I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm one of those who sits around after the credits. I sit through TV, movies, and video games to watch through the slow precise crawl of white on black text up the screen. I've even been known to read that page of a novel that tells what typeset the author used to write the book, but mostly I regarded the credits as a time to sit back, collect my thoughts and tell them to my friends, or to just polish off my overpriced popcorn. With video game credits, however, there is another reason: the nicknames.


The video game industry is known to be extremely exciting, and even for a humble end-user it mostly certainly is, but from watching the credits you catch a glimpse of how unique a working environment it must be. During the credits for Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction I saw a man whose nickname was "The Cookie Duster" and an Asian man whose nickname was "Henry teh Engrish," which struck me as so bizarre that I've entirely forgotten what his first name is. By the standards of nicknames, it's a nuclear bomb.


Subtitle: This is apparently a Cookie Duster. Who knew?

How do these nicknames come about, I wonder? I've never been able to find out, not that I've spent a lot of time looking into it, but still it nags at me until the credits are over. I think the explanation for these nicknames should be brought further out into the public eye, because if they are going to appear in the credits, then they should be explained. When they are putting together their informative videos, those Making Of vids that are so ubiquitous in the industry, I can see a Behind The Names video that would tell just how in the hell those so unusual nicknames came to be, excepting if they are too personal of course. Then again, if they are too personal, then they ought to be kept to themselves. Dang it.

That's my message to the gaming industry today, bring us further into the fold. We can communicate you via e-mail, IM, and by forum post but let's cross the next border. We're not asking for your address, your phone numbers, or your wife's maiden name. If you have a really snazzy nickname with a colorful tale to tell, tell us why. I'm sure we'd both go away better for the experience.