Half-life, I knew this game was a sci-fi shooter from the cover, and the name, half life referring to half the time it takes for an atom to decade.
You knew what it meant before you saw it as a title for a game? I honestly didn’t.
When I read the title “Half-Life” I didn’t think anything, I was too busy staring at Gordon’s face and all the bright vibrant colors on the cover.
edit:
Does not refer to the constant destruction and mayhem that goes on throughout the whole game,
but is actually the codename for Shub-Niggurath.
Depends on the situation and whether or not I’ve played another game with the same title before.
If it’s a completely unknown game which I’ve never before heard about and I am only reading the title of the name then the answer is 6/10. The name isn’t really important but serves as a first filter for my potential interest. For example a hardcore FPS game isn’t titled as a kids game would be, allowing me to easily filter out the games not intended for me.
Beyond that point the name doesn’t really matter as the naming schemes used in the gaming industry is screwed up beyond belief already. I was often surprised before when a title I would connect to a certain genre proved to instead be a game of a different genre, so I just stopped assuming things based on a game’s title.
However! If we’re talking about a sequel or another game in an already defined series of games then the name has a lot more weight attached to it, hence more importance. In those cases the name is of utmost importance and therefor the answer in these situations is 10/10.
Example of bad naming is, for example:
F.E.A.R. 3 (stylised as F.3.A.R.) - Doesn’t share the same ‘feel’ as the previous games. This title is on the borderline to being wrong.
Dragon Age 2 - Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! WRONG! The ‘2’ signifies that it is a sequel of some sort, while the game itself is more of a reboot than a direct continuation of the previous game. The ‘2’ allows players to make natural comparisons between the two titles whereby a lot of flaws in the ‘second’ game is made apparent and intensified.
Crysis 2 - Has the similar flaws as the previous mentioned example. People whom enjoy the game will probably find no problem with the title but people whom disliked the changes to the formula in the new game will hate the title since it doesn’t do the game justice.
Dungeon Siege 3 - The main genre of the game is changed and the whole formula is different. DS1 and DS2 were mostly dungeon crawlers where the loot and character development was the focus whereas DS3 is a ‘consolified’ story-driven action RPG with merely a small bit of dungeon crawling.
This whole ordeal is obviously by a game-to-game basis where the previous games determine the overall formula that connects the games within the series and which the newer games must respect and follow. Players aren’t surprised to learn that a new Final Fantasy game, for example, differs in terms of lore, world and characters from the previous game since this is an already defined part of the series. However what they wouldn’t like is a game which differs greatly from the previous games (which explains the backlash against FFXIII a bit), or is downright different.
To summarize, the importance of the title of a game differs greatly depending on the situation at hand.
A “good” game title would be one which tells new potential players something about the game while also giving more understanding, or reference, to actual players of the game.
Examples:
Mass Effect - This is a great title because not only does the title signify that the game has something with physics about it, which for most people signifies a Sci-Fi oriented game, but it also is the title of the key element of the game, which only actual players of the game would understand. This, however, gives the title more meaning to those more interested in the story of the game than the potential customers.
Dragon Age - This is also a great title as it brings the thoughts to the medieval period for potential customers which the games are ‘quite’ similar to. But for those whom have actually played the game it is actually the title of the age which the games take place in, meaning something else than just the medieval stuff.
Halo - Brings the thoughts to something angelic, something unnatural and ‘above us’. It is not only a good description of the importance of the Master Chief character and how he relates to his fellow humans and his enemies, but it is also the name of the space rings of mass-destruction within the game, which the whole story and conflict is about. A potential customer would probably correlate the title to the former while an actual player would correlate it to the latter.
So, a good title would be one which fullfills these two parameters, or something similar, describing the game for interested players while also acting as a reference to something within the game for those already playing the game.
Depends, as they are both possible at the same time. Mass Effect and Halo are pretty vauge names while still heavily related to the games. It all depends on what perspective we’re talking about. But I do however think that it’s important that the title is more related than vague. Why? Simply because it makes it easier for players to correlate the title to the game by having a well-defined and easily understood title.
Take the title Half-Life for example. This is a really interesting name as it can be analysed quite extensively without ever coming up to an actual answer to what it refers to without getting the answer directly from Valve, the creators. Does the name refer to the nature of the work that the workers at Black Mesa are doing? Does it refer to Gordon Freeman’s “half life” as he seems to be but a pawn of the mysterious Gman? Is it a reference to the events of the Black Mesa Incident? Or is it merely a vague reference to the genre of the game?
Interesting, but a vague title that means a lot of risk-taking on the creators part. A risk most developers and/or publishers aren’t willing to take as gaming is becoming ever more mainstream and the title of a name is of utmost importance for customers when they are looking through potential games to buy.
TL;DR: There’s no easy answer to any of these questions.
Niggerwrath?
Call of Duty: A call of duty?
-Modern Warfare: The period of warfare
-World at War: The world at war (2 fronts: Europe, Pacific)
-Black Ops: Secret Stuff
If it had Space in the name or has anything to do with physics I’ll probably buy it.
Otherwise I, usually, am more attracted to short names that are easy to remember such as Homeworld and Starcraft.
EDIT:
Half-life is the period of time it takes for an element to decay to half it’s original number of atoms of the same element. not half the time it takes for half an atom to ten years.