Not quite Identity theft
I don’t know about you folk, but I feel quite attached to my toon name, think it’s quite original, and love the “pats on the back” that I get, just like drive-by-buffing, only people stop in the middle of WoW to whisper me “great name”.
Doesn’t matter where I am… roaming the WoW plains, joining a raid group, mid-battleground, I invariably get a whisper from someone.
I think generally people don’t pay much attention to the name, but when they do, that little light bulb in their brain goes:
“Bing… Gnome-aggedon, like the end of the world at the hands of a Gnome with big balls of fire, man that’s a cool name”
I even had a workmate mention it to me at the opening of the Aman’Thul server. I was sitting out the front of Ironforge, when he ran by. He didn’t say anything then, but the next day at work when I discovered he had rolled a toon on Aman’Thul, he stopped and said “Damn, I saw you sitting out the front of IF, I know I did, because I stopped and though ‘what a cool name’”
Get on with it Gnomer… what’s your point.
Well I remember a while after rolling the toon, I guess just after Armory came into existence, looking myself up – I wasn’t alone. Sure I was level 60, and the others were only level 4 – but there was more than 1 Gnomeaggedon © on the “earth”.
I felt kind of dirty.
I looked again the other day, and what I discovered scared me even more. The 2 other’s were now high level, and one of them (a level 70 Warlock) was on my old server, Khaz’Goroth (which is also in the same Battlegroup as Aman’Thul). The other is currently a level 42 rogue.
Then I found this other entry when searching for Gnomeaggedon © via Google. At least this one is about “reclaiming” Gnomeregan
I quote:
We caught up with Aydre in her lab on the outskirts of Kharanos to find out more about her newest invention. Aydre, in a flurry of excitement, commented, “It’s time for Gnomeaggedon – time to take back our home! Using this spray, we will be able to return our friends and loved ones to health — rather then destroying them as many others are prone to do — all while protecting ourselves from the wraths of the disease. Once recovered, we will fight as one to take back our home from the Trogs!
So now I feel even more dirty… like an Orc in filth kind of dirty.
I guess I just have to pray that they all play honorably, and don’t bring my name into disrepute. I guess taking my home land back is a noble cause & use of my name.
I guess this also means that Zupa could be standing and /hugging the corpse of Gnomeaggedon © .. but the wrong one… Now wouldn’t that get up your rotting forsaken nose Zupa, taken out, not only by Gnomeaggedon © , but the Warlock Gnomeaggedon! ©
Anyone else trip across their toon name occasionally and wish they could get it back, claim copyright, get to know the other person behind the name?
On an aside, I have a pretty unusual real name, but I discovered 10 odd years back that there were 5 other people, just in the state of Victoria, that shared my name… I just don’t understand why I copped so much grief as a youngster..
Gnomer and Out!
I have a sucubus named after my toon.. A Warlock wanted me to pose once with her Pet for a screenshot..
My toons name is not Unique, Zahrah. there is prob one on every server, my twink wickedminx has remained unique on wow, ( So far)
and I have a online nic that I’ve had since 95 ish thats remained rather unique on the interwebs. ( it helps that its in Cherokee ) but I saw this guild on my server the other day called Pugnacious and I came so close to asking them.. Where did you get that name from! There are few guilds called pugnacious though.
I guess all I can say is take ownership – set up some accounts on popular services with that nic. People like having matching accounts and emails and identitys, and can’t borrow it if its already taken.
and who knows maybe for Gnomeaggedon will end up in an urban dictionary..
Awww, /pat.
I just checked out my main’s name, Softthistle. I’m the only one on EU servers, and there are none on US – yay for individuality!
The rest of my characters are in no way unique, but at least my main is, but everyone calls me Softi anyhoo, and there’s one of those on every server!
I also have a not-so-usual name, I remember wishing I could change it to something more normal when I was younger – now I love it.
Oh, give us some last names, please!
Honestly, I haven’t experienced what you do. But then my name isn’t so cool. I get whispers not every day, but at least once a week from greek players, wondering if I’m one of them, since Larisa is the name of a greek town.
When I transfered there already was a low lvl horde char named Larisa on my server. But by then I already had my blog going, and above all I identified with the name – names are serious business you know – so I couldn’t make myself change it. It ended up with putting a strange dot over the “i”. Which makes me not totally unique, but almost.
I guess with some 10 million accounts and probably three times as many toons (does anyone know the actual number?) it’s probably pretty hard to find a name which is so unusual that it’s unique for all of the servers.
lol, my Mum told me to never give out my last name.. cause then we would be trackable…
When I was growing up there were only 3 entries in the phone book with my last name… and they were all direct relatives… which is why I was amazed years later that there were 5 with _my_ name (not just my surname)
I wonder how many people immediately went to check out the armory after reading this?
I know I did
And YAY, I’m still unique!
And I LOVE the name gnomeaggedon. It conjures up images of armies of gnomes storming Gnomer for hours upon hours till the respawn timer breaks.
I just had a similar experience when I found 2 other Desdarii in the Armory
I feel your pain!
[...] One week ago I reported in how I was not the only Gnomeaggedon in the world, there were 3 of us… well it turns out that there are 6 of us, because I didn’t go checking the EU realms. [...]