Simple Names for Games

[Doominator2]

So after seeing the new trailer for the new Hitman Game "creatively" named Hitman made me think, why are there so many games (or even some movies) that are named simply after their franchise. Most notably is Doom 4 simply called DOOM but there are other examples such as Thief(2014), Medal of Honor(2010) and Wolfentein(2009) just to name a few.

[mallo]

I think the trend was started with Sonic the Hedgehog (commonly known as Sonic '06). Dumb and confusing IMO.

[Clonehunter]

Why are shoes called shoes? Why is a button a button? Why is everything named so simply? We should have more complex names that are harder to remember, but more descriptive, like instead of Medal of Honor, it should be "Brown and Gray World War II First-Person Shooter where you kill Nazis for your Medal of Honor: Assault of the Troops of the Allied Nations who were in power during World War II."

Doom should be called "Demons have invaded and you need to kill them, and they're pissed off."

[scifista42]

My uneducated guess is that statistics might have proven that titles without high numbers (>3) sell better.

[geo]

I remember an interview with the writer for Wolverine where he said the Fox studio guys said the movie doesn't matter, the name is what sells. That's not exactly what he said, but calling it Doom 4: Hellvasion will sell just as well as Doom 4 or even calling it Doom 2016. I've heard the same thing about Alien 3. Its the name.

[gaspe]

I think it is more appealing. Both for the veterans, possibly it recalls the older chapters of the serie and plays on the nostalgia factor.
And both for those who have never heard/seen the serie, as the advanced chapters may have references that the new players won't understand making feel them alienated or whatever.
It's like give to it a new start. Or more, practically what scifista42 and geo said.

[40oz]

i read somewhere from someone on these forums, i forget who, but they said its likely because of google searching. If you search for Doom, you're more likely to get the newest Doom first, which is what they want you to be looking at, instead of Doom 1.

[Annunakitty]

40oz said:

i read somewhere from someone on these forums, i forget who, but they said its likely because of google searching. If you search for Doom, you're more likely to get the newest Doom first, which is what they want you to be looking at, instead of Doom 1.

That's kind of the reason I don't like it, haha. I've already had the issue where when I tell people I play Doom they think I'm talking about Doom 3 and I have to be all "no no you don't understand!"

[Doominator2]

BombChel said:

That's kind of the reason I don't like it, haha. I've already had the issue where when I tell people I play Doom they think I'm talking about Doom 3 and I have to be all "no no you don't understand!"

Thats why I usually say Doom 1 and not just Doom.

[fraggle]

Because they're reboots. I thought this was obvious.

Calling it "Doom 4" would be disingenuous because it isn't a sequel.

[TwinBeast]

Most words are already used by something. I think sequels/etc should have the number in them, or some extra in the name like "Doom II: Hell on Earth" or "Final Doom". Otherwise it just gets confusing.

[Jaxxoon R]

Gotta find crazy words like parallelogram to make the next Doom game.

Ors hosule I say NeXTStep Doom game because Doom was made on a nextstep

[geo]

Doom: Better than Bioshock and Batman

Imagine all the keywords and Google searches it will net.

[Clonehunter]

It should be called NuDoom. It'll be just like NuMetal.

[Touchdown]

Interestingly, a lot of people use slightly different names anyway. Nobody calls Rise of the Triad reboot Rise of the Triad. They call it ROTT'13. Same with Shadow Warrior, Shadow Warrior reboot or something. Wolfenstein from 2009? Everyone calls it Wolfenstein 2009. With DOOM people will refer to it as DOOM 4, because calling it DOOM makes no sense.

This trend is stupid though.

[Inkie]

"You had Rocky I through V, and that made perfect sense. What's the next one? Rocky Balboa. Yeah, just his full name. What's next, the next Rambo movie being called John Rambo?"

[Chow Yun Thin]

Give it the subtitle of "Smashing pumpkins into small piles of putrid debris".

[Clonehunter]

Touchdown said:

Interestingly, a lot of people use slightly different names anyway. Nobody calls Rise of the Triad reboot Rise of the Triad. They call it ROTT'13. Same with Shadow Warrior, Shadow Warrior reboot or something. Wolfenstein from 2009? Everyone calls it Wolfenstein 2009. With DOOM people will refer to it as DOOM 4, because calling it DOOM makes no sense.

This trend is stupid though.

I believe Shadow Warrior is just SW13 or SW'13. And I think Wolfenstein is more commonly referred to as Wolf2k9, which I always found odd, because no other game in the franchise is just called Wolfenstein.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Personally, I find the whole reboot using the exact same name as the original thing to be utterly obnoxious.

[Bucket]

fraggle said:

Because they're reboots. I thought this was obvious.

Calling it "Doom 4" would be disingenuous because it isn't a sequel.

Uh... Doom 3?

[fraggle]

Bucket said:

Uh... Doom 3?

Sure. I'd argue there's an element of ambiguity there too.

The whole rebooted {film, video game, etc.} trend is a relatively new concept that has only really appeared in the past decade so it's not surprising that Doom 3 got that name, before the numbering reset trend started. In hindsight Doom 3 perhaps isn't even the best name.

I can understand why it's annoying to have multiple games named "Doom", multiple movies named "Star Trek", etc. But there's a lot of value in starting over and making a clean break from the past, and "resetting" the name like this is a way of accomplishing that.

[Memfis]

fraggle said:

The whole rebooted {film, video game, etc.} trend is a relatively new concept...

Well, they've been doing it in theatre for centuries I guess. There are many different plays all called "Hamlet", even when they are somewhat loosely based on the original version.

[GreyGhost]

Clonehunter said:

And I think Wolfenstein is more commonly referred to as Wolf2k9

Wolfenstein 2900? I suppose that gives us something to look forward to, if the cost of cryogenic storage isn't prohibitive.
</pedantry>

[VGA]

What?
2900 = 29k
2009 = 2k9

[Jaxxoon R]

That's why it's called NFL 2k11, duh.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Eh. There have been game series before where every installment is basically a reboot, but they were still numbered. Civilization anyone? Master of Orion? Though I suppose it could be argued with either of those that the notion of a sequel (as opposed to a reboot) doesn't make a lot of sense.

I'm not sure how new you want it to be to call it a new thing, either. The 90s had (largely forgotten, but they're there) reboots of stuff from the Atari 2600 era, for instance.

[Doomkid]

VGA said:

What?
2900 = 29k

29,000 = 29k

(I'm in it for the lulz)

[AirRaid]

fraggle said:

Sure. I'd argue there's an element of ambiguity there too.

The whole rebooted {film, video game, etc.} trend is a relatively new concept that has only really appeared in the past decade so it's not surprising that Doom 3 got that name, before the numbering reset trend started. In hindsight Doom 3 perhaps isn't even the best name.

I can understand why it's annoying to have multiple games named "Doom", multiple movies named "Star Trek", etc. But there's a lot of value in starting over and making a clean break from the past, and "resetting" the name like this is a way of accomplishing that.

id wanted to called Doom 3 "Doom", but they couldn't for some reason or other. It's why the Doom3 logo has a TINY little 3 on it, because they felt the 3 wasn't really important. Doom 3 having a 3 wasn't a creative choice, but a legal one or something.

[GreyGhost]

VGA said:

What?
2900 = 29k
2009 = 2k9

I'm assuming "k" is a multiplier value (kilo) and being used in place of the comma/decimal point, which is common practice with electronic circuit diagrams. That would make 2900 = 2k9 (I would also accept 29h) and 2009 = 2k009.

AirRaid said:

It's why the Doom3 logo has a TINY little 3 on it

Doom cubed? That's still a hell of a lot of doom.

[Havoc Crow]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Personally, I find the whole reboot using the exact same name as the original thing to be utterly obnoxious.

Same here. Hate this trend. Not only it makes things more confusing ("so, is that like the 1993 Doom, or the 2016 Doom?"), but it's like a disrespectful slap in the face to the original games.

"Coming up now - Doom! The brand new, never-before-seen, very original series from Id Software! The history of the Doom franchise begins now in 2016!"