The Etymology of Video Game Names

Very Small Tyrant
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Minarchist's picture
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I thought this was an interesting (and very long) read. For those who wonder where Bowser got his name...

Shamelessly stolen from Slashdot.

And for Final Fantasy fans, here's a page devoted specifically to the etymology and origins of those names.

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Podunk wrote:

I like the cut of your jib, Minarchist.
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well that's it. you just sent me off on a hunt for a delicious weiner.

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Interesting stuff, Minarchist. Thanks.

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Wow... uhhh... too much time? Could it be some read way into this stuff? I really only read the FFVI portion, though.

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Very Small Tyrant
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Yeah, the guy clearly has a lot of time on his hands...however, as he said he's an English major, this kind of thing can actually be used to get a job, apply for graduate programs, etc.

The Street Fighter section is quite interesting, as well.

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Podunk wrote:

I like the cut of your jib, Minarchist.
Bullion Cube wrote:
well that's it. you just sent me off on a hunt for a delicious weiner.

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It's like they said in PCU, you can major in Gameboy if you know how to BS. Somebody appears to have taken that to heart.

Interesting stuff, though. I'm a sucker for stuff like that-- my big weakness is the origin of figures of speech and slang, but that's a subject for another post.

Certis wrote:

I think doubtingthomas makes a number of good points there. I don't need to re-hash them.

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the game amounts to Tic-Tac-Toe with guns.

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Minarchist wrote:
Yeah, the guy clearly has a lot of time on his hands...however, as he said he's an English major, this kind of thing can actually be used to get a job, apply for graduate programs, etc.

The novelty value of it might be quite good for that sort of thing, so long as the quality of writing and underlying research is sound. Granted I only have an outsider's perspective on it, but English as a field of research seems to involve a lot of retreading of well-covered ground. A piece like this on a new area would probably be more memorable than yet another analysis of Smith's analysis of Wodesley's analysis of Wernstrom's analysis of Blake's use of death as a theme in his works between 1789-1793.

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Mystic Violet's picture
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That was epic. The post seemed like it would never end but I could not stop reading it. Awesome find.

I believe that many of the problems associated with Japanese to English names are from poor or lazy translations. I've noticed that over the years, these mistakes happen with less frequency and silly errors like "Congratulation! A winnar is you!" would never been acceptable now. Name changes in particular would always annoy me because the replacement would be something generic like the name "Mike." I'm so glad translators put a little more work into their craft these days. But honestly, a lot of these errors could've been avoided had they bothered to pick up the phone and ask Inafune himself "is it Dr. Right or Dr. Light?"

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Mystic Violet wrote:
That was epic. The post seemed like it would never end but I could not stop reading it. Awesome find.

I believe that many of the problems associated with Japanese to English names are from poor or lazy translations. I've noticed that over the years, these mistakes happen with less frequency and silly errors like "Congratulation! A winnar is you!" would never been acceptable now. Name changes in particular would always annoy me because the replacement would be something generic like the name "Mike." I'm so glad translators put a little more work into their craft these days. But honestly, a lot of these errors could've been avoided had they bothered to pick up the phone and ask Inafune himself "is it Dr. Right or Dr. Light?"

Don't forget the Balrog/M. Bison/Vega switch that happened in Street Fighter II.

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Trainwreck wrote:
Don't forget the Balrog/M. Bison/Vega switch that happened in Street Fighter II.

It's funny though, this guy claims that the names make more sense the way they're assigned in the English version than they did in Japanese.

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Podunk wrote:

I like the cut of your jib, Minarchist.
Bullion Cube wrote:
well that's it. you just sent me off on a hunt for a delicious weiner.