The Origins of Video Game Names 121
Blogger Drew Mackie has posted a lengthy analysis of the etymology of dozens of names from popular video game characters. It examines the real-life and mythological roots of names from Final Fantasy, Zelda, Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and many other prominent franchises, complete with citations where appropriate. Quoting:
"It's speculated that Street Fighter's Russian wrestler Zangief takes his name from a real-life Russian wrestler, Victor Zangiev. More interesting to me is that the working name for this character was Vodka Gobalsky. This is notable for two reasons — for one, that this name is amazing [and] deserves to enter into the public consciousness and, for another, that it bears a striking resemblance to the name of a Russian boxer in Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series, Vodka Drunkenski. I'm sure this says something about Japanese perception of Russian people. The latter Vodka, by the way, goes by the name Soda Popinski in US translations of the game, presumably because Nintendo of America didn't allow references to booze."
Perception (Score:2, Insightful)
this says something about Japanese perception of Russian people
I think it says that they're much in line with the rest of the world on that one.
Re:wow (Score:3, Insightful)
Oddly enough... (Score:3, Insightful)
(I appear to be showing my age here... Hold on, there's some pesky kids out front...)
Re:wow (Score:3, Insightful)
professional gaming
twittering
blogging
arguing over who gets to love whom
discussing how the US president swats a fly
That reads a lot like the "extracurricular activities" section of resumes of recent college grads that pass over my desk at work these days.
I never thought I'd be justified in saying this, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't we have a some real problems to address, like, oh, we're going to run out of easily available water and energy, and the environment is going to change so much that about a billion people will lose their home over the next 15 years?
Please hand in your geek card immediately.
See, this is what serious geeks do. They think about stuff. Lots of stuff, and they think about it a lot. Some of it is trivial, some of it is important, and a surprising amount of it appears to be trivial and turns out the be very important later. They don't decide whether they'll think about something based on its importance; they decide based on whether it's interesting to them at the moment.
The exact same people who worry about things like the etymology of the names of video game characters are the people who come up with solutions to serious environmental, economic, and technical problems. And the people who whine, "Why are you wasting your time on X when Y is so much more important?!?" ... are the people who will never put enough serious, obsessive thought into anything to make any serious, long-lasting impact of any kind.
Re:Russia-Japan issue (Score:4, Insightful)
In context, he kept suggesting to me that all Americans fit the stereotypes of southern rednecks, and he kept quoting the fact that Americans held slaves, and that some Americans fought a war to protect slavery.
I countered that we are the only country to arguably fight a war to end slavery. Either way, he was adamant that Swedes never had slaves, when in fact, they did. American slave-owners in the South sometimes allowed their slaves to earn money and buy their way out of slavery as well, so the American slave concept wasn't completely removed from the concept of a serf. Especially given that many serfs lived their entire lives in servitude with no real hope of escaping their situation.
I also countered that his hatred and stereotyping for all Americans could be construed as racism. He was adamant that he wasn't racist, but rather that all Americans were horrible, evil, Imperialists with no education or respect for human life.
In talking to other Europeans they tell me that their perception is that America is a very racist country, and that Europeans aren't racist. Which I find odd, because in England I hear a lot of anti-French sentiments, and vice-versa. I was refused service in a restaurant for being American, and racist epithets are common at soccer/football matches in Europe, where as that behavior isn't tolerated in American stadiums.
My point is that judgment and stereotyping is a very human condition. Sadly, it comes quite naturally, and I think it requires conscious effort to combat racism and cast aside racist judgments.
Re:Why is this Games and not Idle? (Score:3, Insightful)
What does that even mean? They are all less formal than a scientific paper, but there is pretty much zero resemblance otherwise.