# Gamers: Help me pick a new username! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519 "2006-06-21T01:41:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/1 "2006-06-21T01:41:49Z")
Howdy folks. Long-term lurker here; I’ve actually been reading since the AOL days, but only registered in 2000. The problem is that that was nearly six years ago, and I’m still a young’un, so I was still finding myself when I signed up. Shortly thereafter, I decided on the universal handle **Panchromium** , which is nice, unique, and obscure, but lacks a certain flair that the usernames on this board tend to have. I didn’t change my username here then since I didn’t have any good ideas for a new one, and don’t post frequently. But **Mind gamer** really doesn’t describe me anymore. So I figured now, while I’m recovering from long-term depression and making a fresh start in other aspects of my life, why not change something else that’s been bugging me as well? What I’d love to find, then, are niche gaming references that describe me well. Practically any neat-sounding unique gaming term might work, so I’m all ears. Don’t limit yourself to genre, time period, or even necessarily tailor these to me; hearing all the great suggestions is half the fun. I’ll start off with a few examples: **Melee dancer** : From Ragnarok Online, refers to a specific build of the dancer class. I love getting up close and personal in melee while gaming, and enjoy swordplay outside of that; similarly for dance in real life and otherwise. But I don’t really like the game it’s referencing, and the name could have come from other mundane places. Maybe ‘Meleemancer’ from Diablo II? **Jabazon** : Speaking of, here’s a more recognizable Diablo II build that keeps some of the same qualities, an agile fighter in melee who really shouldn’t be there. But while I often cross-play (while making it clear that I’m doing so) in online games, having to frequently confirm my male status here probably isn’t worth it. **Panzerklein** : The giant mecha from Silent Storm, and a cute username of mine for Gunbound, in which you puttered around in little tanks. Parsable to some non-gamers, stands alone well. The only problem is that I generally don’t like tanking (although I do have a gnome warrior in WoW…) **Gish** : A word originally used to describe a githzerai fighter/mage in D&D, since generalized to mean any fighter/mage hybrid or interesting but suboptimal multiclassing. Cute, easy to remember, and I do love my hybrid fighter/mages, but probably already taken? **Waterfall Hides a Secret** … **Chicken of Bristol** : … … … As you can see, I need help. 😃 (I wasn’t sure whether this belonged here for username suggestions, in IMHO for polling, or in CS for video games. Mods, please feel free to move as you see fit.) ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/2 "2006-06-21T01:58:54Z")
I’m not good with names, but can I say welcome? Also, for the induction ceremony, had you thought on some variation of “Immune to Goat”? ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/3 "2006-06-21T02:28:21Z")
Thanks! It’s an honor to be welcomed by our foremost (forensic?) medical examiner. Just allow me to casually sidle over to my equipment stash, here. I should have some kind of goat-protection modifier in here somewhere… _rummages through poorly-organized bank bags_ Hey, wait. You guys trotted that out for me the last time, six years ago, but I got a pass because I was too young to g… Oh. _rummages faster_ ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/4 "2006-06-21T02:31:36Z")
The only surefire way to avoid **The Goating** is to not make a delurking announcement thread. 😃 Of course, that doesn’t help you _now_… ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/5 "2006-06-21T02:59:49Z")
**Chicken of Bristol** would be awesome, I passed on it, as I wanted my user name to say something about me and my background, but it would be very cool to see someone finally take it. I think it would make you an instant [sub]minor[/sub] SDMB celebrity. Welcome out of lurkdom and enjoy your stay. Jim {Forget the Goat,watch out for the Squid.} ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/6 "2006-06-21T02:59:53Z")
From D2/X (paging **iampunha** (and other assorted players)): Poison necro Zoo (or summoner, or whatever the actual term s sfor focusing on minions) necro or druid Mace/Sword/Axe barb Err… That’s really all I can think of; I haven’t played it in at least a year, and I didn’t really know any strategy then either. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/7 "2006-06-21T08:39:24Z")
**Children of Bristol** or **Children of Briston**? _goes off to google Children of Bristol_ I have a gnotank, too. That’s pronounced no-tank. Mind you, her name is Paz (Peace) and she’s the model with huge pink ponytails and gren eyes, all she’s missing is some sort of halo… I was having one of those days where your tongue is tucked so far into your cheek it tries to get out the other side. I like “melee dancer”, I have never played Ragnarok online but the meme for it exists in many other places. Hop over to the Hong-kong section of the videoclub, it’s full of melee dancers. If you like Gish but the problem is it may be taken, why don’t you try checking? If it’s available, take it. ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/8 "2006-06-21T16:54:48Z")
Well, the best I could find was a well-worn copy of [this card](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=BetrayersofKamigawa&name=ishi-ishi,_akki_crackshot). Why do I even have this stupid stash, anyway? **Nava** , since **Chicken of Bristol** seems to come up in every naming thread eventually, I was trying to head it off at the pass. [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=965229&postcount=38) is as close as I could find to the original suggestion; it gained [notoriety](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=55044) [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=54721), and seems to have [spread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=57201) to [in-joke status](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=138415&highlight=chicken+bristol) [since](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=331599&highlight=chicken+bristol). > [@Loach](#): > > Its from Monty Python. In the Holy Grail Brave Sir Robin is said to have fought the vicious Chicken of Bristol. As well as personally wetting himself at the battle of Badon Hill. Our guild has an inexplicable tradition (“Gnomes are friends, not food!”) of putting flavors in the guild tags of our plucky gnomes. Strawberry flavored, vanilla flavored, lime flavored, fury flavored, RP flavored… It is not hard to guess what flavor [Minti](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Panchromium/Web/minti.jpg) is. Thanks for the thoughts so far! I’m going to try to inspire some more of those creative juices by example to see if anything sticks, if you all don’t mind. **Mustadio** from FF Tactics. Old enough to be obscure despite its initial popularity? **Ultros** from FF6. See above, and who wouldn’t want to be known as a tenacious, purple octopus? **Dire flail** from D&D. “This ball-and-chain is so cool, I bet putting another one on the other end would double the cool!” **Schtoltenheim Reinbach III** from the Suikoden series. Not so effective now that they made him a playable character in the fourth game, rather than just a legend. **Half-celestial half-minotaur half-orc** also from D&D. Too long? Different halves? **Channeled Fireball** from Magic. **Ingress’s Teeth** from Planescape: Torment. **Kakolugia** from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Too silly? Did I even transcribe that correctly? **Amingo** from Marvel vs. Capcom 2? No one knows who that is. Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff I’d love to have more of to consider, although I’m leaning toward one already. If nothing else, coming up with them is good fun. And I’m not (intentionally) delurking; I like it up here with my animated stalactite brethren. Just getting a makeover of sorts. So you can, uh, put the goat down now. And what the heck is that hiding behind it? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/9 "2006-06-21T17:04:32Z")
I liked the gaming group that turned up to the only convention I ever attended. They called themselves “ **_Fireball_ The Bastards!** ” and at one point during the evening, the game obviously reached the point where it was appropriate for them to yell this out loud. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you borrowing it, the group must have folded years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/10 "2006-06-21T17:10:11Z")
How about… **Pwned!!** hehe ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/11 "2006-06-21T20:29:35Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > I liked the gaming group that turned up to the only convention I ever attended. They called themselves “\*\*_Fireball_ The Bastards![b/]” and at one point during the evening, the game obviously reached the point where it was appropriate for them to yell this out loud. Heh. I suspect many groups have thought along similar lines; one of mine went with “_Fireball_ will fix it. _Fireball_ fixes everything!” It managed to fix everything from traps to siege weapons to hostage situations that campaign. **Ganondork** , a corruption from Smash Bros. Melee. **Edge Hog** was one of the elusive and coveted bonuses from that game. (You got it by hanging onto a ledge while someone else was trying to grab on, resulting in their being unable to grab it from you and falling to their doom.) **Frost brand** is iconic D&D, relatively obscure but often imitated. **Medareens** were mixed Terran infantry from StarCraft. There’s got to be lots of succinct, unique terminology that we haven’t touched on yet. Ideas? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/12 "2006-06-21T21:39:46Z")
> [@Mind gamer](#): > > **Melee dancer** Not being particularly helpful, but this reminded me of one of my favorite handles I’ve seen in online gaming. **Dances with N00bs**. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/13 "2006-06-22T01:57:10Z")
I like that one, **iamthewalrus(:3=**. I also like **Frost Brand** – it’s iconic. How about **Vorpal Blade**? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/14 "2006-06-22T08:36:51Z")
> [@Mind gamer](#): > > **Edge Hog** was one of the elusive and coveted bonuses from that game. (You got it by hanging onto a ledge while someone else was trying to grab on, resulting in their being unable to grab it from you and falling to their doom.) An _edgehog_ is also a “fairy chess” piece (i.e. an unorthodox piece made up for a non-standard game or, frequently, a problem). It moves like a queen, but its only legal moves are to or from the edge of the board - thus, on an empty board, an edgehog on b2 could move to a1, b1, c1, a2, a3, b8, h8 or h2 only. So it would not check an enemy king on g2, but you could play Ea2 and then _would_ be checking the king. ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/15 "2006-06-22T21:44:48Z")
Neat. What other kinds of fairy chess pieces are common? Thanks for the responses, everyone. I think I’ll give this another day to percolate and then decide. Is it customary to do that in the same thread or start a new one? **Rudy Roberts** , aka Lynx from the Jagged Alliance series, was my favorite character and sounds like a literary reference as an extra bonus. **FreQ** is what an avatar in Frequency is called, but I don’t think that describes me any more. (When you beat the game you are dubbed a Super FreQ.) **Lenneth Valkyrie** from Valkyrie Profile, while awesome, would also doom me to an eternity of asserting that I’m actually male. I’m having trouble recalling any male characters from that game that I liked, or at least any without obviously feminine names. **Roman Cancel** , a technique from the Guilty Gear series. The problem with trying to pick a Magic: The Gathering reference is that most of the ones I’ve come up with have been either too old-school and out of touch with modern Magic (**[Sol’kanar the Swamp King](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=Legends&name=sol%5Bkanar_the_swamp_king)**), too neophilic and uncertain to be remembered (**[Grand Arbiter Augustin IV](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=Dissension&name=grand_arbiter_augustin_iv)**), too arrogant (**[Morphling](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=UrzasSaga&name=morphling)**), or too obscure (**[Xira Arien](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=Legends&name=xira_arien)**). All that said, I have used **[Amrou Kithkin](http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=FourthEdition&name=amrou_kithkin)** as a handle before, which may work, but it’s still pretty old-school and obscure. **Chairman Yang** was totally the most iconic faction leader in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. Would that remind too strongly of Mao for the uninitiated, though? Maybe **Provost Zakharov** instead? **Prokhor Zakharov**? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/16 "2006-06-22T22:22:18Z")
I’ve heard of the following: **Berolina pawn** - moves diagonally, captures straight forward **Reflecting bishop** - bounces off the edge of the board, so an RB at c1 can play to c5 (via a3) if the way is clear, or all the way to f8 (via a3 or h6). Or capture on e3 even if d2 is occupied, by a three-cushion shot off a3, f8 and c6. 😃 **Nightrider** - makes successive knight-moves in a straight line, e.g. from b1 it can play to c3, d5 and e7. The move could be obstructed at any of those “touchdown” squares but none of the others. **Grasshopper** - moves like a queen, but only if there is a piece of either colour on the rank, file or diagonal; it lands on the next square after this (unless this is occupied by a friendly piece). e.g. a grasshopper on an empty board cannot move; put a grasshopper on d1 and a man on d5, and you can play Gd5 (over whatever is on d4). …and some others, but it’s getting late. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/17 "2006-06-23T01:03:23Z")
> [@dwalin](#): > > From D2/X (paging **iampunha** (and other assorted players)): > Poison necro > Zoo (or summoner, or whatever the actual term s sfor focusing on minions) necro or druid > Mace/Sword/Axe barb Boy, if I did vanity searches, that mention woulda been useful. A zookeeper is a druid with pets. A necro with a lot of summons is an armymancer. Or, at least, that was the case back when I was paying attention to this stuff. Cher OP, if you want no doubt regarding your gender/sex, you might consider something in your sig. ---
**Author:** ![Meleemancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Meleemancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meleemancer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gamers-help-me-pick-a-new-username/361519/18 "2006-06-24T02:29:02Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Cher OP, if you want no doubt regarding your gender/sex, you might consider something in your sig. Good call, but with lots of good options I’m having trouble deciding between that don’t immediately suggest the wrong sex, I think the simpler option would be to just exclude them for now. Got caught up in errands today, so I’ll need some more time to ponder. Good thing too, since I realized I forgot the granddaddy of RPGs. **Magidrakee** is pretty good. **Blazeghost-H** is a dilemma that other Dragon Warrior 3/4 players will probably appreciate. Maybe F or G instead? H is a bit extreme.