Why Call Your Characters 'Toon's?

ArchMikem · May 2016

At first when I was hearing this word used everywhere, I thought it was weird. It wasn't hard to figure out you all meant Character when saying Toon, but still the two words have nothing in common so it's always felt a little awkward to use as a substitute. Then I finally look up the Definition and Urban Dictionary gives a delightful one.

toon

The term **** use to describe that they have an alt or a character on a mmorpg. You know how STUPID TOON sounds? Jesus...

C0wrex · May 2016

Could be a weird internet lingo...

Who knows.. :S

Karthos · May 2016

It's been around for years. I know I still stubbornly cal them 'characters,' even though the alternative is quicker to type.

GivvumBoane · May 2016

Been hearing that for years. I think it is ridiculous. Same as pwn, a typo that started getting enunciated as pawn

NativeJoe · May 2016

Well I imagine it started even before my days on DAOC all those years ago. alot of games back then looked cartoony, and lacked realism, and then wow came out...and that was definetly the case.. there was no longer a "attempt" to grasp some amount of realism from available technologies.

Ra'Shtar · May 2016

When the term started to being used MMOs used really cartoony graphics that's why toon was used, but that is only known by people who have been playing MMOs for a very long time.

Acrolas · May 2016

The origins aren't well-documented. So there's no definitive answer.

I like to believe it's because the earlier, low-bit games more closely resembled cartoons than any other medium.
So while playing them, it was kind of like playing an interactive cartoon.
Toon then because more associated with the most interactive part of the game, which was the individual character creation.

ShedsHisTail · May 2016

Because "avatars" sounds pretentious and dated.

GlassHalfFull · May 2016

Back in 2001, Disney created an MMO called Toontown, where the "story of the game centered on an ongoing battle between a population of cartoon animals known as the Toons and a collection of business-minded robots known as the Cogs who are trying to take over the town. Players would choose and customize their own toon and go on to complete Toontasks, play mini-games, and fight the Cogs."

While the game was great for children, may adults found the simple game mechanics, easy access to voice chat, and combined with "adult drinks", made for a very addictive and fun MMO experience.

In my experience playing with my young daughter (daddy-daughter bonding time), I found the amount of friendly assistance from randoms to be very high, while the amount of griefers and whiners was really low, so playing a Toon was a blast.

She grew up, and now is in college. for a BS degree in computer science and game programming. It all started with Toons.

Shunravi · May 2016

Why care? You know the intent.

TheDarkShadow · May 2016

Cause it shorter than "character".

Yolokin_Swagonborn · May 2016

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Cause it shorter than "character".

One syllable vs 3. Pure laziness.

dem0n1k · May 2016

Tsk, you took the time to type out 'one' but not "three"... pure laziness ;]

'toon' is just a less serious way of saying 'character' imo!

Genomic · May 2016

Because who cares? I don't call my characters toons, but if other people do then more power to them. Sheesh, some people get on their high horse about trivial things.

KingYogi415 · May 2016

A term from WoW that means cartoon character.
Cheers!

GivvumBoane · May 2016

Genomic wrote: »

Because who cares? I don't call my characters toons, but if other people do then more power to them. Sheesh, some people get on their high horse about trivial things.

Did you read the original post? It was a legit question. Nobody is on a high horse. You read the title the dropped straight down to add your 2 cents.

Lylith · May 2016

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Cause it shorter than "character".

'char'

'chars'

<shrug> ymmv

SlayerTheDragon · May 2016

This term is one of the reasons I will burn the world down.

GivvumBoane · May 2016

SlayerTheDragon wrote: »

This term is one of the reasons I will burn the world down.

Naw, it can't be that bad. Now, people that vocalize text speak (lol, omg), that is a perfectly legitimate reason to burn down the world.

GideonPDX · May 2016

So the responses here are great for proving one thing, that everyone wants to believe they know the answer to a question that has not easily googled answer. I can say that since Ultima Online and the first Everquest we have used the terms toon, alt, and main to describe the various characters we had available. I don't know where it came from, but it has been in my personal vocabulary since 1998 when I started in MMO's. Disney, WoW, or any other games community cannot claim this abbreviated term. I think it probably started back in MUDs but I could be wrong as well.

Shunravi · May 2016

GideonPDX wrote: »

So the responses here are great for proving one thing, that everyone wants to believe they know the answer to a question that has not easily googled answer. I can say that since Ultima Online and the first Everquest we have used the terms toon, alt, and main to describe the various characters we had available. I don't know where it came from, but it has been in my personal vocabulary since 1998 when I started in MMO's. Disney, WoW, or any other games community cannot claim this abbreviated term. I think it probably started back in MUDs but I could be wrong as well.

I wouldnt be supprised if it was MUDs. But i also wouldnt be supprised if it is slang from tabletop.

ArchMikem · May 2016

dem0n1k wrote: »

'toon' is just a less serious way of saying 'character' imo!

Every time I see "Toon", I think of Platoon. Such is from my own experience with Military oriented communities. That being said, I don't really have a problem there, cause Toon is just a shortened word from the word Platoon. So whenever I hear it I think someone is talking about a group of people. That said I feel it would fit much better if people called Dungeon Groups or even their Guilds, Toons.

On this side however, Toon has absolutely no connection to the word Character.

Nova Sky · May 2016

Character. Toon. Avatar. Bobbie. Susie. Call your creation whatever you want. I don't care. Sheesh. Lord Almighty, aren't there better things to gripe about?

Farorin · May 2016

Nova Sky wrote: »

Character. Toon. Avatar. Bobbie. Susie. Call your creation whatever you want. I don't care. Sheesh. Lord Almighty, aren't there better things to gripe about?

Yes there are better things, but they are also being griped about, can't we gripe about multiple things?

Duiwel · May 2016

I use alt.

As in "alternate character".

Shorter than everything that has been previously mentioned.

Lazy FTW

(side note ^ Suzie works too... from now on calling my Nord 2H giant with a beard Suzie)

Lumenn · May 2016

Back when EQ1 launched the characters looked like cartoons(at least, we thought they did, up until WOW launched.......

TheSpin · May 2016

From my experience, a lot of MMO lingo came from EQ1 or before (calling enemies mobs predates eq1). I know the term toons was used in EQ1... One of the games before EQ1 was called 'The Realm' made by Sierra and similar to old king's quest games. Characters in The Realm were very much cartoony but I'm not sure it had a big enough population to be the origin of the phrase.

Mats (materials or crafting ingredients) is one exception to this rule. That one came from WoW I think.

clocksstoppe · May 2016

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Cause it shorter than "character".

char?

ArchMikem · May 2016

Genomic wrote: »

Because who cares? I don't call my characters toons, but if other people do then more power to them. Sheesh, some people get on their high horse about trivial things.

Nova Sky wrote: »

Character. Toon. Avatar. Bobbie. Susie. Call your creation whatever you want. I don't care. Sheesh. Lord Almighty, aren't there better things to gripe about?

Maybe you guys should reread that post without the daggers in your eyes this time.

lardvader · May 2016

Well I dropped the word "toon" on TS the other day and some guildies laughted - they reminded me I'm too old for this young hip lingual.

dtm_samuraib16_ESO · May 2016

I call them either main or alts.
Swapping character I call alting...