This is part 3 of a 3-part series

Okay. Okay. I get it. The name “Nathan” is popular. According to some baby name experts “Nathan” is far more popular than “Geoff” (talk about uncharted!) or even “Stephen” (which is plummeting in popularity).

But still. The “Bionic Commando” team had plenty of other options.

They didn’t have to name their guy Nathan Spencer, not with Nathan Drake and Nathan Hale already in the next-gen. And not with the original “BC” starring a character not named Nathan.

If anyone had some explaining to do, it was the people at Capcom. So I shined the proverbial bright light in their face and asked them the tough questions (over e-mail, naturally)

Multiplayer: Why did you choose the name Nathan for your lead character?

Ben Judd, Capcom producer: Choosing names is never easy. You have to consider how it sounds rhythmically, whether it fits the character image, and for titles that you are pushing on a worldwide scale, how it will sound culturally in each of the countries you are focusing on.

Multiplayer: What was the back-up name, if any?

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This is part 2 of a 3-part series

If anyone has a right to be upset about the rampant Nathan-izing of video games, it’s Insomniac Games president and CEO Ted Price. His studio’s 2006 PS3 launch title “Resistance: Fall of Man” featured a Nathan Hale based on a real guy of the same name. Unlike the “Uncharted” and “Bionic Commando” people, he had no choice but to go with “Nathan.”

Today, he stands flattered by imitation. He’s the originator. (Well, sure there’s this even earlier video game Nathan, but that’s outside the scope of this otherwise sweeping investigation.)

But Ted Price doesn’t sound angry. How can that be? Wouldn’t Miyamoto be mad if someone else made a game starring a “Mario Drake”? My expose continues…

Multiplayer: Why did you choose the name Nathan for your lead character?

Ted Price, Insomniac Games CEO: Nathan Hale in “Resistance: Fall of Man” is a direct descendant of the Nathan Hale in American and British history books. The original Hale was a patriot, at least to Americans. The British were a little less fond of him – they considered him a traitor. We liked the historical irony since in “Resistance” Hale becomes a bridge of sorts between the American army and the British resistance forces.

Multiplayer: What was the back-up name, if any?

Read more…

This is part 1 of a 3-part series

Scandal? Homage? Blatant copy-catting? Or just plain coincidence?

Whatever the cause, I have spent part of the past week investigating the phenomenon of three major PS3-generation video games starring a lead character named Nathan.

How could developers of three games — “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” “Resistance: Fall of Man” and the new “Bionic Commando” all go with the same character name? Could they be drawing from a common well-spring of inspiration? Were they trying to start a beef among studios? By asking them all about each other, is that what I was doing?

I took these questions to the people responsible. Here’s the first part of the story, from Naughty Dog’s “Uncharted” game director Amy Hennig.

Multiplayer: Why did you choose the name Nathan for your lead character?

Amy Hennig, Naughty Dog game director: Because our hero is supposedly descended from Sir Francis Drake, we wanted his name to have both a historical and contemporary ring to it. We didn’t want it to sound too old-fashioned, and it had to be able to be shortened to a short, regular-guy nickname.

So Nathan was an obvious choice. Sounds kind of historical, but shortens to “Nate” – a nice, solid, “guy’s guy” name. We also thought of Ethan, but what does that shorten to? Ete? And most of the other historical-sounding names we came up with were too elaborate.

Multiplayer: What was the back-up name, if any?

Read more…