Guild Wars 2

I’ve been a gamer for quite awhile, and yet I still don’t know the origin of this slang term. My guess is it has something to do with the cartoonish nature of WoW characters, but that’s just a guess. Anyone know for sure? Please link relevant sources, if there are any.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/77192/what-is-the-source-for-calling-your-characters-toons

Most other ‘sources’ use the “short for cartoon character” hypothesis.

It’s probably short for the word cartoon but I doubt there was a formal beginning. People have to call them something. Avatar could be a possibility, but it’s not a word that a lot of people knew back then. The other would be char, short for character. Maybe because the original characters back then were cartoonish especially in the oldest games before wow, and it fit.

It depends on what your characters looked like in the first MMO you played. If you played WoW you probably call it a toon, whereas in GW1/2 it would be more appropriate to call it a character (char).

They’re called Video Game Characters in every game however so it is a player created novelty to call them toons instead, again going by character design to insinuate that the graphics weren’t a core feature of the game

I first heard “toon” used in Wow, probably because of the overly cartoon style of the graphics.

However, personally I really, really hate the term “toon” for “character” and do not use it myself!

I’m pretty sure “toon” is short for “cartoon,” as in “cartoon character,” and have yet to encounter any other reasonable explanation. There’s no special connection between cartoons and MMORPG characters, but slang and popular word usage isn’t guaranteed to make sense. Sometimes words just catch on, for no good reason.

Referring to my MMO characters as “toons” doesn’t come naturally to me, but believe it or not there are actually people out there who get offended when you refer to a character in their favourite MMORPG as a “toon.” Some folks just take their games too seriously.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen a cartoon character that was in full 3D so “toon” doesn’t fit most any MMORPG and I’ll never use it for that reason alone.

In my experience, people used the words “toon” and “char” to mark a complete separation between the player and their on-screen character.

That word is a pet peeve of mine, personally. Yeah it’s short for cartoon and WoW uses super childish cartoon design, so it may make more sense there than here else but they want to plague everything with it anyways.

Doesn’t sound right anyways. “Hey, check out my cartoon.” referring to your character on screen? Then it’d be a shortening of Cartoon Character which is just an unnecessary addition.

I played GW1 first and always called them “characters”, or by main profession, as I had one of each. It is very telling when the second game gets some WoW lingo added to the jargon.

I picked up the term from my first MMO, EverQuest, long ago, and it’s one word from the old lexicon that has really survived to this day. I always thought it to be a corruption of “cartoon character” in the sense that it’s an attachment to the natural use of “character” as a creation. Transitively, creating a new character would translate from subconscious attachment to “cartoon character” as “toon”. It’s a stretch, but modern language evolution proves that slang doesn’t have to make sense.

If anything, it’s an artifact of its time that has survived to the “modern” day.

The first time a cartoon character was called, “Toon” was in the film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’. All of the cartoon characters lived in a place called Toon Town. I think that is where it started and people started calling their characters that.

Coming from FF11 we hated calling hero you play toons its the WoW point of view of things as if your hero is throw away and shallow as a cartoon.

Eidola.9148:

I first heard “toon” used in Wow, probably because of the overly cartoon style of the graphics.

However, personally I really, really hate the term “toon” for “character” and do not use it myself!

Oh thank goodness, I’m not the only one. I don’t know why, but “toon” bugs the crap out of me.

Iason Evan.3806:

The first time a cartoon character was called, “Toon” was in the film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’. All of the cartoon characters lived in a place called Toon Town. I think that is where it started and people started calling their characters that.

This mmorpg called Toons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toon_ was made in 1984, 4 years before the Roger Rabbit movie. Its existence suggests that the word toon was already being used in mmmorpgs by that time.

The only people I see using the term “toon” are current or ex-players of WoW

In EVE-Online calling your character a “toon” will get you a standard “GTFO back to WoW” reply.

Doggie.3184:

That word is a pet peeve of mine, personally. Yeah it’s short for cartoon and WoW uses super childish cartoon design, so it may make more sense there than here else but they want to plague everything with it anyways.

Doesn’t sound right anyways. “Hey, check out my cartoon.” referring to your character on screen? Then it’d be a shortening of Cartoon Character which is just an unnecessary addition.

“Super Childish Design” no thats just Blizzards way of the entire Warcraft universe.
Warlords of Draenor is updating those “Childish Designs” to a more modern standard.

They also kept that design choice due to the game was released in 2004/5 and not many pcs were at the top of their game. The long reign of XP.

Sometimes words aren’t worth the ulcers over them. As a young woman I frothed at the mouth over calling science fiction “sci fi.” Back then (1970’s/80’s) that was a term properly applied to Bat Durstons (SF soap operas with lasers and BEMs and no worthwhile story at all). By college I decided eh, whatever, stopped worrying about it, and was much happier.

Now of course Sci Fi is a commonly accepted term. Language changes, connotations change. “Toon” is at least easier to type fast than “char,” for me anyway. When I have time I type “character” as oddly that’s easier than the abbreviation, plus I always think someone means they’re playing a Charr.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. It evens your life out no end.

I always hated “toon”

Since the first online game I have played was Guild Wars (1), I always referred them to “char” or “character” if I’m not lazy.

I always took it as a sign when someone said “toon” they either came from WoW or a WoW clone

I hate the name toon, I believe it came from Ragnarok online.

I usually just stick to alt or main. Depending on the character i’m talking about of course.

I’m another one who doesn’t like the word ‘toon’. I don’t even know why, I’ve just hated it since I first heard it. Nothing to do with where, when or why it started because I didn’t know any of that, I just don’t like the sound of it.

I used to call MMO characters avatars because I started out playing Ultima Online and that’s what they called them. (The main character in the single-player Ultima games was also called either The Stranger or The Avatar.)

But when I started playing GW1 I got into the habit of simply calling them characters because that’s what everyone there used.

LumAnth.5124:

I always hated “toon”

Since the first online game I have played was Guild Wars (1), I always referred them to “char” or “character” if I’m not lazy.

I always took it as a sign when someone said “toon” they either came from WoW or a WoW clone

I use toon a lot and I’ve never played WoW or a clone, only Guild Wars 1 and 2 with some single player games.

I suspect it indicates more the level of involvement that people have with the characters. Some people are heavy into immersion and role playing. Others, like me, are not. In fact I had never even heard of the concept of role playing until right before the start of Guild Wars 2 where I came across a thread discussing it. It was a totally foreign concept to me.

When I play I frequently shift between characters. To me they are more like outfits with specified skills attached. They don’t have a back history and any interactions with the game is me interacting, not them. So the word ‘Toon’ fits as they are not complete characters to me but rather more like shells.

Actually, it IS from Roger Rabbit, but not the movie. “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” is a mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf in 1981, later adapted into the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Everyone here who believes otherwise is just too young to know the correct history of the term (I’m 52, and have used the term for my old D&D characters since reading the book in ‘81, before a lot of you were born). If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a classic and deserves to be on your list of “must see” films!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Censored_Roger_Rabbit%3F

Sinbold.8723:

Actually, it IS from Roger Rabbit, but not the movie. “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” is a mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf in 1981, later adapted into the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Everyone here who believes otherwise is just too young to know the correct history of the term (I’m 52, and have used the term for my old D&D characters since reading the book in ‘81, before a lot of you were born). If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a classic and deserves to be on your list of “must see” films!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Censored_Roger_Rabbit%3F

I don’t think anyone questioned the fact that Who Framed Roger Rabbit is what introduced the term ‘toon’ into popular culture as a contraction of ‘cartoon character’.

What we’re discussing here is how it came to refer to MMO characters specifically. Since they’re not cartoon characters and (as far as I know) no one uses it to refer to characters in other video games it seems like a bit of a jump from one book/movie to wide-spread useage for a different type of character in a different medium.

bluestocking.6148:

Eidola.9148:

I first heard “toon” used in Wow, probably because of the overly cartoon style of the graphics.

However, personally I really, really hate the term “toon” for “character” and do not use it myself!

Oh thank goodness, I’m not the only one. I don’t know why, but “toon” bugs the crap out of me.

Same. The art style is realism/watercolory. It drives me up a wall when people say “toon”. As someone previously stated, GW1 players call them just characters or char for short.

Danikat.8537 wrote, “What we’re discussing here is how it came to refer to MMO characters specifically.”

Perhaps I should clarify. My generation (hereafter referred to as “we”) grew up with Roger Rabbit and 8-bit video games. We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action, and we went on to become the early players of RPG MMO’s, like Ultima and later, WoW. Back in the day, pretty much all video game and PC game characters looked like cartoons. Today’s realism was a pipe dream back then. So when we got the ability to make custom characters in games, rather than play the game’s protagonist, we basically created our own cartoon characters. As a nod to one of my generations favorite movies, and because our game characters were similar in nature to how the “toons” in Roger Rabbit interacted with humans in the book and film, we (my 52 year old generation, and some of your parents) lovingly referred to our video game and PC game custom made characters as “toons”.

If that doesn’t answer your question, watch the film with the above bolded statement in mind and you’ll understand.

Sinbold.8723:

Danikat.8537 wrote, “What we’re discussing here is how it came to refer to MMO characters specifically.”

Perhaps I should clarify. My generation (hereafter referred to as “we”) grew up with Roger Rabbit and 8-bit video games. We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action, and we went on to become the early players of RPG MMO’s, like Ultima and later, WoW. Back in the day, pretty much all video game and PC game characters looked like cartoons. Today’s realism was a pipe dream back then. So when we got the ability to make custom characters in games, rather than play the game’s protagonist, we basically created our own cartoon characters. As a nod to one of my generations favorite movies, and because our game characters were similar in nature to how the “toons” in Roger Rabbit interacted with humans in the book and film, we (my 52 year old generation, and some of your parents) lovingly referred to our video game and PC game custom made characters as “toons”.

If that doesn’t answer your question, watch the film with the above bolded statement in mind and you’ll understand.

I think it’s more an issue of perspective than age. I’m 29 and I’ve been playing video games since I was 2 years old (I started with Hungry Horace on the ZX Spectrum) and between us me and my siblings can probably quote all of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

But I got into MMOs via single-player RPGs and point-and-click adventure games, like Eye of the Beholder and the Kyrandia series. So I’ve always associated MMOs with games that focus on telling a story, more like an interactive book than a cartoon, and your character is just that – a character in that story who you create and control.

Regardless of the graphics I’ve never really associated games with cartoons so to use the same terminology seems like a big jump in logic to me.

I think Ultima Online was trying to go a step beyond that with calling them Avatars – implying that your character is you, just in the game. But that’s never really worked for me because my character isn’t me, although we have a lot in common we’re very different in some ways too. Which is good because a story about me, even in a fantasy world, would be really boring.

Danikat.8537:

I think Ultima Online was trying to go a step beyond that with calling them Avatars – implying that your character is you, just in the game. But that’s never really worked for me because my character isn’t me, although we have a lot in common we’re very different in some ways too. Which is good because a story about me, even in a fantasy world, would be really boring.

The Ultima series of games referred to the main character as the Avatar – the saviour of Britannia (and mass-murderer of children if you played the later games!) and in its transition to an MMO, it probably made sense at the time to refer to all players in that world as Avatars as they all came from outside the world of Britannia (if that makes sense).

A term that I have seen in use since eq, why people let this term bother them makes no sense. Less hate, more love!

I have played WoW for like 2 hours on a guest account and did not like it. But that whole hatred here is ridiculous. Also, I don´t use the word toon, but how anyone can get worked up about it eludes me completely.

As I said earlier it’s not necessarily a logical thing. To me it’s just like how some people don’t like the word moist.

I don’t associate the word toon with any particular game (and if I did it’d be GW1 because that’s where I first heard it) so it’s not that I hate some other game and refuse to use their terminology. I just don’t like the sound of the word.

I don’t know why but I hate the “toon”. My characters are not toons, they are characters.

Wow! So many responses. Thanks for all the feedback! I seem to have sparked quite a discussion here.

I used toon all the time and prefer it. Toon also predates MMO’s. I dislike alt and really dislike char. Especially when we have Charr in game.

A pet peeve of mine in when people refer to the gear stat PTV as “PVT”. Seriously, it’s not in the correct order in the game, it’s not in alphabetical order, and it doesn’t even sound better.

I use the word Toon sometimes but only because I heard someone else say it once a few years ago xD

Personally i don’t use that term “toon”, it always feels like a negative term to me. But i am fine if that is what other people choose to use.

DeWolfe.2174:

……………..
A pet peeve of mine in when people refer to the gear stat PTV as “PVT”. Seriously, it’s not in the correct order in the game, it’s not in alphabetical order, and it doesn’t even sound better.

I have a theory for why its used. In any mmo ( or most games really) we use alot of ? v? terms. WvW, PVE, PVE, PVD, etc. so saying PVT just sound easier off the tongue, as we use the other terms so often.

Alt or Alts is more popular but toon is used second to that term. I didnt play WoW but it’s so big and influential, I can see why people still use that term, if indeed it is from there. It seems more fitting for Wildstar-like games to be “Toons”. Ive always called mine Alts, but sometimes saying “Alt” can be a bit confusing or unclear.

Since so many people are stating their preferences, I will say this:

I honestly just say “character.” I don’t really like “toon” either and it’s use bugs me a bit, but I was curious where it came from. “Char” seems fine as an abbreviation because in game chat you don’t need to waste time typing out the whole word “character.”

And what’s wrong with “alt?” Isn’t it just short for “alternate?” I refer to the characters who I play less often as my “alts” and to my two max-level characters as my “mains.” I thought this was relatively universal.

root.9415:

The only people I see using the term “toon” are current or ex-players of WoW

In EVE-Online calling your character a “toon” will get you a standard “GTFO back to WoW” reply.

Char is too easily confused with Charr.

uknortherner.2670:

The Ultima series of games referred to the main character as the Avatar – the saviour of Britannia (and mass-murderer of children if you played the later games!) and in its transition to an MMO, it probably made sense at the time to refer to all players in that world as Avatars as they all came from outside the world of Britannia (if that makes sense).

I always figured “avatar”, as referring to an in-game persona, was tied to cyberpunk literature which used the term for such before we had modern 3D mmos. Could be Ultima though, i suppose.

Sinbold.8723:

We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action,

What, you never saw Mary Poppins?

It isn’t so much a case of it being ‘short for cartoon’, as a play on words. The short form of character is ‘char’, and ‘toon’ is in reference to that. A weird sort of rhyming slang if you like.

Tamryu.5978:

I can’t say I’ve ever seen a cartoon character that was in full 3D so “toon” doesn’t fit most any MMORPG and I’ll never use it for that reason alone.

You haven’t seen or played the game called “TOONTOWN” then, I have on both, -LOL.

i also used the word “character”, i only come across “toon” mainly from WoW players.

SkyShroud.2865:

i also used the word “character”, i only come across “toon” mainly from WoW players.

It wasn’t just WoW, because the first time I heard someone use it was playing something called “The Realm Online”. Their website still advertises that they’re “dial-up friendly” so you can imagine how old that game is.

In GW1, most of the people I knew called them ‘chars’ which is what I picked up. It wasn’t until I played WoW that I heard people calling them ‘toons’ and of course when I used the term ‘char’ when referencing an alt, it was like I wasn’t speaking English to them anymore. I prefer, and use, the term ‘char’ in GW2 though. But, to each their own.

bluestocking.6148:

Sinbold.8723:

We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action,

What, you never saw Mary Poppins?

To this day I can’t look at a penguin without thinking of that dance scene.

I always use the word ‘character’. Whenever someone says ‘char’ I think it means Charr.
It seems like everyone has a charr. Must be the most played race!

bluestocking.6148:

Sinbold.8723:

We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action,

What, you never saw Mary Poppins?

Or Bedknobs and Broomsticks which combined cartoon and live action in the 70’s…

On topic…toon was used in mmo’s before WoW. I know I heard it when I played Anarchy Online and that launched 13 years ago. WoW likely just popularised it due to the volume of players plus the gfx style.

Randulf.7614:

bluestocking.6148:

Sinbold.8723:

We were big fans of that movie because it was the FIRST movie to combine cartoons and live action,

What, you never saw Mary Poppins?

Or Bedknobs and Broomsticks which combined cartoon and live action in the 70’s…

On topic…toon was used in mmo’s before WoW. I know I heard it when I played Anarchy Online and that launched 13 years ago. WoW likely just popularised it due to the volume of players plus the gfx style.

Oooh that’s right, I forgot about Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Both of those movies weirded me the heck out as a kid. I don’t know why. I think I wasn’t sure if the events were supposed to be “really” happening or not.