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What's in a name? Does it mean anything? In a role-playing sense, do you take time to think about the name you will give your avatar, or do you just put down the first thing that comes to your mind, regardless of whether if it makes sense or not? I'm the kind of guy that takes a while before choosing a name for his character. Not that long, just a few moments to carefully choose it. Is it just me or am I a dying breed?

In this world I shall be known as...
Single player games are great in the sense that no one else ever gets to see what you do with it or how you play it but yourself. Sometimes one might be hard pressed to find a name and just can't come up with a good one, so they'll just name him "Jam3532" and run along with it. Who cares? There's just you in that game, right? I cringe when I see screen captures with character names of that sort. I would rather they had used their own name for lack of a more appropriate one. But then again why would they care since they're the only ones staring back at it in the end.

Single-player games are so much better experienced, in my opinion, if one uses his imagination to fill-in the blanks. The name of the avatar often carries a little background history for most of those who carefully choose it. It doesn't have to be written, or anything so official, it's just something the user makes up in his mind as he thinks up the name. It's an exercise that sometimes can bring you even deeper in the game. It's the first step you take in a role-playing experience that will follow you for the rest of the game.

Just call me "Dude"
The advent of massively multiplayer games has created a sort of paranoia in me lately though. All of a sudden I am put face to face with the wonderful creativity of thousands of players at once. This time, your name starts to mean something to people other than yourself too. Still, it seems that some think that a name doesn't carry that much importance. Names such as "TheDude" or "MMPCrap" are common place in most MMORPGs. One can only conclude that if these people use such names when playing online with others, then they must do likewise when playing on their own.

A name carries more importance than most may think. If names didn't really matter, then perhaps our parents would have called us "Leet46" too. Or how about calling your future son "Noname" for a change? You wouldn't simply because it might cause terrible confusion to some people, not the least of all your own child. Yet people freely do it in online games, not to mention their single-player games, because they feel that it doesn't matter.

Guessing the personality behind that name
The name by which the avatar goes means something. It is the name people will know you by, it is a representation of yourself in a world where only your words truly represent who you are. If I come across two fellows on the road, one who calls himself "Bladder67" and the other "Lorac", I will be much more inclined on inviting that Lorac fellow to group up with me than the other one. Maybe it's just me, but for some reason someone that uses the word bladder as a name doesn't inspire much confidence in me.

There's no telling how much first impressions are important in any kind of situation in real life. And in the case of multiplayer games the first impression you get about someone is in their name. It tells you what kind of personality they have, and sometimes it's not very pretty. Often enough it doesn't even give an accurate first impression. I remember being saved from the fangs of a very big Demon by a guy named "Mankiller". At first when I saw this guy come up in my view I thought that my life was forfeit and I even started coping with the imminent death of my character. But "Man" promptly came to my aid and dispatched my foe just before it could finish me off. I never was friends with this guy, but I can certainly tell you that he was nice, even though his name didn't really inspire me to seek friendship.

More than meets the name
So again I ask: what's in a name? More than most seem to realize, apparently. Maybe I'm just a freak for personality, but call me a freak if I don't want to talk with anyone that call themselves "bootiekicker" or "ImtheBest"... Somehow I'm just not inclined to. I'm not saying that everyone should use names borrowed left and right from fantasy lore, or that everyone should always use original ones either. But everyone should have an actual name, even if it has to be Bob instead of "Poopscooper"...