The Funny NPC Names

The Funny NPC Names

Ron Fair is a very passionate writer and scholar whose strong and sometimes unconventional opinions have stirred controversy — though his arguments and logic are often stronger than one might suspect. He is very active on MMOsite as an Associate Writer for the blogs (LordYanLiang) and moderator on the forums.

So, you’re playing your favorite MMO or large-scale game and you run into NPCs with strange names that may or may not strike you as being weird, or perhaps out of place. Or, for example, you run into a seemingly incidental name that keeps on coming up over and over again. Have you ever wondered what the deal was with those names, or where they came from? Video games are full of strange little homages and inside references that most people don’t think of, but some are more obscure than others. For example, the recurring characters Biggs and Wedge, a staple of Final Fantasy lore since the beginning, are named after Rebel pilots from Star Wars: A New Hope. Sure, those names aren’t the silliest in the list, but more and more strange names have been appearing in video games, and the themes may surprise you.


Take, for instance, Diablo II and Torchlight. The mercenaries in Diablo II have a lot of strange names, names that may not necessarily even sound like they fit in with the rest of the game. There’s a reason for that.

Blizzard went out of its way to pay homage to its staff and itself. Most of
the names of the mercenaries come from the wives and girlfriends of the staff of Blizzard North. Even the female staff members of Blizzard got their shot at glory: a lot of the names of the mercs are either real names or handles of the female staff as well.

But then there are very special NPC names that Blizzard has employed for their games.
There is a collection of Rogue NPCs in Diablo II with the  names Flux, Elly, Gaile, Scorch, Azrael, and Jarulf. What makes these names special? These are the online handles of Blizzard and Diablo fans who run fansites or have made their presence known in a big way on the Blizzard forums. Flux also appears as an NPC in Torchlight, which should come as no surprise because he runs the Torchlight fansite. The Diablo II expansion also contains NPCs named after chief members of the Diablo fan community — which is a very charming homage to the average person. There are rumors that Blizzard has plans to use more online fans to give them a shout-out by having them appear as NPCs in Diablo III. Because of Blizzard North’s love of its fans, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start using an easily recognizable nickname/handle, and getting your voice out on the forums.

What other strange NPCs have appeared in video games, and what stories or rumors do you know about them?