Kingzly
Terrarian
Greetings!
This is my first suggestion thread, and would likely be my last. Hopefully I don't make this thread excessively long. Since it is also my first post, here's a quick note: I haven't the slightest clue of where to put this, because I'm unsure if this could be considered as a suggestion or not. So, I decided to place it here, since this thread slips in this section quite fine I think. Just wanted to get that out there, just in case. Anyways.
So, at first glance, you perhaps have never given thought to this before, I reckon. I'd be surprised if you have. Although, if you somehow don't know what I am talking about, I'm talking about the main default character of Terraria:
You've probably seen this guy a ton. Well, I should presume so, since he's practically almost everywhere in the entire Terraria wiki, seen in numerous gifs demonstrating things in various categorizes. He's also seen in a few Terraria related video thumbnails, some of the box-art/promotional art (I believe), and literally the first dude you see when first opening the character customization screen in the game. But all in all, I've wondered: Does he have a name?
You've probably seen this guy a ton. Well, I should presume so, since he's practically almost everywhere in the entire Terraria wiki, seen in numerous gifs demonstrating things in various categorizes. He's also seen in a few Terraria related video thumbnails, some of the box-art/promotional art (I believe), and literally the first dude you see when first opening the character customization screen in the game. But all in all, I've wondered: Does he have a name?
You see, there is a large variety of player customization games out there that have official names to the main character. Like for example (and I will be using this example quite often here, but not for comparing the two games negatively obviously), in Minecraft you have Steve and Alex, both who are pretty much the faces of their game (with the Creeper being the mascot). On top of that, their presence is prominent within the MC community, such as fanart, stories/theories about them, merchandise, custom skins, and much more. While they're not actual characters, Steve and Alex are treated as such in the fandom, and even by Mojang themselves.
But then I've looked into Terraria, and surprisingly, there is no official name for the default character. In addition, there really isn't a defined main character of Terraria. I wished to check whether the character had one, so I searched and browsed everywhere. Numbers resulted to 0. I was quite puzzled, considering that Terraria does have a default and has almost the same recognition as Steve/Alex from MC in the community. This thought has lingered in my mind for a long while, and I wanted to share it publicly.
So, with all of that being said, here's some possible common questions that you might ask. I've thought of many, so I will try and provide an adequate answer, and hope that you understand. The answers will basically be me explaining the reasons why I believe that the default character should have an official name, why he should have more of a prominent figure within Terraria, and some value that it would potentially bring.
Question 1: "What would the name be for him, though?"
Answer: Oh, that's the easy part! Yes, there is a vast quantity of names out there, but we should take a gander at the theme of Terraria. Since it bears "terra", meaning earth, obviously the name for the character would have to have association with something pertaining to Earth. A best possible name that fits extremely well to the character is Terran. Why this name? I found the meaning of the name, and quite surprisingly, it's great. The name Terran (or Terren if they wish to choose that spelling instead, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist) is of English origin, and its meaning is "man of the earth" or "Earth-man". Very fitting, hence Terraria's theme. Another good, possible name is Terrance, or Terrence, however you wanna spell it. Either name works good. And that's all! The name's nice, simple, and straight-forward with its meaning.
Question 2: "Don't we already have nicknames for the default?"
Answer: Yes actually. I know some of the nicknames the community have given to him (most are not universally agreed upon). There's Terraria Guy, Terraria Default Dude, Terrarian, and some others I may be missing. Terraria Guy and Terrarian are the most commonly tossed around, but there's a slight issue I have with these labels: They're not exactly "names". Of course if the main character bears no official name, then you'd probably resort to calling him "Terraria Dude". I understand, but still. As for "Terrarian", the most prevalent one out of all of them, it's not bad. However, it's not really a proper name for an individual. "Terrarian" seems more like a label for someone belonging to a certain group/civilization as opposed to an actual person's name. From what I've seen, the name "Terrarian" pertains towards only the populace of Terraria (NPCs), which also includes your character as well. Truth is it fits better as a name for the inhabitants, not so much for the default character, despite the character being a Terrarian himself. You might say it's a good name representing the species, but he could still be known as "<name> the Terrarian". It's quite fine if the character is given the name Terrarian (but officially), however it's just seems...strange to me.
Question 3: "But, WE choose the name for the Terraria character. WE, the player, choose who we want to be."
Answer: This question I figured would show up. Let me shed some light on this inquiry to put it in best words possible: Yes, you can name, design, maximize your character in any way you want. However, here's the thing; in MC, there's Steve and Alex. They're the main default skins of MC, are they not? Of course they are. But here's the catch. The player customization in that game is practically huge, I mean HUGE. You can play as basically any character ever, ranging from the likes of Mario, Sonic, Darth Vader, Batman, Spiderman to literally anyone. You can customize at your will, the template your canvas, the world your oyster. MC embodies the breathtaking nature of a true sandbox game, and Terraria bears identical concepts to their player creation, but different obviously. What I'm saying is that while many don't play as the main default skins, Steve/Alex still both have names and community relevance, even if no one uses their skin. Same can be applied to terraria's default; not many would play as him, but he would still serve as the symbol of the player.
Question 4: "Why should the default have a name?"
Answer: As for why the character should have a name, these reasons are a bit odd but fairly reasonable: Firstly, it would just be a name for the default character only, not your player character's name. Secondly, a name is powerful, it means a lot to a fictional character and even to a real life person. A name can convey personality, meaning, life, etc. A character might be more important than his/her name, but names are significant. They define a person in ways that mean much more than just being a bunch of letters grouped together. It could give more life to a character. If terraria's default got an official name, it would open up to many opportunities, like bringing about fan theories/stories, artwork, merchandise potentially, and many more because the character'll have a more fresh identity within Terraria's community, just like MC Steve. There doesn't necessarily need to be a backstory in order for a character to be given a name, the name would just be there for you to fill in a story you have to offer for the main character. These opportunities may sound frivolous, but hey you never know how much it could mean, even myself I don't know.
What exactly is the benefit of this? It gives Terraria a more established, and offical, representative than simply having little to none. It would be like having someone bring the essence of Terraria and representing the player. Think of it this way: The Guide is the main representative of the Terraria NPCS, The Eye of Cthulhu is the main representative of the Terraria
Bosses. But there's no true representative for the player, however. You might think of the player in silver armor from the cover art, but then there's also those who use shadow armor, the lunar sets, hallowed and gold armor. All of these become incredibly inconsistent when choosing who to rep the terraria player, especially when they are very random at times. I think the default character best fits as the main representative of the player. He has an official, distinguishable design that many could recognize and serves the role better. The character would have more relevance and recognition like Minecraft's main character if he got a name, an actual identity, and became more prominent. Hey, he could even be recognized among the indie game community, and y'know, be up there alongside other famous indie characters. The default character could be the Steve of Terraria.
These are just some possibilities that could happen, there of course would be more beyond just this.
Aaand that's about it.
Now, please note that I am not at all suggesting that Terraria should do this. This was just me to explore possibilities on a simple, yet intriguing idea that, quite frankly, doesn't seem like such a time-consuming task. It could probably be done without a hitch. Nevertheless, I won't be begging for this to be implemented, of course, and won't expect it to happen anytime soon but at least give it a thought. Though, it's still odd with the fact that Terraria has a main default that you see a lot within the community, one that has a distinct design always set in place when you boot up the character creator section, with a close-yet-not-exactly-high recognition like Minecraft Steve and much more, but the only difference being that he holds no name and no real identification. Terraria should use this guy more. I just think it'd be neat.
I might edit this post with some text fixes, any mistakes, maybe new questions if I find any.
Edit: Fixed some wording/grammar, added minor info for better understanding, changed title.Now, please note that I am not at all suggesting that Terraria should do this. This was just me to explore possibilities on a simple, yet intriguing idea that, quite frankly, doesn't seem like such a time-consuming task. It could probably be done without a hitch. Nevertheless, I won't be begging for this to be implemented, of course, and won't expect it to happen anytime soon but at least give it a thought. Though, it's still odd with the fact that Terraria has a main default that you see a lot within the community, one that has a distinct design always set in place when you boot up the character creator section, with a close-yet-not-exactly-high recognition like Minecraft Steve and much more, but the only difference being that he holds no name and no real identification. Terraria should use this guy more. I just think it'd be neat.
I might edit this post with some text fixes, any mistakes, maybe new questions if I find any.
Edit 2: Changed various text/grammar, added more info, removed some stuff.
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Jusst Maxx him!