I'm sure everyone here knows what I'm talking about. That moment in many games where you are asked to enter who you want to be regarded as over the course of your adventure. Or for some reason there is an option to change the pre defined name given to a character if you have a better alternative. As I've grown older, and the comedy value of seeing game characters scream obscenities instead of my name diminished. I don't name my pokemon party after Lord of the Ring characters anymore, or arrange them into a line from my favourite song of the moment. For some time I have rarely seen the point of renaming characters in any game with the option.
Maybe I'm just unimaginative, but even in games where you build a character completely from scratch, I still just enter my own name. Thanks to the marvels of the 21st century, there are no issues in this for me any more (my nine character first name was simply too much for many games to deal with before). In a western RPG game I understand the value of the role play element, the creation of an entirely new persona. Freedom in the choice of name allows for an wittism, a homage or just a chance for some wish fulfillment amongst many other things. I even quite resented Mass Effect for only giving me a half choice in regards to my name. Although it was consistent by restricting my characters appearance as well.
Western RPGs with an emphasis on freedom are the main exception to my dislike of naming characters. In a linear game with strictly contained plot development, the names can have some significance which doesn't deserve to be lost. The Clouded past FFVII's protagonist's name refers to, although not as clever as other fictional names like Patrick Bateman, Daniel Plainview, Rorschach or many others still had more significance than other names given to him. (Another Final Fantasy example coming up, sorry, spent 5hrs on FFX last night) Aeons in FFX can be renamed, but who will take the time to give them a grand, mythological, unpronounceable yet fitting name such as that which it was originally given? Gaming as a medium has unprecedented interactivity, but not all aspects of the invented universe needs to be susceptible to the meddlings of the player. To me, an editable name is worse than no name as at least that can serve a thematic point to an extent. No game to my knowledge has explored ambigous identity through character naming screens. I don't see much to gain from the process.
A name has no effect on the involvement of the player with the game. HL2 stars a named character with no personality, the name 'Link' has become what the Legend of Zeldas protagonist is called, the origins of the name forgotten. Choosing the name has little effect on games. Some games certainly benefit from having the name be of the player's choice, however fiction outside of videogames doesn't allow the user to name characters for probably a good reason. Gaming has been slowly breaking free of other mediums and finding its own methods of expressions. The recent developments made in the presentations of the first person viewpoint is a good example I feel, but it still has a lot to learn from other mediums.
I own no next gen consoles so perhaps this is an outdated issue, but I'm not clear on the issue myself. Which explains this rather lengthy and muddled opening post which has ended up having a much broader scope than I intended. Just take this as something to provoke some thought on the subject, although I've gone into more depth than the subject probably warrants. I'm curious as to what importance other people attribute to the nature of their character's names. In my case, I have the same response as Roger Bacon in Shadow Hearts - outright rejection.
So to sum up. Changing characters names in games. Is there a point? Is it important? Do you do it? Why?
By the way, if this thread has come up before recently then sorry, but I don't remember it. And hopefully my slant on how consistent names reinforce the fictional integrity of the games world make this thread unique enough to survive anyway.
Maybe I'm just unimaginative, but even in games where you build a character completely from scratch, I still just enter my own name. Thanks to the marvels of the 21st century, there are no issues in this for me any more (my nine character first name was simply too much for many games to deal with before). In a western RPG game I understand the value of the role play element, the creation of an entirely new persona. Freedom in the choice of name allows for an wittism, a homage or just a chance for some wish fulfillment amongst many other things. I even quite resented Mass Effect for only giving me a half choice in regards to my name. Although it was consistent by restricting my characters appearance as well.
Western RPGs with an emphasis on freedom are the main exception to my dislike of naming characters. In a linear game with strictly contained plot development, the names can have some significance which doesn't deserve to be lost. The Clouded past FFVII's protagonist's name refers to, although not as clever as other fictional names like Patrick Bateman, Daniel Plainview, Rorschach or many others still had more significance than other names given to him. (Another Final Fantasy example coming up, sorry, spent 5hrs on FFX last night) Aeons in FFX can be renamed, but who will take the time to give them a grand, mythological, unpronounceable yet fitting name such as that which it was originally given? Gaming as a medium has unprecedented interactivity, but not all aspects of the invented universe needs to be susceptible to the meddlings of the player. To me, an editable name is worse than no name as at least that can serve a thematic point to an extent. No game to my knowledge has explored ambigous identity through character naming screens. I don't see much to gain from the process.
A name has no effect on the involvement of the player with the game. HL2 stars a named character with no personality, the name 'Link' has become what the Legend of Zeldas protagonist is called, the origins of the name forgotten. Choosing the name has little effect on games. Some games certainly benefit from having the name be of the player's choice, however fiction outside of videogames doesn't allow the user to name characters for probably a good reason. Gaming has been slowly breaking free of other mediums and finding its own methods of expressions. The recent developments made in the presentations of the first person viewpoint is a good example I feel, but it still has a lot to learn from other mediums.
I own no next gen consoles so perhaps this is an outdated issue, but I'm not clear on the issue myself. Which explains this rather lengthy and muddled opening post which has ended up having a much broader scope than I intended. Just take this as something to provoke some thought on the subject, although I've gone into more depth than the subject probably warrants. I'm curious as to what importance other people attribute to the nature of their character's names. In my case, I have the same response as Roger Bacon in Shadow Hearts - outright rejection.
So to sum up. Changing characters names in games. Is there a point? Is it important? Do you do it? Why?
By the way, if this thread has come up before recently then sorry, but I don't remember it. And hopefully my slant on how consistent names reinforce the fictional integrity of the games world make this thread unique enough to survive anyway.
