The development team from Icarus Studios' Fallen Earth has written this developer journal discussing the origins of some of the names chosen for bosses and NPCs in their upcoming MMO.

The town of Black Hill,
where NPC "Rudy Arcton" resides.

Have you ever marveled at the imaginations of game designers? Have you ever wondered how they could possibly create so many interesting missions and storylines from nothing? Sometimes they have a little help.

Sitting down with the creators of post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth, we discovered that many of the names and places have connections--some more loose and fictional than others--to people and places in the real world. Lead game designer Lee Hammock and his team divulge some the origins of the names featured in Fallen Earth. This week we'll explore NPC, boss and creature names.

Read What's in a Name - Bosses and NPCs

I believe players put thought into their names as well, otherwise we'd have characters running around with random letters over the top of their heads.

For example, I try to associate the class of my character with a trait of mythological creatures, and use the name of that creature as the inspiration for how I christen my character.

As for what game deserves the most amount of creativity when it comes to naming, it has got to be Pokemon. 400+ and increasing!

Pretty neat but nothing new, WoW has been doing that for years using pop culture people as NPCs and players of course do the same. Still neat to see all the names, though I do wonder of all the things to discuss about an upcoming MMO...it would be a list of NPC names and how they relate to the real world? Oh well.

It's always the same, no matter what kind of media I think. Always you can find some special parts - names, places whatever - from the real life of the creator(s). We'll find it in  films, books and of course video-/computergames...:)

Clever idea, I'll be looking for the little "ah ha's!" as I play.

Originally posted by Sandblox

Pretty neat but nothing new, WoW has been doing that for years using pop culture people as NPCs and players of course do the same. Still neat to see all the names, though I do wonder of all the things to discuss about an upcoming MMO...it would be a list of NPC names and how they relate to the real world? Oh well.

Things that really means nothing in the end actually interests other people. I care sligthly not much. Still I read it, I found it interesting. Would I have missed the article if it wasn't written, I assume I would not. Also I se no reason to question why writing itt.

It's nothing new with Fallen Earth and wasn't new with WoW either. And certainly not something the MMORPG genre brougth. The article isn't even trying to say any that either.

Originally posted by djFEVA

I believe players put thought into their names as well, otherwise we'd have characters running around with random letters over the top of their heads.

For example, I try to associate the class of my character with a trait of mythological creatures, and use the name of that creature as the inspiration for how I christen my character.

As for what game deserves the most amount of creativity when it comes to naming, it has got to be Pokemon. 400+ and increasing!

But we do have characters, in various games, running around with random letters above their head, unfortunately. Obviously there are players that see things differently, as they have named their character with "qwerty", "qwerty111" and what not, but I would want that alot of the GM's in games would police this harder.

When I name my character I often go with a slight variation of spelling of a previous name, or respelling like your reference a mythological creature or god. The name have to fit the character aswell.

Brings to mind a certain breastplate that drops in Greig's End in Everquest.

... and? The whole thing is just a bunch of useless "DID YOU KNOW THAT??" facts that have no real significance whatsoever except to the devs. Is an article like this really even necessary?

Games do this type of thing all the time, and all that time equals mere trivial superficiality. If there was something else to the name beyond the realm of the referential, then these things might actually be interesting. Beyond that, I don't see the point.

Originally posted by tapeworm00

... and? The whole thing is just a bunch of useless "DID YOU KNOW THAT??" facts that have no real significance whatsoever except to the devs. Is an article like this really even necessary?

Games do this type of thing all the time, and all that time equals mere trivial superficiality. If there was something else to the name beyond the realm of the referential, then these things might actually be interesting. Beyond that, I don't see the point.

This is brilliant when combined with the signature of the post above it.

I like the article.  There are people who are interested in where some of these names come from.  The ones listed in Fallen Earth are rather obvious - at least, most of them are - but there's nothing wrong with puff pieces like this.  I think it just adds to the metadata of a game.

No need to worry about names with numbers in them in this game.  Not allowed.