What are the names given to the sequels

Original author: Kevin Murphy
  • Transfer
image

Enough! Enough! Pot, do not cook!

Let me present my opening speech as a script.

Scenario


[News broadcast studio. The young presenter sits at a table littered with Nintendo Amiibo and stormtrooper toys from the (new) Star Wars , smiles and speaks enthusiastically, looking at the camera]

Presenter : “... and other news: Battlefield 1 , the first game of the new Battlefield franchise, was released this week . It’s unusual to see the number 1 in the name of the first product. It demonstrates the confidence of Dice and EA that the game will give rise to a new series ... "

[Presenter interrupts and puts a finger to his ear]

Presenter: " ... wait a second. Sorry, my producer is clarifying the information. ”

[Inaudible muttering]

Host: “...FIFTEEN Battlefield game?!?! And this is WITHOUT additions ?! ”

[The presenter casts a nervous look into the camera, turns away, puts his hand to his ear and starts talking quietly with the producer, who’s behind the scenes]

Presenter: “ Is this a joke? Seriously enough. You just decided to laugh at the newcomer, or ... you're just kidding ... so, Battlefield Hardline was from the same ser ... and Battlefield 4 was actually Battlefield 13? God ... Now you will probably say that Assassin's Creed 4 was ... sixth? .. "

" So, wait, what can I say about Battlefield 1 ? .. "

Host (now in a loud whisper):“... JUST BECAUSE THE BUSINESS HAPPENS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR ?! DUMMER THIS NOTHING HEARED ANYTHING! "

" Alright, alright. Come on. I understood".

[The host drops her hand, slowly turns to the camera and pulls a “television smile” on her face]

Host: “Ahem ... forgive me. Battlefield 1 was released this week and was warmly received by critics. Observers have called it "the best Battlefield " since ... "

[For a split second, the presenter is lost and hardly continues]

Presenter: " ... Bad Company 2 ".

“And finally, a new DLC has just been released for Doom , the new id Software and Bethesda shooterwho captured the world in the first half of the year ... ”

[The host stops, he listens to the producer again and the smile falls off his face. He turns away from the camera again.]

Presenter: “... not a new one? .. 1993? .. But probably for 20 years everyone has already forgotten a single game with fig graphics ... FOURTH DOOM?! .. Why didn’t they just name him then? ...? .. who are the "two John"? .. "Quake"? No, Quake comes out next year, I know for sure! .. no ... no ... okay, forget it ... ”

[The host gets up, trying to get out of the frame and take off the microphone. The microphone rubs on clothes, making sharp sounds]

Presenter (he is heard worse): “... No, I'm leaving! Forget it! This is some kind of mockery! Until this industry grows up, how can it be taken seriously? ”

[Having freed himself from the microphone, the presenter finally leaves the frame and moves to the exit. He is heard worse and worse]

Host: I'll try to return to an internship at Fox . At least the name Fant4stic has the right number.

[One can hear someone answering him]

Host: “Only the third part ?!”

[Gradually loud obscenities gradually breaking off by the slamming of the door]

[End of scene]

Article


Amazingly funny, right?

There is humor in what the names of the games have evolved over time. But there is a danger to the safety of the games and to the historical research of those who come after us, or even after only twenty years. Most people do not think about tomorrow's problems (that’s how we came to the world we are in now), so I will focus on humor. But still try to imagine how all this will look for people from the future. Will they consider our time a golden era of creating games, or will they perceive it as the time of insatiable consumers who do not seem to even understand what they are playing and do not want to figure it out? And are they all really so stupid and illegible, as it probably seems to large market participants?

Explanation


I want to clarify that I have nothing against the games mentioned here. Many of them are just great! I just don’t like the way they are named for these games, and it’s the successful series that create more problems because there are a lot of games.

I hope from my “scenario” you understood the problem that I want to emphasize. I could say “no one controls the principles of inventing names”, but in fact, it seems that no principles exist. No one in the gaming industry goes beyond reasoning "the marketing department believes that this week the target audience likes such a figure."

How's the movie doing?


The game industry and the film industry are constantly being compared, and I don’t like it at all. But today I will compare them, because they have many parallels and lessons that need to be learned.

In the film industry, a more mature approach to names is definitely used in cases of “long-playing” franchises and “reloading” of old films. Of course, the problem (if you really think this is a problem) of constantly occurring “reboots” in both entertainment industries first appeared in the cinema. But, to his honor, he addresses this problem much more accurately. With the exception of Robocop (2014), most reboots use a revised name or subtitle to clarify ( Batman Begins, The Amazing Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk- Yes, it seems that “reboots” occur mainly in superhero films and action films).



When numbering movie sequels, the creators avoid this problem and now rarely add numbers at the end. Instead, they prefer subtitles. You can take Marvel as a good example : the mutually intertwined plots of films can be quite complicated, and sometimes it’s even difficult to say who the main character is in them. For example, Captain America : Civil War” was “Avengers 3” or “Captain America 3”? Or “Confrontation 1” ? So ignore the numbers and give the names. It works.

Let me explain: I do not want to say that such principles have more meaning or are more holistic (in“Jaws” first used numbers, then numbers or names, then subtitles: Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D, Jaws: The Revenge) . But I argue that, with the notable exception of Robocop (and perhaps some other films that I can't remember), franchises are rarely so confused that it is impossible to figure out which movie in question. And I can’t recall examples of when “Title-Movie 3” is actually not the third part, or at least not the third in the current “reboot”.

There are no generally accepted principles, but still there is a deliberate attempt to streamline the "reboots" or sequels. For games, everything is completely different.

Note: Movie REMAKS often bear the same name as the originals, but they are usually alterations of classic 40-50-year-old paintings (Train to Yuma, 101 Dalmatians, Alice in Wonderland). RELOADS usually follow several sequels, but begin a new series of sequels connected only with each other, and not with the old series. For example, Star Trek (2009). The original 1979 film was titled Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The creators did not use the same name, although, in my opinion, it would not hurt to add a subtitle to the 2009 film.

And what about games?


It seems to me that there are two approaches, each of which anyway "stirs up water" to varying degrees. (There is also a third in the cinema: the films connected by the series have a different name, for example, “Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal” ). They create problems when searching on the Internet or just when communicating and trying to explain what kind of game you really mean .

Numeral spread


I have never seen this done in films, but the game series seem to be so ashamed of their age that they constantly juggle with numbers. There may be reasons for this: for example, the creators want to hide the number of games (so that players are not “fed up” with them), separate different storylines ( Command & Conquer: “Tiberium” and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1-3 ), or mark releases on different devices. But still, this practice is very confusing.

Films that drop digital endings usually keep this trend. After six “digital” Police Academy academies, the seventh was simply given the subtitle “Mission in Moscow” . In "Superman"there were no sequels with numbers after the fourth part, in spite of the sequel and the later “reboot”

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City later became the fourth GTA , and before GTA IV (which was on TWO games later) I called for brevity Vice City "GTA 4". GTA 5 is actually the seventh, and so on.

Assassin's Creed III was the fifth game in the series.

The recent Gears of War 4 also became the fifth GoW .



If you read my latest articles, then you know how I am opposed to the name Battlefield 1 . Today I will not include it in the system.

My satirical “scenario” has already affected Battlefield , possibly the most flagrant violator of the rules. Already three games after the start of the series, one can begin to get confused: Battlefield 1942 , then Battlefield Vietnam , and finally the mess with the third game of Battlefield 2 began . From that moment on, the numbers didn’t make sense, and it was noticeable (for me, anyway) by the fact that no one led the ear when the new game was called Battlefield 1 . It’s ridiculous to call the new game “1” (as far as I know, this happened for the first time in the world). The worst thing to realize is that in this game, the developers returned to their roots, moving away from modern or fantastic surroundings, and therefore had the opportunity to return the original name system (Battlefield 1942 ) and name this game, for example, “ Battlefield 1916” (or choose any year from the interval 1914-1918; I chose 1916 because the focus on this year is in the last trailer, in addition, the release year 2016 is a good round date ) I don’t care what the rest say, marketers definitely missed here. I have a marketing degree, so I can say this with at least some authority:



If for some reason they were strongly opposed to the year in the title, then Battlefield: The Great War would still be less like a joke than Battlefield 1 . Well, I spoke out. Great game, disgusting name, let's go further ...

The problem with this trend is that the only way to rectify the situation for all the above games is to give the next game the correct number. For example, "Battlefield 16" , which they will never go to, especially immediately after 1 (in their case).

A more preferable solution - if you already started, continue to always use subheadings, but in this case the sales will collapse, because less stubborn fans can skip the game with the name without even realizing it.

No matter how ridiculous it may be, the main problem for the search is something else. In fact, a Wikipedia search will quickly show you that you forgot about the existence of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhoodif you really want to figure it out. I mentioned the advantages of dishonesty, so this part was at the very beginning of the section.

But there is a bigger problem.

The names of the "reboots" match the original


The culprits here are Doom, Star Wars: Battlefront, Battlezone, and the game that caused this article - Prey .

At E3 2016, we saw a teaser for a new game called Prey . Then I thought: “people are in some strange delight from her. What do they know that which I do not know? It seems to me the name is familiar. Was there a game with a similar name just a few years ago? ”

Ten years ago. Only ten years have passed without sequels, and they release a game with exactly the same name. How should fans discuss it? " Prey is terrible, I like Prey much more ." This is some kind of mockery! Even if there is an important plot reason (for example, parallel universes or something like that) givingIf there is a good justification for choosing the same name (so that there is at least some kind of argument, for example, the benefits are significant ), all the same, developers need to take care of marketing and the ability to search the Internet. Beginners will not be so supportive of your approach of "we kept the name because of the character."

Maybe someone more knowledgeable will be able to talk about the good reasons for such confusion (for example, there are already a constant number of search queries on this topic, and it’s cheaper to rely on the existence of the old game), but even if there is such a reason, it all looks ridiculously short-sighted and cynical.

And we smoothly move on to Star Wars: Battlefront , which is actually Battlefront 3. The fact that it was developed by another studio does not cancel the fact of my purchase and passing of two previous Battlefront games , one of which was called Star Wars: Battlefront . When the "reboot" was announced, I tried to google the name of the original game to find out the year of its release, and it seemed to me fresh enough to try to hide it, as you can do with a 50-year-old movie.

2004 year! * cry * "She was only 12 years old, she had all her life ahead." Sounds, of course, ridiculous, but here you need to make a remark. It is assumed that any game with a distinct name can be found on the Internet for several decades. At a time when the preservation of digital art is becoming an increasingly important topic, the deliberate concealment of the existence of any released game looks irresponsible and cruel.

By the way, to find the release date, I had to look for Battlefront 2 and start already with it. If I did not know about the existence of the sequel, let's say I would be 10 years old, and not 29, these two older games would not exist for me if someone had not told me about them.

Now consider another case: the Battlezone game forThe Playstation VR is a “reboot” of the original 1980 Battlezone for Atari, not 1998 Battlezone or its re-release of Battlezone 1998 Redux in 2016 , and not a continuation of 1999 Battlezone II: Combat Commander . See how things get complicated? And from a historical point of view, these games were very interesting! Often underestimated, but introducing newness during their release. These are examples of games worth keeping and exploring in the future. Why can't the new version just be called Battlezone VR ? This is beyond my understanding.

You probably already understood my point. Doom (2016) should be called Doom 4 or evenDoom 2016 , but it wasn’t called that. Sorry, but Doom is the name of an existing game that still has thousands of players. I’m sure that in five years more people will play the classic Doom than the new Doom , no matter how good it is. You can’t crush old games and pretend that they weren’t. And this is pretty ironic, because the 2016 version looks like a declaration of love for the original. I am very sorry that the authors simply “copied” the name. Imitation is the best form of flattery, but you can’t go as far as getting into your idol’s skin.

In conclusion: what did I miss?


The tendency to assign old names to new games is definitely increasing, even if only 10 years have passed between games, and I only see this only negative consequences. Is dropping numbers just a fashion?

It seems to me disgusting. It looks as if we are so inconsistent that we forget about the originals, or will value new versions more simply because their name does not contain the numbers 4 or 5. You may argue that new players are more likely to buy the game if they do not regret the missed ones five parts, but to hide the past game only for this reason is very cynical! It seems that this theory was simply invented by marketers receiving too much salary, and then they themselves convinced themselves of its correctness, and it was not taken from sales data. In the end, I bought Assassin's Creed IV ,Civilization V , Skyrim , The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 , without playing in the previous parts. And I know many who have done the same.

The largest companies with huge marketing departments are engaged in juggling numbers. This should be some kind of logic. It does not seem that someone spontaneously convinced them of this. I am sure that there is a logical explanation for all this, but I can not find it.

Whatever the logic or lack thereof, it interferes with the preservation and ability to search for games. They can answer me: “Well, okay, old games are not selling well. I need to get a monthly bonus. I don’t care about the story. ” What can I say in response?

New player buysGears of War 4 . He likes the game. He wants to play all of the previous games in the Gears series . It is logical that these are 1, 2 and 3. You have received three more additional sales (albeit at a lower price). Fine. What about Judgment ? They won’t buy it, right? Why? Because it was not clear that it exists, but this is the latest and most expensive of previous games. And you were not able to sell it.

So what will be the conclusion? I'm afraid I can only recommend being honest with numbers or not using them at all. And never use the old names. See, if you use a name similar to someone else, they will sue you. A few years ago, Bethesda initiated a lawsuit against Mojang when it announced the release of Scrolls.because the name was too much like The Elder Scrolls . But you allow yourself this, simply because it is your property? From the point of view of the law, this is normal, but what about buyers?

I will quote the trademark paragraph from the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office .

What is trademark infringement?
Infringement of rights to a trademark is an unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark for goods and (or) services, or in connection with them, in such a way that it can cause confusion, deception or misconception about the source of goods and (or) services.


“Unauthorized” does not apply to our case, but the rest is worth considering.

Also popular now: