Hello, Insert Name Here: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

 

 

* All games in ''Zelda'' series have this, with the default name of Link, naturally. However, the two DS games actually use the player's name as set in the DS options as the default name. This is because the name Link is meant to symbolise a "link to the player", so using the player's own name gives more of a feeling of immersion in the adventure.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' [[Painting the Fourth Wall|combines this with]] [[No Fair Cheating]]. If you manage to steal from the store, the game changes your name to "THIEF" for the rest of the playthrough.

 

=== Action Game ===

* In ''[[Adventures in The Magic Kingdom]]'', you can enter any name you want, though if you decide to leave the naming box blank, your name will default to... "Bamboo.7".

* The fourth type is seen in some ''[[Barbie]]'' CD-ROM games, of all things. You get a pretty large list of prerecorded names to pick, including male ones, which is a nice surprise...

 

=== Adventure Game ===

* The first two ''[[Space Quest]]'' games featured this ability. If you left that field blank, it would default to "Roger Wilco," which became the character's official name.

* In ''[[Wasted Youth]]'', you enter your name at the beginning of the game. The game tells you not to give your character a "stupid" name, because "ask the kid of any celebrity how that feels and you'll realise it's a bad idea."

 

=== Driving Game ===

* The racing game called ''[[GRID]]'' has a kind of hybrid of this. It will ask you for your name, which is what shows up on the scoreboards, but also for a nick or callsign, which is what will be used in voice commentary. You can pick anything you want for name, but only choose from a list for the nick.

** Modern football/soccer games work like this too, when you create a player. You may name him "Joe" and have the announcer refer to him as, say, "Ronaldinho" (or not refer to him at all), if "Joe" isn't available in the callname list. ''[[Pro Evolution Soccer]]'' is particularly bad with this, since it also allows you to change the callnames for already-existing players since the [[PlayStation|PS1]] versions.

 

=== Edutainment Game ===

* An old ''[[Reader Rabbit]]'' game, ''Reader Rabbit Thinking Adventures'' takes your name entry and matches it against a database of pre-recorded names available on the CD-ROM.

 

=== Fighting Game ===

* In modern [[Wrestling Game]]s with create-a-wrestler modes, announcers either don't say your name or refer to as you as Player One. In some games, you can pick your ring name from a generic list of ones that the game has recorded. ''Legends of Wrestling 2'' is a bit more robust, as you can select a first name, a last name, and a nickname for your created characters from the list of pre-recorded names. The general rule on this device seems to be that if you can find your name on one of those tiny license plates, you can find it in the game too.

** Fun fact: There's least one wrestling game that has the names ''Derek'' and ''Derrick'' to choose from, and yes, they are pronounced the same way.

 

=== First Person Shooter ===

* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', you can name your character anything you like, but he'll still be called by his "[[Code Name]]" JC Denton. The only place you get to see your custom name are in datacubes and e-mails.

** And newspapers, but they're calling you a terrorist.

 

=== Hack And Slash ===

* In ''[[Diablo]] II'', since all of the speeches are prerecorded, they simply refer to the player as "[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Hero]]" or variations thereof instead of mentioning you by name.

 

=== Interactive Fiction ===

* In the experimental game ''[[Façade]]'', all dialogue is spoken. Since the game revolved around a tense three-way conversation, you get to pick from a list of male or female names, which would be clumsily inserted into the speech.

 

=== MMORPG ===

* In the (fully voice-acted) [[cutscene]]s in ''[[Guild Wars]]'', the [[NPC]]s will refer to the leader of the human party as 'soldier' and other general, [[Purely Aesthetic Gender|non-gender specific]] names. Non-human characters will use [[Fantastic Racism|slurs]] such as 'bookah' or 'two-legs'.

* ''[[Wizard 101]]'' has a set list of name-parts to choose from (usually resulting in [[Luke Nounverber]]s); however, the voice-overs will always call you "Young Wizard" while the dialog boxes will display your character's name.

 

=== Party Game ===

* Similarly, the arcade game ''Hyper Bishi Bashi Champ'' allows you to choose from a list of prerecorded "wacky" nicknames, although this feature is removed from its Playstation port on the compilation ''Bishi Bashi Special'' (where you're always "PRAYAAAAH WAN")

 

=== Puzzle Game ===

* Parodied in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', where GLaDOS (who probably has an automated response to finishing each course) says things like "You, {{smallcaps|Subject Name Here}}, must be the pride of {{smallcaps|Subject Hometown Here}}." In another level, where the player is required to navigate "a live fire course designed for military androids", her automated response is: "Well done, android. The Enrichment Center once again reminds you that Android Hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance."

** Though, it should be noted that the main protagonist does have a name (Chell) and an official (though unconfirmed) backstory {{spoiler|1=(a daughter of an Aperture employee who witnessed GLaDOS being turned on).}}

 

=== Real Time Strategy ===

* In ''Stronghold Crusader,'' the player can choose his or her name and gender. The CD has a list of a few hundred common first names on it, and on the title screen the player would clearly hear "Greetings, Lord [name you choose]" or "Greetings, Lady [name you chose]" voice-acted.

** [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|Including Lord Vader]].

* You can name your Avatar in ''[[Spellforce]]'' anything you want. The only times you see the names is in the subtitles, when he speaks himself. [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Everybody calls him by his descriptive nickname]].

 

=== Roguelike ===

* ''[[Nethack]]'' has renamable foodstuffs (and pets); couple this with [[The Many Deaths of You]] and it's not hard to see why some wags try to die by choking on "an unusually large wang" or kicking a "bucket".

** Like every other ''[[Nethack]]'' trope, this overlaps [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]. Reading a scroll of amnesia ordinarily triggers the messages "Who was that Maud person anyway?" and "Thinking of Maud, you forget everything else." That's unless your character's name is Maud, in which case "As your mind turns inward on itself, you forget everything else."

 

=== Role Playing Game ===

* ''[[Growlanser]]'' I, IV, V, and VI allow the player to rename the main character in the beginning.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series has held a long-standing tradition of allowing the player to name characters as they are introduced. In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', you can name Tidus whatever you want, and as a result he is referred to by the standard multiple variants of ''you''. In fact, the other characters seem to (quite conspicuously) go out of their way not to address him by name in the third-person. Oddly, this still occurs in ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' when the player has ''no'' chance of renaming him, although Yuna is the only one who really talks about him directly. Subsequent games would simply ditch the feature so as to avoid that voice acting problem again.

* The PSX version of ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' didn't use any different typeface for character names, but in all the voice-acted lines, there was a pause right about where names would have gone, or the voiced line was the written line minus the name. There was exactly one exception, though - Chester's name near the beginning, ''immediately before'' you get to enter his name.

* In ''[[Tales of the World]]: Radiant Mythology'', you are a create-a-character that interacts with Tales series veterans. Since major dialogue is voiced, people either skip over your name entirely, or say "you" or "my partner" while simultaneously using your name in text.

* Most ''[[Custom Robo]]'' games will allow you to name your own character (You are forced to choose a male).

* The [[Fallout]] games allow you to name your character and choose a gender. The latter affects some dialog, but the former appears very rarely, and the playable characters are referred to by titles like [[Fallout 2|The Chosen One]] or [[Fallout: New Vegas|The Courier]] almost exclusively.

 

=== Simulation Game ===

* ''[[Free Space|Descent: Freespace]]'' allows you to pick a callsign, but avoids this problem completely by making you a [[Featureless Protagonist]] and having everybody treat you like a [[Red Shirt]]. Command addresses you as "pilot", or by your wing designation "Alpha 1". Vasudans just call you "Terran". Your squadron leader in ''Freespace 2'' greets you on your first briefing with "Welcome to Vega, Ensign..." (even if you've been promoted and was starting the campaign over).

* None of the player characters in the ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' series have default names (though they have accepted fanon names). You ''have'' to give them a name. The exception being Raguna of the [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo]] ''Rune Factory''.

 

=== Sports Game ===

* Sports games often call the "create-a-players" by their jersey number or team position. Some games seem to have a "bank" of names stored in them that will be read out when a custom player is introduced to the game. So, theoretically, if your character's name is "Mark Smith", it just might be able to cough it out.

** In the ''NCAA Football'' series, the players all come without names, because they cannot use the names without paying the players, and cannot pay the players without violating NCAA rules. The announcers have a very large name bank they will use if you type in the names manually, including some extremely rare surnames corresponding to star players. Recently, EA even took submissions for players' names to be recorded in the game.

 

=== Stealth Based Game ===

* When using the first node during the Plant chapter of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', you are asked to enter your name. Entering the F Word makes the game beep angrily at you. Contrariwise, calling yourself Kojima and entering Hideo's data (Bloodtype, DOB, etc), would unlock a bonus for you. The name and data is only used for [[Anyone You Know|the dog tag Raiden throws away at the end of the game]].

 

=== Trivia ===

* Played with in the PC versions of ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'', where you can name yourself for the games high score list, but any attempt to name yourself "Regis" or "Millionaire" would result in your name being changed to "Faker," "Wannabe," or something similar.

* ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' was a series of PC trivia games that used the variant of this trope in which the host simply referred to the players as "player one, player two", etc. In the first three, that's about as far as the trope went. In the fourth game, the game would sometimes take it upon itself to change your name to something more demeaning, and would actually scold you and exit the program if you tried to name yourself "fuck you".

 

=== Turn Based Strategy ===

* In ''[[Shining Force]]'' for the Mega Drive/Genesis, it was possible to rename the main protagonist. In the second game, a code allowed you to do the same for the entire playable cast.

* The second ''[[Vandal Hearts]]'' game allows you to name the main character in the beginning.

 

 

* Parodied several in the ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' storyline ''[[Homestuck]]''. The four main characters are named demeaning names at first (such as "Farmstink Buttlass"), then express their displeasure and receive proper ones instead.

** Subverted, however, with Jack Noir. He states that, while the suggested name (Spades Slick) sounds nice, he already ''has'' a name. Besides, Spades Slick is the name of {{spoiler|an alternate version of him from another Sburb instance}}. And {{spoiler|Sovereign Slayer}} sounds cooler anyway.

** Later in the same comic, Red's Pokédex tries to get him to do this with his Pokémon ("You should name it 'Butts'! 'Butts used GUST'! Hahaha...").

 

* A similar situation occurred in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'':

{{quote|'''Skinner''': [over PA] Attention, this is Principal Skinner, your principal, with a message from the Principal's Office. All students please proceed immediately to an assembly in the Butthead Memorial Auditorium. [to himself] Dammit, I wish we hadn't let the students name that one.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Video Game Interface Elements]]