I am curious about how people chose their Eve character name. Was it a random choice or did you name yourself after something more meaningful? Was it a humour induced decision or does your name have role-play or practical purposes? Does having a certain name in Eve make a difference to ones play style? Would you change the name of your main character if you could?
For me, Eelis Kiy was originally a slightly random choice. When I started my first online game, Star Wars Galaxies back in 2003, I found myself trying to pick something suitable to call my newly created Zabrack. I wanted something tomboy-ish so tried "Ellis" then "Elis" but neither was available. Impatient to get stuck into the game I shoved an extra E on the front there was "Eelis".
The surname was originally chucked out of the generator looking something like KIYLANDROSTONLY or some such nonsense. I liked the sounding of "Kiy" so simply chopped the end off. Huzzah, Eelis Kiy was born, forever to be wrongly pronounced "ee-lease" or affectionately changed to "eeleee" and invoking images of something wet and slimy.
Many people got to know me as Eelis after 3 years of SWG so I started to use the name everywhere else on the internet. Forums, browser games, other mmos and even offline games. It's truly become my "tag" or alter ego. Of course when I first created the character I hadn't realised that Eelis IS actually a real name for guys in Finland.
If I could go back to my Eve Character creation I would be sorely tempted to change my name strictly for pvp purposes. E is quite high up the alphabet list which can mean I am out of the fight whilst my f - z comrades continue to enjoy the fight. Then there is the thought of an enemy FC calling me out over coms with something more amusing, say perhaps PRIMARY IS... SECONDARY or PRIMARY IS AFKWIFEAGRO. Hindsight is a wonderful thing eh. Perhaps one day I will roll some specialised pvp alts and go down this route.
But after so many years with it I do feel quite attached to Eelis. The loveliest part about keeping the same name has been the odd random convo in Eve, from people who recognised the name from my SWG server. This has happened a few times now and one old SWG comrade actually flew with my previous Eve corp for a while after randomly noticing me local one day. I guess even the interwebs can prove to be a small world.
So, how did you pick yours?
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
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I find this an interesting topic too. I prefer more realistic names in EvE. For some reason if I'm not using Beo as my name in other games then I use funny names but I name all my EvE characters after somewhat obscure characters from various SF novels. Beo is a Larry Niven character, an explorer and a bit of a loner.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_Shaeffer
My other characters are similar. The one I made to be a corp CEO is named for a mayor from the Asimov books.
Well, Lexx was originally nicked wholesale from the slighty dodgy sci-fi series of the same name.
ReplyDeleteBecause it actually WAS a name & sounded quite funky I decided to use that as my online alter-ego for UT, CS et al. When it came to creating a character for Eve, it was a given that I'd use Lexx, and therefore a female avatar. 'Lexx' was already taken, so after briefly contemplating several crappy-sounding surnames: 'Lexx Smith', 'Lexx Steel', 'Lexx Skywalker' (yeah, I know...), I finally settled on the name of my Dark Future character- Jonlan, the meanest Interceptor pilot in the Wasteland. Thus, Lexx Jonlan was born.
Simples!
You know my story but I will tell it for the enjoyment of other players. My in game name being Vale Storm.
ReplyDeleteIt spurred from my first mmo SWG that I played with eelis which was Vale Carrigan. Vale I got from a set of pc speakers that I was using at the time made by a pc manufacturer called Evesham Vale. The surname I made up really.
The surname in eve is a tribute to the gaming community that I have enjoyed most of my online gaming with which is Storm Guild. Simple as that really. Just known as Vale pretty much everywhere gaming related now.
Great post Eelis. My first experiences with mmo's in general was in Star Wars Galaxies as well way back in 2003 when it first launched. which server did you play on?
ReplyDeleteCain Jacobi
I didn't know you were named after your speakers Vale hahaha!
ReplyDeleteHey Alfred - I was on Farstar (one of the Euro Servers). Always nice to see ex-SWGers about (especially people who played when it was buggy as hell but still awesome!)
Hey, nicely presented topic.
ReplyDeleteInspiration for naming characters in every game I tend to find mostly in books I like. Only recently I started playing EVE and I was immediately hooked up. I created female character named 'Lady SixSkies' according to the ancient Mayan empress. She was very important figure back then and that was her real name (yes, with the 'lady' in it). Heh, her son was named Smoking Squirrel and I'm not joking.
Anyhow, I now realize that name is a bit awkward and I would probably change it if I could in something more 'appropriate'. But too late for that now, so I better start collecting nuts just in case my character gets pregnant.