
What’s in a (Guild) Name?
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010In the aftermath of a giant drama explosion, my young guild (Razorblade Arcade) has been forced to reform (minus our now former guild leaders.) It sucks, but that’s what it’s come to. Which left us once again with the horrible task of picking a name.
We spent a good amount of time throwing around suggestions, both serious and not-so-serious ones. And it seems that everyone has a different favoured style when it comes to names. I’ve managed to narrow down a few types, and I’ve realized which are personally preferred for me.
- Serious, meaningful names: These names are generally one or two words and say something about the members of the guild or how they came to be together. Examples: <Unemployed>, <Kalimdors Legion>, <Avoiding Reality>.
- Serious, meaningless names: These generally get picked for their dramatic effect, but don’t really have any importance to the players. Examples: <Evolve>, <Malice>, <Nothing Personal>, or often anything latin.
- Funny, meaningful names: These occur when someone tries to fit an entire joke into 24 characters. Usually a crude one, at that. They’re also popular in Arena Team names. Examples: <Sapped Girls Cant Say No>, <STDs are BoP>.
- Funny, meaningless names: Usually of a silly nature, things that make you giggle or curious about the origin of the name. Examples: <Squid Squad>, <Razorblade Arcade>, <Seal Cub Clubbing Club>.
So it turns out I’m not a fan at all of categories 2 and 3. The jokes are generally immature, and the drama names just don’t inspire any sort of interest in me.
We ended up going with <Evolve>. I am so indifferent to that name that I already forgot what it was at least once. To be honest, if I were searching for a guild to join, I would probably not even consider a guild with this name unless there was something really appealing about it (like the fact that all my friends are in it.) While name doesn’t mean everything, it does present an image of who you are and what type of people are within the group. Am I stereotyping? Possibly. But I am almost certain I would not want to be associated with anyone in <Sapped Girls Cant Say No>.
How does guild name effect you? Would you join or avoid a guild based purely on the name, or does it not concern you at all as long as the guild is what you’re looking for?
I proposed the question on Twitter, and got quite an array of responses, including:
Rilgon: As long as it’s not anything that blatantly violates naming conventions, no consideration. (#)
Krizzlybear: Ideally, all things equal, I will join the guild with the most hilarious name. (#)
wowcynwise: It’s important that it be correctly spelled and either innocuous or authentically funny. There are a lot I look at and go “no.” (#)