Guild Wars 2

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

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.

I believe this explanation to be the most apt.

I also believe that anyone under 30 won’t like the term as much… In a way, it is making light of the whole phenomenon of gaming and avatar representation in a virtual environs. Younger people (under 30) take gaming far more seriously, and for some, it is their only form of interaction with people of their own age and may be their sole current source of sociological growth and experience – so to make light of that – will feel ‘insulting’ to them.

Judging from the responses above of “hating the term” by the ‘younger’ crowd, I believe what I have inferred above to be correct, so far…

I don’t really like the term “toon” either, I prefer “character”. For some reason calling your character a “toon” seems like you are less invested in them, though I have no basis for that – it’s just how it feels to me. Also shortening everything just annoys me, but I’m a grumpy old git

TheTechnician.1078:

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

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.

I believe this explanation to be the most apt.

I also believe that anyone under 30 won’t like the term as much… In a way, it is making light of the whole phenomenon of gaming and avatar representation in a virtual environs. Younger people (under 30) take gaming far more seriously, and for some, it is their only form of interaction with people of their own age and may be their sole current source of sociological growth and experience – so to make light of that – will feel ‘insulting’ to them.

Judging from the responses above of “hating the term” by the ‘younger’ crowd, I believe what I have inferred above to be correct, so far…

Erm, I’m 41.

bluestocking.6148:

TheTechnician.1078:

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

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.

I believe this explanation to be the most apt.

I also believe that anyone under 30 won’t like the term as much… In a way, it is making light of the whole phenomenon of gaming and avatar representation in a virtual environs. Younger people (under 30) take gaming far more seriously, and for some, it is their only form of interaction with people of their own age and may be their sole current source of sociological growth and experience – so to make light of that – will feel ‘insulting’ to them.

Judging from the responses above of “hating the term” by the ‘younger’ crowd, I believe what I have inferred above to be correct, so far…

Erm, I’m 41.

To be fair, you’re just one person. To really test this hypothesis, we’d need to do a large-scale clinical study.

Because that will definitely happen.

Toon refer to Cartoon Character. since the characters we play in games are animated like a cartoon is. So they just removed the Character part and shortened Cartoon into Toon.

bluestocking.6148:

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.

when i played MUDs, ppl called them char
I still find “toon” hard to relate to, logically…

I don’t see it as pejorative or mocking, myself. “Cartoons” were originally very serious mockups for great paintings.* Sure, they came to mean light hearted animation, but even that is representational line drawings, when you think about it. “Comic books” is another term that can include very serious work, though some start calling it a “graphic novel” when they want to elevate it in the public eye. Frank Miller’s Dark Knight was a comic book. So was the XMen “God Loves, Man Kills.” (Yeah, I’m dating myself, I remember when those came out and people were agog that the medium supported such deeper darker stuff).

Our characters are animated representations of living beings. Those are cartoons. They just aren’t silly goofy things only for children.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartoon

I’ve always called them “characters” or “chars” for short. I find the term “toon” unpleasant on the ears, but it doesn’t bother me enough to mention it to people using the term.

It feels as if this terminology is phasing out to be honest. It’s more of an “Alt” sequence more than anything anymore. I haven’t heard the word “My other toon” in quite sometime now…

I came across the word when I played EQ1 in the first few years of it’s life. Someone in my guild was named Toonluvr and inquired about the name. She said it was because she loved her “toons”, her characters.

Years later, someone in SW:TOR posted on their enjin wall they wouldn’t have anything to do with people who called their characters toons. He said it was because people who called their characters toons weren’t serious about their characters. That was news to me. lol

But yeah, been hearing the term toon since my early EQ1 days.

Characters, chars, toons.. all the same for me.

On topic: toon originated from the word “cartoon”. Not sure in what game it was first used though.

I picked it up from.. Guild Wars 1. HA.

I first heard ‘toon’ during late GW1 lifecycle (about 2009-2010 ) and was mainly used by US-players. I asked then what they mean by ‘toon’ – they explained it was their character.

I played first in European guilds for years (wich all use the term ‘character’ or short ‘char’) as I am from Europe, but with dwindling player base most changed to US/International guilds. I dislike the term ‘toon’; it sounds so disconnected and childish.

The word itself of course derives from ‘cartoon’ – just watch Roger Rabbit :-)

^ I find this interesting^
I first heard the term toon when I played DDO from NA players- I had no idea what a toon was.
It seems the character or char is the term used more in EU.
I accidentally called my character a toon once in GW2 just after launch and no-one knew what I was talking about

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?

D’oh! Touche! Forgot about those Disney flicks. Although there wasn’t as much of a mix as Roger Rabbit, it was certainly there.

A bit of personal story: my old friend who got me into GW1 was showing me that game before I bought it, and referred to his GW1 characters as “toons”. When I asked him why, he shot back with, “Haven’t you seen Roger Rabbit?”

Interesting discussion here, for sure. I enjoy reading where people first heard the term. What I simply cannot fathom is why some people are bothered by it to such a degree. I was initially confused by “char”, thinking it was just a misspelling of “charr”. One of my guildies wanted to show me her new “char”, so I waypointed to where she was, looked at her “char” and said, “That’s not a charr, that’s a sylvari!”

Sinbold.8723:

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?

D’oh! Touche! Forgot about those Disney flicks. Although there wasn’t as much of a mix as Roger Rabbit, it was certainly there.

A bit of personal story: my old friend who got me into GW1 was showing me that game before I bought it, and referred to his GW1 characters as “toons”. When I asked him why, he shot back with, “Haven’t you seen Roger Rabbit?”

Interesting discussion here, for sure. I enjoy reading where people first heard the term. What I simply cannot fathom is why some people are bothered by it to such a degree. I was initially confused by “char”, thinking it was just a misspelling of “charr”. One of my guildies wanted to show me her new “char”, so I waypointed to where she was, looked at her “char” and said, “That’s not a charr, that’s a sylvari!”

I don’t know why it bothers some people either. Normally something like a word bothers someone if there is some type of emotion involved. My guess is, these people are attached more to their characters than the people who use the word toon and it feels like it is trivializing it in some way.

If that’s not right maybe the people who are bothered by it can give a better explanation as to exactly why.

I could never bring myself to adopt the word toon. Feels too childish. I’ve always used “char” or “character.”

Astral Projections.7320:

I don’t know why it bothers some people either. Normally something like a word bothers someone if there is some type of emotion involved. My guess is, these people are attached more to their characters than the people who use the word toon and it feels like it is trivializing it in some way.

If that’s not right maybe the people who are bothered by it can give a better explanation as to exactly why.

It just feels weird and, I don’t know … jarring? I guess it’s all those years of D&D, where I rolled up a character. Although it actually bugs me when people say they’re “rolling up a warrior” in an MMO, because there’s no “rolling” involved and all warriors are going to have the same starting stats.

Basically what I am saying is that I am a crabby old fart so get off my lawn?

I use toon because I saw everyone else in GW2 using it… >.>
I figured it probably meant character and was short for cartoon character. Originally toon to me meant a Saturday morning cartoon on Fox or something. I’m in the field of animation so it doesn’t feel awkward to me, but I can see how it could confuse or irritate some.

Oh god, people referring to their characters as ‘toons’… that is one of my few true pet peeves. It’s like nails on a kittening chalk board! I use the terms character or alt interchangeably.