Naming of Mobs

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> And who is (Bob) Smoldge?

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Smoldge

 

[Ayakaru.6583]

> @"RoseofGilead.8907" said:

> > @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> > And who is (Bob) Smoldge?

>

> https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Smoldge

>

 

Ah.. that thing..

Why does some random mob a nickname?

[Lanhelin.3480]

name calling is against the rules :p

[Magek.4718]

> @"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:

> It adds a second/funny layer to a few bosses. Most people do not care, but I like it. I also tend to give a lot of bosses personal nicknames and sometimes refer to them in public. This caused a few really awkward situations so far. Some people seem to have no sense of humor when it comes to elder dragons. We were talking about worldbosses once and I mentioned that "Jojo" can be a little tricky if your group messes up phase 2. After about 10 minutes, a guy in guildchat asked me who that Jojo is. This is how I nicknamed The Claw of Jormag. Instant response: "You never say that again!" XD

>

> I also caused a few weird looks for: Mordi (Mordremoth), Primpim (Primordus), Kalkar (Kralkatorrik) due to the uncanny resemblance. And I absolutely like Bob and Bubbles.

 

So does this mean Claw is Jormag's stand?

[starlinvf.1358]

People have been naming things since the concept of names were created. With the amount of information, and the speed in which we need to process it, short hands are going to be inevitable. Especially in real time conversations where time is a factor, and conciseness is more useful then completeness.

 

Aside from being lesser humans and possible psychopaths for lacking a sense of humor, people who hate the use of nick names tend to not get the reference, or hate whats associated with. But it doesn't mean the aptness of the reference is any less accurate. Referential short hands using pop culture as a frame of reference can convey ludicrous amounts of information in as little as a single word or acronym. More importantly, they very easily build off of each other to convey even more complex ideas, and can explore entire branches of hypothesis by combining 2 or more by name. Why do you think memes are so effective? They're capable of both building on and expanding knowledge through tangential links, without having its explanation baked into itself. Its also how pictograms work. https://signcollection.com/media/wysiwyg/aiga-signs-symbol.png

 

 

The whole Steve thing got started as "a generic, mundane name" as juxtaposition in describing what his unremarkable life is like outside of the Halloween event; having any number of possible origins in other references. And I'm pretty sure the reason it stuck was how unremarkable, nondescript it sounds for an otherwise centerpiece attraction. People have used other names, but the overall goal is often the same..... an ironically generic name used as a clean slate to build an equally generic and unexciting back story, and used to explain why Halloween is the only time of the year he gets to have any fun.

 

The Deep Sea dragon is called Bubbles because "water dragon" is the only thing we've been told about it, and in defiance of its canon threat, it was given a comical name and silly facts created about it. Both this and Steve is an exercise to create character where insufficient character exists. Had enough character already existed, the given name would become the reference, likely shortened somehow, but retaining keywords to make it immediately recognizable. At that point nicknames would be used more for alt-character descriptions for entertainment purposes.

 

 

Which is why I measure the success of a nickname on 2 broad criteria.... prevalence and information density. This makes the alt-canon nicknames that stick the most interesting, because it not only contains the main reference, but multiple layers of additional ideas that were explored, and worth recalling, on top of it.

[Trise.2865]

> @"HnRkLnXqZ.1870" said:

> I also caused a few weird looks for: Mordi (Mordremoth), Primpim (Primordus), Kalkar (Kralkatorrik) due to the uncanny resemblance. And I absolutely like Bob and Bubbles.

 

Kralky and Gary would disapprove of these new nicknames. As would Tequilla Sunrise, or "Tex" as he's often called.