What's in a name v.2

So what do you do if you don't like a gamer tag? If it's yours, it's easy. You change it. What if it's someone else's? If it's a random person you meet while playing and their name is offensive you can always report them. But what if it's a friend's name? And it's not offensive?

I have a friend who has changed their name a couple of times. Currently he's Quality Jim Beam. While I have nothing against the name itself I just don't know what to call him. Just like MasvHeadWndHarry his name is too long to say in the heat of a firefight. If I try to warn either one of them they would be dead before I can even finish saying their name completely. For MHWH is was easy. I just call him Massive. For QJB I didn't know what to do. Even just calling him Quality can be too long in a fire fight. I tried calling him just "Q" but I always think of Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation. And those two are nothing alike.

I also tried calling him by either of his two previous names. But the time it takes me to identify that he's about to get killed and convert the name I see on the screen into the name I want to call him might be just long enough for him to get killed without me saying anything at all. The problem is I get so wrapped up in the game that any little second to figure out what to call someone can be deadly. With Masv it's easy to see and recognize his name and call it out. For QJB I needed options. And that's when Hell Weasell stepped in.

We were playing Zombie Apocalypse when Weasell called QJB "beamer". I liked that. It's short, quick and goes with his name so I wouldn't be losing any precious mili-seconds trying to figure out what to call him. I'm sure it will take some getting use to especially since it's the last part of his name and not the first like Masv's. But I call Hell Weasell, just Weasell so I think I can adjust.

Now I hope Beamer isn't mad or insulted because I'm having problems with his name. I like him and I like the name, I just don't want to see him get killed because of my mental fumbling. And I certainly hope he doesn't feel he needs to change it on my account. Although if a lot of my friends keep changing their names I won't know who's who anymore.

If they want to spice things up then go ahead. But be warned, I just might start calling you "garlic", "paprika" or maybe even "cinnamon". Any takers?

Poll Results - Befriending based on gamer pic/avatar

Better late than never, right? Here's the latest poll results and (what you've all been waiting for) my opinion.

Have you ever befriended someone based on their gamer picture or avatar?

Yes, their gamer picture was hot = 0 votes
Yes, their avatar was hot = 0 votes
Yes, their gamer picture AND avatar were hot = 0 votes
No, I don't like making friends = 8 votes

With my system crapping out around the time of this poll I can't remember if I voted or not. If I did I would have/did vote for "No, I don't like making friends". And based on how everyone else voted it's kind of amazing that any of us have people on our friends list.

Here's how the poll started.

I was messing around with my avatar trying to find something I liked. I went into the game based extras that you can get to trick out your avatar. Nothing really excited me (except for the lightsaber, but I'm too cheap). I had a small odd amount of points to use so I bought a corset from Fable II. Then I started building an outfit and an avatar around that. I wasn't happy with the results but I left things alone for a couple of days to think about it.

In those couple of days you wouldn't believe the number of friends request I got from total strangers. It seemed that every match I played (no matter what game) someone would send me a message about my avatar or send a friend request. Some I deleted right out. Some I gave a chance too. And some have since been deleted. But it got me thinking.

I remember when our friends list was limited to, I think, 99 people. I had a friend who I have played with since the old Star Wars Battlefront days that didn't have room on his list to add me once I got my 360. He had to delete someone to make room. In the original Xbox, and prior to Party chat on the Xbox 360, you would be stuck in a room listening to everyone who was playing on your team. Sometimes that was good. Some times that was down right horrible. But despite that, I picked up a few friends along the way.

Not having the ability to restrict who I talked to like we can in a Party Chat I got to know MadMax, c5ride, Fbody, cyberWRAT, and a number of other people who are now on my friends list. Since we started to have the ability to use Party Chat I haven't been able to listen, talk to, or get to know anyone I'm playing with outside of my chat circle. Since then my friends list has remained pretty much static. Until I changed my avatar.

Thus the idea for my poll was born.

If we're not talking and getting to know someone via their game play, how else are we making friends? Maybe it's their gamertag (see the "hot chick" posts I did awhile ago). Maybe it's their gamer picture. Maybe it's their avatar. Apparently, based on this poll, nobody likes to make friends.

It's not that I'm not happy with the friends I've already got. You all keep me very entertained on a nightly basis. But sometimes a girl would like a friend who will finish an old game (like Gears of War) on insane mode because she can't do it alone. But, NOOOOOO, that friend is going to trade that game in to get Modern Warfare 2. Come on! My friendship can't be traded in for the latest game out there.

Or maybe a girl just wants a friend to kick back with and play a little arcade game every now and then. Gauntlet is sooooo much better when played with friends. And there's so many arcade games to choose from. I'm just saying.

But if any of you are wondering if your avatar is hot enough to get someone's attention, my dog, Zoe, really likes to jump up to the screen and stare at cyberWRAT, Genghis Khan, MasvHdWndHarry, and Zenra Nukenin's avatars. She hasn't seen Zenra's Halloween wolf yet so maybe she'd change her vote if she did.

I'm changing my gamertag

No, I'm not changing it to "Hot Fantasy Girl", that one's already taken. And I'm not changing it to any derivative of that name either. We encountered HFG again last night. The guys reception of her wasn't as warm and fuzzy as before (I think it didn't help much when she kept killing them with the Hammer of Dawn).

I'm going to change my name to "Buzz Kill". Or maybe "Kill Joy". Or "I ask a question and suck the life out of the party and distract my teammates so we lose the match". Do you think it's too long?

In my defense we weren't actually in a match at the time I asked the question. It just carried over into the match. And I thought it was a simple question to answer. Yes, I know there's a lot of baggage that comes with asking an ex-soldier what the Medal of Honor is usually given out for, but a simple "it's the grand-daddy of all war medals for going above and beyond the call of duty" would have sufficed. I don't think that belittles the recipients of what they achieved when they've earned a Medal of Honor if you sum it up that way. After all, I'm not military so my feelings are much more pedestrian than what an ex-soldier would feel when the talking about the Medal of Honor.

I'm sorry I brought it up. Not because we played horribly and lost the match. But because I'm sorry that it seemed to suck the life out of the party and turned a couple of outspoken-extroverted-guys-who-thrive-blowing-the-heads-off-of-locust into a couple of thought-provoking-introverted-let's-sit-and-ponder-about-it-road-kill in the middle of what should have been a fun match. It won't happen again.

And to mark the occasion and remind myself to keep my mouth shut I'm changing my gamer tag. I'm kind of partial to "Kill Joy" but what do you think?

Identity crisis en masse

I'm so confused.

My friends are all having identity crises. I log in on Monday and three of my friends have changed their names. I know one of them has been talking about it for awhile but I was never sure if he would ever do it. Another one mentioned it in passing one day and the last one just came out of the blue. At least they had the courtesy to send a message to everyone letting their friends know who that strange name was that just seems to sudden;y appear on their list.

But what do I call them?

I've played with these guys for years under one name and now they've changed it. It's like having a kid and naming them Johnny except when they reach five years old you decide they look more like a Chris than a Johnny. I haven't played with them yet but I know when I do as soon as I hear their voice I'll call them by their old name and not the new one. Maybe if we're playing in a room full of friends they'll know how I'm talking about but if there's some strangers there they're not going to have a clue. And quite frankly I probably won't either.

I think until I get use to their new names I'm going to have to keep a play sheet taped up to the TV. Kind of like a baseball manager has for his team. Except instead of stating the batting order and what side they hit from it'll tell me who they were and what name they're going by now. It'll take some getting use to since one of them use to be at the top of my friends list is now towards the bottom; one at the bottom has now moved up to the top; and one dropped from the middle to the bottom. It's just enough to make my head spin.

I don't know who anyone is anymore. So if you're on my friends list and I accidentally delete you, please don't take offense. Just send me a note reminding me of who you are . . . I mean were . . . and I'll accept your friends request or send one of my own. I'm sure you're got your reasons for changing your name but some of us gamers are starting to get old and our memories aren't what they use to be. Besides it's so much more fun taunting you if I know what to call you.

And just because you took the "evil" out of your name doesn't make you any less so. Just thought you should know.

A gamer by any other name . . .

No, I'm not thinking of changing my gamer tag. I kind of like it. At least it's readable and shows some creativity. I can't stand those gamer tags with "xX(insert name here)Xx". Yes, we know you're playing on an Xbox machine. And guess what? We are too, so you can drop all those Xs from your name. It looks stupid.

What I don't like is how people shorten my name. You see I also go by Pengwenn on some writing forums because . . . well . . . I like to write (hence the spelling). A lot of people have figured out what my first name is so they start referring to me as that in the forums. Excuse me? What's the point of having a screen name if nobody's going to use it? Is it that hard to type 3 more characters when you use my name?

Sometimes in online matches someone will refer to me by my given name. It's not like I haven't heard it before, but it always sounds funny coming from guys I haven't met. It's almost as if I want to ask "do I know you?" because to them I'm Pengwenn not that other name. Having an online name is like having a secret identity. When I load up my profile it's like I'm spinning around really fast in my everyday attire and magically change into some spandex superhero gaming outfit complete with flowing cape and magical powers. You know, kind of like Wonder Woman but without the pouffe hair. I can be the me I want to be. But if you use my given name then I'm the person that has laundry piling up in the corner, dirty dishes in the sink and bills on the counter waiting to be paid.

Now I don't mind if someone shortens my name to Pen, Peng, or Pengy. Those names let me keep the spandex outfit on even if I have to turn the cape in. I can live with that. And I'm not immune to shortening someone name either. I often refer to Evil Ric as just Evil (sometimes that name just says it all). And cyberWRAT becomes cyber. Dain Bramage becomes just plain old dain (I know that name sounds like a real name but he's my brother so I know better). And MsvHdWndHrry (Massive Head Wound Harry) or however you spell it, just becomes "massive" to me. That's not because I don't like their names but have you ever tired to say "massive head wound harry to your left" in the heat of a battle? My friend would be dead before I'd even finished saying his name.

Now as much as I want to be recognized by my alter ego online I do have some friends that don't seem to mind using their given names. For Dennis72 I'm not going to call him anything besides Dennis (unless he kills me with the Boomshot while we're on the same team in Gears of War and then I have a few other names I'd like to call him). And then there is Patrick . . . who was called Harold . . . who changed his name to Patrick. I think there was a two week period when we didn't know what to call him expect "hey kid".

As much as I'd like to think of Pengwenn as a seperate identity I think it's becoming more of who I am everyday. So much so that at work yesterday I was sitting at someone's desk when they said my given name and I flinched. Literally. I almost corrected them and told them it was Pengwenn. But I stopped myself in time. I hope that doesn't mean I play games online too much. Or maybe it just means I like the spandex outfit more than I should. But why not? Spandex can be so slimming.