How to give names to sequels

Enough! Enough! Pot, do not boil!

Let me introduce my opening speech as a script.
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Scenario

[Studio news transfer. The young presenter sits at a table littered with Nintendo Amiibo and attack toys from (new) Star Wars , smiles and speaks enthusiastically, looking at the camera]

Host : “... and other news: Battlefield 1 is released this week, the first game of the new Battlefield franchise. 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 ... "

[The presenter interrupts and puts his finger to his ear]

Lead: “... wait a second. Sorry, my producer clarifies the information. "

[Illegible mutter]

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

[The presenter throws a nervous glance at the camera, turns away, presses his hand to his ear and begins to speak quietly with the producer behind the scenes.]

Host: “Is this a joke? Seriously enough. You just decided to make fun of a newbie, or ... you are just kidding ... means that Battlefield Hardline was from the same middle ... and Battlefield 4 was actually Battlefield 13? Oh my god ... Now you probably will say that Assassin's Creed 4 was ... the sixth? .. "

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

Presenter (now in a loud whisper): “... JUST BECAUSE THAT IS A CASE HAPPENS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR? DULLER THIS HASN'T HEARD ANYTHING! ”

“Okay, fine. Come on. I understood".

[The presenter lowers his hand, slowly turns to the camera and pulls a “television smile” on his face]

Moderator: “Hm ... forgive me. Battlefield 1 came out this week and was warmly received by critics. Observers have called it "the best Battlefield " since ... "

[For a split second, the lead is lost and barely continues]

Host: “... Bad Company 2 ”.

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

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

Host: “... not new? .. 1993? .. But probably in 20 years everyone has already forgotten a single game with fig graphics ... FOURTH DOOM?! .. Why didn't they just call it then ...? .. who are“ Two John "? .." Quake "? No, Quake is coming out next year, I know for sure! .. no ... no ... well, forget ... "

[The presenter stands, trying to get out of the frame and taking off the microphone. The microphone rubs against clothing, making harsh sounds]

Lead (he is heard worse): “... No, I'm leaving! Forget it! This is some kind of ridiculous! Until this industry matures, how can you take it seriously? ”

[Freed from the microphone, the presenter finally leaves the frame and moves to the exit. You can hear him worse]

Host: I’ll try to go back to my internship at Fox . At least in the name of Fant4stic is the correct number.

[Heard someone answering him]

Moderator: "Only the third part ?!"

[Gradually dying down loud curses breaking from the door slam]

[End of scene]

Article

Terrific funny, right?

There is a sense of humor in what the names of games have turned into 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 just twenty years later. Most people do not think about tomorrow's problems (this is how we came to the world we are in now), so I will focus on humor. But still, try to imagine what it will all look like for people from the future. Will they consider our time to be the golden era of game creation, or will it be perceived as the time of insatiable consumers who do not even seem to understand what they are playing and do not want to figure it out? And is it really all so stupid and unintelligible, as it probably seems to big 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 names of these games, but the successful series create more problems because there are a lot of games in them.

I hope from my “script” you understand the problem that I want to emphasize. I could say “nobody controls the principles of inventing names”, but in fact, it seems that no principles exist. No one in the gaming industry goes further than the reasoning “the marketing department believes that this week’s target audience likes this figure.”

And how is the movie?

The gaming and 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 to be learned.

In the film industry, a more mature approach to titles is definitely used in cases of “long-playing” franchises and “reboots” of old films. Of course, the problem (if you really consider it a problem) of constantly occurring "reboots" in both entertainment industries first appeared in cinema. But, to his credit, he addresses this problem much more accurately. With the exception of Robokop (2014), most of the “reboots” are used to clarify a changed title or subtitle ( Batman Begins, The Amazing Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk - yes, it seems that “reboots” occur mainly in superhero films and action movies).



When naming films sequels, the creators avoid this problem and now rarely add numbers at the end. Instead, they prefer subheadings. As a good example, you can take Marvel : mutually intertwined movie scenes can be quite complicated, and sometimes it is even difficult to say who the main character is in them. For example, "First Avenger: Opposition" 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 make more sense or more holistic (in Jaws , numbers were used first, then numbers or names, then subtitles: Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D, Jaws: The Revenge) . But I contend that, with the notable exception of Robocop (and possibly some other films that I cannot remember), franchises are rarely so confused that it is impossible to understand which particular film is being discussed. And I cannot recall examples of when “Title-film 3” is not really 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 "reset" or sequels. For games, it's completely different.

Note: REMARKS of films often carry the same name as the originals, but usually they are alterations of the classic 40-50-year-old paintings (“The Train to Hume”, “101 Dalmatians”, “Alice in Wonderland”). RELOADES usually follow several sequels, but start 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 called “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 how are the games?

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

Spreading numbers

I have never seen such things done in films, but the game series seem to be so ashamed of their age that they constantly juggle 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), to separate different storylines ( Command & Conquer series : “Tiberium” and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1-3 ), or to note the issues on different devices. But still, this practice is very confusing.

Movies that have discarded digital endings usually retain this trend. After six “digital” “Police academies”, the seventh was simply subtitled “Mission in Moscow” . The "Superman" was not continued with the numbers after the fourth part, despite the sequel released later and even later "reset"

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City became the fourth GTA , and even before GTA IV (which was TWO games later) I called Vice City "GTA 4" for short. 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, you know how I am opposed to the name Battlefield 1 . Today I will not include it in the system.

My satirical "script" has already touched Battlefield , possibly the most flagrant violator of the rules. After three games after the start of the series, you can start getting confused: Battlefield 1942 , then Battlefield Vietnam , and finally the mess started with the third game Battlefield 2 . Since then, the numbers did not make sense, and it was noticeable (for me, in any case) by the fact that no one even led the ear when the new game was called Battlefield 1 . It is very ridiculous to call the new game "1" (as far as I know, this happened for the first time in the world). Worst of all, realize that in this game, the developers returned to the roots, moving away from the modern or fantastic entourage, and therefore had the opportunity to return the original name system ( Battlefield 1942 ) and call this game, for example, " Battlefield 1916" (or choose any year 1914-1918; I chose 1916, because the last trailer focuses on this year, besides the year of release 2016 is a good round date). I don't care what the others say, marketers have definitely missed here. I have a degree in marketing, so I can say this with at least some credibility:



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. Great game, disgusting name, let's go further ...

The problem with this trend is that the only way to remedy 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 way out - if you’ve already begun, continue to always use subtitles, but in this case sales will collapse, because less obstinate fans can skip the game with the title, without even realizing it.

No matter how ridiculous this may be, the main problem for the search lies elsewhere. In fact, a Wikipedia search will quickly show you that you have forgotten about the existence of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood , if 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 problem and bigger.

The names of the "reboots" coincide with the original

Guilty here can be called Doom, Star Wars: Battlefront, Battlezone, and the game that caused this article is Prey .

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

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

Maybe someone more knowledgeable will be able to tell about the good reasons for such entanglement (for example, there are already a constant number of search queries on this topic, and it is 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 go to Star Wars: Battlefront , which is actually Battlefront 3 . The fact that it was developed by another studio does not negate the fact of the purchase and passage 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 fresh enough to me to try to hide it, as can be done with a 50-year-old film.

2004! * scream * "She was only 12 years old, she had a whole life ahead of her." It sounds ridiculous, of course, but here it is necessary 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 game released 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, 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 for the Playstation VR is the “reset” of the original 1980 Battlezone for Atari, not the 1998 Battlezone or its re-release in 2016, “Battlezone 1998 Redux” , and not the sequel to Battlezone II: Combat Commander 1999 See how complicated it is? And from a historical point of view, these games were very interesting! Often undervalued, but novelty during its release. These are examples of games worth saving 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 of view. Doom (2016) should be called Doom 4 or even “Doom 2016” , but it was not called that way. Sorry, but Doom is the name of an already existing game that still has thousands of players. I am sure that in five years more people will play classic Doom than new Doom , no matter how good it is. You can not crush the old games and pretend that they were not. And this is quite ironic, because the version of 2016 looks like a declaration of love for the original. I am very sorry that the authors simply “copied” the title. Imitation is the best form of flattery, but it is impossible to reach the point of intermingling the idol’s skin.

In conclusion: what did I miss?

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

I think it's disgusting. It looks as if we are so inconstant that we forget about the originals, or more we will appreciate the new versions simply because there is no 4 or 5 in their name. You can argue that new players will buy the game more willingly if they don’t regret the missed ones. five parts, but to hide the past of the game just for this reason is very cynical! It seems that this theory was simply invented by marketers who received too much salary, and then they themselves convinced themselves of its correctness, and it was not taken from the sales data. In the end, I bought Assassin's Creed IV , Civilization V , Skyrim , The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 without playing the previous installments. And I know many who did the same thing.

The largest companies with huge marketing departments are engaged in juggling with figures. There must be some logic in this. 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 cannot find it.

Whatever the logic or lack thereof, it prevents the preservation and the 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 buys Gears of War 4 . He likes the game. He wants to play all the previous Gears games. It is logical that this is 1, 2 and 3. You have received three 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 the previous games. And you could not sell it.

So what's the conclusion? I'm afraid I can only advise to be honest with the numbers or not to use them at all. And never use 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 to do 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 a trademark paragraph from the United States Patent and Trademark Office .

What is a “trademark violation”?
Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on goods and (or) services, or in connection with them, in such a way that it may 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.