Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Character Naming Methodology, or, Hao u do eet?


When you walk into any major city in WoW, you can see a wide variety of player character names. There is always the obligatory LoTR rip off, the guy pretending to be a girl (Bradsgrl), or the guy trying to be funny (Bigblackdk).

One of the annoying things about playing with friends sometimes is the nearly constant badgering about how I name my characters. My priest, Fuyuko, isn't some freakish anime reference, but an hommage to the language I studied in college and my favorite kanji in that language (fuyu - meaning 'winter'). Luckily, most of my friends either took Japanese or were so used to the rest of us having taken it that the 'anime fanboi" label never came out.

And then I made a druid one day that I planned to name Fluffles. And all hell broke loose.

"Fluffles? What the hell?"

"Make a serious, respectable name."

What? Respectable? This coming from people whose character names just seem like they took two bags, one of consonants and one of vowels, and randomly put together a name through blind drawings that followed the typical consonant/vowel/consonant pattern. Lorizakisa? Is that an old world god or a sammich? Pfft...

So, out of rebellion and annoyance for this harassment, Droodohnoes was born. And Droodohnoes has given rise to Wafflekins, Panzerkin, and Ohgodwhy.

I do have "intelligently-named" characters based off of other Japanese combinations or off of gods and goddesses, but it just bugs me to no end that with people running around with names like "Bradsgrl" or "Urmomisgud," my "Fluffles" was the one to go be torn to shreds by the bloodthirsty mob.

Although, I still get messages from people who think Fuyuko is a cleverly disguised "f*** you!"

Anyone else ever get harassed for a character name choice?

3 comments:

Corgii said...

I took Japanese for all 4 years of high school and lived there for 6 weeks the summer before my senior year, so I loved your name when I saw it =) The kanji are really nice.

I don't think I've ever been harassed, but I take AGES to think of names. I think I take it way too seriously..

Fuyuko said...

Ooooh, where did you live? I went there last summer and it was the most amazing experience of my life. And I am glad you liked my name. ^^

You SHOULD take ages to come up with a name. I mean, you can change your hair or your facial features now, but your name is so important. Some of our guildies have had their names reported (for dumb reasons), but we still call them by that first name their characters used.

Also, たぶんいつかWoWが日本語でできますね。(I think that's correct, hehe)

Corgii said...

I lived in Kawasaki! It was awesome getting to go into Tokyo or Yokohama on the weekends. It definitely is a great experience ~

I don't think I have Japanese characters on this computer yet, but yeah I think they'll make WoW in Japanese *eventually* lol X3

Post a Comment

 

The Unconventional Priest © 2008. Chaotic Soul :: Converted by Randomness