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For some reason, whether the Koreans did it first or some other reason that I can't quite quantify, I find it extremely aggravating to see everybody outside of Korea refer to professional gamers by their nicknames. I see no true reason to do this, other than getting past punctuation issues, since most of the Hangul of people's names has been Romanized to TLPD or various other places.
I mean, think about it, if for some reason you became a professional starcraft gamer, would you rather be known as your actual name or your weird moniker (which is liable to be changed, as well). I personally, would pick my actual name. I don't know why TL and various other entities outside of Korea continually refer to player's by their nicknames, which is capable of causing confusion when a certain player switches their nickname (take the transition to Savior back when he played under IPXZerg) and some people are still hung up on the older nickname.
Of course, pronunciation might be an issue; however, most people do not refer to progamers' names in everyday conversation, revealing that they would only have to type the name of the progamer, which I believe is much easier to do. Lee Young Ho, that is Flash. I believe that typing Lee Young Ho is not that hard of a task, and that his actual name is much more representative of him than "Flash" a name that he probably made up with a very limited English vocabulary.
Of course, there are times when real names clash, take the Park Sung Jun vs. Park Sung Jun battle back in So1 Starleague Group A; however, the commentators found a way to differentiate the two. I don't think it would be that hard for TL to do the same.
Just something that mildly gets under my skin and I doubt that the vast majority of people will agree with me. Which is fine, I just want to say that using someone's real name looks so much more professional than some silly moniker which is much more subject to change.
 
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I think it just generally comes down to ease of memorization/say. Most of us don't speak Korean, and nicknames are an easy English alternative. Plus it's pretty much an 'online' thing, and that's just how it goes. Imagine if everyone on TL used their real names, haha.
But yeah, all in all I prettymuch agree with you, it'd be much nicer if there was a simple way to transition into using real names above nicknames. I will say that nicknames are more provacative though... For example, if I'm talking with someone about Starcraft who isn't entirely 'into' it as we are, they will respond much better to names like 'Flash' and 'Bisu' as opposed to 'Lee Young Ho' and 'Kim Taek Yong'. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it makes the scene much less intimidating for people outside of Korea to relate to. Which... I think we can all agree is a good thing for Starcraft in general.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
ironic that you bring up Lee Young Ho as the example, considering that's Lucifer as well.
Idk, part of my agrees, but the avg newbie is going to have suchhhhhhhhhhhhh a hard time with this. It took me like 18 months to finally start recognizing progamer names, though that's obv a function of our sparse use of it as well...
Hrm =\.
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I actually see it the oposite way. I hate it when people refer to korean sc players by their names rather than their I.D.'s. Professionals or not its still a game. Besides all those korean names look the same to me I could never get them all straight
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It's probably because non-Koreans find it easier to remember their ID names than their Korean names, which is understandable because the large majority of the programer IDs are English words.
edit: The post above me is an example: the typical white North American who thinks all Korean names look and sound the same.
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I'm not going to argue with anything anybody has said, because it is very true.
Another thing I wonder about is the time when e-sports occurs outside of Korea. Will we consider calling people by their nicknames? I remember watching some professional WoW thing (it sucked horribly, don't worry  ) where they referred to people with easily pronounceable names by their online monikers. I found it horrifically unprofessional, but that might just be my perspective, and someone like Pengu1n would disagree with that (and if you don't, than sorry  ).
And haji, I brought up the same name thing in the blog, but yeah, it can still get confusing for most people.
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Starcraft in Korea is driven by the player's personality, so it makes sense that it's the players, not their play that identifies them. The foreign scene is a lot more impersonal and based on online interaction. It's more natural for us to use usernames by virtue of how our community works.
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i would pick my ID not my real name
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I always thought that Koreans call them by their names just because it's their game and their players. However, reading what hasuprotoss said about the WoW thing made me realize that all the MLG pros here still get called dumbass shit like ogre, neighbor, and pistola. lmao
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I'd prefer "Savio" for sure.
But hey, some of my friends irl and my brother in law DO call me Savio instead of my real name.
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On February 06 2009 06:12 Pengu1n wrote:
I actually see it the oposite way. I hate it when people refer to korean sc players by their names rather than their I.D.'s. Professionals or not its still a game. Besides all those korean names look the same to me I could never get them all straight
This.
I consider their a gaming alias to be part of your name. I have online friends who i've known for years who i still think of as their sceennames.
If I met one of them in real life, i'd probably still call him dragonfly instead of edward
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Outside of Korea, 99% of esports refer to players by their IDs. I see no reason why people should change what they normally do just because of Korea.
Personally, I'd rather a non-Korean not butcher a player's name and just use their ID. It will save me the aggravation from hearing a bad accent.
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I thought about this too but yeah its just easier for everyone else. And it's no different on teamliquid, we call each other by our alias. It's the internet
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You have to realize that it is a computer game played over the internet. No one on the internet goes by their real name. In fact I don't even know your real name.
Even on bnet it is 50/50 whether I'll refer to my friends by their real names or by their handles, or even abbreviations of their handles.
In a way its kind of like pro-wrestling. Just as much for entertainment as sports. Perhaps if they weren't surrounded by lasers, smoke, and lights when they played, and sat in a small well-lit room like they do in chess, then people would refer to them by their names.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
this is done for western gamers too. so you are offended by a cultural practice, not a discriminatory activity. in all seriousness though, it is hard to remember korean names with no experience. i dont even believe the romanizations are all that good.
and ipxzerg is such a good name wtf
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51506 Posts
we need UDPToss or ModemTerran
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EPT
