What’s In a (Character) Name?
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
I can’t say it’s one of the biggest debates I’ve ever seen in the gaming community, but it’s impossible to deny that there exists a certain undercurrent of clashing opinions when it comes to the process of naming your characters. Plenty of players choose to exercise their right to type almost whatever they want into the Name box, while many others adhere to a more stringent process of selecting a character name, sometimes rooted in a preference for role-play rather than just logging in and pwning level 1 boars because the game tells you to. For the most part, both sides exist in relative harmony, at least until Buttnoobfart of Ironforge calls out Faeriel the Night Elf in trade chat for some, and one of the first insults thrown is “nice name, scrub.”
And remarkably enough, it can come from either camp.
World of Warcraft is considered an MMORPG — the “role-playing” aspect is right there in the nigh unpronounceable acronym (I’ve tried, believe me). It’s no wonder, then, that RP servers have a presence in the game. On PvE and PvP servers, there are many who still agonize over the perfect name for their characters, even if they don’t want to spend the rest of their time in Azeroth role-playing. Some of these players harbor a certain kind of resentment for those who show up to a raid with comedy option names or choices meant to display their prowess in PvP. On the flip side, I’ve seen plenty of characters with more light-hearted names turn around and rag on the more serious-minded players for being “RP losers.”
Why all of the hoopla over names to begin with? Simply because in an MMO world, our characters are the only way we have to represent ourselves. First impressions are everything, and the very first thing we’re going to see in the context of a video game is the name that other player chose floating over their character’s head. But we have to remember that famous line from William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, “that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” — Fartknocker, from our earlier example, may be the kindest and most skilled player on your server, whereas the person who spent two weeks combining linguistic features from multiple real-world cultures similar to the race he chose in-game may be simply awful to deal with. Overcoming that initial prejudice regardless of what side of the fence you sit on in the great name debate is a goal we should all set for ourselves.
You can do it. We believe in you. Also, I couldn’t find a related non-NSFW World of Warcraft picture to go here because the internet is a horrible place.
I’ll admit it — I used to think that naming your Blood or Night Elf any variation of Sephiroth or Legolas should be a perma-bannable offense. I was a pretty big jerk about it, and to everyone I gave the proverbial side-eye because their names weren’t up to my personal standards, I am sorry. I would offer you an apology cupcake if I could cram one through my wireless adapter. What I realized once I got older and wiser and way less fond of confrontation was that just because a name is meaningless to me doesn’t mean it lacks value to the person who chose it. Maybe XxSephirothxX is a huge Final Fantasy fan, and that was the first game they ever played and it brings back lots of great memories whenever they blow Avenging Wrath on their white-haired Blood Elf paladin. Imagitchusucka probably plays a ton of battlegrounds and feels confident and proud of their ability to place in the upper ranks, and wanted a name to reflect their interests. They’re having just as much fun as the aforementioned Faeriel, so why the heck would I or anyone else try to step in and say “No, you’re having fun wrong, reroll?”
These days, the only time I take issue with a name is if it’s unnecessarily rude. Fartknocker’s name may make me roll my eyes, but as long as he’s not being a jerk, I fully support his right to call himself whatever he wants. Names that insult other players or reference really awful acts — I’ve seen some cringeworthy ones I won’t even repeat here for fear of triggering somebody — completely shatter that whole foundation of mutual respect that we, as gamers, should be striving for. Even then, chewing the person out is unlikely to make a difference, and Blizzard has implemented options to report offensive names almost since day one, so right-click and move on.
Obviously, different rules for character names apply on RP servers. I play on a PvE server where pretty much anything goes, but going to a role-playing server when you have no intention of actually role-playing or trying to name your character according to the appropriate conventions is likely to get you some dirty looks. It’s the equivalent of showing up naked to a fancy dress party, eating all of the shrimp at the buffet, and then throwing up all over the host. The only reason you could have chosen to act in such a way is to purposely be a jerk, and that’s never cool.
I hope you’re proud of yourself, TOBIAS.
In my case, I’ve become extremely interested in the backstory behind players’ choices for their character names. Whenever I’m interviewing a guest for the HearthPro podcast, one of my burning questions is always “How did you pick your current handle?” Sometimes it’s just a matter of a name sounding cool, other times there’s something much more involved, but regardless, it’s always fascinating to hear about. My characters usually have names derived from interests of mine; for years I had a server full of alts with names based on the various clans from Vampire: the Masquerade that seemed to fit with their particular World of Warcraft class. Currently I have several characters Alliance-side whose names are derived from some of my favorite Bollywood numbers — when I’m not writing or gaming, I’m dancing, and have actually performed a few Bollywood routines myself! — and a Pandaren reflecting my love of folklore and world history with her name, Quanshiyin, a slight alteration of the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. But when it comes to my Diablo 3 characters, I can let my hair down a bit since nobody else can see my character’s name. Beyoncé the Wizard runs the world.
What’s the story behind your character’s name in World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, or even just your BattleTag for Hearthstone and StarCraft? A favorite book or celebrity? Just a collection of letters that seemed to go together nicely? Leave your own lore in the comments!
I’ll admit that I’m a WoW RPer. Maybe because of this, picking the right name is much more important to me than it should be–I spent at least a half hour rolling the dice on my current main’s name, as well as consulting Thalassian (shameless belf) language sources. Thanks to the glorious wonder that is TRP2, I also have a surname (actually two–a family one and an assumed one after a major character moment), an age, backstory–heck, I even wrote a poem.
But like you point out, there are other reasons for having a certain name besides RPing. The first game I played religiously was Diablo II–for almost ten years, every day after school, for about 6 hours a day. Although I can’t remember how I spent so much time on a game with so little content, I can remember spending just as much time sitting in front of the character screen pondering my new character name.
Although there wasn’t as much lore in Diablo in those days, I’d still consult the Wiki’s for history purposes. For my sorceresses (which are basically all I made), I’d reference the (admittedly scarce) names found in zan’esu lore. I actually wrote the majority of content in the DiabloWiki.com (now diablo.gamepedia.com) entries for the sorceress, including skills and lore characters, as well as a pretty thorough history of the mage clans (http://diablo.gamepedia.com/Mage_Clans
) and its related character stubs.
So, why are names important to me in video games like these?
First, I think it’s partially out of respect for the game I enjoy. While it’s funny to have names like “Buttnoobfart” (I lol’d), to me this feels like a slap in the developers’ collective faces.
Second, having a lore-friendly name is an excellent discussion point I can use to talk about a lot of the “hidden” game (the lore, which is often not included in games) to curious players.
Finally, I just think it’s more memorable to defeat Sargaras as Vynillin Windshadow than Xxtheubermaage.
Of course, I’m also a dork. So, there’s that 😛
Great tips for lore-sources you’ve posted here, Seth — thanks!
I grew up in a nerd household with a mother who couldn’t find anyone else to play D&D with (1st ed. red box, original press, ay yo!), so she decided to teach her six-year-old mini-bunny how to run a campaign. That’s where my interest in names started — even if they’re inspired by something not related to the game lore, I try my best to make them fit. For example, my Night Elf druid is named Aishariel, which sounds appropriately elfin, but is actually derived from Aishwarya Rai, one of my favorite actresses.
And yeah, I agree that names like Buttnoobfart are frustrating, and likely not really based in any special significance (although hey, I could be wrong, maybe somebody’s beloved grandfather used to call them a “butt noob fart” before he died). But it’s definitely not my place to call somebody out on it. As long as they’re not behaving badly, it’s no skin off my nose, unless I’m trying to put together an RP raid in which case they just probably wouldn’t be invited. 😛