See the article’s debate over adding the colon to the first entry in a series, and I basically share the same viewpoint. If the first entry was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, it would have been much harder to solidify itself with people learning of this thing for the first time. See my comments elsewhere in this thread here with Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun as a first entry for a series that didn’t take and how I don’t think Horizon aptly describes its game or story.
Comment on Why so many Steam games have weirdly similar (and forgettable) names
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 5 hours agoI don’t think it would be an improvement for the name to call it Zero Dawn. Just like all Zelda games are Legend of Zelda. It wouldn’t have changed anything about the success of the game or being memorable. If anything, it was a good idea, so they can name a future game in the series as Horizon (like Legend of Zelda) with a subtitle as the main title for the game.
Or do you want games be named as Zero Dawn 1, Zero Dawn 2, Zero Dawn 3? Is that more memorable?
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
I don’t think the success of game Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun would change with the name change. I think Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a more memorable name than The Heretic Prophet, but I don’t think it would matter to change it before release. Nowadays the games success doesn’t depend on the name of the game, it matters what game is recommended, the video trailers of games, description, keywords, ratings and reviews. Nothing would change with those suggested name changes, nobody cares about that.
And my listed examples in our other discussion proofs that.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Your listed examples would get far closer to proving the opposite, as I said in that comment chain.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
No, they proof that the name of the game doesn’t matter. It can be forgettable name, yet the game can be memorable because its a good game and everyone talks about it. If the names were less forgettable, it wouldn’t change anything about their success, popularity and memorability. Names become memorable, because games become successful. Not the other way round.
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, it would have been much harder to solidify
But that was not my argument at all. This is not the first game in the series. My example was about the first game being “The Legend of Zelda”. The forgettable part “The Legend of” just puts mystery and a sort of adventure feeling to it. If the game was named just “Zelda”, it would less convey what type of game it is. That was my point I’m making. And for your example of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as the first entry, I think it would be not bad as first title too. There are lot of games with a main title and a subtitle. The subtitle is like a specific book in a series. Like Pokemon: Red or Pokemon: FireRed. There is a main title that is consistent across the entire series and a subtitle that is the specific game title. It makes perfect sense to have games with colons like this. It doesn’t make games less memorable because of that.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 5 hours ago
Which wouldn’t even make sense considering “Zero Dawn” in context of the Horizon series is that it is a specific canonical event that is only discussed in the second game. The first game didn’t have any notion of the Zero Dawn event afaik.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I’ve only played the first game, and they for sure mention Zero Dawn.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 4 hours ago
Nope. You’re right. I’m stupid. Zero Dawn is the first game. Forbidden West is the second Horizon game. I flipped which was which.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 4 hours ago
The first game absolutely mentions Zero Dawn. It’s, like, a big plot reveal.