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NASA needs help naming its 'moonikin' Artemis I test flight dummy
NASA is asking for help naming its first (non-human) passenger, or "moonikin" that will fly aboard the Orion capsule.
LinkedIn will let you record the correct pronunciation of your name
LinkedIn will let members record the correct pronunciation of their name.
Android Q is now simply Android 10
Google has finally revealed Android Q's release name, and it's not Quiche, Quinoa or Quesadilla. In fact, it's not named after any dessert that starts with the letter Q at all -- the tech giant has decided to simply call it Android 10. In a blog post, the company said it's changing the way it names its releases altogether in a push for greater accessibility. "[W]e've heard feedback over the years that the names weren't always understood by everyone in the global community," the company wrote.
Help NASA name its Mars 2020 rover
NASA's Mars 2020 rover is beginning to take shape. Earlier this month, crews installed some of its legs and six of its wheels. Now, the vehicle needs a name, and for that, NASA is turning to students. Beginning in fall 2019, NASA will run a nationwide "Name the Rover" contest open to K-12 students in the US. The spacecraft will need a name by July 2020, when it's expected to launch.
Google needs your help naming Android N
Nougat? Nerds? Necco wafers? Nonpareils? We'd argue none of these treats sound cool enough for the next version of Android, and it turns out Google is having a hard time picking too. That's why, for the first time ever, the search giant wants to know what you think the "N" in Android N should stand for. Google launched a website to take your suggestions, and could pick a winner if someone out there cooks up something seriously inspired.
Yik Yak 'Handles' finally attach names to posts
Since it launched, Yik Yak has allowed users to anonymously post messages and pictures viewable by others within their local area. Popular among students, the service has been controversial and considered by some as a vehicle for cyberbullying, and threats of violence, but now for the first time it's letting users attach their nicknames to posts. If you choose to grab a "Handle," it will be on by default for new posts afterwards, but you can choose to post without it, or continue using the service without one.
Instababies: People are naming kids after Instagram filters
When it comes to deciding on a baby name, you could go with a family name. Or, like several couples did in 2015, you could look to your cellphone photography habit for inspiration. According to BabyCenter, some of the hottest trends in baby names shared monikers with Instagram filters. Yes, really. The site says that names of the photo-sharing apps presets were extremely popular this year for newborns, with Lux being the top choice. Additionally, Ludwig, Amaro, Reyes, Hudson and Kelvin all rose up the popularity rankings for boys while Juno, Valencia and Willow were routinely picked for girls. The site says it gathered its name popularity and trend data from 340,000 parents from around the world to compile the stats. Here's to hoping the trend continues in 2016 with babies named Lo-Fi, Inkwell and Nashville, because the internet.[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Blizzard's Overwatch bumps into trademark issues
Remember when no one knew what Overwatch was and we were all speculating it was some sort of expansion based on the fact that the trademark had been filed? Oh, it was a more innocent time. Unfortunately for that trademark, it might be having a little bit of a problem after all, as it has come to light that another company filed an earlier claim for the trademark that would supersede Blizzard's use of the name due to likelihood of confusion. The trademark that has already been filed is for an app that can be used to provide enhanced functionality for paintball matches, laser tag matches, and the like. Both trademark applications are currently suspended pending investigations, so it remains to be seen whether Blizzard will be pushing forward or will change the name of the game to something legally different. Like Oversupervise, for instance.
Skyforge offers two contests for those who seek beta keys
Is the only thing you want for Christmas a nice shiny Skyforge beta key? If so... wow, you are aiming really low when it comes to gifts this year. We usually at least would ask for a game, not test access to a game. Besides, you could get one completely for free by taking part in one of two contests. The first is a straightforward raffle-style giveaway on Facebook: Just "like" the game's page and submit your account email, and 500 lucky entrants will get a beta key. But for those who want a key and prefer not to leave it up to chance, there's a forum thread asking players to name the critter they see in the header above. The five best entries will receive a beta key, followed by a vote-off of all the suggested names. So there's a chance at getting in just based on your creativity at naming things, which might be more your style. The name contest will run until December 22nd, while the Facebook entries are accepted until January 15th. [Thanks to Gabriel for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: What's the worst character name you've ever seen in an MMO?
In writing his article about Final Fantasy XIV's character rename service, Massively's Eliot rattled off a few silly names he's seen in-game that could really use a rename token. What you didn't see was the list of awful names he passed along to the writers behind the scenes: Combyo Beard, Carfullof Whiteboys, Sharing Needles, Stupid Name, Popular Character, Avengers Assemble. And here I was thinking Ffxiv Blows and Mycat Isanimro were pretty wretched, but I should have known better. There's always something more wretched to reset the wretchedness scale. How about you, Massively peeps? What's the worst character name you've ever seen in an MMO? Bonus points if it makes me laugh. Bonus-bonus points to the first person to call me out for the joke name I used for my Second Wind Torchlight II character. Names are serious business. 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!
Final Fantasy XIV introduces character rename service
You've been enjoying your time playing Final Fantasy XIV, which is good. You hadn't expected to, but you have, and that's even better. But it does make your hastily considered name of "Ffxiv Blows" a bit less than appropriate. Or perhaps you've just grown tired of your in-game avatar's appellation, whether it's a setting-appropriate name like M'lana Nyokha or a less-setting-appropriate name like Mycat Isanimrod. You don't have to suffer a poor name any longer, though, as the rename feature has arrived. Character renames can now be purchased through the game's account management page per character, allowing you to type in a new character name when you're logging in much like the appearance-changing aspects of Fantasia. The cost for a single rename is $10, and they are purchased per character rather than account-wide. So if you've long been looking to alter your character's less-than-dignified sobriquet, you can do that now.
World of Warcraft reclaiming abandoned names for Warlords of Draenor
Your mothballed Gnomes and Tauren might be losing their names if you haven't logged into World of Warcraft recently (and by "recently," we mean "in the last six years."). Blizzard announced that it will be reclaiming old and abandoned names to free them up for the expansion. Names in danger of reclamation are those belonging to any characters that haven't logged in since November 13th, 2008. The names will be reclaimed with the Warlords of Draenor pre-patch 6.0.2 this fall. Blizzard suggests that anyone in danger of losing a desired name should log on before the patch hits.
RuneScape launches first batch of name cleanup
RuneScape is freeing up a lot of names now. The developers announced a while back that old an inactive names would be getting removed from the list soon, and the first batch is due to hit very soon. That means former members who have not logged in for two years and free users who haven't logged in within six months will have their character names dropped back into the pool of available sobriquets. The upside? Members will have access to a lot of new options for name changes. The first batch will cover names starting with A through C, and Jagex intends to post a page listing the reclaimed names; however, the page will be accurate only at the time of reclamation, with no updates to show what's been taken. So if you're hopeful to finally change your character's name to Arquebus, you'd better be ready.
Destiny hedges on raid info, character names, and chat channels
A Destiny community Q&A posted today on IGN is quite illuminating as to Bungie's approach to this upcoming online shooter. The studio is "very cagey" on releasing any details about its raiding system pre-launch, is struggling to figure out whether the game will have a chat system, and is against letting players give their avatars unique names. "The team thought a lot about how best to have players identify themselves in the world," Bungie said in regard to the last topic. "Ultimately, we've landed on PSN ID and Xbox LIVE Gamertag, so other people don't have to manage a third list of identities (real name, platform tag, Destiny character name)." Bungie was non-commital following beta feedback that players wanted a chat system: "We've seen the feedback, and there's quite a bit of ongoing discussion happening around this right now." The studio promised that it was hearing out players on this issue, however.
SOE trademarks The Darkened Sea and Altar of Malice
Two names sit on an onyx altar. You tip-toe up to them and gaze upon their majesty. There is no explanation, no revelation, just words sitting in a void. This is both tantalizing in the possibilities and maddening in the silence, causing you to clutch your fists and whisper, "What do they mean?" These words are "The Darkened Sea" and "Altar of Malice," and they are names trademarked by SOE this past week. Past the titles themselves and a description as "downloadable RPGs," we know nothing else, although they sound very much like expansion names for MMOs in SOE's library. The names were trademarked on July 2nd in California.
EVE Evolved: Expansion names are important!
Since its launch in 2003, EVE Online has adhered to a rough schedule of releasing two free expansions per year, one at the game's peak play time in the summer and one to tide players over during the long winter lull in activity. Each expansion has had a particular theme and a descriptive name, launching with several major features and then being followed up with a series of smaller sub-releases. At EVE Fanfest 2014 we discovered that CCP plans to change that strategy and instead produce around ten smaller releases each year, aiming to release one every six weeks. Putting aside the mathematical impossibility of meeting that target with only 52 weeks in the year, the plan for smaller but more regular releases has been generally well-received. Players were very happy to hear that unfinished features will no longer be pushed out the door before they're ready just to meet an arbitrary expansion deadline, and it's great news that completed features and fixes will now wait a maximum of six weeks before deployment. There's no doubt that it's a great development strategy, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes as a media strategy. In this EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look at why expansion names are important, the problems with CCP's new development schedule, and what can be done to fix them.
The Think Tank: The best MMORPG character naming systems
My first MMO was Ultima Online, where character naming rules were so unrestricted that it wasn't uncommon for people to copy names from others to pass themselves off as other players, usually for espionage and infiltration purposes. My guild even lost a guild base that way once to a particularly savvy spy with the same name as one of our officers! Subsequent MMOs, all the way into the present day, usually curtail such exploits with harsh naming conventions, including WildStar, which made recently headlines with a botched reservation system for its unique names (in fact, the registration ends tomorrow!). But players don't seem any happier with unique names than with copycat names. I polled the Massively writers about their opinions on the best naming systems in MMOs and how they'd like to see naming systems improved in general.
The Daily Grind: What naming restrictions do you approve of?
A recent beta patch in WildStar included several changes to its naming rules. Numbers in names are out but special characters are in. I'm really not a huge fan of most special characters because they're used to circumvent the fact that your desired name was chosen and so you're going to create a similar-looking name that will be all but impossible for your friends and guildies to type. Of course, in some games this isn't a problem because players can pick any name they like as long as it's attached to their permanent handle. But that's got its pros and cons too. What naming restrictions do you approve of? Personally, I wish all MMOs allowed for first and last names, since this usually solves the problem of taken names while increasing variety. I also don't know how prevalent "leet-speak" is these days to necessitate the removal of numbers. 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!
The Daily Grind: What are the funniest names you've seen?
Recently on the podcast we were chatting about hilarious names that cropped up in City of Heroes back in the day. The puns! Oh, the puns! It was simply glorious. The truth here is that I love being amused by a really clever and funny name. In some games, a name is the biggest point of external customization offered (sadly), and I never stop being amazed what folks come up with. So what are some of the funniest, punniest, or most clever player names that you've seen? And yes, comments section, you can point at yourself if you need the validation. I won't blame ya. 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!
Namco Bandai turns into Bandai Namco on April 1
Namco Bandai officially announced plans to change its name to Bandai Namco. The change, which spans the company's many regional subsidiaries, will go into effect on April 1. Yes, that's April Fool's Day. No, we're pretty sure Namco Ban – sorry, Bandai Namco is serious here. The publisher was the result of a merger between Namco and Bandai in September 2005. The umbrella company's logo, seen above, will be used for all of the publisher's products going forward. Up until this point, Namco Bandai used its traditional, individual Namco and Bandai logos on some of its games. For instance, Tales of Xillia sported a Namco logo, while Dark Souls featured the Namco Bandai one. [Image: Bandai Namco]
