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

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.

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.

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.

Cause it shorter than "character".

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!

TheDarkShadow wrote: »

Cause it shorter than "character".

'char'

'chars'

<shrug> ymmv

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 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.

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?

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)

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.

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.

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