Weak names for guilds.

[bilbous]

To me it all sounds a little like having your cake and eating it too. A hellish sort of predicament. "Redefining what a guild can be" sounds like you are a guild and not denying it. It seems to me that both of your clubs could be done completely without any sort of official support. Both appear to straddle the border of what the settings allow but this thread is about names and not anything else. Dark Empire is fairly trite and commonplace as far as names go even before the whole Star Wars thing, there was not much new there either. The Community of Vaalnor is more original but it is easily mistaken for the Community of Valor  and the whole knights of the round table sort of thing. I do not know much about it so that could just be misleading.

Still they are better than any guild I created (exactly none)

[Sangwa]

The Dark Empire's name is creative, deep and logical. Just not for you humans. Myself and Induane were commenting on the confusing usage of Guilds, that have names that don't sound suitable for guilds. That makes sense for this discussion.

Again, the Dark Empire's name is creative, deep and logical. If you repeat this enough, you'll get it.

[SerqFeht]

I like guild names that give some sort of idea of what they are about. Although I also like poetic, or cool sounding ones, sometimes I find myself asking members what their guild does. Such as the Woiperdingers (No idea how to spell it, sorry). My guild was discussing it, but  we didn't know exactly what it was. I walked past one member, and ended up discussing their guild with them, although she was a new recruit, and didn't know as much as I had hoped. So, 'The Warriors' and 'The Outlaws' might sound simple, but everyone that sees them knows what they are, and if one wants to be a warrior, there's a warrior guild!

I agree with Draklar. And if they kept the website not updated after spotting that, then that's just as wrong as getting a bad example in the first place.

Socius, I'll try with something more picture-like.

Imagine a guild called Mercenaries. Crappy name, right? Now look at this:

• The Mercenaries;
• Nightshade Mercenaries;
• Rock Heart Mercenaries.

Doesn't the first guild look out of it? No specialization, no imagination.

Every claimed guildname is selfish because someone else may like it too

True. But using very general and vague names such as Mercenaries is even more selfish. For instance, there won't be many people desiring to use the name Shinito's Mercenaries. But there will many people wanting to use the name Mercenaries.

I hope I've made myself clearer.

Sorry, Songwa, if you wanted to make a 'Shinito's Mercenaries' guild. But there can be more mercenary guilds, just as there are many warrior guilds (Warrior Organization, for example). 'The Mercenaries' guild itself has simple concepts and goals, being a generic, neutral  band of mercenaries, so another guild with more specific ideas on the basic concept can do whatever it wants. About the 'Nightshade Mercenaries'? I don't remember much about them, but it sounds like a mercenary group that works more for evil. No one will hate you for creating a guild with original goals. Good luck, if anyone out there wants to improve an existing concept.

[bilbous]

the Dark Empire's name is creative, deep and logical X 197,000. It still is not very original.

Results 1 - 10 of about 197,000 for "dark empire".

Amaurotic Toparchy would have been original and have a similar meaning. I'm just saying you could have tried a little harder to come up with something new rather than to justify such a hoary name. By the way that name I offered was created by looking at moby thesaurus for dark and empire. Neither of the words were in my funk and wagnalls dictionary but the first was an adjective formed normally from a noun that was and the second was made from a combining form prefix and a combining form suffix.

All the same if you like it not much else matters I suppose.

[Sangwa]

You're very right, the name Dark Empire isn't original at all. I've kept it for old time's sake (I'm not the Dark Empire's founder), and because it did have some sort of meaning. The founder was a dark skinned diaboli and we plan on settling on the darkness that the bronze doors cast on the lands they seal within (On a side note, does the Azure sun shine on the labyrinths?). Since there are official entities using light based symbolism (night, day) despite of actual function, I think it wouldn't be a that far fetched of a name.

I was giving examples Serq. I don't like the name Shinito either.

[LigH]

Even if it was no real guild... "Janners Way" doesn't seem to have been the worst name - as far as I followed this discussion.

And "Ruby Reign" was just a desperate creation. Even more now that I think again about that name!

But...

Does a guild name really need to be extremely unique, creative and original, to be "acceptable"? Why would you reject a guild named after a certain profession with such a force? I would simply expect a professionals' guild being named in a not very creative, but logical and obvious form.

[hitancrias]

A weak guild name most often is the result of a lack of clearly defined goals for the guild itself. A guild name should in a way reflect the goals of a guild. If those goals are uncreative or non-existent, you'll automatically end up with a boring or extremely vague name.

Does a guild name really need to be extremely unique, creative and original, to be "acceptable"? Why would you reject a guild named after a certain profession with such a force? I would simply expect a professionals' guild being named in a not very creative, but logical and obvious form.

I agree with you. I always thought the "Explorers guild" to be an acceptable name, even though it's not very unique or original and it has a 'selfish name'. The name covers what it stands for and I guess that makes up for the other things. I like it when a guild name also raises some questions as long as it also says something about what the guild does. "Explorers guild" may be a bit too straight forward, but changing it is no option since we're all way too attached to that name.

[Waylander]

There no reason to not have a weak name if it fits your guild really well.  Just put more effort into it if you can and think about tying it into the settings.

[Ravenguard]

If the name fits the guild, and what the guild is built on, what it does, etc., then what does it matter?
Like, is 'The United Miners of Hydlaa' a weak or uncreative name?  I like self explanatory names that don't leave me thinking, 'Huh, I wonder what thesaurus the 'Collaborative Excavators of Valuable Material' have?' 

The people are what makes a guild strong.  I mean, you can have the most awesome guild name ever, but if everyone in your guild are horrible people who do nothing to further themselves, the game, or the guild, then people aren't going to care.  But if the Knights of <noun> are so amazingly awesome, then who cares about their name, it's just awesome!  People will like them, and not care about their relatively cookie cutter name.  (Well, except for a few people)