I think its too late, and I also just dont really find it all that confusing.
whats the reason behind gouki > akuma?
this i have always wondered.
this dude calls him goo key, and then started calling shen long gook en. My buddy NKI turns to the dude and is like “yo wtf did u just call him”. Next dude was like, whatever “its like ree you and rye you”…“lol yeah but damn nigga rye you aint a racial slur” i lulz
Capcom USA was worried that his name would be wrongly interpreted and could cause trouble among America’s youth.
When properly pronounced, “Go-key” sounds like an order to go “key”. “Key”, being early 80’s slang for having intercourse (for example: “Keying a chick”).
When improperly pronounced as “Goo-key”, it could also potentially harm the minds of America’s most innocent who go to look up what it means in daddy’s encyclopedias. A gooky happens to be a humorously shaped vegetable.
Also: I think Dictator should be renamed to Raul.
I read somewhere that the original original was:
M.Bison = Boxer
Vega = Claw
Balrog = Dictator
It makes more sense that way anyway.
Balrogs are described as tall, menacing humanoid beings, with the ability to shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow. (Wikipedia)
Fire + Darkness + Shadow = Psycho Power
Yeah, but that’s kind of been retconned in the single name “Charlie Nash”. If I remember correctly, in Guile’s intro in SF4, he’s looking at a gravestone that says “Charlie Nash”.
There’s a Spanish actress named Paz Vega.
I live in America, and I play fighting games pretty much exclusively with Americans. The vast majority of us learned the American names and found out about the Japanese names later. I find it hopelessly dorky when Americans insist on using the Japanese names, and I find the version-unspecific names (Boxer, Claw, etc.) to be an unnecessary concession to those hopeless dorks.
If anything, the unspecific names make it worse. If most people get confused when you refer to the psycho power guy as “Vega,” they’re going to be really confused when you use the name “Dictator.”
Random trivia:
“Vega” is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. It’s also known as Alpha Lyrae. “Alph Lyla” was the name of Capcom’s in-house band of developers who composed the music for SFII (and a couple of other games).
‘Vega’ is a very common last name in Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries. I’ve always thought it a much better fit for the Matador than ‘Balrog’.
M. Bison = obvious reference and a good description
Balrog = juxtaposed reference to the bloodthirsty monster hidden underneath elegance
Vega = sounds like a typical junta dictator’s Spanish last name
Unless names were originally conceived with an obvious lacking grasp of the English language or with the original designer’s approval, I prefer the original names out of respect for the designer. If something started out in English and got changed, I would refer to it by the original English name as well. But out of concession to those who are more familiar with US names, I normally go by the generic, non-ambiguous names (boxer, claw, dictator). I’d have preferred “psycho” over “dictator” for the sake of length though.
The reason these names became popularized (although they were used sparingly and with variations as far back as 2002) was because when NKI had his Japan report (mostly about ST), he was acquainted with JP names being used all the time. When he posted using JP names, people became confused. And naturally, if he used US names, the other half of people would be confused.
The final point came when there was a player at More Amusement Forum (a now-defunct arcade in Tokyo) called More Vega that everybody had confused as a claw player, when it turned out there was both a More Balrog (claw player) as well as a More Vega (dictator player). Shortly after that, the non-ambiguous names stuck and there haven’t been confusion since among those who follow this convention.
But by now, it’s far too late to officially revert back to the original names without confusing more people. SF2 was too popular in the US and had too much related media (unlike, say, Dragon Quest). Anyway, if folks are confused by these names, I can’t see how they won’t be confused at how to get better at fighting games…
Totally agreed, It doesn’t matter to me if the japanesse names are the originals since I can’t realistically picture lets say, the spaniard, when thinking or hearing the name “Balrog”, and the same applies for the others. Its just that the american versions go phonetically better with the images of the fighters IMO, and I’m normally very stubborn with changes from Japan to USA but in this case I just can’t help it. I also know these characters with the USA names since I was like 6 - 7 years old so there’s no way back for me at least and I find it pretencious when other american users try to force the japanesse names in USA based forums…oh and the whole “Claw”, “Dictator” thing I really can’t stand since it seems like a forced “need”.
I really prefer the US names, much more fitting than the Japanese ones imo. I hate (US) people who ‘correct’ me by trying to make me say “Claw” or “Dictator”, or even the Japanese names. My sig just says Claw so people would shut the hell up harassing me. I only say Claw when it really bothers people or I’m talking to a Japanese person or something, otherwise Vega all day.
The whole Khushnood Butt/Marco Rodriguez thing somebody mentioned is kinda wtf. I just call him Marco Butt. The Griffon will always be Tizoc to me, The Griffons a stupid name. That’s like if King from Tekken were called “The Jaguar”.
Fear of sleep?
Lack of sleep; more general than the fear hypnophobia.
Get HYP-nophobia.