Please change the name!

[niall0 10]

I agree, the name doesn't sound catchy enough. It doesn't have the kind of name where people hear of it, then look into it to see what exactly it is. Neither does it have the kind of name that people can automatically place it and take their interest from there.

Take on could be percieved as taking it on as in you vs the Helicopters, or taking on the challenge of flying the choppers

[samb 15]

LOL

Sam

[Innomadic 10]

I like the name.

Run at me.

[kylania 568]

In conversational American English, no one ever says "take on" in any context. :)

Edit: I was just informed by my office mate that yes, he would say "take on a project" to which I replied, "take on your face". I'm fairly confident I won the argument.

Edited June 10, 2011 by kylania

[liquidpinky 11]

They called have called it "Helicopters fucking suck but it is all you will get to play as in this game baby" and I would still buy it.

It looks great and the attention to detail is where it is at, and watching the hijacked E3 Cam1 Colin at the time I would have been happy for him to stay talking with Jay for hours and have seen more. And I was initially only watching to see A3 but ToH certainly was worth plenty of attention in it's own right. As was Carrier Command BTW.

The name means little, this isn't some CoD game that needs to be cool with the xbox kiddehs. It is like the internetz, serious business.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Take on could be percieved as taking it on as in you vs the Helicopters, or taking on the challenge of flying the choppers

As in, "I'm such a pro at shooting russians it's getting boring, so maybe I'll Take On Helicopters next."

The name makes perfect sense, it's just not very conventional. Honestly, why does it matter?

[ProfTournesol 956]

TBH, when i saw the name - and the website - during the 1st april fool (should change my avatar now...), i really thought it was a joke...silly me.

[msimon 10]

Haters gonna hate.

[ocramweb 0]

omg jamesp >> Take On the door ! ;)

[GepardenK 0]

Now I’m not a native English speaker but I simply don’t get why Take on Helicopters is a bad name.

First off the name makes perfect sense as this game is clearly a take on helicopters.

If I were to present the name to someone and ask them what kind of game it sounded like, I would almost definitely get the answer "helicopter sim"

Secondly, and more importantly, the name differentiates itself from other heli simulators on the marked. This is extremely important for an independent company like BIS who doesn’t have a strong marketing force. They are not able to burn the name into everybody’s memory, so instead they make sure its impossible to confuse the name with a similar product.

Furthermore the name is insanely searchable. Other sims are usually named after specific helicopter models or have the word sim/simulator in it. This makes other pages like unrelated wikipedia articles etc pop up when you google them. In the case of "Take on helicopters" only pages relevant to the game (including the official home) and relevant youtube videos appears at top.

I cannot stress enough how important this is for small companies with low traffic official homepages. Relevant pages for the game will get buried if the name is commonly used other places on the net.

I get the feeling OP just wants to show off some kind of marketing theory he either studies, works with or are interested in. This is fine of course but I argue that brand naming (apart from differentiating and being searchable) is not something that is important in a niche marked like helicopter simulators. The most important thing here is just being the best heli sim on the marked. Because people just need one heli sim at a time and they will always buy the one that is known for being the best. It’s kind of like football (sorry, soccer:P ) managing games and "championship manager"

[jamesp 10]

Now I’m not a native English speaker but I simply don’t get why Take on Helicopters is a bad name.

Did you even read the initial post? My point is NOT that Take On Helicopters is a universally bad name. It's that it doesn't sound appealing to me as a native English speaker in the US or UK (and I should have added AU).

Yet you and a majority of other non-English as first language posters feel compelled to disagree with me. I guess you are in a superior position to know what sounds better in my language/dialect and culture than I am.

Since North America, UK and Australia are a tiny fragment of the gaming market why should BIS care, right?

A quick Google search reveals I am not alone:

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&id=101142

http://www.armaholic.com/polls.php?id=91#c25938

http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1074621-Rotors-Scoped-Take-On-Helicopters-Coming?p=28942757&viewfull=1#post28942757

Edited June 11, 2011 by jamesp

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

Why does Foxhound never post in these type threads?

[GepardenK 0]

Did you even read the initial post? My point is NOT that Take On Helicopters is a universally bad name. It's that it doesn't sound appealing to me as a native English speaker in the US or UK (and I should have added AU).

Yet you and a majority of other non-English as first language posters feel compelled to disagree with me. I guess you are in a superior position to know what sounds better in my language/dialect and culture than I am.

^^Yes I did read your first post but I never said I disagreed with it. As you state I am not a native English speaker and are therefore not the right person to decide whenever "Take on helicopters" sound appealing in the English language or not.

What I did say however is that the name makes sense, reveals the game’s purpose, and that it works from a marketing perspective (differentiating and being searchable remember), something you clearly made a case against in later posts.

There is an indie cult game by Amantia Design called "Samorost". That name doesn’t sound appealing in English either but was specifically chosen because it was searchable and different. And it worked too.

My point is that "Take on helicopters" won’t succeed or fail based on how appealing the name sounds. People don’t care about a simulators name; they just see that it is a helicopter sim and then they check out what features it has. The only important trait for a game name in this kind of niche marked is being different and searchable. But by now I am just repeating myself.

Also, I never said "Take on helicopters" sounded especially appealing in my language either (it seems to me you think all non english speaking europeans like this title because it somehow works in our language). Directly translatet "Take on helicopters" would be "Touch helicopters" in norwegian, and thats just creepy

Edited June 12, 2011 by GepardenK

[Rough Knight 9]

I tend to agree with the thread starter. The name never grabbed me from day one even though I love flight sims too.

It doesn't quite make sense as 'Take on' is typically used in the context of a sentence, not a short statement or name as such.

How about a community competition for a name? Give us some criteria and we can help with some idea's?

[metalcraze 290]

Well it looks like TKOH selected a name well after all.

It filters out unneeded gamers right from the title.

Maybe this will mean that unlike ArmA this game will be safe from the stupid whining a la "add ragdolls, forget about improving the gameplay - I can't play the game without them!!1"

[nightsta1ker 10]

in conversational american english, no one ever says "take on" in any context. :)

edit: I was just informed by my office mate that yes, he would say "take on a project" to which i replied, "take on your face". I'm fairly confident i won the argument.

buahahahahaha!!!

[ocramweb 0]

That take on a new significance, now I can take off !

[Daniel 0]

I'll admit it doesn't sound all that appealing but it's certainly memorable, so it does serve one marketing purpose. But to be honest I don't think the appeal of the name will have much impact on this particular target audience. They'll see that it's a photo-realistic helicopter sim and snap it up for the niche game it is.

[max power 21]

This same sort of name stuff was going on when ArmA first came out. I, personally think that Take On is different enough to establish a really strong brand identity. I like this name better than I did Armed Assault when it first came out, and that turned out alright after it was all said and done.

[h - 169]

What annoys me is people using TKOH when the game is infact TOH, as in Take On Helicopters, not Take K On Helicopters..

[blu3sman 11]

Maybe "T'oh!"?:D

[bobocz 10]

What annoys me is people using TKOH when the game is infact TOH, as in Take On Helicopters, not Take K On Helicopters..

Yeah that exactly what I do, annoy you :). Bis call it them self TKOH.

Our mission for core TKOH game is to create as good as possible helicopter experience - including but not limited to the well built career mode .......

Having his wings clipped today is Lukáš Milacek, who talks about modelling helicopters, discusses managing projects, and reveals the intended scale of Take On Helicopters (TKOH).

Now, I do same job on TKOH. I take care of the budget, assets creation and other administration.

even Maruk use it:

Our mission for core TKOH game is to create as good as possible helicopter experience - including but not limited to well built career mode and tutorials that will train users how to flight helicopters and introduce them to a world of helicopter simulators - and provide examples good enough for people to create whatever they like later in the game.

So I don't know if it is right. I can use only TOH, if it is problem :).

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

Bis call it them self TKOH.

Which reminded me of Operation Flashpoint.

[PuFu 4600]

You mean Operation FlashPoint

[celery 8]

You mean Operation FlashPoint

Say that to the devs.