Guild Wars 2

I’m assuming at this early stage that these are the souls from Balthazar’s realm, put into artificial bodies so they can come to the ‘real’ world. (this is just speculation, they could be complete robots or whatever).

I’m gonna be a bit nitpicky about the name, here, though.
When I see Balthazar, and I think massive warmongers, brutes, and titans of the battlefield. And the guys in design are pretty cool. Some of them feel a little small, but thats okay.

I feel like their name doesn’t do them much justice, though. When I saw them in the beta, I thought “forged, hmm.. okay, sure, probably, since they are ‘forged’ as is”.
But then I kinda started calling them Warforged, dunno why, it’s the first thought in my head, and I started using the name Warforged so much people occassionally were correcting me. Now, I just wanted to ask here, do more people think Warforged would’ve been a way more catchy name than just Forged? Especially since it’s Balthy’s artchy we’re dealing with, here

Rather than being souls from Balthazar’s realm, the Herald of Balthazar’s lines make it clear that they are the souls of volunteers and victims of the Forged.

I do think Warforged would have been better. ArenaNet has a tendency to use generic words as names for groups or races (Dredge, Forgotten, Seers, Vigil, etc.) – sometimes even twice (Wardens). But it’s undoubtably too late to change it now.

It probably would be better, but I have a sneaking suspicion that WOTC might have trademarked/copyrighted Warforged. Calling them simply ‘Forged’ sidesteps that.

“Battleforged” might work as an alternative, depending on how securely WOTC has it tied down…

It’s also entirely possible that “forged” is just what the elonians started calling them, which would explain the lack of excessive melodrama in the name.

draxynnic.3719:

It probably would be better, but I have a sneaking suspicion that WOTC might have trademarked/copyrighted Warforged. Calling them simply ‘Forged’ sidesteps that.

“Battleforged” might work as an alternative, depending on how securely WOTC has it tied down…

I don’t know what WOTC is, but i doubt you can trademark a word.
I mean, you have a design with a name, you can trademark that, but you can’t trademark just a word. Draenei, for example, is a really unique name, can’t copy that. Just like Mursaat. But things like knights, warforged, paladins, those words are hard to trademark, and you can only really sue a copier if their design and/or theology is similar.
Warforged is a word, not a name. Just like Wednesday. Its an uncommon, but normal name. As long as you don’t literally remake Wednesday Adams you’re not breaking any copyright/trademark laws.

Amaimon.7823:

draxynnic.3719:

It probably would be better, but I have a sneaking suspicion that WOTC might have trademarked/copyrighted Warforged. Calling them simply ‘Forged’ sidesteps that.

“Battleforged” might work as an alternative, depending on how securely WOTC has it tied down…

I don’t know what WOTC is, but i doubt you can trademark a word.
I mean, you have a design with a name, you can trademark that, but you can’t trademark just a word. Draenei, for example, is a really unique name, can’t copy that. Just like Mursaat. But things like knights, warforged, paladins, those words are hard to trademark, and you can only really sue a copier if their design and/or theology is similar.
Warforged is a word, not a name. Just like Wednesday. Its an uncommon, but normal name. As long as you don’t literally remake Wednesday Adams you’re not breaking any copyright/trademark laws.

WOTC = Wizards of the Coast. American game publisher (Magic: The Gathering and D&D being their top two games).

“Warforged” is not a word. War-forged, though, is a term or expression. As such, you can copyright “warforged”. Copyright laws are also really weird, as “The Banner Saga” was being sued by King publishing (the creator of Candy Crush Saga, among other games with the Saga name) because they used the term “Saga” in their title. Now yes, having it as the title is slightly different than just naming a race or class of people after it, but similar problems can arise. Even a simply lawsuit can take a long time, and it could have delayed the release of Path of Fire if someone claimed they had a copyright on “warforged”. As I said, copyright law is weird and kind of outdated, but can have wide-reaching consequences.

Rognik.2579:

“Warforged” is not a word. War-forged, though, is a term or expression. As such, you can copyright “warforged”. Copyright laws are also really weird, as “The Banner Saga” was being sued by King publishing (the creator of Candy Crush Saga, among other games with the Saga name) because they used the term “Saga” in their title. Now yes, having it as the title is slightly different than just naming a race or class of people after it, but similar problems can arise. Even a simply lawsuit can take a long time, and it could have delayed the release of Path of Fire if someone claimed they had a copyright on “warforged”. As I said, copyright law is weird and kind of outdated, but can have wide-reaching consequences.

Sounds like petty people being petty.. kind of

Maethor.2810:

WOTC = Wizards of the Coast. American game publisher (Magic: The Gathering and D&D being their top two games).

And, specifically, the Warforged are a “race” of, essentially, sapient golems from the Eberron setting, created as footsoldiers and war machines in a continent-wide war and gaining their freedom in the aftermath.

Close enough to the Forged in concept that calling them “Warforged” could have created issues. Might not have done, but I could see ArenaNet playing it safe on the issue.