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The Great Renaming, poll #2 [POLL CLOSED, GAME RENAMED]

Which name do you prefer?

  • Pilgrims of the Void

    Votes: 57 26.9%
  • Colony Ship - a Post-Earth role-playing game

    Votes: 94 44.3%
  • Across the Void

    Votes: 16 7.5%
  • No Home But the Stars

    Votes: 16 7.5%
  • Born Beneath No Sun

    Votes: 29 13.7%

  • Total voters
    212

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
All these names sound like art projects. "Steel Eden" or "Proxima Bound" sound better than any of the other suggestions.

Those sound generic as fuck. Colony Ship sounds sooooo generic it does a 360 and comes back around.
More generic than any of the names that have been suggested on this thread? No fucking way.. Colony Ship inspires no sense of interest or grandeur. Both Steel Eden and Proxima Bound say more about the game and do so in a way that's unique when compared to "Colony ship" which sounds like its already been a game.
 

HeatEXTEND

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Funny, to me Steel Eden and Proxima bound sound exactly like they are already games. I would not be surprised in the least if they are, shovelware at that.

"COLONY SHIP"
"prestigeous subtitle"

ohgoditsheavan
 

Cynicus

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Seems Colony Ship is the overwhelming favorite so far, but it sounds rather humdrum to me. Reordering it could spice it up a little...something like After Earth: A Colony Ship Role-Playing Game.
After_Earth_Poster.jpg


Gaaaaah! Colony Ship, yeah, go with that.
 

Momock

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"Name of the ship : A Colony Ship Role-Playing Game" is the best title so far.
 

Latelistener

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Anyway, Colony Ship is the undisputed winner on the Codex so far. Any specific objections to this particular title?
Moving Colony Ship to the second part of the title instead of Post-Earth seems to be a nice idea.

Whatever: A Colony Ship RPG
Starfarer: A Colony Ship RPG
Pilgrims of Earth: A Colony Ship RPG

Honestly, I think anything will work in the first part, since the second explains it all.
 

Lady_Error

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"Name of the ship : A Colony Ship Role-Playing Game" is the best title so far.

This. Just find a nice name for the ship and go with it. I think a star name would work better because of its relation to space as opposed to something from mythology.

Antares
Arkturus (even has 'Ark' in it)
Orion
 

mediocrepoet

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Colony Ship is the worst title on that entire poll by far. It's boring and brings to mind some sort of shitty sim like how Master of Orion 3 was basically an Excel simulator and might've been more aptly named Spreadsheet Hero.
I don't understand why anyone would vote for it unless they like to buy a lot of generic products like yellow brand apple drink and such.

I agree with others that using "A Colony Ship RPG" or "A Post-Earth Roleplaying Game" can work with any other title that is more evocative and doesn't immediately make your eyes dry up with boredom.

The big difference for me is that some titles might not be my favourite, but Colony Ship is the only one I actively hate.
 

Vault Dweller

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Colony Ship is the worst title on that entire poll by far. It's boring and brings to mind some sort of shitty sim like how Master of Orion 3 was basically an Excel simulator and might've been more aptly named Spreadsheet Hero.
I don't understand why anyone would vote for it unless they like to buy a lot of generic products like yellow brand apple drink and such.

I agree with others that using "A Colony Ship RPG" or "A Post-Earth Roleplaying Game" can work with any other title that is more evocative and doesn't immediately make your eyes dry up with boredom.

The big difference for me is that some titles might not be my favourite, but Colony Ship is the only one I actively hate.
How is it different from Alien or Platoon, for example?
 

mediocrepoet

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How is it different from Alien or Platoon, for example?

This is a good question since those are both generic names now associated with memorable IPs and I suppose there are other examples such as Predator.

To me, a word like Alien, by itself has a set of connotations that are evocative. Alien is unknown, alien, and potentially scary. A predator is a hunter and killer. It preys upon weaker things.

These titles have built in meaning that stir something in a person on a conscious or subconscious level.

Colony ship is more like Truck Simulator. It's descriptive of what's in there, but there's no exciting meaning associated with it. It's dull.
 

agris

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Vault Dweller because he/we have the hindsight of those being seminal productions. On paper, the exact same criticism can be leveled against them - which of course is ridiculous. They are iconic names.
 

Vault Dweller

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How is it different from Alien or Platoon, for example?

This is a good question since those are both generic names now associated with memorable IPs and I suppose there are other examples such as Predator.

To me, a word like Alien, by itself has a set of connotations that are evocative. Alien is unknown, alien, and potentially scary. A predator is a hunter and killer. It preys upon weaker things.
What about Platoon or Cabaret then? Mind you, I'm not pushing for Colony Ship. On the surface it's generic, dull, and boring, seemingly the worst possible name, until you remember that books and movies with similar names have done pretty well and even managed to turned these dull, generic names into iconic brands .
 

mediocrepoet

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What about Platoon or Cabaret then? Mind you, I'm not pushing for Colony Ship. On the surface it's generic, dull, and boring, seemingly the worst possible name, until you remember that books and movies with similar names have done pretty good and even managed to turned these dull, generic names into iconic brands .

I see your point, I won't touch on those because I haven't seen Platoon in about 30 years and I have never seen Cabaret. The broad point about famous productions with generic names though, I would ask you, do you think they succeeded because of the overall quality of work or because of the simple name? I would suggest that they took off despite the name rather than because of it, though I'm not going to do any research to back this position.
 

Vault Dweller

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My point is that generic titles didn't prevent them from achieving popularity and iconic status, and didn't slow them down in any way. In fact, these names worked better than some artsy names would have.
 

mediocrepoet

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My point is that generic titles didn't prevent them from achieving popularity and iconic status, and didn't slow them down in any way. In fact, these names worked better than some artsy names would have.

I think that's harder to say without considering the broader context of the overall marketing push at the time, audience box, etc. Like were they opening week hits or did they grow as word of mouth spread? Was there a lot of other hype prior to the open that would have also contributed to the opening week results? I'd be highly surprised to find that as an unknown entity (more where you're coming from), that a generic name attracted wide audiences day one. But, I know that marketing is your background and that you were quite good at it, so I'll leave that to you.
 
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Kalin

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Not sure if anyone suggested it yet, so throwing it out there:

"The Rapture"

Works great on its own or as part of something more lengthy.
 

boot

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Platoon evokes military theme/feeling, Cabaret is exotic sounding

My point is that generic titles didn't prevent them from achieving popularity and iconic status, and didn't slow them down in any way. In fact, these names worked better than some artsy names would have.

prove it

Why don't you name your game space ship rpg if a name is so unimportant?
 

Vault Dweller

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My point is that generic titles didn't prevent them from achieving popularity and iconic status, and didn't slow them down in any way. In fact, these names worked better than some artsy names would have.

I think that's harder to say without considering the broader context of the overall marketing push at the time, audience box, etc. Like were they opening week hits or did they grow as word of mouth spread? Was there a lot of other hype prior to the open that would have also contributed to the opening week results? I'd be highly surprised to find that as an unknown entity (more where you're coming from), that a generic name attracted wide audiences day one. But, I know that marketing is your background and that you were quite good at it, so I'll leave that to you.
My background is in ad sales & marketing so I know about movie/games marketing as much as anyone else here. I believe that word of mouth is always the key factor. If your audience loves what you have, they'll accept any title and associate it with their enjoyment. Star Wars is also a very crappy title and when the first movie was released both the movie and the director were unknown entities but now it's a mega brand. Again, this isn't about building brands but about evaluating a generic title and whether or not it can affect the game negatively.
 

mediocrepoet

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My background is in ad sales & marketing so I know about movie/games marketing as much as anyone else here. I believe that word of mouth is always the key factor. If your audience loves what you have, they'll accept any title and associate it with their enjoyment. Star Wars is also a very crappy title and when the first movie was released both the movie and the director were unknown entities but now it's a mega brand. Again, this isn't about building brands but about evaluating a generic title and whether or not it can affect the game negatively.

The point I'm trying to get at is, yes, there are a number of examples of IPs that really took off due to word of mouth and hype. They often had ground-breaking special effects (Star Wars, Alien) that people talked about and that got them excited. In other cases, they may have had star power (Predator) or famous directors (Alien, Platoon) that attracted people. I do not believe you have any of those going for you, though I'm sure it will attract a niche like your past games.

What I can say is that if I didn't know who you are, or what AoD was like and I came across someone talking about "Colony Ship", I would not buy it. I doubt I'd even check out the store page. My time is valuable, I have better things to do than fuck around with cardboard box, the game.
 

mediocrepoet

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Thanks for the feedback. How do you feel about Born Beneath No Sun?

I think it sounds cool. It may benefit from a subtitle since this could reference more than one type of setting such as subterranean, etc. but it's at least engaging enough to try and find out about.
I think this is a difficult process and most of the names people have suggested or that have been in the polls have different things going for them or against them. Colony ship is one of the only the ones I've seen in these threads that I think is terrible.
 

Mnemon

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Get a name that makes it easier to navigate through whatever is being said about the game.
Colony Ship is so used in many medias which only makes it harder for anyone who wants to look for a gameplay footage, trailers, something other than steam reviews.
I would really go with somewhat crappy and distinguishabe over an overused term. Vtmb's name at first glance kinda put me away but it was so easy to find content about it which made it easier to get into

I'll echo that. From working with publishers (literature) and film companies and knowing of their experiences - you really want to avoid a title that is hard to search for - it'll simply vanish in the search engine index initially and you'll have to fight the algorithms to change that.[1] Just as you want to avoid a title that is too similar to another game, or even a novel / film. Doesn't matter if there's a company selling toilet paper or working in construction that sounds similar - but the more unique it is in the broad category "entertainment" the better.

[1]Pre-internet that was different. Books / films were advertised differently - and generic titles had a far easier time to be noticed. An ad in a literary magazine very clearly was about a book. Same for a movie poster in a relevant place.
 
Last edited:

Ainamacar

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I voted for "Across the Void", but it's clearly not preferred. Colony Ship is acceptable to me, even if it is unexciting. However, I'm with those who think putting it (or Generation) in the subtitle sounds like a better idea. I like it better than "Post-Earth RPG", which tells me more about what the game isn't than what it is.

The Remnant: A Colony Ship RPG
Starless: A Colony Ship RPG
Sine Astrum: A Colony Ship RPG (or whatever the correct Latin forms are)
Steel Eclipse: A Colony Ship RPG
Steel Sojourn: A Colony Ship RPG
Steel Tabernacle: A Colony Ship RPG
Venture: A Colony Ship RPG
The New Dominion: A Colony Ship RPG
Firmament: A Colony Ship RPG
 

undecaf

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
Decadence Ship - A Post-Caligula Role-playing Game
 

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