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What's with the generic names?


The_Warpact

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3 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

I also pointed out a way in the edit in how this could be handled as a compromise. I think it's worth taking a look at.

Yeah, I don't like that compromise.  I think the appropriate way to handle it is for character names to be tied to the global chat handles.  They aren't hidden, they just aren't immediately obvious.  A little checking and character named Frost that you see wouldn't be an issue because you could find the one you're familiar with by rating them and / or having them on your friends list.

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16 minutes ago, Player2 said:

Yeah, I don't like that compromise.  I think the appropriate way to handle it is for character names to be tied to the global chat handles.  They aren't hidden, they just aren't immediately obvious.  A little checking and character named Frost that you see wouldn't be an issue because you could find the one you're familiar with by rating them and / or having them on your friends list.

That wouldn't really be a compromise since that is your original stance. What I offered was something that meets you half way between your original position and my original position.

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I can understand these kinds of names, to an extent. A lot of super hero names are just regular words or popular concepts like look at the X-Men: Beast, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jubilee, Morph, Forge... all with a lovely feel and razor sharp definition. However something like "Robot Mastermind" just feels boring or generic. But maybe that's the character they want to their character! I don't know. Personally, if I was down to picking a name like that I'd usually just end up deleting the character out of frustration with the concept being bland or characterless. And I have done that, even on Live long ago when leveling was much slower.

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All on Everlasting

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1 hour ago, Solarverse said:

That wouldn't really be a compromise since that is your original stance. What I offered was something that meets you half way between your original position and my original position.

Agreed. With that said I strongly disagree. We don't need non-unique names. To me it was one of the worst parts of Champions Online.

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My most obvious name is a fish-looking Staff/Ice Armor stalker named Frozen Fish Stick, but I like to think I was being funny, not unimaginative.

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5 hours ago, srmalloy said:

Well, let's sift through my characters and pick some:
"Теневой Огонь" (Tenevoy Ogon', 'Shadow Fire', fire/dark corruptor),
"Лучник" (Luchnik, 'Archer', arch/ta blaster),
"Обморожение" (Obmorozheniye, 'Frostbite', ice/ice dominator),
"Ядерный Огонь" (Yaderniy Ogon', 'Nuclear Fire', fire/rad controller),
"Термоядерный" (Termoyaderniy, 'Thermonuclear', fire/rad sentinel),
"Пожарная Сорняк" (Pozharnaya Sornyak, 'Fire Weed', fire/plant blaster),
"Голубая Молния" (Golubaya Molniya, 'Blue Lightning', elec/elec defender),
"Ядерная Зима" (Yadernaya Zima, 'Nuclear Winter', ice/rad corruptor).

 

All with names that are essentially just descriptions of their powers, yet, having been filtered through a foreign language, acquire more weight.

If anyone has an urge to create a character or a SG and give them a Latin name, I'm available to proofread it and make sure that it is roughly grammatical and means what you think. 

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51 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

My most obvious name is a fish-looking Staff/Ice Armor stalker named Frozen Fish Stick, but I like to think I was being funny, not unimaginative.

Hahaha, hell, that's perfect!  😄

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5 hours ago, Solarverse said:

different multiverse/universe (aka different server)

I never thought of the servers like that before. That's a cool way of thinking 👍

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I used to play under the handle @Purple Clown, back on Live. Now I play under @Lunchmoney

 

I'm in the UK and play on Reunion.

 

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7 hours ago, Player2 said:

Names are not unique in the real world

 

When I was working as a laptop repair technician in the IT company supporting the local school system, I came across three units registered to kids named Unique, not related to one another.

 

Three.

 

Even Unique isn't unique.

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Get busy living... or get busy dying.  That's goddamn right.

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1 hour ago, Luminara said:

 

When I was working as a laptop repair technician in the IT company supporting the local school system, I came across three units registered to kids named Unique, not related to one another.

 

Three.

 

Even Unique isn't unique.

How do you catch a unique rabbit?

 

Spoiler

Unique up on it!!!

 

How do you catch a tame rabbit?

 

Spoiler

The tame way! Unique up on it!!!

 

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I have so many, many alts and an overwhelming number of them are PL’d to mid 20’s or so (it only takes 15-20 minutes or so to build them) and parked in my ‘library’ as ready-made alts, non-leveled, placeholder name and costume included.  So you may have seen some of mine as I’ve pulled them out to finally give them real names, real costumes and an actual slotted build.  

 

I’m sure I’m not alone in doing this.  I even color code my library and have several stock costumes saved up.  All blue is Defender, all black a Stalker, all gray a Tank, etc.  The names (eg; FireTank Temp) simply make it easy for me to identify them in the library.

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8 minutes ago, Crysis said:

I have so many, many alts and an overwhelming number of them are PL’d to mid 20’s or so (it only takes 15-20 minutes or so to build them) and parked in my ‘library’ as ready-made alts, non-leveled, placeholder name and costume included.  So you may have seen some of mine as I’ve pulled them out to finally give them real names, real costumes and an actual slotted build.  

 

I’m sure I’m not alone in doing this.  I even color code my library and have several stock costumes saved up.  All blue is Defender, all black a Stalker, all gray a Tank, etc.  The names (eg; FireTank Temp) simply make it easy for me to identify them in the library.

I like my alts but, damn I cannot imagine that lol.

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CO's tied-to-global system was a godsend. Something like that being implemented here is probably a pipe dream, but I'll cross any amount of fingers/toes needed. Everyone should be able to get the names they want!
Speaking of, namesitters: evil, perfidious, etc.

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@Hissatsuman, you can mainly find me on Everlasting!

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24 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Everyone's opinion on what is a "cool" or "imaginative" name is subjective.

 

To be fair, everything in life is subjective. Even people who have murdered other people can give pretty damn good arguments as to why they have killed and how it was justified and there are people who actually agree saying that people's opinions on a killer is subjective....even when they killed somebody over a pair of shoes. Yeah, I know...stupid thing to say, but my point is, everything we say hear or see is subjective. Kind of goes without saying, right?

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28 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

To be fair, everything in life is subjective.

Thinking back to the names in the original post, Rad Sword may have been clever to the person who came up with it, as in maybe it's funny because rad can have a double meaning being short for radioactive and radical.  And maybe anyone that looks at it and doesn't see that connection just doesn't share the same kind of vision as the character's player.  On the other hand, maybe it is exactly what it appears to be with an obvious choice of named after powersets.  In the end, does it really matter?

 

The iconic hero names are only familiar to us as names because they have had decades to build a reputation and grow into that iconic status.

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Just now, Player2 said:

Thinking back to the names in the original post, Rad Sword may have been clever to the person who came up with it, as in maybe it's funny because rad can have a double meaning being short for radioactive and radical.  And maybe anyone that looks at it and doesn't see that connection just doesn't share the same kind of vision as the character's player.  On the other hand, maybe it is exactly what it appears to be with an obvious choice of named after powersets.  In the end, does it really matter?

 

The iconic hero names are only familiar to us as names because they have had decades to build a reputation and grow into that iconic status.

Stop...hurting...my...head....and ...making...me...think...so...much...this....early...in...the...morning!!!!

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13 hours ago, Player2 said:

I'm sure every John Smith in the real world agrees with you.  But that's not how life works.

In an extreme quirk of coincidence, some years ago, when I had gone down to the local blood bank to donate, I was asked if I'd ever used another SSN. I said 'no', and they said that there was another person with my name working at the hospital where I did. The next day, when I went in to work I checked the patient file, and not only was there someone else with the same first and last name as mine (different middle initial, though), but we shared a birthdate -- month, day, and year.

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10 hours ago, Heraclea said:

If anyone has an urge to create a character or a SG and give them a Latin name, I'm available to proofread it and make sure that it is roughly grammatical and means what you think. 

My only characters with Latin-derived names are a Dark/Dark corruptor named 'Tenebrica', and a Fire/Time corruptor named 'Machinator Magicus', the latter name deriving from Kirk Mitchell's Procurator series, where 'machinator' was the term for what we would call an engineer, with the character being a dimension traveler from a world like Poul Andersen's Operation Chaos universe, where magic was the technology.

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1 hour ago, Player2 said:

Thinking back to the names in the original post, Rad Sword may have been clever to the person who came up with it, as in maybe it's funny because rad can have a double meaning being short for radioactive and radical.  And maybe anyone that looks at it and doesn't see that connection just doesn't share the same kind of vision as the character's player.  On the other hand, maybe it is exactly what it appears to be with an obvious choice of named after powersets.  In the end, does it really matter?

 

The iconic hero names are only familiar to us as names because they have had decades to build a reputation and grow into that iconic status.

I have a character named Emerald Radiance.

He's an homage to Green Lantern (I'm sure you could tell by the name)

He does radiate an emerald color (I guess I should use colour since he's on Reunion)

And, he's an Energy/Ice Blaster. (on live he was a Radiation/Energy Defender)

 

Anyway, his name is similar to a lot of generic names.

I suppose I could have called him Green Light...

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6 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

I have a character named Emerald Radiance.

He's an homage to Green Lantern (I'm sure you could tell by the name)

He does radiate an emerald color (I guess I should use colour since he's on Reunion)

And, he's an Energy/Ice Blaster. (on live he was a Radiation/Energy Defender)

 

Anyway, his name is similar to a lot of generic names.

I suppose I could have called him Green Light...

Green Light is a go.  You may proceed.  😉 

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17 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

He does radiate an emerald color (I guess I should use colour since he's on Reunion)

And, he's an Energy/Ice Blaster. (on live he was a Radiation/Energy Defender)

The great thing about power customisation is that it decoupled the in-game effect from how the powers actually look.  Sure, it's *called* Water Blast, but with a bit of recolouring my Water/Ice Defender is fighting the bad guys with the power of delicious cocktails.

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Reunion player, ex-Defiant.

AE SFMA: Zombie Ninja Pirates! (#18051)

 

Regeneratio delenda est!

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Just now, Grouchybeast said:

The great thing about power customisation is that it decoupled the in-game effect from how the powers actually look.  Sure, it's *called* Water Blast, but with a bit of recolouring my Water/Ice Defender is fighting the bad guys with the power of delicious cocktails.

I have a water blast / mental manipulation blaster called Bourbon Blaster.  The liquid (and mental) effects are colored a nice shade brown-amber, and he is fun at parties.

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