RPG Nicknames

Monday, Feb. 28 2005 | Author: Griffith

When I was creating my character in a MMORPG a few days ago I went across a strange writer’s block, I couldn´t think of a name for my character. So I started thinking of many nicknames, I tried some Greek mythology ones first but the most common ones were already taken so I ended up going around my room and ended up naming my character after the name of an old Sega Saturn game, Astal.

I started thinking about the nicknames that some people use in game and there´s enough info to make some preconceptions out of them.

After some running around in the server I managed to split the nicknames in 4 categories:

Well Developed Nicknames – I think that it´s safe to say that anyone that takes some thought before naming their character and tries to think of someone or something from a book character to an anime one that fits more or less the same profile of your character is a good gamer and usually the best people to hang around with.
1337 Nicknames – These ones are the ones you should look out for. I have yet to meet one person using a nickname like “l3g0l4$” that isn´t childish. Usually people that use this nick just want to have fun at the cost of other people’s enjoyment.
Popular Nicknames – Nicknames after popular movies/games are usually taken by people which before had a 1337 or older Popular nickname. Since the name is a buzz word they change it as soon as they hear about it but usually they change again. People that choose these types of nicknames are usually people that want to stay trendy no matter what, in some cases they seem to be very immature.
Job/Class Related Nickname – If someone uses a name like “MrCash” for a character that can make a lot of money quickly due to it´s skills it´s almost definitely a secondary character, it´s picked by people that are either trying out the character or just don´t care about it other than it´s main skill. You should always be careful when regarding these ones, there´s no telling whether their main character is someone who can help you or some 1337 dude that can PK you in case you bother him.

Anyways, that´s my take on it; feel free to add your own opinions. On a short side note, this is my first article here on Forever Geek and I hope I become a good editor as time comes in the meantime any help to achieve that goal is welcome.

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13 Responses for "RPG Nicknames"

Nelson

February 28th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
1

Great article. I hope to see more of you here!
Scrivs

February 28th, 2005 at 2:48 pm
2

I usually pull my names from my favorite fantasy books. Seems to work so far as I have never came across a time where those names were already taken.
Chad

February 28th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
3

“mal de ojo” is one I often use… Evil Eye sort of what it means.

The literal translation isn’t the reason I chose it. In El Salvador it is used to describe someone who’s gone off the deep end and has a crazy look in their eye.

arrrrrrrgh ;-)
cliche

February 28th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
4

Can’t beat astronomy names in terms of availability, meaning, and coolness. For example, Aquila(the eagle) for hunter, Supernova(only the most powerful force in the univerce) for a fire mage, etc.
JC

February 28th, 2005 at 4:49 pm
5

In WoW I used the random name generator to get two of my character names… (of course, one just stands next to the mailbox in darnassus and mails stuff to me). The other two I chose names for, but I’ve never really played any except my mail, Lauran… which in retrospect wasn’t the wisest choice of name, since any number of dimwits think it’s “Lauren” and assume I’m a woman… but it sounded close to Lorren which is a nice elfish name, and I play a night elf, so…

When writing, I sometimes use a name generator, sometimes just use combinations and modifications of words from the language a friend of mine created when she was younger… they’re fairly short on hard sounds and make for good fantasy-type names.
Derek

February 28th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
6

For all of my WoW character names I used the random name generator built in to the game. Or the hobbit name generator online. :)
The Wolf

February 28th, 2005 at 6:56 pm
7

I don’t play many online games (Unreal anyone?), but I do have a decent nick, if you search for ‘thewolf’ you will probably find something (bad?) related to me. You get the same thing searching for ‘Scrivs’.

I try my best not to communicate with people that use names that you can’t say. Take for example ‘!~~!’ from an IRC channel I visit, how the hell can you explain that to someone if they ask you what your doing? I wouldn’t dare say it aloud.
David King of Rams

February 28th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
8

I usually use my own name, or a translation of it (well, my name or something related to it)

for instance, in http://babkha.com/ I use the name Davood Shahram which is farsi for David, King of Rams (my name is david, and I am a fan of The Rams (an english soccer team)

however, lately Ihave started to use names with a latin first name (usually “Conglacio meaning ice maker) and a german sirname
Mark

February 28th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
9

I like it when I come across someone who seems to have taken the easy way out by using a popular name, but they have a good story which explains why they chose it. That’s something you wouldn’t find out if you immediately lumped them into the “don’t want to associate with you” category. Not that anyone is suggesting that.
Marco (Griffith) Jardim

March 1st, 2005 at 4:18 am
10

I agree with you Mark, clearly that’s one kind that I didn’t mention. I for one have reasons for this nick and the old one I used to have, it’s sort of an antagonism really… but we’ll leave that for another day.
Chris

October 22nd, 2005 at 12:17 am
11

im one of those people who always chooses the same one wherever I go, just not creative to come up with a new nickname and too short a memory to keep track. Although mine is history influenced and then just random, its got a record of never being taken at many sites. Xircso lives on! and if you think its hard to pronounce, its with a Z sound, not X (like Xerxes, good reference right? LOL)
Deon

April 25th, 2006 at 12:16 am
12

Thing about my nickname is that it fits my character to what i want it to be…”MetalAlcH.”FireAlchemist…blah blah blah…alchemist is one who can make stuff from metal..somethin like that…like in my mmorpg i would have him with a sword not some gay weapon that isnt a metal weapon.
diddlez

March 7th, 2007 at 4:28 am
13

mine the best nick name