Names are important. Giving a name to a tiny, mindless unit in games such as FTL or XCOM: Enemy Unknown —and XCOM: Enemy Within , out today—gives them the importance necessary for permadeath to matter. I don't care if some anonymous squaddie bites it in an alien base mission, but I care a lot more about the well-being of Lt. Tyler "Maverick" Wilde.
Once you've used all of your friends' names, though, how to you find the right identity for your team? Do you use pet names, or celebrities, or characters from fantasy novels that clearly don't fit in a sci-fi setting? You probably freeze up, unable to remember the names of loved ones or childhood heroes. We know this condition all too well. This is Naming Paralysis , and while your insurance may not cover the treatment necessary, we can help.
Last year, we created The PC Gamer Character Name Repository , a shared Google Doc that we encouraged you to throw XCOM and FTL-friendly names into. Since then, you've added more than 300 names to the list, across different categories. As XCOM: Enemy Within launches today, we're putting the Name Repository back into your hands, so that together, we can all fight Naming Paralysis.
