Poll Question 033 – Is the name of a mod important?

1st June 2007

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half Life 1, 2 and 3
About

What’s the first thing you often learn about a mod? Probably its name. The name should instill anticipation and desire. It could also explain a little of the story or objective. This week’s poll question is simple:

Is the name of a mod important?

What’s In A Name?

I’m honored to have named possibly the most popular SP FPS Mods of all time, and another one in development that I have little doubt will hit the headlines. I enjoy words and their almost infinite clever combinations, perhaps you don’t, maybe you feel that the name should simply be short and sweet.

Future Competition

Naming a fictional mod will be a future competition, so don’t give away any of your favourite potential mod names!

12 Comments

  1. zeroth404

    Very Important. if it sounds like crap, I won’t even read the review.

    most maps and mods aren’t up to par with my standards.

  2. Ryan "Quakis" Rouse

    Very Important as the name attracts me to read more into it, which may follow onto a download. Mods with unoriginal names such as “Escape” / “Complex” / “Revenge” etc I simply pass by because it sounds the the quality might be low.

    I tend to go for wierd combinations of words when I name my projects, even if it may not make much sense. Majority of ZDoom wads by my favourite authers tend to have decent names which attract me towards them, of which are of great quality as well after playing them.

    The name itself doesn’t have to always be original, but it should be basic either. An UT2004 SP mod uses the name “Hollow Moon” which is neither complicated or basic and sets the theme and overall idea of the mod right there.

  3. Ryan "Quakis" Rouse

    ^ Several typos above. *author *shouldn’t ^

  4. Very important. The old adage don’t judge a book by its cover falls to the wayside in almost every medium today. As Ryan said, a mod with a boring or lackluster title will just fly by, where as others such as “Minerva Metastasis” or “Poke 646” pique your interest.

  5. A name is important, especially if they’re fancy sounding like the ones mentioned in the above post, but we all succumb to one namer’s or lame namer’s and still think they’re great. You really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. Like the book I’m reading now, The Kite Runner. Bought it second hand in hard back without a jacket & never in a million years would I have guessed what the story was about but I was pleasantly surprised as it is a great book.

    There’s many mods like “Invasion, Awakening, the Day versions, Sweet, Danger 2, Underground, Adam, etc.” that don’t necessarily instill thought provoking content but are worth playing.

  6. Ryan "Quakis" Rouse

    Like the book I’m reading now, The Kite Runner. Bought it second hand in hard back without a jacket & never in a million years would I have guessed what the story was about but I was pleasantly surprised as it is a great book.

    When it comes to books, its a different story of course. I’m still very selective in what I want to read though. But then again I’m slow with reading as I’m still yet to finish my copy of Lolita!

    There’s many mods like “Invasion, Awakening, the Day versions, Sweet, Danger 2, Underground, Adam, etc.” that don’t necessarily instill thought provoking content but are worth playing.

    And this is exactly where reviews and ratings come in handy for me, the mod or map may have a generic title but if they’ve been praised I’ll check them out. But I’m the type of person to play through all singleplayers releases made for that game and write my own reviews on my site.

  7. dufferx

    Sure it’s important if, and that is a big if, it describes the mod. So many of them have no relationship with the mod.

  8. What about something like Poke 646? IF you were only going by title alone, would you play it or pass it? I mean the title doesn’t really tell you anything or give you any insight as to what it’s about.

  9. If the name of the mod is associated with another well known title form a game a movie a town (for all those ww2 or rtcw conversion) I will perhaps be more curious and download it faster to give it a try. In an other way I certainly prefer a original name that you will discover what it means through progression and when complete it you will tell yourself it was a good title (ex Poke 646, day of a redemption, Longwoodov complex,…)

    So I will consider it more functional.

    Phillip I don” t know the mod you talking about…Azure sheep??? If this is the one the name sounds really good but is in some way totally nonsense…and not related to any background story

  10. Phillip I don” t know the mod you talking about…Azure sheep???

    No, not that one. The one I named is a Half-Life 2 mod. Azure Sheep is memorable but not enticing, for me anyway.

    We’ll talk about the best named mods soon, maybe a poll or even a competition.

  11. It’s important for the name of a mod to actually have something to do with the contents of it. Some central plot point or something to do with the main character.

    Past that, no. I don’t care what the name of a mod or any game is.

  12. “I’m honored to have named possibly the most popular SP FPS Mods of all time”

    I’m not at all surprised…

    Some of the mods I have encountered over the years have had deceptive names, so some importance, some thing truly relevant to the game should be the descriptor in the name..
    Some of them should have had names like “Lame Oh!” and “Dumber than a bag of crowbars”..lol.. Like that one that lasts 3 seconds, no play to it, just a free fall and a splat?..Should have been named “Don’t waste your time”..

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