Just Wondering....

[Deathstalker]

Just sitting here while a turn processes on my 133pentium (slow http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif) and reading the Boards on my flakey computer and wondering. Where do people come up with their Online names??? A few are obvious, ie, their real name, a few are even more arcane, ie Marty Ward and Nitram Draw are the same (backwards names), but Suicide_Junkie???(is this how you play??Damn the odds and full speed ahead??), God Emperor???(a Dune refrence??), just curious. Mine is from the Deathstalker novels by Simon R. Green.

Anyone else??

(this all started with my fiance:
'What you doing??'
'Just reading the Boards hon...'
'Suicide_Junkie....I hope that isn't you... http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif'
'Nope, I'm Deathstalker!'
'WHAT!'
'Um hon, whats the matter???'
'NOTHING, I'm going to watch t.v., its less violent.....'<leaves room>.
'hmmm.....why do partners never understand lifes little addictions???? http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif.)

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Nitram Draw]

I have two name cause I'm so computer stupid I didn't realize I could use the same name on my home and work computer. Heck it took me 1/2 a day to register for this board....oh well

[dumbluck]

... i.e. the only way i ever win a game!

edit = typos!!

[This message has been edited by dumbluck (edited 06 June 2001).]

[geoschmo]

My names George. It's a play on Joe Shmoe. Just an average guy.

Took me a while to come up with a variant of George that wasn't taken in all the internet Boards. For some reason there seem to be an inordinate number of George's Online. I wonder why that is...

Geo

[capnq]

A friend gave me the nickname "Q", from a common mispronunciation of the first syllable of my Last name. I added the "Cap'n" myself, because at the time I was commanding a starship in a play-by-(snail-)mail space exploration game.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[DirectorTsaarx]

Well, back when I used to play D&D (15 years ago), I played a character named Tsaarx. And Director comes from my favorite SE4 title. I like the idea of being "Director" of a "Consortium":

"Good morning, I represent a consortium of small businessmen and I would like to offer you the chance to join our little "protection" league. You pay us money, and we don't hurt you..." http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

BTW - I also refer to my SE4 "empire" as the Moebius Consortium, partly as reference to strange mathematics (Mobius strips, etc.) and partly as reference to the comic strip "Moebius". In SE3, I used "Moebius Concordium"; Concordium came from the Interstellar Concordium (ISC) in Star Fleet Battles...

[LazarusLong42]

Lazarus Long is a character from Robert Heinlein's Future History series of novels, which you should all read; the 42 is a reference, of course, to The Answer. (RIP, Douglas Adams)

LL42

[CheshireKatt]

Mine's a slight permutation on the spelling of the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland / Through The Looking Glass. I initially started using this in the BBS days, and so snazzied it up a bit.

I always liked the Cat's rather insane ramblings -- Carroll is a good read, even if he was high on opium when he was writing. <GRIN>

--Chesh

[Resident Alien]

That's how the INS in the USA labels entities from other lands who are working in the States on various work visas. I could have moved to Philadelphia from Alpha Centauri, or from England........and I would be a Resident Alien in either case.

[Oggy ben Doggy]

Mine's a nickname from college. It was that, or Oggy Ogbourn

[Taqwus]

*shrug*

My nick on this board comes from American Indian mythology -- chosen from Online mythological references after some amount of searching. Might have chosen Tlaloc instead, but I decided to opt for something more obscure...

Most of the nicks I use (one board, one nick) come from either mythology or literature, usually with connotations of mischief, deceit, or sometimes outright evil.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Noble713]

My name, and I like the number 713.

[Droplede]

Mine's a newspaper editing catchphrase for when the "lead" of a story (the key summary paragraph, usually right at the top, spelled all funny in newspaper fashion) is dropped down farther into the story than usual, like past the fifth paragraph. A droplede can be a feature (a surprise for the reader) or a bug (when the writing sucks and takes forever to get to the point). Guess which is more common. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif

[Dracus]

Dracus is the leader of the Dragons (Which also is the same a Draco or dracul and can also be a derive from dracula). I have used this name for 9 years now. As for SEIV, it fits for the leader of the Draconian Empire from the constallation Draco.

[This message has been edited by Dracus (edited 07 June 2001).]

[Crazy_Dog]

Mine is my nick 10 years ago playing mpbt in the genie network

[Jubala]

Mine is from the days I played The One Ring RPG. It was the name of a particularly nasty NPC Gladiator...

[Spoo]

Mine's just "oops" backwards.

------------------
Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

[Phoenix-D]

I came up with it and it stuck http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Especially when I started pulling name-appropriate stunts in games. One SE3 (hotseat) game I came from behind and won in 5 turns by blowing up all the other player's stars.. at the same time. One turn he's kicking my ***, the next he's down to his war fleet only with all his planets in cinders. Cloacking is good.

The other nick I use is Stalker-D (see a pattern yet? :P) but I only use it in games where I feel like playing with people's heads (CounterStrike, newbies with AWPs on the other team. Me with a knife, FF on. muwaahaa..) since people make lame jokes out of it too often. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D

[CaptSpoogy]

My name comes from my cat, Spoogy. It just happens that he commands a powerful intergalatic starship, so that's where the captain comes in.

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Visit the Spoogy Federation at:
http://spoogyfederation.tripod.com

[Dr Strangelove]

Mine's easy, it's the name of one of my favorite movies. I used to use a variation on my name, but back in the era when message Boards were more open, no registering or having passwords, the atmosphere on some of the message Boards I frequented would often get nasty. I didn't want to have a username to closely related to my real name. It just happened that TNT was having a Peter Sellers festival that weekend, so I chose this one. I could have chosen "Chancey" or "Inspector Cluesceau". The amazing thing is that as I wander around the web and glom onto new Boards I can usually use this username. I guess people forget about the old classics.

[Isbla]

My name is the name I use when I play aok Online. Though, it is TOnto_Isbla on there, since I am in a clan. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Admiral]

It's a nickname I picked up over a decade ago. In fact, the first use of it Online as a handle was in... 1983 or so.

I used to be a very large Star Trek fan (in the 80s)... In the best voice of Ricardo Montalban: "Admiral?"

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Space Empires IV Play by Web (http://seiv.pbw.cc/)

[ZeroAdunn]

You guys who mentioned nicknames, lucky you, I have had the luck of getting stuck with crappy nicknames, Gryo, Jizmo, Gilligan, dipstick etc..

My nick comes from writing. I have a tendancy to write stories, in one Zero Adunn is young warrior who must do battle with a powerfull avatar who has come to destroy the universe.

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Captain, I found your pants.

[Lemmy]

mine is from a RPG called fallout 1, a friend of mine thought i looked like Lemmy, a character from the game, it kinda stuck with me when i started plaiyng multiplayer games, and the M is just the first character of my real name, since lemmy is not an unusual name on the internet

[dogscoff]

I never have more than one handle at a time.

For many years I was The Lobster, because I thought no-one else would ever come up with that name. It came from me mis-hearing a friend saying "carpet- lobbers" as "Corporate Lobsters". (Before you ask, I have no idea why he was talking about carpet lobbers.)

Then one day I met two or three other Lobsters chatting on IRC. I want my handle to be unique so I changed it. I went through loads of names before coming up with Dogscoff, which I use on dozens of Boards / services / communities. When a first name is required I call myself Delegate Dogscoff. I hope this time that I *am* unique.

I came up with the name just by messing around with words, but I immdiately knew it was good. I like the way it sounds like it could mean something or could just be nonsense. Rolls nicely off the tongue as well.

When I get round to it I don't anticipate any trouble registering www.dogscoff.net, (http://www.dogscoff.net,) .com, .uk or anything else (They're all still available=-)


------------------
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "

[urcog2]

You are (a) creation of God, too.

[Q]

Well I just liked the character of Q in Star Trek and the evolution of his character from a nasty devil to almost a friendly beeing. And he was in two of the few interesting episodes of Voyager. And finally it's pretty much what I do frequently in SE IV: watch the primitive beeings (AI) and sometimes interfering for my pleasure http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon12.gif.

[liga]

Liga is from Ligabue ... really simple but
everyone call me Liga so I really have no
choice ...

bye bye

[Happy_Dau]

Happy_Dau is just the re-translation of my name. My First Name is Felix, which is Latin and means "The Lucky One". I was thinking about Lucky Dau but that sounded more like some advertising for cigarrets, so I chose Happy Dau. The _ remained from old Quake I times when there was no space, and I finally got used to it.

Dau is my Last name and is an old joke in computers. A Dau is the "Most Stupid User You Can Imagine" (Duemmster Anzunehmender User) and I liked it alot (I knew how to boot our old 286 and start the game "Digger" when I was six). So I kept it. The term DAU refers to the german GAU (Groesster anzunehmender Unfall). I don't know if an english equivalent exists, a GAU is just the term when a nuclear power plant explodes.

[Suicide Junkie]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Suicide_Junkie???(is this how you play??Damn the odds and full speed ahead??)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Lol. Not quite. In fact, my strategy is just the opposite. I like to build ships that will never die. Often I have to force myself to cut out some defense for an extra gun mount http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif. See my DN design (http://www.geocities.com/hohoho611ca/ships.html#blackhole).
I also find it fun to see how close I can cut it, yet still win a battle without losing a ship (severe damage is good, blowing up is bad)

I first started using "Heavyweapons" for games, such as my Scorched Earth type game (in VB), which was very popular at highschool. (With only four computers facing away from the teacher/supervisor's desk, competition was fierce http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif)
I chose my new name when I had to register for forums and stuff on the net, and everything seemed to already be taken.
After struggling for a few days, trying to come up with something original, I landed on Suicide Junkie.
It was interesting, and not too serious (addicted to suicide?!?) and I couldn't come up with anything else, so there it is.


[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 07 June 2001).]

[Saxon]

I honestly don't remember, I have been using it for over 20 years now. There is a band by that name, but I never listened to them. Maybe it is because it has an "X" in it, who knows what your are thinking when you only have one digit in your age.

[LeTharg]

Aside from inertia being my best quality, LeTharg is general enough to fit into a variety of universes from fantasy to futuristic.

[Askan Nightbringer]

Well Askan was my birth name, meaning "The First Son" in the ancient language of the People. The Nightbringer aspect is a title granted through deeds, meaning "To Bring Hope" (The People of Night believe utter darkness is the perfect State).

Askan Nightbringer
Voice of the People's Empire

[Magnum357]

Nothings really special about my nickname (Magnum357). I'm kind of a gun freak and collect guns as a hobby. I choosed Magnum357 because it is probably my most favorite calibure for a hand gun (versital ammunition, cheap, and much more powerful then the 9mm's out thier http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif )

[Str8_Gain]

Str8_Gain comes from "straight gain", an engineering term used in analog design. "Straight Gain" when applied to operational amplifiers means 100% gain with no distortion to the input waveform.

Guess you can tell I'm an EE, huh?

[Possum]

Years ago, I found myself in a politically difficult situation at work. After a change of department managers, it became clear the new shirt was looking for an excuse to get rid of me.

I needed to keep the job, so I set out to not give him an excuse. I came in early, stayed late, took short lunch breaks, and generally made sure that anytime he walked into my repair lab, I had my head down and was working on something.

My co-workers teased me about "playing possum", and from there it just stuck...

By the way, that company eventually went tits-up, but I kept my job until the 5th round of layoffs http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Puke]

wow, thanks to the link to this thread, it was before my time!

it was cool to read throug it, and see PBW adversaries that had dropped off of the board before i started reading it, or to see old posters who started the community that dont show up much anymore.

back in 1994 there was an up-and-coming internet provider (dialup, what else?) called CRL. they are either dead now, or just forgotten. back then a friend of mine from CA came out to visit me in TX (i was staying there for a few years) and set me up with a dialup account. my name, Luke, was taken. Puke, however was not, and it is the account name that he gave me. as the years rolled on, and after i moved back to CA and i started to gain a reputation for my drinking habits, the name stuck. hell, now its even the Last 4 digits of my phone number.

[Praetor]

Praetor was the title of officers in the old Roman Praetorian Guard. Sounds kinda cool, I think. When I play solo games or whatnot I often use the name "Aeryn" (from farscape), which i also think is kinda cool, but I'm always kinda embarassed to use it in Online games, what with being a GIRL's name and all http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Praetor

[Shyrka]

Mine is from Ulysses 31's series, my all-time favourite of my childhood. "Shyrka" was the main computer of the Odisseus ship. It was too the only permanent "female" character, except for the girl Thais.

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

As with Many of the other handles out there, mine came from a favorite RPG Character. 1st edition Shadowrun, set in Seattle. RhineStone Cowboy was an Ex Ganger looking to make it big in the Shadows. His Street name came from the fact he liked to walk around in Rhinestone studded Cowboy boots and a black stetson with a Rhinestone Band.

My favorite Tag line of his came when the group was looking to be hired for a job:
"We Don't do Wetwork...Ummm..(Eyes Shift back and forth)...Cheap!

and thus his mercenary instincts were born....

Rhinestone

[Jack Deth]

Jack Deth is a character from a b-grade scifi flick. think it was dollman maybe? or was it trancers? same actor anyway.

ive also been known to use rex dart, from a really old really bad japanese monster flick (mystery science theater did an episode with the flick)

my main internet nick is fixitman, which i started useing on irc way back around 1991. tho it has gotten to be pretty common, so i dont use it much any more.

[Fyron]

My name comes from the SE Ladder, where I am Imperator Fyron, leader of the Kazharii Imperium.

[ 16 January 2002: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]</p>

[Quikngruvn]

Quik is the name of my (recently-departed) cat. When I needed to come up with a username when I joined AOL (I didn't know any better then!), I amalgamated Quik with Fukngruvn, from a bumper sticker that played off of Fahrvergnuegung (probably misspelled). Since AOL had a 10-character limit at the time, I had to get creative with the spelling. Thus, Quikngruvn was born, and I've been using it since. I've yet to see this handle already used when I sign up for something on the internet... except when I've signed up for something already and forgot my password....

Quikngruvn

[Wardad]

My youngest boy (then 8???, now 18) and I started a game together, he choose WARCHILD so I got silly and choose WARDAD.

the name stuck, they did not mess with a save game name that started with WD.

The name is basically unused, except on a financial web site forum.

[Mephisto]

Oh well, [K126] is a clan tag from "Team Fortress" and "Counter Strike". In real life it is the first character of a street were some friends and I used to meet to play RPGs. Second is the actual building number.
Mephisto is from the classic German book "Faust" written by Goethe. Mephisto is kind of a devil, however not really evil. He is the "wag" (my dictionary give these words for "Schalk": rogue, wag, fool). This stuck to me from my high school time. :-)

[Fyron]

Spoo wrote:
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Mine's just "oops" backwards.<hr></blockquote>

Really? I had assumed that your name came from the spoo in Babylon 5. Apparently, spoo is a food that is even more nauseating than spam, and only Narns will eat it.

[Ruatha]

I started using Ruatha when I played X-wing 1993(the first in the series - before Tie fighter) and needed to name my player.
It comes from a location in the Pern Novels by Anne McCaffrey (Ruatha Hold).
I liked the little white dragon (Ruth) from the first of the books I read but forgot the name, but Ruatha got stuck in the head.
So far I haven't had any competition for the name.
I started using it Online in a chat community "The Castle" in 1994.

[DarkHorse]

DarkHorse comes from my days as a Political Science major. The Dark Horse candidate is the one either given little chance to win, or comes from nowhere to do so.

[Perrin]

I am really horrible at thinking up names Usually I just borrow one from somewhere or take two names and drop the Last name of one and the first name of the other.

Perrin I borrowed from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

[Stone Mill]

This is a great thread. I always wonder about this stuff.

I thought I had some of you figured out...
I made the connections for some of the cool fictional character references. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I was way off on a few, like Phoenix-D:

I came up with it and it stuck <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I thought for sure this was one of the nicest looking modified light Mech units from the Robotech / Battletech series, cartoon, games.

[mottlee]

Comes from a job I had at one time, Mott being my name everyone called me Mottlee (tho probality spelled diff) so when I 1st signed on to the internet I used mottlee as a screen name and kept it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Stone Mill]

Mine comes from the very loose translation of my name, going back to Greek/Latin.

I also like Stone Mill because it is a historic landmark where Vikings set foot long ago.

And weirdly enough, it is the opposite of millstone, which is defined as "burden, albatross." Instead, I strive to be a helpful resource to my friends and family, making others stronger by my acquaintence. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Gryphin]

Since my father first read mythology to us as children I have wanted a Gryphin as a friend. Most renditions of Gryphins have them as strong, noble creatures that protect the weak.
I chose this spelling because it was the only one available when signing up for a handle somewhere.

[SamuraiProgrammer]

I have been using SamuraiProgrammer for as long as I have had access to the internet - I guess about 8 years.

When I was majoring in physics in college, a study buddy & I adapted the attitude of a zen warrior to our physics tests.

"Never concern yourself about the outcome of the battle - only the beauty of the swing of the sword for it's own sake" became "Never worry about the score on the test - only the beauty of the solution to the problem."

I have since adapted the philosophy to my life's calling - computer programming. "Never worry about the entire program, but only the beauty of one small part at a time" Otherwise translated as "Concern yourself with the details and the big things will take care of themselves.

[Captain Kwok]

Captain Kwok orignated (as depicted in my avatar) in a sci-fi story I made a long time ago. I was going to make a race style and website based on his race and decided to change my shrapnel handle to match with the title character.

[Kamog]

...from my absolutely favorite game of all time: Final Fantasy VI !!

Near the beginning of the game, the Imperial guards come to the town of Narshe to capture Terra. She flees into the caves but falls, and Locke, who went after her to help, is totally outnumbered. Then the Moogles come to the rescue! Their names are: Mog, Kupek, Kupop, Kumama, Kuku, Kutan, Kupan, Kushu, Kurin, Kuru, and Kamog. Along with Locke, they defeat the Imperial guards and save Terra.

[Greybeard]

I was looking through the avatars for something that I liked, and found the old miner with a grey beard and a hat. At the ripe old age of 46, I have a grey beard. I also wear an Akubra cowboy hat, so the picture fit me pretty well. So I chose Greybeard. On PBW, someone else already was using Greybeard, so Geo suggested I use Captain Greybeard. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[TerranC]

My name isn't fancy as others, as it comes from Starcraft.

It started when I first wanted to play a game on Battle.Net, and had to choose a handle. I liked playing the Terrans on Single player, and since I was new to Battle.Net (and kind of new to the game itself) picked Cadet to add on to Terran: TerranCadet. I liked the name afterwards, and cut off the "adet" to create TerranC.

[Taz-in-Space]

...How did Taz-in-Space come to be? Well the truth is Taz used to be my handle in my old CB days. (does THAT date me?) and since Space Empires IV is a space game...

Editted for spelling... (Note to self: USE THE #$@*! spell-checker.

[ December 23, 2002, 20:13: Message edited by: Taz-in-Space ]