Bad Guild Names
Many guilds have outright terrible names. Ok, not terrible, just terribly bland. They’re all stamped from the same lame press: X of Y.
- Seekers of Truth
- Champions of Honor
- Seekers of Honor
- Defenders of Glory
- Champions of Truth
- Seekers of Glory
- Defenders of Truth
- Champions of Glory
- Defenders of Champions
- Protectors of Italian Virginity (kidding, this one would actually be ok)
Tell me that you haven’t seen dozens of these guilds lingering around. In my experience, they’re always recruiting. Their GM quotes Gladiator or other epic movies in his sig. I can just keep piling these stereotypes on, we’ve all seen people like this. They attach weight to the name of a group of people.
Next time I start a guild, I’m going to call my guild “X of Y”. Seriously.
The problem with most joke names is that nothing is funny after two days. Just like most tattoos aren’t cool in just a couple of years. What’s cool and funny now is never cool the fifth time you explain it. However, I suspect that as you see another guild form with a name like Harbringers of Misfortune, you might get another chuckle that will keep this joke fresh.
At least a guild with a stale joke name can be disbanded and reformed with a newer joke name… unlike those sad souls stuck with tribal tattoos.
In the meantime, I have an unguilded alt who’s about to start a new guild. It’ll be right up there with the Bankadins.
April 24th, 2008 13:08
There are some sub-flavors of this which bear mentioning.
There’s the typo version: “Defnders of Truth” or “Swords of Jugement”.
There’s the LoreLol versions: “Justice of Azeroth” or “Defenders of Ironforge”.
Obviously you can combine these to great effect. Who wouldn’t want to join “Chaimpons of Lorderan?”
As for joke names, some of them never get old. I’ve always been a fan of the “Vendor” guilds (a guild name of “Staff Vendor” looks great under your name).
April 24th, 2008 13:13
I agree completely. I don’t know why, but it’s worse when the guild name is WoW-lore specific.
I think the joke metaname that lore names lead to is a casual guild called “Obvious Lore Derivative” with its sister raiding guild “Obscure Lore Derivative”.
April 28th, 2008 00:29
Guilty as charged. I belong to a guild with the X of Y template. Excellent blog, by the way. I love the approach.
May 3rd, 2008 19:55
We also need a moratorium on the words “Fire” “Knights” and “Dark” in guild names. I believe at one time my server had the guilds Dark Knights, Fire Knights and yes, Dark Knights of Fire all operational at the same time.