Select posts from A Gamer’s Mind will now be featured on the Xanga-run blog Hardest Level. What I’m saying by this is that editors from Hardest Level will scan this blog, maybe select 2-3 posts a week, and syndicate them on the front page with a link back here.  This in turn provides for more exposure for the blog in general, beyond the occasional pingback/trackback that we might get.  That, and the posts are being syndicated on a community that gets quite a bit of traffic.

This in turn means you might see me get a bit more creative and try to keep the blog to its goal of portraying the gaming culture.  I have a lot of spare time on my hands these days, so it’s time to hop to it!

Because of that, I’ve gone and made the blog its own separate Twitter account, so if you want the latest updates as they happen on the blog, be sure to follow gamersmindblog.

Unfortunately, too many of those names are based off of well-known fads. These names are usually taken by people that have no sense of netiquette and in some cases only want to cause problems.  Of course, not all are like this and they don’t influence my list in any way, but after seeing so many names of the same, it starts to get really annoying.

This is a list that has been done by people before.  Some of mine might be similar to those lists with a difference: This is my list.  The following ten IGN fads are all things that I think need to be put to rest ASAP.

10. Names that start with numbers
This is one that I can probably safely say that we all, including myself, are guilty of.  Everyone knows the feeling; You’re signing up for a game or website and have thought about the absolute coolest name ever, so you fill everything in and what happens when you click the register button?

There was an error in your registration: That username is already taken.

Not wanting to think of another one, we put a number, sometimes a long one, in front of it just so we can have it.  Most big-name websites such as Yahoo! commonly used the same username suffixed with a number as a suggestion to an alternate nickname as well.  Nowadays, though, having a number in front of or behind your IGN shows unoriginality, and has been around for so long that we can only hope that it’s put to rest.

9. Names of celebrities
Sometimes coupled with #10, I can’t think of anything more unoriginal than seeing a character stroll buy with the name “BradPitt” or “Lindsay_Lohan”.  No celebrity is safe these days. I can almost guarantee you’d find a few “Bono”s and a whole game world full of “BarackObama”s.

I don’t see the point. What are you trying to imply?  That you’re Brad Pitt? (In some games is grounds for an impersonation ban right there) That you’re a fan of Soulja Boy? (No comment.)  That you want to be like the US’ newest president? (Though I don’t think I’d blame you. He’s pretty cool.) When I look at it this way, maybe they should’ve programmed another sort of unacceptable type of name into their games and/or websites much like #10′s:

There was an error with your registration: That name is already taken in the real world.

8. “Area Code Pride” names
In today’s age, it’s no doubt that you’re going to see some quite… geeky names, but this takes the cake.  Well… maybe it’s not so geeky because it’s not uncommon to use this three digit number as a way of saying where you’re from… if you’re a rapper. (I come from the six-oh-four, y’all!)  But why oh why does a crap…er…rapper thing have to be pushed over into video games?

For some reason, this seems to be something I see a lot from Hawaii-based gamers.  I most certainly need more than my hands and toes to count the number of names that I’ve seen the number “808″ in.

7. Names that should’ve never been mentioned outside of the user’s own dirty mind.
Chatting dirty in games is, unfortunately, something that’s inevitable no matter how much the developers try to alleviate the problem by banning the super-perverts or censoring just about every sexual term in the book, but whenever I have to see a name based on some dirty slang (sometimes prefixed or suffixed with 69) I wanna hurl.  Now, believe me, I have quite the dirty mind myself, but there are so many of these dumb names that I have to wonder if maybe the ESRB should start taking this sort of thing into account with games that have online capabilities.  I just know that if I had kids, I probably wouldn’t let them play any game online, even E-rated games, simply because I’ll know they’ll run into some sort of inappropriate name such as “69ImSoHorny69″ (This being a mild example of course) somewhere in the game.  Leave your dirty minds inside your head, you perverts.

6. The letter “X”
This could be another example of #10, but it’s annoying to see people decorate their names with funny combinations of X on either side.  Once again, it’s another display of unoriginality by turning a “UberGamer” name which was already taken into something like “xXxUberGamerxXx” as a way to get around it.  Pretty much everything I said about numbers applies here as well.

5. Names of popular Video Game characters
If I thought about this more, I might have ended up switching #5 and #9 up, but it doesn’t really matter to me.  I will admit that this one doesn’t really bother me as much as one that I have listed later on, if not because of the number of names this applies to, but the fact that I’m a gamer more than I am a… whatever is coming up after this.  The fact that I’m always seeing names like “Sephiroth9032877″ or “Sora3897234″ is a sign, though.  Square Enix needs to lock these names down so they can’t be used as freely anymore.

4. Pro-substance abuse names
This one isn’t so common but it’s really annoying about how some people can show just how much of a druggie they are just by saying something like “DopeMan420″.  If you have a name like that, you belong in a rehab centre where you’ll be slapped around by being so dependant on that stuff that you’ll never want to get within ten miles of it… or the character you created with that name… ever again.  That’s all I have to say about that.

3. Names that use “popular” Japanese words
Stringing Japanese words with English words has always pissed me off. It pisses me off more when I see people running around with names like “8KawaiiDesuNe8″ (Which means “Cute, is it?”) and might not even know what it means. (In most cases though I’m sure they know.)  Anything that uses the words “Kawaii”, “Baka”, “Desu”, “Tenshi”, etc… (“Cute”, “Dummy”, “Is”, and “Angel” respectively) needs to be de-Otaku’d because, if you really feel the need to do that, you’ve probably been watching too much subbed hentai.

2. Names prefixed with “i”
Apple, please copyright this.  I see way to many names out there like “iRock” or “iShoot” to know what to do with.  I’m about the only one that hasn’t given into the iMadness that started with Apple’s iMac in 2000, then went on to the iPod, the iPhone, and probably one day the iToilet.  There probably hasn’t been one word in the English dictionary now… maybe even some of the Japanese dictionary too (iDesu?) that hasn’t been prefixed with a lowercase “I” at one time of another. Please MAKE IT STOP.

1. Names based off of popular anime characters
I don’t want to offend anyone by this.  I will admit that the average user that abuses this type of name is better now, but five years or so ago when Dragonball Z and Inuyasha were popular, just about anyone with a name coming from those two animes could be summed up as someone who LYKS TO TYP IN ALL KAPS N BROKN INGLESH LIKE DEY N EVR FINISH’D ELMENTRY SKUL.  Of course, the “anime username = supreme idiocy” stereotype for me is no longer there, but in an Internet now filled with Narutards and otakus, the anime character names are reaching overwhelming proportions.  I’m at the point where I can say I think I’d love to go back to the days where everyone had “Cloud” or “Sephiroth” in their username.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Sesshoumaru (had to put something in there so I wasn’t singling out Naruto) and many others come to mind.  Thankfully, there are anime characters whose names I never would want to see online that are fortunately not popular enough to be “usernameworshipped” which for me means I can keep my sanity. Don’t ask.

And now, for some user interaction. (If there even will be any.)  You’ve seen my ten wishes for usernames that don’t exist.  Do you have a certain type of username or IGN fad that you wish you’d like to see fall off the face of the Internet? Feel free to leave a comment below.

I usually have things to talk about when it comes to video games, as it’s one of my main hobbies (along with music and sports) and something that I’ve lived with for most of my life.

My goal is to be updating almost regularly, not necessarily on a daily basis but whenever something comes to mind, and that will (hopefully) start within the next week or so.  Until then, happy gaming.