Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
The phrase "toon"
locdog420692
Member Posts: 41
First of all..when did this start ? Everyone calling their ingame characters "toons". First of all, a toon is a character in an animated cartoon. Games are not cartoons. A character in a game is simply called a character, not a toon. And last of all, does toon sound very childish to you? It does to me..its something my two year old would call a game character. So this makes me believe that the people that call characters "toons" are two years old. Anyone agree with me?
Comments
Not again. lol
TOON TOPIC
End of topic i guess.
if you dont like the term..dont use it...holy crap stop bringing around all these rants to the forums! if you dont like it then STFU im tired of hearing people complain...play the damn game or dont
I personally call mine toon or character...i only use toon becuase its faster to type that character or avatar..same as U or y for you or why okay! so just shutup and deal with it or stop playing MMOs!
Lifes like a million dollars
You think its alot untill its all gone
A Work in Progress.
Add Me
Do you even play MMOs? I've never seen someone type out "Character" but rather "char" like "my char is lvl 50". I don't know about you, but I read "Char" as "character" just like I read "lvl" as "level"
A Work in Progress.
Add Me
It is a recent thing. Started maybe the past 5 years. It would seem it started from non-gamers doing reviews of computer games. Since they are not into computer games like gamers, but they write for mass media, they "forced" the term to be used, and to gain some popularity.
Character or char was the original term. Starting from Pen and Paper, which transferred to computer RPG games, then to MMORPG. After char, there is AVATAR. This gained popularity from the most popular computer game, and most popular computer RPG game ever in history. Lord British used Avatar in Ultima 0 -9, and also in Ultima Online the mmorpg. Avatar originally is an old word describing a special human or "human" that's really a higher level being in disguise. Kind of like God, or the Gods playing his own mmorpg/their own mmorpg, and we are the avatars/characters. Very intresting, eh? And now we use the term to describe our smaller scale version mmorpg on our computers. LOL!
It is a recent thing. Started maybe the past 5 years. It would seem it started from non-gamers doing reviews of computer games. Since they are not into computer games like gamers, but they write for mass media, they "forced" the term to be used, and to gain some popularity.
Character or char was the original term. Starting from Pen and Paper, which transferred to computer RPG games, then to MMORPG. After char, there is AVATAR. This gained popularity from the most popular computer game, and most popular computer RPG game ever in history. Lord British used Avatar in Ultima 0 -9, and also in Ultima Online the mmorpg. Avatar originally is an old word describing a special human or "human" that's really a higher level being in disguise. Kind of like God, or the Gods playing his own mmorpg/their own mmorpg, and we are the avatars/characters. Very intresting, eh? And now we use the term to describe our smaller scale version mmorpg on our computers. LOL!
Well, I don't know about any other older MMORPGs, but in The Realm, one of the first, just about everyone called their in-game characters toons. I still do for other games from time to time, as it kinda stuck with me. My guess was it originated there, and some of the other old Realm players took it to other games and it eventually stuck.
Toon is a word, not a phrase
But... it was already used in old games like DAoC. I don't know its origin though. It's not new, that is for sure.
It is also the popular word used to describe characters in AO. I started using it there and continue to use it in other games I play. So I will have to go with the other responses already made and say get over it. If that's the best thing you could find to bitch about, try going outside once in awhile. There's a million more things worthy of complaining than what someone calls their character in a game
edit: spelling
When you create a character, as opposed to a toon, it seems to me that you as a player are the vehicle to make it live and grow into its world. It is sort of like imbuing your Gi-Joes with some sort of personality through play. Cobra Commander may be a 3 1/2" tall hunk of articulated polystyrene, but when we play with him, we treat that figure as more than that.
The term "character" is used when the speaker wants to indicate that the avatar is a work of fiction, and that the actions it does are for fictional reasons, not actual ones. When you view avatars as characters, and you say you are a friend to someone in the game, its because your fictional character is a friend to another fictional character. The people are not friends, but the avatars are. When a character does something bad to you, the character does bad things because it is acting on the basis of its motives separate from the actual person, and may not be due to any negative feeling toward you as an actual person.
When you create a "toon," rather than a "character," it seems to me to indicate that its just a means to interface with the game engine, and is undeserving of being imbued with any personality. For all that Cobra Commander represents on his ID card, Cobra Commander is nothing more than an articulated hunk of polystyrene that is just as fun to blow up with bottle rockets as Snake Eyes, or Gung-Ho.
Generally in terms of my experience, the term "toon" is used when the speaker wants to give the impression that the avatars have no meaning, and the game is about people sitting at their computers. When you view avatars as toons, and you say you are a friend to someone in the game, its because you at your computer are a friend to another person at another computer. The avatars aren't friends. The people are. When a toon does something bad to you, the toon does bad things because an actual person hates you as an actual person.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Apparently, you are not alone. The developer "Helios" from Star Wars Galaxies doesn't see the distinction as important either.
It makes no sense for a bunch of toons to be sitting around the camp, waiting for something, and telling stories while they wait. A toon is just a means to interact with the game engine, and a toon that isn't interacting with the game engine has no purpose.
It makes perfect sense for a bunch of characters to be sitting around the camp, waiting for something, and telling stories while they wait. A character has an existance of its own unrelated to how it interfaces with the game engine.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
When I started playing MMO's in AC and AC2, the avatar was always called a toon. I never even used the word "Char" until I started playing WoW. That's because many of the players in the game had no never heard an avatar called a "toon".