X@COM Name Search: A SummaryThis has only been going on for a few days, but there have already been some good suggestions. I'll start with an overview in case anyone catching up doesn't want to skim through the last several dozen posts (and to get me thinking in the right direction).
My original proposals:
- Company X: This is the original name I thought up a long time ago and pretty much stopped thinking after that because it was satisfactory, and so damn difficult to some up with something appropriate in the first place. A background story and some supporting information was provided in the post that sparked this discussion. As mentioned, and repeated by others, it's not a great name on its own. I'm probably not going to use this one.
- Xenocorps: This one's received some backing. It has the advantage of being a unique term, and even though it's a single word the meaning is there: "alien" and "force" I still rather like this one. It does however, have some drawbacks. It's a bit close to Xenonauts, and Xenowar, two other X-COM remakes. (Hey, they're about aliens...) There are plenty more games out there that start with "Xeno-", too (though I always liked Xenogears). Also, for some reason multiple people have seemingly mistaken this for "Xenocorp", as in corporation (unless it was a typo, every time...). There's a big difference in meaning, but if it's lost on people then that's a bit of an image problem.
Among the other proposals...
Earth Defense Force has been suggested more than once. This is a pretty generic name, so... it's already been used by several games in the past (all fairly X-COM-like ones at that).
10ebbor10 brought
6EQUJ5 to our attention, and the associated time period is close to where I want it (the 80's), but while it may be attention-grabbing, in a name it's difficult to remember, thus forsaken1111 derived the catchy alternative "
Six Echo" which seems to have become rather popular. I'm leaning towards Six Echo, but it definitely needs a subtitle to help give some idea of what it's about, and that's what we seem to be looking for now.
So we want to touch on at least one game setting concept in the subtitle: aliens, defending the planet, fighting for the survival of humanity, etc. I think "
first contact", "
alien contact", and the like have been a bit overdone by now (though that means they do a good job of telling you the game is about aliens...). This is where
Six Echo: Earth Defense Force starts to look good. But it still uses a somewhat generic and common subtitle that doesn't have whole lot of support other than "because it fits." Better alternatives?
- Six Echo: Earth Defense Initiative* (this one seems to work well, arguably better than EDF; it's also got a funny full-length acronym if you remove the colon: "SEEDI")
- Six Echo: Terran Defense Initiative (alternative, though I'm not so sure about using "Terran" over "Earth", as I think the former implies a bit more futuristic sci-fi with its less "down-to-Earth" feel)
- Six Echo: Terran Defense Force (same)
- Six Echo: Human Alliance (if "humans" are allied that implies they must be against something non-human... orcs from space?
) - Six Echo: Terran Alliance (more or less as above)
- Six Echo: Global Alliance (meh)
- Six Echo: UFO Defense (was suggested earlier and definitely does a good job of mixing the new name with its X-COM roots, but using "UFO Defense" in this context might lead to copyright issues--best avoided)
*(my favorite so far)
And of course we're still entertaining non-Six Echo possibilities as well. That just seems to have taken the focus of attention for now since it was tough to get something good and popular to begin with.
I'm still thinking about Xenocorps. It's just so simple.
Author
Topic: X@COM - Where ASCII and X-COM Collide! (Read 122583 times)