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Star Wars: The Old Republic frees up the names on unused free-to-play characters
There's nothing wrong with getting a desired character name because you were the first person to create a character with that name on a given server. But it does kind of smart if you're a Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriber with a burning desire to use the name "Xylophone" but can't, especially if that name was just snapped up by a free-to-play character who hasn't even made it off of Tython. It's with that in mind that the game is instituting a series of name releases for free-to-play and preferred status players. If you're a free-to-play or preferred status player, this does mean you're at some risk of losing your name. Characters below level 10 who haven't been played in 60 (free) or 90 (preferred) days will need to be renamed, as will characters below level 30 who haven't been played in 120 (free) or 180 (preferred) days. Characters 30 and above will be exempt across the board, as will all characters of subscribers. So you might be able to get your desired character name back! Or you'll find out that Xylophone is actually a level 31 Juggernaut, which is still kind of neat. [Source: BioWare press release]
The Daily Grind: What's the story behind your character name?
I love me a good character name. Before I settled into the habit of using the same handful of names over and over again, I used to rely on a multi-page list of interesting names that I added to over the years. Many of these names would be chosen just because I liked the sound of them, but sometimes the names had little stories behind them. My World of Warcraft Hunter, Ghostfire, was named after a Magic: The Gathering card. I started using the moniker Yeti Yesterday in Guild Wars because I love alliteration and it sounded like a strange superhero. And my standard nomer, Syp, was created because I have a theory that everyone only types in your first three letters of your name anyway. So what's the story behind your character name(s)? 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: Your cleverest character names
What's in a name? Only your character's identity from here onward! Without a doubt, finding the perfect name for a character is the toughest part of character creation. More than once I've created a character, carefully customized the face and looks just how I liked them, and was then stymied by the blinking cursor in the name box. (And, occasionally, I've timed out while trying to think of a perfect name that's untaken after my first choice wasn't available, meaning I had to go back and start again with customization.) But my trouble figuring out names just means I've all the more respect for those characters with particularly clever names -- those of you who not only managed to think up a clever name but also claim it before anyone else did. So, dish, fellow Azerothians: what's your cleverest character name?
You Don't Know Jack maker Jellyvision becomes Jackbox Games
Jellyvision Games has been making variations of You Don't Know Jack for a while now, which is of course the irreverant and very popular trivia game. The title originally began as a series of PC and Mac games, though, of course, Jellyvision has taken the series to consoles, and then more recently to Facebook and iOS. Now, after nearly 20 years of work, the company has decided to rebrand itself, and Jellyvision is going to become Jackbox Games. The new branding makes a lot of sense: It definitely allows the company to focus on You Don't Know Jack and that brand, and it sets the company up as a multiplatform studio. Jellyvision always was, but this should give Jackbox a chance to do more with the upcoming next-generation platforms, as well as other devices like Roku and Ouya. Additionally, Jackbox has two more upcoming apps to release, in addition to the recent Lie Swatter. It is sort of a bummer to see a longtime brand pass on. But Jackbox is doing good work, and hopefully it'll be able to build an even stronger reputation with its new identity. Show full PR text JELLYVISION GAMES, MAKERS OF YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, RE-BRANDS AS JACKBOX GAMES Indie Trivia Game Developer Expands into New IP and New Generation Publishing, including Ouya CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – June 5, 2013 – Independent developer Jellyvision Games today announced its re-branding initiative with the new moniker: Jackbox Games. After nearly two decades of entertaining players with their landmark YOU DON'T KNOW JACK franchise, the former PC and console developer has expanded into a full-fledged new-generation publisher for multiple games on social and mobile platforms, Roku, and now Ouya. "The rebranding of our studio represents the completion of an evolution," said Mike Bilder, GM. "Today, Jackbox Games not only has the creative and technical resources to make great games, but we're seizing on the opportunity presented by new generation platforms to bring more games to market ourselves - however and wherever they best fit." In May 2012, YOU DON'T KNOW JACK was launched on Facebook as the studio's first social title, and it was met with critical acclaim – winning SPIKE TV's "Social Game of the Year." December 2012 saw the launch of the franchise on mobile, starting with iOS, and last spring the first new IP from the publisher hit the market in the form of Lie Swatter™. Last week, Ouya announced that the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK franchise will be ported to the Android-powered console platform as a launch title. The studio has also announced two upcoming apps for 2013: Clone Booth™ and Word Puttz™. "The big payoff for us has always been the engagement people feel when playing YOU DON'T KNOW JACK, which is really born out of our commitment to innovative design, top-notch writing, and high production values," said Harry Gottlieb, founder. "Our move to self-publishing on all these new platforms really frees us up to make a whole lot more of the kinds of games we like to play and to get them into the hands of the players who really want them." The Chicago-based studio has reached critical and commercial success since its 1995 introduction. The studio has sold more than five million units of YDKJ for PC and console. Last year, there were 3.5 million installs of YDKJ through Facebook, IOS and Android. The company's products have been showered with praise and hold more than 50 industry awards including the aforementioned SPIKE TV award and 2013 "Best Trivia Game" from the Best App Ever awards. As a mid-sized independent developer, the team has produced numerous significant industry innovations. YOU DON'T KNOW JACK was one of first games to use writing and audio to provide fully interactive gameplay, where players experience direct interaction with a virtual host. And now the studio has incorporated its brands directly into mid-sized games, previously the exclusive domain of mammoth publishers, expanding the independent monetization model.
Why we're thankful for the Name Change service
The Name Change service is old news but I continue to be thankful for it every time I log into my hunter. He has a noble name that sounds very elf-like without being something silly like Lolegolas or McBlasty. But that wasn't always the case. I didn't think I'd enjoy playing a hunter and I had no expectation that he'd make it long. I rolled a night elf (I thought 'Dark Elf' at the time), realized he could use two weapons, and named him... Drizzsst. You know. Like Do'Urden. He may have had a Tauren lover that I also rolled named Cattlebree. We had a guild named Underdim. Don't judge me, man, I was only going to play them a little while. But it turned out that I really liked my hunter (including a bat named Bruce) and I played him bunches. And he quickly became my favorite character, even gaining the Lieutenant rank in the old battlegrounds. And I played on a RP server. So you can see the problem. Awesome character, horrible name. The Name Change service fixed all that for me. What about you? What horrible character decisions did you come to regret later in life? Was it a bad name? Or, perhaps, a beard that seemed noble on the dwarf, until you realize it stuck oddly through every helmet and chestpiece you would ever own. Share your painful, irony stories in the comments!
The Daily Grind: What's the goofiest class name in an MMO?
If a game's gotta have classes, I say they need to sound awesome. I'm bored of Paladins and Assassins and Clerics and Warriors; I want to see Troubadors and Deadeyes and Tempests and Saboteurs and Disco Bandits. Some games, like Wakfu, have made class names into an artform: Foggernaut. Xelor's Sandglass. Sram's Shadow. What I don't get is why a Western game company would go to the trouble of implementing class names that sound like weird translations or just generic words mashed together. I'll forgive Korean devs for the Sheath Knight. I'll forgive sandboxes for mundane Bureaucrats and Beggars. But Neverwinter's Great Weapon Fighter is just screaming for a rewrite. Or at least a hyphen. What about you guys -- what class name would you like to see stricken from the roster of your favorite MMO? And what names stand out as the most badass? 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 Guild Counsel: The battle for character names
Identity is a theme that comes up a lot in The Guild Counsel column. Guild identity shapes a variety of areas, from recruitment policies and guild rules to tone and atmosphere. And for players, everything they do in game shapes their character identity. But one of the first things players select when they make their character is a name, and that's also the first thing that identifies our characters to other players. It sounds simple, but getting a name, and then keeping it, is actually harder than it sounds. And for players, not getting a favorite name can actually take away from enjoyment of the game. How important is a name? And do players have a right to keep it forever even if they aren't necessarily using it on an active character? Let's look at some of the complexities behind a simple name.
League of Legends developer wins another porn domain case
Riot Games has finished up another legal dispute regarding a website domain name related to its popular League of Legends title. LeagueofLegends.co was previously awarded to the company by the World Intellectual Property Organization from the clutches of a domain squatter, and now LeagueofLegendsPorn.com has been reclaimed by Riot for its own use. The case actually closed in late September, but the ruling came online earlier this week.Those looking for some racy pics of Miss Fortune or Akali getting it on, however, will be disappointed: The site never actually hosted any adult material, and now that Riot owns it, probably never will. But Riot is slowly securing its various domain name holdings online, making it easier for the company to connect players up to big company events like the recent World Championships in LA.
The Daily Grind: What's the best character name you've seen?
The other day I learned the word "onomastics," because Bree likes to club us over the head with big words so that we'll go away whimpering and leave her to playing Guild Wars 2. Anyway, we were talking about how we both have a character name file, although on my computer it's just called "character names" and not something that makes me think of doing back flips off of a high beam. I love a good name. A good name, in my opinion, sets you apart from the pack. It tells others that you didn't just slap letters together like a common monkey learning how to type for the first time. It may even generate respect among some. It gets you noticed, is what I'm saying, and it gets you remembered. So what is the best character name you've seen that wasn't one you used yourself? Was it just a great word, a clever pun, or something else that exuded awesomeness? 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: How should MMOs handle character names?
Names are a big deal in MMOs. I've struggled through many a horrible launch to score a good name and camp names for friends until they can log in because only rarely does a game allow unlimited copies of a name. Ultima Online is one such game, as is Champions Online, though your global handle there is yours alone. The Secret World requires a unique nickname; your "real" name can be a duplicate. But most games just code for one use of a name per realm. (After all, one Malcolm Reynolds per server is plenty.) City of Heroes took a stand on the issue. Years before CoH's F2P conversion, Paragon Studios boldly adopted name-recycling. If your account was inactive for three months, your characters' names were put back into the pool for other players to use. You didn't lose your character, but you were forced to rename her the next time you logged in. It was wonderful for active players who could make more immediate use of names no one was actively using but not so great for encouraging former players to return. So how do you think MMOs should handle character names? [Thanks to Joel for inspiring this topic!] 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: Do you create a character around a name or a name around a character?
In just about every new MMO, I've found myself a bit frustrated with the order of things during character creation. When I make my characters, I often think of the name first, and then I create a character according to that name. But choosing a name is usually one of the final steps in the process, which has caused me to completely scrap my work when it's discovered that a name is already taken. Has this happened to you? Do you create a character around a name and start over if that name is taken, or simply modify the name to fit the character you just built? 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!
ArenaNet talks about naming Guild Wars 2's world
While it's easy to get caught up in the big picture side of the development process, we risk overlooking the smaller but crucial work that goes into gluing the game together. One of these tasks is the naming of the world and all that lies within it. Content Designer Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda wrote an ArenaNet blog post about the challenges and decisions that went with labeling everything under the sun in Guild Wars 2. Mitsoda said that the team has established a system for nailing down names. After coming up with the name, the team sends the moniker through a "sanity check" that makes sure it's not too hard to spell or say. The team also tries to weed out the more obscure or overt pop culture references, then passes along the names to the team's "loremasters," who check it against an internal wiki for consistency. She goes on to share a few anecdotes about the naming process, such as the evolution of Charr names, the difficulty of putting a label on an animal that has no Earth equivalent, and how the creepy rat-dog Murellow got its name. It's an interesting read into a different side of the development process that often goes unnoticed, so check it out!
Reserve your Guild Wars 2 character name today
Everyone seems to freak out about grabbing his or her special character name at the launch of a new MMO, and we imagine Guild Wars 2 will invoke the same emotions. Instead of leaving this oh-so-important action to Day One, ArenaNet is giving players a chance to reserve their Guild Wars 2 names... starting today. The way it works is that ArenaNet will be reserving all current Guild Wars names for the launch, and players attached to those names can then swoop in and collect them from the start. Three caveats are attached to this process, however: You have to log into Guild Wars sometime in 2012, you have to claim your names in Guild Wars 2 by launch day, and you can't secure Guild Wars 2's single names (as Guild Wars forces you to make two-word names). The studio says that there are 20 million two-word names in use at this point, and we suspect that list will grow much longer after today. These names can be reserved at any point from now until whenever ArenaNet decides to compile its master list. After launch, ArenaNet promises to free up the unclaimed names for others to take.
Breakfast Topic: Will your pandaren fit into your character naming convention?
Many veteran gamers (be they of the tabletop or computer variety) have long held their characters' names as sacred. Naming your character in a roleplaying game is a very important and special thing and should not be taken lightly. Even if you are to make a name to troll a thousand trolls, at least put the time, effort, and passion into your awful name to show your dedication and understanding of this sacred thing. I've written about my naming conventions before, using the prefix Gen- or Genz- for most of my characters because of my own affinity for my middle name. Every character but two fit this mold and use some sort of variation on the theme. Thankfully, my pandaren monk easily fits into the Asian-themed culture. The pandaren monk that I made at BlizzCon was named Genzji, and I liked it, so I'm happy to use the name come live. Will your pandaren characters fit within a predetermined and established naming convention? Or will you take this opportunity to break the character-naming mold?
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: How did you create your first character?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. When a buddy asked me to consider coming back to Warcraft after a failed attempt shortly after the original release, I reluctantly decided to create a new account. When he asked me what faction and class I wanted to play, I settled on an Alliance paladin after researching classes online. I wasn't entirely sure what exactly a tank, healer and DPS meant in practice, but the paladin could do all three, so that's what I'd be. Plus, they sounded like defenders of all that was right and true. It turns out, that was the easy part of creating my character. Next, I spent time agonizing over the name. I'd look for ones I liked from the randomly generated suggestions. Then I'd try combining elements of one name with another. I tried using simple words from foreign languages. Finally, I found the perfect name that would define my character for life, a Greek word representing one of the core values of a paladin: Truth. Having picked a class and name, it was finally time to tinker with the races that could be paladins and see which ones fit the new name. After probably about 100 permutations across classes, from random appearances to manually matching features, I settled on a human, and my journey began. How did you create your first character? Did someone recommend a class for you? Did the flavor text on the creation screen influence you? Or have you always known what you'd be?
Prime: Battle for Dominus undergoes a quick name change
There's a lot in a name, for MMOs as much as anything. You want your name to be recognizable, distinct, and perhaps most importantly something that isn't going to be mistaken for the name of a different game or product. Prime: Battle for Dominus has already been establishing buzz about itself, but its name was a bit cumbersome with the subtitle and a bit generic without it, so the game is shortening itself down to simply Dominus from here on out. Confirmed via an official tweet, the name change is hardly the first time that a game in production has undergone a shift in title (the most recent MMO example being RIFT and its multiple sobriquets). Nothing else appears to have changed for the title, although it's quite likely that the official site address will be changed and the current site will be used as a redirect. And it will be a lot easier to remember the name, since Dominus doesn't come up frequently in other conversations.
WoW Rookie: How to pick a good name when all the good ones are taken
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Especially on old servers, it can feel like all the good names are already claimed. Creating a new character with a strong, iconic name is one heck of a challenge, especially if you want to avoid joke and parody names like McDoomChicken. You can give up your dreams of finding real-world names like Stephen or Michael; the only way you'll grab a straightforward name is to grab it on a brand new server (and we're fairly unlikely to see a brand new server any time soon). With Mists of Pandaria careening toward us with all the excitement of a monk rolling along in a fuzzy ball, now's the time to get your unique snowflake name reserved. Rest assured that every variation of Jack Black you can create has already been taken. Let's talk about how you can create a unique, interesting name without resorting to all the special font characters WoW will allow.
What's in a name? Nokia's new Lumia and Asha line explained
What rhymes with Nokia? Why, Lumia, of course. And there, fellow gadget freaks, lies the poetic branding key to Espoo's first, great Windows Phone. Alright, it's not that simple, but the company's marketing team did make a concerted effort to find a moniker ending with a vowel sound. Of course, before this catchy, albeit odd, name could be settled upon, a list of potential winners had to be cross-checked with over 300,000 tech trademarks. After broaching that hurdle, "only a handful" survived and were then parsed by linguistic experts to avoid any embarrassing malapropisms and pronunciation difficulties across 84 dialects. Despite finding "lumi" to be an out-of-date Spanish slang term, resulting surveys found most Spaniards associated the term with "'light' and 'style'," and thus it was saved. We know how this genesis story ends, so we'll spare you the obvious marketplace conclusion. And as for that new Asha range? Well, the thinking there is quite simple. It's the word for hope in Hindi, and as the line is intended for emerging markets, that just seemed apropos. Click through to the source for a more detailed walk through this mobile origin story.
iCloud Communications drops lawsuit against Apple, decides to change name instead
iCloud Communications seemed mighty confident back in June, when it filed a lawsuit against Apple over the name of Cupertino's online storage service. But the Arizona-based company has now dropped the suit altogether, opting to change its own name, instead. On Thursday, the VoIP provider filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with a US District Court, effectively bringing an end to litigation. CNET is also reporting that the company appears to have changed its name to Clear Digital Communications -- a firm that, according to its Facebook page, is located at iCloud's exact same Phoenix address. A wall post from last month, moreover, reads, "iCloud is now Clear Digital Communications," while iCloud's site, Geticloud.com, now displays a message confirming that "this website is coming soon." Neither Apple nor the ostensibly erstwhile iCloud have commented on the development, but it certainly looks like the clouds of controversy have cleared away.
