Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Name

[EmperorSteele]

Just now, Bartacus said:

can someone explain to me why this change was necessary? Is the word "Therapy" somehow offensive?

"Shock Therapy" is/was used on gay people to try and make them straight, or if that didn't work, fry their brains in the process. Either way, negative connotation in that community.

[Troo]

among other uses, often with negative associations. (no one group owns the indignation)

 

[Super Atom]

7 minutes ago, Bartacus said:

can someone explain to me why this change was necessary? Is the word "Therapy" somehow offensive?

The change was more necessary because of naming convention than it was due to offensive nature.

 

Electrical Affinity sounds way better and fits with other sets, also it has a fun biochem thing going on by implying you're combing your power with theirs.

 

Darkness Affinity

Nature Affinity

[Trickshooter]

I'd be fine with the name being Electrical Affinity. I like that you can say you're an Elec/Elec Defender/Corruptor/Controller.

 

If a name change is still being considered, what about Static Induction?

 

Ties back to the Static effect of the powers, sounds a bit clever while still having that 'scientific' sounding name to tell you what the set does, and relates to Electrostatic Induction, "a method to create or generate static electricity in a material by bringing an electrically charged object near it."

[Bartacus]

9 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

"Shock Therapy" is/was used on gay people to try and make them straight, or if that didn't work, fry their brains in the process. Either way, negative connotation in that community.

ah okay. that makes sense. It sounds so cool to me but I didn't know that!

1 minute ago, Super Atom said:

The change was more necessary because of naming convention than it was due to offensive nature.

 

Electrical Affinity sounds way better and fits with other sets, also it has a fun biochem thing going on by implying you're combing your power with theirs.

 

Darkness Affinity

Nature Affinity

This just feels purely subjective. I personally think it sounds more generic, not better. Two sets have the word affinity, that doesn't mean it's a convention. Otherwise instead of Thermal Radiation we'd have Fire Affinity. Instead of Cold Domination, we'd have Ice Affinity. I'd rather we take after the latter two examples than the ones that you gave, personally, because they sound way less generic.

[Raught19]

I liked Shock Therapy, I like Electric Affinity, but I do feel that Electric Affinity is a bit plain. 

 

I would like to submit a suggestion for its name,

 

Electrical Conduit or Electrical Stimulation or Electrical Regeneration.

[Super Atom]

3 minutes ago, Bartacus said:

ah okay. that makes sense. It sounds so cool to me but I didn't know that!

This just feels purely subjective. I personally think it sounds more generic, not better. Two sets have the word affinity, that doesn't mean it's a convention. Otherwise instead of Thermal Radiation we'd have Fire Affinity. Instead of Cold Domination, we'd have Ice Affinity. I'd rather we take after the latter two examples than the ones that you gave, personally, because they sound way less generic.

So it's an overall naming convention thing and not specific to the word therapy.

 

Electric armor / Electric blast / Electric Control / Shock Therapy

 

That's like having

 

Radiation Armor / Radiation Melee / Radiation Emission / NUCLEAR FIREPOWER

 

see the issue? It very well could have been Electric Therapy but it seems most people wanted to avoid any connotation whatsoever.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Super Atom

[Abraxus]

Thanks to the Devs for the response to the issues raised with the name.  I personally had no issues with it, but I recognize/respect the perspective of those who did.  There will never be 100% consensus on one name, but I believe there is universal agreement that the name change accomplished what it was intended to do, which was to remove the associated negative connotations.  So, I'd say quit on a winner there, let's move on, and concentrate on making this new set of changes as good as they can be prior to roll-out. 😎

Edited February 29, 2020 by Abraxus

[Bartacus]

1 minute ago, Super Atom said:

So it's an overall naming convention thing and not specific to the word therapy.

 

Electric armor / Electric blast / Electric Control / Shock Therapy

 

That's like having

 

Radiation Armor / Radiation Melee / Radiation Emission / NUCLEAR FIREPOWER

 

see the issue?

Fire Armor / Fire Melee / Fire Blast / THERMAL RADIATION. Huge issue? 
Ice Armor / Ice Melee / Ice Blast / COLD DOMINATION

It's not a huge issue. 

[Trickshooter]

1 minute ago, Bartacus said:

This just feels purely subjective. I personally think it sounds more generic, not better. Two sets have the word affinity, that doesn't mean it's a convention. Otherwise instead of Thermal Radiation we'd have Fire Affinity. Instead of Cold Domination, we'd have Ice Affinity. I'd rather we take after the latter two examples than the ones that you gave, personally, because they sound way less generic.

@Super Atomis giving those other names more as examples, rather than saying it now fits because of those two.

 

The name "Shock Therapy" was clever, but the powerset names tend to be a bit more straightforward, as a description for what they do. Shock Therapy as a name follows more like what an actual power would be named. I would expect like an Electric set's heal to be named Shock Therapy, rather than the set itself to be named that.

 

It's the difference between Thermal being called Thermal Radiation or Cauterizing, or Cold being called Cold Domination or Permafrost, sort of thing.

[Super Atom]

Just now, Bartacus said:

Fire Armor / Fire Melee / Fire Blast / THERMAL RADIATION. Huge issue? 
Ice Armor / Ice Melee / Ice Blast / COLD DOMINATION

It's not a huge issue. 

Shock isn't quite the same. Static or Current would have been more fitting. Shock is something you'd expect to see in the naming of a power.

[arcane]

As one of what must be, statistically speaking, a very tiny number of people in this game that have actually gone through a regimen of electroconvulsive therapy, I’m disappointed that you bowed to threatening posters and that you apparently agree that I need to be coddled. 
 

That being said, I, unlike them, will get over it. So I understand how the move was necessary. 

[Leogunner]

34 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

"Shock Therapy" is/was used on gay people to try and make them straight, or if that didn't work, fry their brains in the process. Either way, negative connotation in that community.

That's the more "layman's" interpretation of the term more bolstered by internet memes and wikipedia education.

 

Criticism where criticism is due, it's change is necessary mainly for a vocal minority and merely being easier to change than to continue going down this road of narrative victimhood.

[Leogunner]

31 minutes ago, Super Atom said:

Darkness Affinity

Nature Affinity

Darkness Affinity is also pretty generic and wasn't necessary to change.  There are plenty of powersets that have powers swapped out for new things (every Stalker melee set, Psi Blast, Poison, Dark Armor, Traps, etc) without changing the name.

 

Affinity does have a connection to empathy and relationships between things like people, plants and animals. Nature Affinity works.

[MunkiLord]

Well done HC team, this is an excellent decision. 

[Super Atom]

4 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Darkness Affinity is also pretty generic and wasn't necessary to change.  There are plenty of powersets that have powers swapped out for new things (every Stalker melee set, Psi Blast, Poison, Dark Armor, Traps, etc) without changing the name.

 

Affinity does have a connection to empathy and relationships between things like people, plants and animals. Nature Affinity works.

The generic argument falls flat. Most sets have generic names, which is the point. 'super strength' Do you know how generic putting super in front of something is in the hero world?

 

imagine someone putting super in front of their name? how boring

[SwitchFade]

Heh. You could call it Sparky McSaprkerson and I would have been fine. Any of the names were fine.

 

People take color pixels on screens very seriously and the fact there were lengthy diatribes in threads regarding it was tragic. I was shocked.

 

I almost needed therapy.

 

😌

 

Oh yes, you fell for it. Win.

[Leogunner]

1 minute ago, Super Atom said:

The generic argument falls flat. Most sets have generic names, which is the point. 'super strength' Do you know how generic putting super in front of something is in the hero world?

 

imagine someone putting super in front of their name? how boring

It's a comparative argument.  Dark Affinity is generic in comparison to Dark Miasma.

 

Electric Affinity is more generic than a lot of other suggested names.

 

Nature Affinity, while one might assume is also generic, more conforms to the various meanings that fall under the word "Affinity" (relationships, kinship, natural/biological/sexual attraction, etc etc).  The other uses tend to fall under more basic version of the term meaning "a liking of something".

 

Super Strength is iconic and not generic because the only other place it's used is in Super Speed.

[Doc_Scorpion]

10 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

That's the more "layman's" interpretation of the term more bolstered by internet memes and wikipedia education.

Nope.  It's a very real thing that's been done to actual people for the stated purpose.

As to "internet memes and wikipedia education", you're wrong there too.  "Shock therapy" as a lay term from electroconvulsive therapy (formerly electroshock therapy) goes back almost a century - right back to the invention of the treatment.  (Back in the 70's I was seeing it in books and movies from the 40's!)

Not necessarily aimed at anyone in particular:

If your only arguments against the name  are veiled aspersions against people who wanted the name changed...  Then you don't actually have a beef with the name.  And this isn't the thread for you.  Nor is this the forum for you - as HC doesn't provide a "dunk on people I disagree with" forum.

[Super Atom]

Just now, Leogunner said:

It's a comparative argument.  Dark Affinity is generic in comparison to Dark Miasma.

 

Electric Affinity is more generic than a lot of other suggested names.

 

Nature Affinity, while one might assume is also generic, more conforms to the various meanings that fall under the word "Affinity" (relationships, kinship, natural/biological/sexual attraction, etc etc).  The other uses tend to fall under more basic version of the term meaning "a liking of something".

 

Super Strength is iconic and not generic because the only other place it's used is in Super Speed.

 

Ok then we'll do other examples.

 

Every blast set.

Every armor set except Bio.

Every control set.

 

Generic names used more as a description than a name. With Electrical Affinity you're literally chaining yourself to your allies and most of your abilities rely on another person to even be activated. That sparks Kinship to me.

[LondonRook]

There is literally a character in the game called Shock Therapy.  So if this was that offensive the name would have been changed on the villain before now.  So either the people objecting didn't play enough to notice, or didn't care enough to comment before this update.

 

It was and still is a clever name for the set.

[Super Atom]

1 minute ago, LondonRook said:

There is literally a character in the game called Shock Therapy.  So if this was that offensive the name would have been changed on the villain before now.  So either the people objecting didn't play enough to notice, or didn't care enough to comment before this update.

 

It was and still is a clever name for the set.

Do you mean Shock Treatment? "Literally".

 

That character is a complete lunatic and a villain.

[Leogunner]

1 minute ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Nope.  It's a very real thing that's been done to actual people for the stated purpose.

I know that but that wasn't the argument being made.  That therapy has and is still used for various other purposes as well.  My statement is that most don't know about the various other applications and only the most virally spread.  So is it nope?  Maybe if you'd rather not take in other people's perspectives.

 

4 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

If your only arguments against the name  are veiled aspersions against people who wanted the name changed...  Then you don't actually have a beef with the name.  And this isn't the thread for you.  Nor is this the forum for you - as HC doesn't provide a "dunk on people I disagree with" forum.

I shared my opinion.  You wanted to criticize my opinion.  That's fine.  I hope you share that same perspective.

[Bopper]

54 minutes ago, Trickshooter said:

I'd be fine with the name being Electrical Affinity. I like that you can say you're an Elec/Elec Defender/Corruptor/Controller.

 

If a name change is still being considered, what about Static Induction?

 

Ties back to the Static effect of the powers, sounds a bit clever while still having that 'scientific' sounding name to tell you what the set does, and relates to Electrostatic Induction, "a method to create or generate static electricity in a material by bringing an electrically charged object near it."

I like that suggestion. You got my vote.

[Doomrider]

Name gets changed to bland alternative to appease a vocal minority and ppl still can't get off the name issue and talk about the actual set. 🤣. This powerset is turning rapidly into a meme.