fbpx

Tag Archive for empathy in videogames

What’s in a Name?

November 13, 2010 People, Uncategorized, Writing Comments Off on What’s in a Name?

So I have this google alert set up for my name.

Yeah okay, in another day and age it would likely be some kind of narcissistic self-stalker thing, but running a business, as I do now, knowing what shows up when potential partners or clients google me, knowing what, if anything, is being said about me or my company, these are all valuable bits of feedback to have. And the world is a big-ass place. The odds that my name is unique, or even that it will *remain* unique are small. Very very small.

Once upon a Time you used duplicates to show lineage. Thurston Howell the Third, King Henry the Eighth, using the same name over and over, generationally, kept a family name alive, added the new generations accomplishments to the former, built an empire.

Not so much nowadays. I’m wondering how this new, almost required presence in the virtual space, Individual names are power, getting your presence on the very top of the search lists is a valuable commodity. I am wondering if we are looking at a future where names will begin to get longer, maybe more specialized. Already the addition of a middle initial can make a difference in where your name appears, what about multiple names, more creative spellings? In China a few years ago there was a baby girl whose parents tried to have the @ symbol included in her name, simply because there were so many traditional names already overused (well that was the official explanation at any rate).

If you’ve tried to get a hotmail or flail or yahoo address recently, you already know how hard it is to find something that doesn’t require a half dozen numbers tagged onto the end, the same goes for online avatars like you have in City of Heroes or World of Warcraft.

In my love for dystopian scifi, I can see a future where names are territory, to be defended against encroachers against all costs, to be bought and sold like any other commodity.

Sent on the run from the Bushi-go dev iPhone.

The accent is on the *e*

January 30, 2010 People, Uncategorized, Videogames, Writing Comments Off on The accent is on the *e*

The accent is on the *e*
I’m at the preschool today, thinking about voices. No, not in your
head type voices. I was listening to one of our participating parents
talking in a very thick accent and marvelling at the siblant way she
strung her words together. She’s from Russia, but the accent is not
what you might expect given the round thick tones used so commonly in
media.

Which got me thinking a bit deeper about language and
characterizations. One of the tools used in storytelling is the
stereotype. Love or hate them, stereotypes are a tool. They let you
set a readers expectations quickly and cleanly, they allow you a quick
connection to the reader that can then be fleshed out to suit your
story. When you break stereotype or archetype or fail to at least
give it a passing nod, you have to spend significantly more time on
exposition to bring your reader up to speed and to create that new
character in their mind.

Accents are the same way. They are a filmakers tool to set a location
to give us a backstory without having to give us an information dump
on the character. As an example, take the American accent used in
almost every film made overseas. It’s from Texas, and not only that,
but it is an overblown chariacture of a Texas accent. Accurate or
not, however, it makes the character distinct, gives you an instant
read on who they are, where they’re from and what their role in the
story is going to be. Something interesting to note, by the way is
that the closer the character is to the heart of the story, the closer
they are to the main character, the lighter that accent tends to be.

« Older Entries