Ponderables #5

January 16th, 2005

Filed under: General

When playing a world-building game such as Civilization (or Civilization II or III and so on), do you keep the default names for cities, or do you use your own? If you use your own, which names do you use and why?

Being the fanboy I am, when I’m playing Civlization, I name my cities after planets in the Legion of Super-Heroes. Seriously. I usually make Rimbor my capital and go from there. There’s something reassuring about seeing Bgztl, Bismol, Winath and Trom taking over the world.

4 Responses to “ Ponderables #5 ”

  1. Mag
    January 16th, 2005 at 6:33 pm

    I usually name the first few cities after places where I lived or that otherwise have some meaning to me. I also rename the generals or leaders, too: Mag, son of Mag, etc. If I’m feeling especially benevolent, I might name one after some other family member.

    Next time I play, I just may name the cities after various blog-spots.

  2. N
    January 17th, 2005 at 8:09 am

    I have always changed the city names. Nothing says “weak Empire with no central authority” like a mass of cities with old names from various cultures. I use all kinds of things — authors, Greek gods, even jeuvenile puns, depending on my mood.

  3. The Eyeball Kid
    January 17th, 2005 at 9:39 am

    I don’t play a lot of empire-building games, but I do have a tendancy to try and come up with comic-book related names for my characters in CRPGs. But I try and make it fun by comic up with theme-appropriate names based on secret identities, and of course the name has to fit the class of the character. Some are easy, like ‘Olifyr’ the archer. Some are a bit of a stretch, like ‘Elsnart the Cold’, a sorceror with a talent for icey spells, or ‘William Bats-son’, a goody-two-shoes paladin. Or ‘Garlog’, the bestial shape-changing druid. ‘Raymond the Palmer’ was a dwarven cleric. And the Enchantress? Simply ‘Zee’. (This was the makeup of my party in Icewind Dale II, incidentally, a very fun game.)

  4. JYD
    November 22nd, 2006 at 10:35 am

    I most often tend to rename the cities with numbers – allowing me, at a glance, to find out where my oldest (and threfore usually best established) cities are, gives me a good impression of how my empire has developed.

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