All the world's a stage!

Just noticed that the WoW Insider roleplaying column decided to call the final whistle.

But not without putting together a complete guide ofcourse!

Complete guide to Roleplaying

Hopefully there's something in there for everyone

Ha. Yes. Thank you
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/01/10/all-the-worlds-a-stage-a-rose-by-any-name/

I'm looking at you Shadow

Spoiler:

Then we have people who has death or murder, moon, stars, light or darkness or night in their names.

So boring. and if anything unoriginal and uninspiring.
A name doesn't need to be original, but goddamn.

A name is actually extremely important. It's the front face of Who your character is, and having the same name as the next guy, really just makes your character feel generic, bland. Trying to make your name sound awesome is Not the way to go. Putting logic into it, maybe making the name not writing exactly who your character is, is the best.

Because let's face it. Why in the world would everyone be nicknamed Shadow or Deathbringer or whatever you fancy. Sure if it's titles, but as nicknames or straight up names it's actually extremely poor, and shows a very severe lack of creativity.
Now, I'm not going to ask anyone to change their characters name, but do keep these things in mind. Your fancy name makes you Generic, not awesome.

Not to mention that some Worgen, in particular- have extremely illogical names.
You have names that CLEARLY reference to your Worgen form, despite that logically speaking, your names would just be normal human names as the Worgen Curse is not something that has had anything to do with the Gilneans until VERY recently. Therefor some of your names are, to be completely frank- Really fucking dumb.
Not gonna point fingers, but I think you can get a gist of what I'm pointing at.

I've also noticed that the word Copper is extremely well used among a certain group of people too, which surprised me honestly. But y'know. It happens.
Not gonna change my name for that reason, but being aware of it now- were I to make another character, I'd try stray away from that puddle to give my character a more distinct name (while logical for my race, and no. Worgen aren't really a race per say)...


There's also the argument of that "your character decided to take up another name". Sure, maybe. However, perhaps they'd be more clever in their choice of names as names such as 'Shadow' or 'Deathbringer' doesn't sound welcoming at all, and people with specific types of jobs would certainly NOT want such high profile names, and yet you give them just that.

After many edits of this post, my final word is:
Don't make your character a open book. That makes your character flat, and uninteresting.
If I'd give my character for example, the name Mineral Coppersocket has meaning, it has it's logic to why it's there, why she's named that- However, her character is far broader than that and it does not reveal who or what she is, while still revealing a small touch of it.

If I were a unaware newbie. I walk around, I see one character named Shadow, I think like "oh, that character must be awesome!" Then I walk a bit further and see another character named it too, the impact loses it's effect entirely, and suddenly these people aren't going to be as interested in your characters as they could've been.
This is actually a real problem. You may think it minor, but I'm not entirely sure it is. First impressions are important.

It's when the normal names become a rarity, when the commoners become more interesting than the heroes, the villains- that things have really taken a step for the worse.



ps. Why I used the name Shadow is because that is the name that is most common that I can recall, but it was merely an example.
If you feel insulted by this text, then perhaps you should look back at Why you are insulted by it.

Eh, since Sieg was my first char i didn't give it too much thought and it was long ago when i just felt it fit, was still new to RP and he wasn't much of a high player or anything. Yeah nowadays i'd say it's pretty unoriginal, but i'd seem even more stupid to change it after such a long time.

Plus i never really explained the origin of his last name and i probably never will, becouse i like to keep things open and i'm bad at explaining every little detail.

For the worgen though you do have Greymane. But you're right on some names, which are too "worgeny". Well i gave my warlock the last name Wolf, but then again you got Wolfgang and so.. So pretty common name that could fit. Again depends on the name... Deathclaw or something like that is way overdoing it, that's for sure. Then again you said "Clearly" so i know what you mean.

I agree with all, noticed a lot of diffrent names, some though repeat and it seems strange, still I will say it won't always help anyone if this is posted here. Realm forums would fit good too, one can add it to the already made posts. Not all read these forums and it tends to be that you're going to make a char before joining them anyhow.


In the end i got to a lovely name,, least in my opinion for my Paladin (Ria Sorul) or my Hunter (Blake Fury, yeah he's a worgen!) so i think i've learned from it all, more or less.

Far too many people on this forum with the nickname "Rae" here.

Raelan, Raenmar, Raene, Rae Wulf.

Rae Rae Rae Rae Rae Rae.

DAFUQ

siegmund wrote:Eh, since Sieg was my first char i didn't give it too much thought and it was long ago when i just felt it fit, was still new to RP and he wasn't much of a high player or anything. Yeah nowadays i'd say it's pretty unoriginal, but i'd seem even more stupid to change it after such a long time.


I agree with all, noticed a lot of diffrent names, some though repeat and it seems strange, still I will say it won't always help anyone if this is posted here. Realm forums would fit good too, one can add it to the already made posts. Not all read these forums and it tends to be that you're going to make a char before joining them anyhow.

Agreed, and as said, I never posted this to tell you to change your characters, names- Just that the impact of the name etc is lost when everyone tries to sound like a bad ass.
What you choose to call your characters is up to you.

And I do believe this could very well fit on the realm forums yeah...

And Raene, that's not what I was pointing at. However, if we take a look at the Blood Elves there's an awful lot of Sun people.

My next toon will be called Murdershadow Deathmoon.
His friends may call him Murdeth.

I can almost excuse it with the Elves having Moon, Star, or Sun in their names. It's very central to their race.

Belore, Sunwell, Sun.

Elune, Moonwell, Moon, Children of the Stars.

Very integral part of their races imho. Each to their own however.

I far prefer being called 'Raen' than 'Rae' <3

Senariul wrote:I can almost excuse it with the Elves having Moon, Star, or Sun in their names. It's very central to their race.

Belore, Sunwell, Sun.

Elune, Moonwell, Moon, Children of the Stars.

Very integral part of their races imho. Each to their own however.

Oh yes, however it gets a bit ridiculous when just about Elf has a name with these attributes.
I'm all for it in general as long as it's logical, that's not really the issue.
It's not logical just to change a name just because it's popular either.

However when everyone and their mom has Sun in their name it's not just dull, it's pretty tragic.

Well Belves are meant to be tragic.

Dawn is clearly the superior choice!

Gor'Thrak Frosthowl wrote:Dawn is clearly the superior choice!

I'm pretty sure there are last names with "Dawn" that are used by both Blood Elves and Tauren.

A High Priest in TTH also has Dawn.