What's in a name?

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Grelan

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This is an offshoot of several comments in the Dragonbane thread, where several people commented on the name being lame. That immediately made me think of something else I'd seen recently, a Kickstarter by Jon Hodgson for a new game called Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland. I looked it over and liked the art and the concept, but just didn't like the name. So I passed on backing it, in spite of being a fan of nearly everything Hodgson has done to date, and backer of several of his Kickstarters. This was hardly a lone occurrence. There have been several products, particularly in the OSR space, with names I just found pretentious, ridiculous and off-putting, so I haven't even looked into them to see if the actual content is worth the price. The name alone drove me away.

So my question for you folks is how much does the name of a product influence your purchasing decision?
 
Yeah, some far-out names just plain put me off. Far too many games try to sound like D&D by calling themselves Something & Something. A good solid name goes a long way with me when I'm thinking about a purchase.
 
A really good name is something that doesn’t try to remind you of another name, whether intentional or not. For example, Blades in the Dark is a good name. There are several D&D inspired names that aren’t good. Also some are just too long, like Astonishing Swordmens and Sorcerors of Hyperborea, and some are just meh, like Against the Darkmaster.
 
I set a whole campaign in Doggerland. Pre-flood Doggerland, cos otherwise it would have just been a series of swim checks and resist hypothermia rolls.

But yeah, sometimes a name clunks like fuck and I won't touch a game because of it. I don't mind crap art, because so much in this space is done on a microbudget, but a crap name makes me think I just wont gel with a product at all.
 
I love Magic World, but the name is admittedly fairly "meh" (and I've seen people in several places express this sentiment). Of course I've never let bad artwork or names stop me before. I'm usually more keen on who the creator is, what a game's lineage is and how any prospective sample text reads, but I think I'm probably in the minority, based on the way lackluster games with amazing artwork seem to do nothing but generate buzz and sales *cough* Mork Borg *cough*.
 
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It doesn't help that "Doggerland" sounds like the title of a documentary following people who meet late at night in ice-cold, rainy British car parks to film each other copulating joylessly and uncomfortably.

The image I get in my mind is goosebumped blue-white flesh againt winter jackets slick with drizzle and spilled tea. All dusted with pastry flakes from yesterday's cold sausage rolls.

The KS looks great, the premise sounds like something Robert Holdstock would write, the art is beautiful and disturbing, but maybe "Maskwitches". would have been sufficient. There's a reason why people call their fantasy creations "The Crimson Isles"...
 
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Nick J said:
I love Magic World, but the name is pretty admittedly fairly "meh" (and I've seen people in several places express this sentiment). Of course I've never let bad artwork or names stop me before. I'm usually more keen on who the creator is, what a game's lineage is and how any prospective sample text reads, but I think I'm probably in the minority, based on the way lackluster games with amazing artwork seem to do nothing but generate buzz and sales *cough* Mork Borg *cough*.
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Exactly. I suggested Magic World to my group and the name just made them screw up their faces and one asked if it had been written by a three-year-old. We ended up playing Dragon Age instead.
 
I agree with most of the posts so far. While technically a good or bad name shouldn't influence whether I buy or play the thing, I admit that it does influence me a lot more than I would like. Same thing for paperback book covers -- I know a lot of great books with cruddy covers, but I'm more likely to buy a cruddy book if it has a great cover. (If it's an author I've read before the cover doesn't matter much, but for new purchases it often does.)

In the case of Dragonbane I love Vaesen and I love the artwork in Vaesen, so another game illustrated by the same guy is almost an automatic sale for me. (I bought some of his art books, too.) I just find "Drakar och Demoner" to have a mysterious vibe and Dragonbane the exact opposite. In fact, when I talk to my friends about Dragonbane I can never remember the name, but instead end up saying "that RPG that sounds like Dragonlance." That does nothing to sell the product.

So I guess I'm more superficial than I'd hoped. I'll bet a lot of consumers are the same way.
 
Far more that people typically care to admit.

I still aver that so much of D&D 4e kerfuffle would have not been if it was relabeled D&D Tactics. In fact, I'd say not only Pathfinder may not exist, but neither would 13th Age, and possibly 5e too. Both 3.75 and Tactics might be merrily trucking along to this day side by side, complementing each other... Alt History D&D. :hehe:

First chance to make a first impression and all that. Use it well.
 
A name doesn't really matter to me, but I realize I may be in the monority. And it's probsbly good marketing to have a name that is distinctive, memorable, cool, and tells you a little something about the game.

But - Golden Heroes is a terrible name for a game, and yet it's one of my favorites.

And what the hell is a Mork Borg, anyway?
 
thebigh said:
That name conjures mental images of Robin Williams with a bunch of cybernetic prostheses.
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I could totally do a Star Trek: Borg comedy in the style of Mork & Mindy. Yes, you may rescind my Star Trek fandom card now... :cry: It hasn't been renewed since ST: First Contact anyway. :hehe:
 
Winterblight said:
Exactly. I suggested Magic World to my group and the name just made them screw up their faces and one asked if it had been written by a three-year-old. We ended up playing Dragon Age instead.
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To my ears 'Dragon Age' is equally if not more bland than 'Magic World'. Pretty much anything with 'Dragon' in its title works against my tastes. By comparison, 'Magic World' feels open ended, full of possibilities... to me.

GURPS was always fine by me as well... since the game wasn't trying to be specific at all, it needed a non-specific name.

I really can't think of a name that has put me off a game... just generic stuff that hasn't caught my attention, like 'Dragon Bane' or 'Swords and Wizardry'.
Something like 'Lamentations of the Flame Princess' will always turn my head.
 
I've known for a long time that GURPS was Generic Universal Role Playing System and that FUDGE was Freeform Universal Donated Gaming Engine. What I learned recently is that TORG was supposed to be a place-holder name until they came up with a better one. TORG is The Other Roleplay Game, and the name stuck.

I agree that the name shouldn't matter, but somehow it does. If you can come up with the right one ("Paranoia" or "Castle Falkenstein" conjure up images of fun) the game itself seems more enjoyable somehow. Names like "Tales From the Loop" grab me because I wonder what they heck they are talking about. Others like "Savage Worlds" always seemed like a schtick to me because none of the settings seemed particularly savage to me. A game which is "just like ERB's Mars but with the serial numbers filed off" won't motivate me to play but "Barsoom" would, even if the game mechanics were essentially identical. I guess the name means more to me than I thought. :sad:
 
Grelan said:
Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland
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I actually liked this one! Good titles are intriguing. (Even if I wince at the unnecessary agglutination — “Masked Witches” would be just as good.) It lost me at “storytelling game” though.

Winterblight said:
Yeah, some far-out names just plain put me off. Far too many games try to sound like D&D by calling themselves Something & Something. A good solid name goes a long way with me when I'm thinking about a purchase.
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I’m actually a sucker for Ampersands & Alliterations, which is what I’d call my English-language OSR blog if I ever had one.

And my OSR ruleset in Portuguese would be Submundos & Serpentes (Underworlds & Serpents), or Warrens & Wyrms in English. Fight me.

Endless Flight said:
A really good name is something that doesn’t try to remind you of another name, whether intentional or not. For example, Blades in the Dark is a good name. There are several D&D inspired names that aren’t good. Also some are just too long, like Astonishing Swordmens and Sorcerors of Hyperborea, and some are just meh, like Against the Darkmaster.
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I think even Jeff Talanian admits the AS&SH is a mouthful and increasingly refers to his own game as Hyperborea.

And I actually like Against the Darkmaster (more unnecessary agglutination!) in that, like Blades In The Dark, it immediately implies a raison d’être for the PCs (a simple thing that many games struggle with). Though I’d default to the more common “Dark Lord” idiom (“Against the Dark Lord”), shout-outs to Rolemaster be damned.

thebigh said:
My pet peeve is all those games calling themselves Noun: the Verbening.
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This is one of these funny memes that takes a life of its own in that only two out of eight WoD games actually ended in -ing (Changeling: the Dreaming and Hunter: the Reckoning) and in both cases these gerundial forms were employed as nouns. (Hence arguably not a “Verbening”)

For nWoD/CoD I think Mage: the Awakening is the only one that applies. There being what, ten CoD game lines? It would make three out of eighteen White Wolf games with the post-colon word ending in -ing.

Simlasa said:
To my ears 'Dragon Age' is equally if not more bland than 'Magic World'. Pretty much anything with 'Dragon' in its title works against my tastes. By comparison, 'Magic World' feels open ended, full of possibilities... to me.
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Which is why my abortive S&S reimagining of Dragonlance (with sprinkles of Reign of Fire, Warcraft and A Song of Ice and Fire), used the working title of Grimdark Dragonthing. Yes, I can do agglutination too, bitchesss
 
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Gringnr said:
A name doesn't really matter to me, but I realize I may be in the monority. And it's probsbly good marketing to have a name that is distinctive, memorable, cool, and tells you a little something about the game.

But - Golden Heroes is a terrible name for a game, and yet it's one of my favorites.

And what the hell is a Mork Borg, anyway?
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Mörk Borg (note ö, not o) means "Dark Castle" or "Dark Fortress" in Swedish, because just like the game mentioned in the first post, Mörk Borg is also a Swedish game. The g isn't hard either, it's pronounced more like "Murk Boary"
 
raniE said:
Mörk Borg (note ö, not o) means "Dark Castle" or "Dark Fortress" in Swedish, because just like the game mentioned in the first post, Mörk Borg is also a Swedish game. The g isn't hard either, it's pronounced more like "Murk Boary"
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Murkburgh?
 
UnplayedRanger said:
Most names are terrible if you think about it too long.
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Indeed!

Just about eveything is, including life, if you think about it too long. :wink: /insert history's litany of the blesséd self-tortured geniuses

It's always been a happy dance between style and substance. Like how we have excelled in the art of selling bran fiber as part of 'a nutritious breakfast'. :hehe: Just like SNL's skit about "Colon Blow" is hilarious in its naming.

 
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