I was thinking about this today when looking at the Todesfaelle Flamme Zweihander Unique from D2. Santuary is a unique fantasy world that is in no way connected to earth or any Terran civilisations, why then are a vast majority of items names after historical implements? Tulwar? Zweihander? Gladius? Last time I checked, neither the Indians, Germans nor Romans were major players in Santuary's history. So here's to hoping that they remove all out-of-place references to specific ethnic or historical weapons...
They would also have to remove scimitar, rapier, falchion and hurlbat by that rational.
But sanctuary is not actually that unique. It mirrors ours on many occasions (that or we just think it does)
Act has a striking resemblance to the stone walls fields of England, France and Germany, Act II looks very much like the Middle East and Egypt. Act III looks a lot like the Jungles and pyramid cities of South and Central America, Act V has several parallels to the tundras and frozen lands of Scandinavia.
Jehren is referred to as a Sultan. Like many leaders of the Middle East countries, or the second main character in Arabian Nights.
If sanctuary is so unique, why does Griswold have a Scottish low land accent, why does Cain have a Sean Connery/Edinburgh-esque accent, why does Alkor have a think Indian accent.
Sanctuary does not seem so unique when one looks a little further into it.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
Yes, using real-world civilisations as the basis for fantasy nations is a technique far from absent in Sanctuary, it's just the use of specific words to describe the weapons that grates on me. I suppose the main source of my gripe is the whole Normal, Exceptional and Elite weapon classification system. Titan Quest, a game that quite obviously found inspiration in Diablo, solved this issue by using materials (Bronze, Iron, Adamantine, etc). So, perhaps instead of Short Sword, Gladius, Falcata, we can have Steel Short Sword, Adamant Short Sword and Starmetal Short Sword (for example).
At the very least, if they do use the same (or similar) style terminology, they can change in the in-game appearance of the items
i for one, enjoy the references. they are subtle and dont really take away from the game. i would have a harder time calling items made up names that blizzard people come up with. that said, references can definitely go way to far. just look at HG:L. almost everything in that game is a popular culture or historical reference to something obscure and uninteresting. i think blizzard has found a balance with their item and quest and npc names. with so many games out there, and tens of thousands of years of history in the world originality, true 100% originality, is impossible
I have nothing against a Gladius, Zweihander or Falchion, I do however take issue with the Blade of Ali Baba, the Lightsabre (Light Saber (Star Wars)) and the oh now what was that other one... The Atlantean, no wait, The Diggler, yeah that unique Dirk. Dirk Diggler, Boogie Nights anybody? But The Atlantean too. Those places and people do not exist in Sanctuary, and are direct references to our world. I find those to be much worse than Scimitar or Rapier or any other generic weapon name.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
OMG THAT WOULD MAKE D3 LIKE WOW OMG NO THAT CAN'T HAPPEN!!!!
I'd rather they keep their naming system they already have, and just not have references to places or people from our world. Stupid sword named after Ali Baba. I found that sword after killing almost 40 monsters in one of the tombs in act 2 once. I was quite amused by that. I was just short of 40, but to make a more interesting story I claim I killed 40.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
It's more like Scandinavia that Western Europe, which is covered by Act 1. It is not quite the same sort of parallel as act 1 you are right, and even I will admit that, but based on locations, it would mirror it, however loosely it may be.
If Khanduras is Western Europe, then the area above it The Barbarian Highlands would mirror the area above it, which is Northern Europe or Scandinavia. This seems to be quite the case based on the names of the barbarians you can hire in act 5, they all have very Scandinavian names, Beowulf, Buliwyf, Edgtheow Hrothgar, Unferth, Wiglaf, Wulfgar, Wulfstan.
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-Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth.
By the same argument the OP is using for the weapon/item names we should just scrap the Amazon then. After all, the Amazons are simply people from Greek/Roman mythology.
But as far as the names of items go.... The names used for each item (maul, gladus, splint mail, halibred) are just there to catagorize each item type. Yes they are all built around Earthen items but the names arent supposed to be connected to the same history in Sanctuary, just names. I don't see the purpose for creating entirely new names/items just so they wouldn't bare resemblence to their counterparts in our world. After all, hasnt one of the biggest vertebra in the backbone of the Diablo series been that it tries to draw a lot of realism into the game?
I do agree that there shouldnt be specific item names such as The Atlantean or Ali Baba used because those things truly dont have any reference in the world of Sanctuary. There is pleanty of lore to pull new, more relavent names from in the Diablo series than to have to resort to our own worlds mythologies.
if we couldn't use earthen names there would be pressure to not use earthen weapons or armor, though, and no more enemies from earthen lore could stay (goodbye undead, succubus, and other demons...Basically we'd be fighting nothing...) and eventually it would look like a user-unfriendly starcraft because everything looks so exotic. The ali-baba blade was rediculous, but i liked the lightsabre. Not because of the star wars reference but because in the third book of the sin war trilogy there was mention of the edyrem having to funnel all of their power into their weapons to stand a chance against angels, and that weapon made me feel like lore had some place in the game. Magic weaponz!!!
We are humans on earth. Giving the type of blades staff's etc name like Kunono blade or something randomly made up would be stupid. It wouldnt be creative, nobody would get it and everybody would make fun of it. But instead it has commmon weapon and armor names that we all recognize and can relate too. It's a game, dont be a nitpicker. Plus, if thats the case, why would you find it an issue before the religious symbols all throughout the game? Symbols of a lot of christian
religions...religions that dont exist in their world.
Zoner i love your sig, kitty cat owning diablo triune face
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I really don't care if they use exact names for weapons or not, it doesn't take away from the immersive Diablo2 universe. I really think this is just nit picking.
I mean if you REALLY want to get that picky then they shouldn't be speaking English. I mean it's pretty unlikely that another world thats never had contact with earth happens to spawn the exact same language, so they should invent some new random language that we should all have to learn in order to play.....
No I think it's fine. It's a small thing, most people understand the basic weapon names so it helps them get an idea of what they are (Gladius, Broad Sword, Long Bow, Partizan, Cleaver etc.) and saves a lot of time in completing the game.
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"If we're actually making the game worse with no other reason than to be different from WoW, then it's a bad choice." - Jay Wilson (D3 lead designer)
I can think of few fantasy worlds that don't have references to our own world or to another fantasy world (whether games or books). So I don't think we can be totally bereft of those elements that parallel our own. A way to deal with those inconsistencies is to make up lore for the game, an area to which it appears the developers are paying more attention nowadays.
Karjalan is right... you can't get too picky. Ali Baba and Amazons, I'd have to say, are a bit of a turn off when I'm trying to be immersed in the game world. But then again so are the gothic Christian references. I think we find that Diablo wouldn't be Diablo without them.
Kap
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But sanctuary is not actually that unique. It mirrors ours on many occasions (that or we just think it does)
Act has a striking resemblance to the stone walls fields of England, France and Germany, Act II looks very much like the Middle East and Egypt. Act III looks a lot like the Jungles and pyramid cities of South and Central America, Act V has several parallels to the tundras and frozen lands of Scandinavia.
Jehren is referred to as a Sultan. Like many leaders of the Middle East countries, or the second main character in Arabian Nights.
If sanctuary is so unique, why does Griswold have a Scottish low land accent, why does Cain have a Sean Connery/Edinburgh-esque accent, why does Alkor have a think Indian accent.
Sanctuary does not seem so unique when one looks a little further into it.
At the very least, if they do use the same (or similar) style terminology, they can change in the in-game appearance of the items
e.g.
Gladius
Falcata:
Quite clearly not the same weapon...
i dont think using metals for names is good either for that matter.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
I agree, metals for names has come from a few other games already and would just look weird in diablo imo
And The Heavens Shall Tremble...
OMG THAT WOULD MAKE D3 LIKE WOW OMG NO THAT CAN'T HAPPEN!!!!
I'd rather they keep their naming system they already have, and just not have references to places or people from our world. Stupid sword named after Ali Baba. I found that sword after killing almost 40 monsters in one of the tombs in act 2 once. I was quite amused by that. I was just short of 40, but to make a more interesting story I claim I killed 40.
If Khanduras is Western Europe, then the area above it The Barbarian Highlands would mirror the area above it, which is Northern Europe or Scandinavia. This seems to be quite the case based on the names of the barbarians you can hire in act 5, they all have very Scandinavian names, Beowulf, Buliwyf, Edgtheow Hrothgar, Unferth, Wiglaf, Wulfgar, Wulfstan.
But as far as the names of items go.... The names used for each item (maul, gladus, splint mail, halibred) are just there to catagorize each item type. Yes they are all built around Earthen items but the names arent supposed to be connected to the same history in Sanctuary, just names. I don't see the purpose for creating entirely new names/items just so they wouldn't bare resemblence to their counterparts in our world. After all, hasnt one of the biggest vertebra in the backbone of the Diablo series been that it tries to draw a lot of realism into the game?
I do agree that there shouldnt be specific item names such as The Atlantean or Ali Baba used because those things truly dont have any reference in the world of Sanctuary. There is pleanty of lore to pull new, more relavent names from in the Diablo series than to have to resort to our own worlds mythologies.
religions...religions that dont exist in their world.
Zoner i love your sig, kitty cat owning diablo triune face
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I mean if you REALLY want to get that picky then they shouldn't be speaking English. I mean it's pretty unlikely that another world thats never had contact with earth happens to spawn the exact same language, so they should invent some new random language that we should all have to learn in order to play.....
No I think it's fine. It's a small thing, most people understand the basic weapon names so it helps them get an idea of what they are (Gladius, Broad Sword, Long Bow, Partizan, Cleaver etc.) and saves a lot of time in completing the game.
Karjalan is right... you can't get too picky. Ali Baba and Amazons, I'd have to say, are a bit of a turn off when I'm trying to be immersed in the game world. But then again so are the gothic Christian references. I think we find that Diablo wouldn't be Diablo without them.
Kap