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Breakfast Topic: What are your WoW pet peeves?
Last year, the Drama Mamas answered a letter from a person whose pet peeve was being called by her class instead of by her character name. The comments showed that many people agreed with her, while others argued that it wasn't impersonal so much as efficient. Re-reading that post made me want to talk about pet peeves again. Check out this ancient Breakfast Topic by our former editor-in-chief, which asks the same question I'm asking today, or this also similar one from last year. But I think it is important to direct you to my declaration of my biggest in-game pet peeve: "rogue" vs. "rouge." This misuse really, really bothers me. I understand that it is an easy typo, but I also believe that many people think that is how rogue is spelled. As I've said before, rouge is a cosmetic applied to your cheeks; rogue is a deadly killer who likes to make with the stabby. My common response to that is (stolen from someone else): Rouges are overpowdered. That statement often gets a mixed response from the chat audience -- many misread it and want to start a class war.
Breakfast Topic: Is that you?
As is often the case with Breakfast Topics, I write about what interests me, asking commenters questions that I genuinely want to know the answers to. So it should be no surprise that I read the comments pretty religiously, and often they will spark ideas that lead to more Breakfast Topics. You've only yourselves to blame for being such interesting folk. On a recent BT about gender in WoW, two commenters got my attention. Dez and Nagaina, thanks for replying! The parts that caught my eye from their comments were as follows: Dez wrote: I know some players consider their toons to be extensions of themselves (1st-person narrative), but personally I see them more as other people whose adventures I am following (3rd-person narrative). Nagaina wrote: I'm principally a roleplayer. When I create a character, I'm usually doing so for storyline related reasons not representing myself in game related ones. I personally consider my characters to be extensions of myself. When I refer to them, mentally I'm thinking, "I'm over here," "I'm getting my face chewed off by a murloc," or "I'm going to get myself a kickass new cloak." When I'm talking in game, I do much the same. The idea of the character as a third person fascinates me. I suppose it might be reflected in games like The Sims where you control the life of a character in a different way or maybe in FPS games where you're controlling a character with a predefined story. Or perhaps it's something that is a big part of roleplaying, creating a story for a character that is (maybe by definition) not your own story. I freely admit to knowing barely anything about roleplaying, so of course there is the strong possibility that all that might be utter nonsense! What do you think? Are your characters extensions of yourself? Are you representing yourself in game? Or, like Dez and Nagaina, are you following a third person? And why?
Breakfast Topic: What's your naming methodology?
Having recently written a Breakfast Topic asking you what your main is and another asking about WoW gender choice, it can hardly come as a surprise when I start asking you about another major part of your WoW identity. How did you choose the name for your first character? Exhibiting a characteristic level of creativity (i.e., none), I chose an adaptation of my own name. Well done, me! So then once you roll alts, how do you name them? I have stuck to my adaptation of my name model, adding in various permutations and multiples of them. There are a lot of nicknames out there for Olivia, fortunately! Do you have a naming convention that allows friends and guild members to easily recognize your alts? Or do you like to completely change it up for every new character? Or perhaps you wanted to emphasize some element of your character, so maybe for a paladin something to do with the Light. If you're a fan of lore, maybe you've taken the time to research your chosen race or class's history. Maybe you've decided on a name that reflects a sort of signature ability, like DoTs for a warlock. Or maybe you've decided on a theme that appeals to you, like authors or cartoon characters or types of swords. Do you have names saved on your server, awaiting future expansions or new alts? If you're trying to find a name, we here at WoW Insider are here to help -- we're good like that. I should add, I didn't name my undead warlock Dottymcdotface. If you want that one, it's all yours.
Drama Mamas: The case of the disreputable doppelganger
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We get very attached to our online pseudonyms. But how unique are they, and what if you come across someone with the same name and a bad reputation? Dear Drama Mamas, I regularly comment on a certain WoW-based blogging-slash-news site under a given username that I've been attached to for many years. The site is read by a lot of people, and I've told quite a few stories there regarding events on my home realm, and today I had the unfortunate pleasure of overhearing mention of someone with a name near-exactly the same as mine whilst on an alt. But not in a good way. The doppleganger name was being addressed with disdain and malice (hate, even). I did a bit of digging on the armory and discovered that the character in question wasn't some fresh low-level character--it was 85, moderately geared, and even shared classes with my main that I had indeed, come to mention on occasion. What makes this slightly more interesting is that none of my characters share the name I use on the site--the name is unique to that location only.
The Daily Grind: Do you try to grab names on launch?
Early access for Star Wars: The Old Republic started earlier this week, and that meant that Tuesday evening saw me taking part in a time-honored tradition, namely speeding through the character creator several times in hopes of getting the names that I wanted. I got pretty lucky; out of the eight names I was hoping for, six were available and two were available with just a slight tweak, which was pretty good all around. Of course, these are all characters that I plan on playing in the very near future, but it was still a big batch of character names right out of the starting gate. Do you do the same? When a new game comes out, do you rush to nab the names of characters you already know you want to play? Do you wait and see if you can get certain names or try to grab the same ones? Or are character names just not that important to you in the long run? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
New periodic table elements finally get names, will probably want to trade them in
Flerovium and livermorium. Prime names for really ugly babies -- or, equivalently, new elements on the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry opted for the latter last week, baptizing elements 114 and 116 just about six months after they were first ratified. Back in June, as you may recall, Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research proposed flerovium and muscovium as names for the two ultraheavy elements, while deferring to the IUPAC for final say on the matter. At the time, the organization said it would likely accept any name, as long as "it's not something too weird." Flerovium (Fl), named after Soviet nuclear physicist Georgiy Flerov, apparently passed that litmus test. Muscovium, sadly, did not. Instead, slot 116 will belong to livermorium (Lv), named after California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which collaborated on the discovery of the element, back in 2000. Bill Goldstein, associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Labs' Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, heralded the decision as a celebration of his institute's collaborative contribution to chemistry: "Proposing these names for the elements honors not only the individual contributions of scientists from these laboratories to the fields of nuclear science, heavy-element research, and super-heavy-element research, but also the phenomenal cooperation and collaboration that has occurred between scientists at these two locations." The nomenclature isn't entirely set in stone, however, as the two names must first endure a five-month public comment period before appearing in chemistry textbooks.
GuildOx shares the most popular WoW character names by class
GuildOx, one of the premier services that ranks, tracks, and parses the top guilds and their progression in WoW, has been using Blizzard's new character APIs to some pretty hilarious ends. After mining out 11 million character names, GuildOx has sent us the most popular character names by class in World of Warcraft. As you'd expect, the pun meter is off the charts. You'll laugh. You'll cry. Your immersion will be broken. Let's have a look at the most popular names in World of Warcraft. Warriors Glitterstorm Cleaveland Ragebar Brostorm Cleaveage Ragestarved Sunderwear Executie Skillstorm Sunderpants Warrior characters love using skill names or the rage mechanic in their names. I'm actually a culprit of this phenomenon, except I like to think I was clever about it. My Night Elf warrior, for the brief time that I was raiding on the Alliance side of things, was named Rageleaf. It was awesome. Stop judging me.
Drama Mamas: Namecalling
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Things don't have to be serious to potentially cause drama. Dear Drama Mamas, I have a in-game pet peeve that I could use some advice in working through. In short, it's being called by my class in randoms. For me, it's like nails on chalkboard, being called "Hunter, trap square" or "Priest, on adds". Now, I've been playing since BC launched, so you'd think I'd have a tougher skin when it comes to something seemingly so small, but I really don't. I used to have a lot more tolerance, but I really think upon reflection that people just used to use names more often on my server in pugs. From my perspective, when you call someone by their class, you're relegating them to being an object, an npc that you're directing what to do and where to go. Excuse me, but I'm a person who chose their toon's name with care when I created them literally years ago for most of them. If I can take the time to type in the first four letter of your name in party chat, can't you do the same? I'm okay with using roles (tank/heals/dps), since those are groups of people who are doing the same job in the group. That's not derogatory.
Nokia goes with a numbers-only naming scheme, thinks the alphabet is hard
There had been rumblings that Nokia was going to switch up its naming scheme and ditch the letter prefixes. Today, with the launch of the Nokia 500 (previously known as the Fate) that shift in convention has finally taken effect. The all-number nomenclature is brilliantly simple -- the higher the number, the higher-end the handset, and the higher the price. So, if and when Nokia unveils the 790 (which the Finnish company denies exists with a wink), you'll immediately know it will be costlier and more powerful than the 500 or the 670. Now we can all stop wondering what the "C" and "X" in C7 and X7 are supposed to tell us about our choice in Symbian handset and, by extension, ourselves.
Breakfast Topic: Do character naming schemes help you or confuse you?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. With the coming of Cataclysm, class mechanics changed, preferences changed -- and in many cases, main characters changed, leaving guildmates wondering, "What do I call him now?" Thankfully, some forward-thinking types already have naming schemes in place to ease the transition. Several members of my guild use the same three-letter prefix for every character name to eliminate confusion, while others use a full word preceded or followed by a class-specific descriptive term. We have an officer who uses some combination of the same few letters, making his characters easy to identify, and one tank even uses a food-related theme. Of course, even this does not completely eliminate the confusion, except in cases where the same prefix is used. We still have folks being called by the names of characters they have not played in a year or more. For those without the forethought to create a theme, members are often left checking guild notes to discover who they are talking to. As one of those forethought-lacking players myself, I often wish I could go back in time and find a way to connect my character names and make things a little more obvious. Do you know someone with a great naming scheme, or do you have one yourself? How did you choose? If you don't have a gimmick, how do you handling telling friends and guildies what to call you when decide to make a change?
The Daily Grind: Do you recycle character names?
So the next couple of months are shaping up to be rather busy here at the Massively offices (that aren't really offices). Aside from the usual news gathering, column writing, and convention prepping, there's a veritable smorgasbord of MMOs releasing in short order that are going to be demanding lots of our collective attention. Between now and March 1st, we've got DC Universe, Earthrise, RIFT, and Xsyon, and if there's ever been a swath of games that cater to a wide variety of tastes releasing one after the other like this, we'd love to hear about it. With new games comes new characters and for some of us, that represents a bit of a conundrum apart from class or skill choices. Character names are all-important, and for folks that play a lot of MMOs, it might be easier to simply pick one and use it across multiple games. Roleplayers, on the other hand, probably shudder at the thought of recycling character names (and possibly personalities) from game to game. What about you, Massively folk? Do you have an MMORPG handle that you're prone to using in each new title, or are your character names unique? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breakfast Topic: What's behind your character's name?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Strolling through Dalaran, you see all sorts of characters with all sorts of names -- everything from Knaush to Xxarthasxxlol. But have you ever stopped to wonder why a character is named the way he or she is? There might just be a significance that you miss. For example, my priest, Flintte, was named after Flint Fireforge from the Dragonlance series; I wanted a recognizable dwarf name, and with my having no creativity, I named him after the dwarf (though of course, Flint was taken, and so I had to modify it). Once I started raiding, no one could correctly pronounce my name over Vent; they always called me "Flintee" or "Flinette." So when I decided to roll an alt shaman, I named him "Flintee" just to confuse my guildies. (It worked.) And then I named my warlock "Flinnte." And my DK "Flinete." And pretty soon, I had a roster of characters all with names differing by a letter or so. Anyone who knows me on my server can instantly tell who I am, thanks to my naming scheme. What started out as an unoriginal allusion to a novel became something that defined all my characters. Except Bellboy, who also has a significant name. When I played in the pit orchestra in junior high school, I was dubbed "Bellboy" by the conductor, since I was the percussionist. Even randomly selected names can have significance. I know someone who just used the name generator to name her character, and then she got curious and looked it up. Apparently, the name they gave was her first name in Gaelic (she also happened to be Irish), and so that started a Gaelic naming trend for her. So what's in a name? Why did you name your characters the way you did? Tell us in the comments.
Game Center terms of service updated, real names shared on invitation
Apple has quietly tweaked the Game Center terms of service to add in the rule that whenever you first invite a friend to join your friends list in the gaming social network app, your real first and last names (as entered in your iTunes account) are shown to them. You still use a nickname as a full ID (and Game Center will still show your nickname when you log in to browse achievements or see what people are playing), but when you first "friend" someone, they get to see your real name. Apple has been able to get away with this one somehow -- the iTunes-based Ping social network also makes liberal use of the real name associated with an Apple account when adding friends, but for some reason nobody has made too much of a fuss about it. Consider Apple lucky -- when Blizzard Entertainment tried to require real names to be shared on their World of Warcraft forums, their community raised such a clamor that they had to back down and keep the forums anonymous. But Apple hasn't had that problem, either because the audiences are different, or just because people don't care so much about anonymity among their Game Center or Ping friends. We'll have to see how the community responds to a change like this.
Wings Over Atreia: Making the cut
"What position are you applying for?" The interviewer listens and nods. "Mmhmm. Thank you. Now, what special skills can you bring to the team?" "Please list all previous experience and describe your major accomplishments." A pause. "Have you the required equipment to adequately perform your duties?" The interviewer is quiet while sizing up the applicant. "I'm sorry, but you just don't quite have what we are looking for. Next!" Sound familiar? No, this isn't a job interview -- this is the rigmarole many players experience simply to get into a group in NCsoft's Aion. You might think that time of day or availability of people in the right level range would have the most affect on forming up a group, whether in a legion or a PUG. Instead, players often must contend with an entirely different beast before even stepping foot into an instance: group elitism. Unless you have a regular group of friends with identical play times or a very supportive legion, you are apt to occasionally find yourself in the situation of seeking a group while traipsing about Atreia. Even with a regular group, there are going to be times you are left more-or-less on your own and just want to get something done. Thus begins the (oft times unpleasant) task of creating or finding a group. Like a microcosm of drama played out in short spurts, group formation showcases a variety of less-than-desirable attributes: greed; envy; lust; selfishness; and inflated egos. Just how exclusive can this process become? Your inclusion could ride solely on your class, equipment, or skill set, and have nothing to do with your ability and skill as a player. Heck, even your name may keep you out of groups. Join me past the cut to explore elitism in group dynamics in Aion.
Wings Over Atreia: What's in a name?
Classic balladry informs us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Would the same hold true of an Elyos or an Asmodian? OK, maybe sweet-smelling and back hair don't necessarily mix (and let's not even ask how long that Elyos has been stuffed in all-encompassing armor), but there is no denying the impact a name has in Aion. Unlike those handed us at our birth (and with few exceptions kept throughout our lives), names in games are completely self-inflicted; we have control over what the floaty text above our heads announces to the rest of our pixel world. And announce it does -- more than many people even stop to think about. A name is so much more than just a convenient way to send whispers or in-game mail to others within Aion; with only a glance, your name implies much about you, your playstyle, and your personality. It is not uncommon for people to actually base their grouping decisions, their legion recruitment, their trust in you, and more on just a simple glance at your in-game moniker or your legion tag. Whether the impact is born of reputation or of first impressions, others have a reaction to and make decisions based simply on names. Fly past the cut to see how different monikers influence the world we live, fly, and fight in.
The Lawbringer: A rookie's guide to the TOU
Welcome to the Lawbringer, Wow.com's weekly guide to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I'm Amy Schley, a new law school graduate and your tour guide through the rabbit hole of contracts, copyrights and other craziness. Greetings again! We're on part three of an examination of the various legal documents to which we must consent in order to play our beloved World of Warcraft. Parts one and two examined the End User License Agreement; this segment will look at the Terms of Use ("TOU"). The first thing you'll notice as you examine the TOU is that it is quite similar to the EULA. This is by design -- while one of the EULA's provisions is to agree to the Terms of Use, the repetition increases the likelihood we'll actually read it. There are quite a few differences, including the code of conduct and the naming policy.
What to do in Limsa Lominsa when you're in the Final Fantasy XIV beta
If you're one of the lucky souls in Final Fantasy XIV's recently expanded beta testing, you might well be a new arrival. And even though the beta build isn't the final release of the game, there's still a lot of different things to do. So where do you begin? Thankfully, there's a new guide available from Famitsu (translated by FFXIVCore) that should give a fair picture of where players can start. It covers everything from sights in the city to the options available for retainers. Once players pick a race for the retainer, a wide variety of appearance is available, but said assistant's name is fixed. You can give a nickname, however, which opens up a number of affectionate (and horrible) possibilities. Of course, that does little for the players not involved in the Final Fantasy XIV beta, but Square-Enix has also released a video on the development of character models and customization in the game. Embedded past the cut, the trailer won't quite take the edge off being unable to use the guide in practice, but it's the next best thing.
Aion offers six free server transfers per character
With NCsoft's upcoming Aion server merges looming, chances are you've taken the time to figure out where your daeva's new home is going to be (as well as marked your calendar to be sure you get first dibs on keeping your name). What you may not know is that you've got plenty of opportunities to test out the various Aion server communities after the merges are complete. In its weekly Eye on Community featurette, NCsoft answers a player-generated question about transfer specifics. "During the free character transfer period, characters you submit for transfer are placed in a collated list, together with transfer requests from other players. The transfers outlined in this list will all be executed at the same time during weekly maintenance. Because transfers are moved in a batch each week, you will be able to transfer your character up to six times before the 18th of August, when the free character transfer period ends. Our intent is to let you test the waters so that you can decide which server best suits you," says the featurette.
Xbox 360 naming guide: the new Xbox 360 vs. the Xbox 360 Original
It wasn't totally clear during Microsoft's E3 keynote, but the new Xbox has brought some name changes with it: the new shiny black console is officially "the new Xbox 360," while Microsoft's fact sheet refers to the original Xbox 360 as the... Xbox 360 Original. Clever, clever. The Original will still come in Elite and Arcade versions, which have new lower prices, so there's a chance we'll see something like the Xbox 360 Original Arcade, but hey -- that sounds like a Microsoft product name to us. We'll let you know if things change, or you can just call the new one the "Stealthbox" like us and avoid all this confusion entirely. Update: Things are changing fast -- according to a Microsoft representative, the Xbox 360 Original will still be sold while there's stock, but they're not making any more of them. Once they're gone, they're gone -- and we'd assume a new $199 variant of the new design will eventually be released to fill the void.
All the World's A Stage: Common name conventions
Anne Stickney is subbing for a very busy Michael Gray. Anne enjoys roleplay and was delighted to fill in. This has nothing to do with any grand schemes involving Mr. Gray or the eventual theft of his puppy. Promise. One of the questions I'm asked most often in regards to roleplaying has nothing to do with lore, or story development, or character concept. Instead, it revolves around one of the first things you do when you create a new character -- naming it. RP servers run a little differently than your typical PvE or PvP server, and have their own set of unique guidelines for naming in addition to the policies that already exist. These additional naming guidelines are: Non-Medieval/Fantasy Character Names This category includes: Any Non-Medieval or Non-Fantasy names (i.e. Slipnslide, Robotman, Technotron). All normal naming rules (which can be found at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20368). If a player is found to have such a name, he/she may: Be assigned a randomly generated name Be given the appropriate additional penalty if the name violates standard naming rules. Generally speaking, most people playing on an RP server will report a name that does not fall under these guidelines -- and if a case is made, your name can be changed. So how do you create a name that fits? Luckily, all of the races in World of Warcraft have a few particular naming conventions -- traits are common to the NPCs already existing in game. Today we're going to go over these conventions and suggest some ideas and resources you can use to get a name that is unique, and won't get you reported.
