Nathan Phoenix
11-05-2003, 06:50 AM
Lately this just annoys the hell out of me and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because I thought I had a fairly unique handle and I think I'm seeing people all over the place using it.
My handle is of rather dubious origin to begin with, and owes credit to various game developers for it's creation. When I got my first 2400 baud modem, I went to sign on to a local BBS, and the registration form there asked for a handle. I had no idea what that meant, and I disconnected, stumped, and asked one of my friends. He explained, in an appropriately condescending way, that people choose a different name for themself on these BBS's.
I went a couple days without deciding on a handle, but inspiration struck me as me and that same friend were playing a mean game of Rock & Roll Racing on the Super Nintendo. During the course of our play, I noticed that one of the upgrades you could purchase for your mean little racer was called Locust Jump Jets. I thought Locust sounded cool, so I signed up with that name, and the rest was history....
At least it was, until I got EverQuest, and I couldn't use Locust for some reason - whether it was because it was taken, or it was the name of a mob, I may never know, but I was faced with the frightening proposition of having to find a new handle. I opted to take the lazy way out and go with the phonetically similar, but improperly spelled, Lokust. It's been Lokust since then.
I suppose my biggest bitch is that I'm not nearly as unique or creative or whatever as I thought I was. It's also annoying to do a search for Lokust on google and see tons of stuff about other people. I think a year ago I could have practically used a google search on my handle as a resume of previous writing work.
Anyway, beyond all of this rambling, I was wondering if anyone else was annoyed by seeing their chosen handle used in games, message boards, websites, or anywhere else online.
My handle is of rather dubious origin to begin with, and owes credit to various game developers for it's creation. When I got my first 2400 baud modem, I went to sign on to a local BBS, and the registration form there asked for a handle. I had no idea what that meant, and I disconnected, stumped, and asked one of my friends. He explained, in an appropriately condescending way, that people choose a different name for themself on these BBS's.
I went a couple days without deciding on a handle, but inspiration struck me as me and that same friend were playing a mean game of Rock & Roll Racing on the Super Nintendo. During the course of our play, I noticed that one of the upgrades you could purchase for your mean little racer was called Locust Jump Jets. I thought Locust sounded cool, so I signed up with that name, and the rest was history....
At least it was, until I got EverQuest, and I couldn't use Locust for some reason - whether it was because it was taken, or it was the name of a mob, I may never know, but I was faced with the frightening proposition of having to find a new handle. I opted to take the lazy way out and go with the phonetically similar, but improperly spelled, Lokust. It's been Lokust since then.
I suppose my biggest bitch is that I'm not nearly as unique or creative or whatever as I thought I was. It's also annoying to do a search for Lokust on google and see tons of stuff about other people. I think a year ago I could have practically used a google search on my handle as a resume of previous writing work.
Anyway, beyond all of this rambling, I was wondering if anyone else was annoyed by seeing their chosen handle used in games, message boards, websites, or anywhere else online.