about more conventional "four-color" names and not the sort of names I normally look for. "Deep Friar" is more the sort of thing I would normally be thinking but I threw out any name (without checking) that didn't seem to be of a "Human Torch - Firestorm" sort of vintage.
My names aren't usually quite that conventional, but almost always available. I'm not sure I would even make a name that was as general as "fire-based." I'm more apt to name a fire controller called the Pyronanny (available), or a fire/ice tanker called the Cindercicle (available), or a Fire/Rad corruptor called Meson Inferno (available), or if I was going all fire maybe a Fire/Fire Blaster called Farrah Fireball (available). |
I see. I focused on the comment "fire themed name that sounds even vaguely superheroish." and ran with that. In any case I think it's clear it isn't that hard to come up with an unused name.
Whether or not an individual likes a particular name is purely subjective.
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No. I think that's making a simple problem more complicated when we already have a rename system in place. |
Originally Posted by Leo_G
Then you support my 'placeholder name' suggestion, yes? Let's make it happen and get this option put in game by next issue!
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I'd rather support making Rename Tokens cheaper or granted as VIP awards or purchasable with Merits or something like that. I'm fine with any of those, really. But since we already have a system by which a character can be renamed, the Right Thing To Do is make that option more accessible, not invent yet another whole system to accomplish the same thing.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Do you really want to go there and have people post some of the unusual, bizarre, even stupid super hero/villain names that have appeared in or had their own comics? |
Originally Posted by Leo_G
That isn't to say those names are bad, but nothing you'd expect to see on the cover of a manga or comic.
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It can be done.
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... I wouldn't use a manga or anime for this argument. >.> Everything from "Science Ninja Team" (which sounds like someone sneaks up undetected and explain's Kepler's laws to you) to the utter word salad of some series/titles/names/powers.|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
That isn't to say those names are bad, but nothing you'd expect to see on the cover of a manga or comic.
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*note, yes, I'm purely poking fun at it.
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It's not a whole new system. GMs use it to generic your name. Swapping servers uses it when the name you have is currently taken. It's basically just a "I'm in the character creator for 3+ hours already, now I gotta spend another hour or more trying to think of a name since mine was taken?" solution.|
Originally Posted by Smurch
No. I think that's making a simple problem more complicated when we already have a rename system in place.
I'd rather support making Rename Tokens cheaper or granted as VIP awards or purchasable with Merits or something like that. I'm fine with any of those, really. But since we already have a system by which a character can be renamed, the Right Thing To Do is make that option more accessible, not invent yet another whole system to accomplish the same thing. |
Now I had once suggested replacing server transfer tokens with 'server service tokens', which basically work as either a transfer or a rename, you choose when you select to use the token, and those be given as VIP rewards...I'm not going to suggest server transfers or renames be made cheaper, however. I have no basis to claim if the cost of such tasks on the game's system is negligible enough to warrant cheapening them...not to mention, it sounds whiny requesting something I want to be cheaper. If we want it, it should cost an appropriate amount so that the game makes money. Now, if marketing finds their sales of such tokens are very low and attribute it to the cost being high, *then* yeah make them cheaper.
The only thing I'll do in that regard, and this goes to anyone buying most things on the market and in-real life, if you don't feel something's worth the price, don't buy it. And that's exactly what I do for renames, inventory upgrades, costume slot upgrades and other stuff that's up that I don't feel are worth it.
That said, I feel my 'placeholder name' is a decent compromise and implementable with minimal work.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Do you really want to go there and have people post some of the unusual, bizarre, even stupid super hero/villain names that have appeared in or had their own comics?
It can be done. |
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Right, that's the same system as the rename tokens! |
Originally Posted by Leo_G
It's not a whole new system. GMs use it to generic your name. Swapping servers uses it when the name you have is currently taken. It's basically just a "I'm in the character creator for 3+ hours already, now I gotta spend another hour or more trying to think of a name since mine was taken?" solution.
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They don't give you a random name in those cases, but a chosen name (either "Generic" or the original name of the character) with a random number attached, then they give you a rename token on that character.
There's no need to implement that as a generator, just type a random number on the end then buy a rename token and you've got the exact same thing.
So your idea is functionally equivalent to getting a *free* Rename Token on every character, which I don't really agree with. So when you say:
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| I'm not going to suggest server transfers or renames be made cheaper, however |
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| I have no basis to claim if the cost of such tasks on the game's system is negligible enough to warrant cheapening them...not to mention, it sounds whiny requesting something I want to be cheaper. If we want it, it should cost an appropriate amount so that the game makes money. Now, if marketing finds their sales of such tokens are very low and attribute it to the cost being high, *then* yeah make them cheaper. |
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| That said, I feel my 'placeholder name' is a decent compromise and implementable with minimal work. |
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Are you implying that people never took the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic seriously?|
Originally Posted by Leo_G
No thanks, but I guess you'd have to ask if people take the name seriously then.
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Four mutant turtles with Italian names raised an trained by a rat that was the pet of a ninja master.
And that from that comic we got how many movies an cartoons and spinoffs?
It just goes to show there is no such thing as a bad name or concept.
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My very first fire/fire blaster is female, and dresses in red and orange leather with chains and a spiked collar for the BDSM look: Flaminatrix|
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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My female fire/fire scrapper: Incinerata
Both are on Justice, and I got both names on the first try.
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Originally Posted by Traska
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.
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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. |
I'm a relative newcomer (been playing since Sept. 2011), but I've had relatively little trouble coming up with names, despite being an altoholic with 80 characters already.
On Virtue, I created a "team" concept revolving around a middle-aged scientist who developed a process for imbuing normal people with superpowers, and created a team from an international group of volunteers. The team is all-female (like most of my characters) and has a "solar system" theme:
Mother Sun (team leader, the aforementioned middle-aged scientist, rad/fire defender)
Girl Mercury (England, kin/SR scrapper)
Venus Lass (USA, former Miss California, grav/earth dominator)
Erdmadchen (Germany - couldn't find any English variation on "Earth Girl" that I liked, so I decided she was German, plant/storm controller)
Ms. Mars (an actual Martian, sword/shield brute)
Fille de Jupiter (France, ice/fire tanker)
Saturn Signal (USA, psych/mm blaster)
Princesa Urana (Mexico, elec/time corruptor)
Neptune's Niece (Canada, ice/ice blaster, though I'll be rerolling her as Water Blast, since it fits better)
Notta Planet (USA, representing Pluto, but annoyed that Pluto was declared "Not a planet" shortly before she completed her training, dark/dark scrapper)
Lunagetic (Dominican Republic, dark/energy blaster)
Haylee Komet (USA, fire/dark blaster - I was astonished that this name was available)
Solar Sail (rad/energy blaster)
Full list of my characters here
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The Original TMNT comics were not screwball like the cartoons and movies, either. They were fairly serious, rather mature and well-written comics as well. |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Are you implying that people never took the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic seriously?
Four mutant turtles with Italian names raised an trained by a rat that was the pet of a ninja master. And that from that comic we got how many movies an cartoons and spinoffs? |
(And they weren't just Italian names, but names of classical Renaissance artists.)
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Originally Posted by Smurch
The Original TMNT comics were not screwball like the cartoons and movies, either. They were fairly serious, rather mature and well-written comics as well.
(And they weren't just Italian names, but names of classical Renaissance artists.) |
That's my point, the original concept was quite serious despite the names which are comparable to concepts we have in this game and are being called immersion breaking, or non heroic, etc.
I would argue that the rights-holders for animation and toys didn't take them seriously, though.
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No argument from me on that. |
Originally Posted by Traska
I would argue that the rights-holders for animation and toys didn't take them seriously, though.
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I thought they were a straight-faced parody.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
That's my point, the original concept was quite serious despite the names which are comparable to concepts we have in this game and are being called immersion breaking, or non heroic, etc.
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In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
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Or, maybe, if Sue Richards had been named "The Invisible Girl". That'd be DUMB! Good thing they never did anything like that.|
Originally Posted by Traska
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?
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| The Thing |
If you like names like that "The Random Item" is available still.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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By serious I mean the creators weren't dong it as a lark. They were committed to making a quality product. They had an unusual name/concept and they turned it into a respectable, popular super hero comic.
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Originally Posted by MisterMagpie
I thought they were a straight-faced parody.
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Actually, it wasn't that they didn't take them seriously. It's that the target audience for the toys and cartoons shifted from older teens to young children. So they made conscious decisions to present them as sillier and more humorous in those mediums to be age appropriate. Then that took on a life of it's own.
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Originally Posted by Traska
I would argue that the rights-holders for animation and toys didn't take them seriously, though.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Yep, I was agreeing with you. |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
That's my point, the original concept was quite serious despite the names which are comparable to concepts we have in this game and are being called immersion breaking, or non heroic, etc.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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I felt the same way about The Hulk, Swamp Thing, and a few other I'm too lazy to look up right now. |
Originally Posted by Smurch
The Thing is probably one of the most uncreative names in the world, really. It's like Stan didn't even try with that one "He turns into an orange.. rock... thing... Yeah The Thing!"
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Originally Posted by Rangle M. Down
Vert Flame Guy (green flame guy)
Auburn Flame Guy Bronx Flame Guy Fallow Flame Guy (Fallow is a brown color) Gold or Golden Flame Guy (not to be confused with Golden Girl) Mighty Flame Guy The Great Flame Guy American Flame Guy Flame Guy Gus etc, etc, etc.... |
It doesn't even have to be "Guy"
adding Mr. Mrs. Ms. Madame in front, or Guy gal girl man woman to the back is a surefire way to get a name. It's like adding an extra variable to a math equation.
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While a bit tongue-in-cheek in some parts, the original comics were actually, by and large, fairly serious superhero comics.
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Originally Posted by MisterMagpie
I thought they were a straight-faced parody.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Not surprising, really. I would not, however, buy a comic with either of those names on the front cover. No offense, but while those may be perfectly adequate names for the characters in question (they actually sound more like throw-away villains to me than franchise heroes, but whatever), they do not ring the bell for me in terms of sounding like classic four-color superhero names like you would see starring in a comic book from Marvel or DC (and yes, that is the sort of superhero world I want to play in). If you are setting out to prove that it is relatively easy to find unique names that aren't very classic sounding, then you have succeeded, but I don't think that is the OP's goal.
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Originally Posted by Mister Rik
My very first fire/fire blaster is female, and dresses in red and orange leather with chains and a spiked collar for the BDSM look: Flaminatrix
My female fire/fire scrapper: Incinerata Both are on Justice, and I got both names on the first try. |
NOR-RAD - 50 Rad/Rad/Elec Defender - Nikki Stryker - 50 DM/SR/Weap Scrapper - Iron Marauder - 50 Eng/Eng/Pow Blaster
Lion of Might - 50 SS/Inv/Eng Tanker - Darling Nikkee - 50 (+3) StJ/WP/Eng Brute - Ice Giant Kurg - 36 Ice/Storm Controller
By the by, it's really telling of how well constructed this game is when this is a thread titled "What I dislike the most" and it's the naming policy. (For me, what I dislike the most is the lack of a cross-server bank, but I digress)