What's the story behind your username and avatar?

[CyclonicTuna 87]

I've been on the forums for over 4 years now. But I've actually only just uploaded an avatar, lol :p. I've seen some curious usernames and avatars in my day, and I always wonder what the story is behind them. So that's why I thought I'd make this thread. See this as an oppertunity to tell your story, and maybe introduce yourself if you havn't already.

The story behind my username and avatar isn't actually that exciting but it is kind of funny. When I was about 13 my parents allowed me to buy and Xbox 360. Back then, I didn't have a PC and the Xbox was sort of my first step into hardcore gaming. I had owned a Nintendo Gamecube before that.

Me being a little 13 year old snot, just wanted to play games immediately, so during the first boot-up I didn't really pay much attention and wanted to get thrue the account creation process as quickly as possible, thereby skipping the part where you had to create a username. Now, when you skip this step Microsoft gives you a nickname generated out of a couple of thousand random words, mine being obviously, CyclonicTuna. Now, you should know that I'm extremely lazy about these sort of things. It doesn't really bug me, untill it bugs me, if that makes any sense. So I didn't really ever change it after that, and really only started noticing the name when playing online. People just started to call me CyclonicTuna, my friends started calling me CyclonicTuna. So, I just sort of stuck with it, and eversince whenever I create an account of somesorts, I often use my Microsoft randomly generated name.

I don't really mind, I think its a pretty unique and quircky name.

Now my avatar is the main character from Ace Combat Assault horizon. The game wasn't to great, but I just really like that picture. I think it expresses the fact that I'm really into jets and earospace technology. I also really enjoy flying in Arma and flightsim games.

Edited January 16, 2014 by CyclonicTuna

[Tonci87 163]

My nickname consists of my first name coupled with my birth year.

My Avatar is a picture of the first Croatian King Tomislav. Actually I have no idea what made me choose this picture as my Avatar but I´ve been using it ever since.

[Gunter Severloh 3948]

Hi great idea for a thread, I would be interested in learning more about my forum mates here.

As for myself, I created my first name for the PC game Red Orchestra back in 2006 Gunter, the 2nd part of my name I added to it back in 2007.

My name Günter Severloh I created in 2007 for my WW2 realism unit in the game Red orchestra, a WW2 pc game based on the OstFront or Eastern front.

The name Günter I got from a German WW2 MG42 machine gunner on the Eastern front, the soldier's actual name is

Günter Koschorrek

he wrote a book, a diary he recorded during the war, the name of his book is called "Blood Red Snow"

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=5xhsaolGI3IC

I took his first name, and then the 2nd part of my name Severloh I took from

Heinrich Severloh

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=62104

Heinreich Severloh was known as the "Beast of Omaha", a MG42 machine gunner on the Omaha Beach.

So my name is based off of 2 WW2 German soldiers.

In the Game Red orchestra I played as machine gunner almost all the time, now that the mg42 is available for Arma3 :D

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/504698112759354261/A12BDE59589360CC993A43581B1B19E6E85B175A/

I get to use it in the game too!!!

As for my avatar I formally used this http://media.steampowered.com/steamcommunity/public/images/avatars/e2/e2addc76a8c7ec4bbb46f47a6df29280c66a9a0e_full.jpg the SS soldier moving with the mg42, thats been my avatar since I created my name,

but I use my current one as I love the navy seals, before I had this avatar

I had used this since my account creation here.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Günter Severloh

[Lenyoga 326]

Interesting idea for a thread, I haven't given that much thought up to now.

My name Lenyoga (I'm usually going with that one in all video game related matters) is actually a failed anagram for "Legion". I decided to use one in Baldur's Gate II after seeing that Stephen King adaption (Storm of the Century), but I somehow completely failed at typing, and so Lenyoga came into existence, and I just stuck with it, because it sounded somewhat funny.

The person in my profile picture is Vice Admiral (later Grand Admiral) Thrawn, from the Star Wars universe. I got to know and like him in TIE Fighter, one of the best Star Wars games ever; I'd love to have a sort of modernized version or reboot of that one. And I also kind of look like him; red eyes, blueish skin. I'm using this one on YouTube and BIS Forums only, but those are the only two platforms where my identity stays somewhat coherent. I think I might have over 5 names already...

[Nicholas 5]

.....

Edited October 13, 2014 by Nicholas

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

A long long time ago, in a place far away, where the tumbleweeds rolled across the plains in blissful ignorance of the slaughter to come when they reached the fences, I was the best damn OH-6 pilot this side of the Atlantic in Battlefield: Vietnam. Back in the amazing days where your rotors had no physical presence when spinning, and I could scare the living frakking daylights out of pubbers and clanmates (These were the good ol days of [AirCav] Jungle Hell, Hastings Helo Killers, RevR 24/7 Flaming Dart, etc. etc. The glory days of BFV.) by taking my ship down below the trees, flying through any and every gap large enough for me to slide the fuselage through at an angle.

I was on a Vietnam War kick for a while, getting my hands on any and every book that told the story of the war from a perspective I hadn't seen before. I'd read We Were Soldiers, Chickenhawk, whole bunch of infantry stories, when I happened upon a book called "Low Level Hell: A Scout Pilot In The Big Red One". Hugh Mills flew an OH-6 and AH-1 in Vietnam, got shot down something like 15-16 times, and eventually got around to documenting some of his experiences in this book. One of his callsigns, used during one of his tours as a loach pilot, was Darkhorse 1-6. I liked it, it's a cavalry sort of callsign which also drew me to it, and after a year or two of rotating out fairly crappy Battlestar Galactica inspired usernames it was just something that stuck.

Of course it's also been turned into Darkwhore, Darkpony, and my personal favorite mockery- ShadedPony.

I'm unsure where I picked up my avatar, but I think it's a scaled down crop of an artists work depicting Hugh Mills' OH-6 a clanmate sent me some 7-8 years ago or more.

http://www.vhpamuseum.org/16thcav/ctroop/ctroop.shtml

[ProfTournesol 956]

Nice topic, thanks for opening it.

So, my nick comes from the Belgian comic book Tintin, from the name of the crazy scientist called Professeur Tournesol in French but in some other languages Calculus or Bienlein or Zonnebloem.

My current avatar comes from the Rayman vs Raving Rabbids games series, created by Ubisoft (one of the good things they did), those Rabbids like to yell "BWAAAAAAAAH!" and do incredibly stupid things.

[Tankbuster 1733]

- ShadedPony.

I'm claiming at least partial credit/blame for that one! LOL.

[R0adki11 3945]

A great topic to have, anyway where my nickname/alias/gaming name/ comes from is kind of a mystery. I originally started playing Computer Games, with the likes of Team Fortress Classic, Counter Strike (when it was only a mod), Total Annihilation and Red Alert ( i have the original CD's when it was released). Around the time i was introduced into playing Team Fortress Classic, i needed a name and some how came up with R0adki11. I added the 0 and 1s to make it uber elite as was the hype to do back then.

My current Avatar is my squad and gaming community logo FUSION. Which itself has its own history: FUSION is a merger between two Squads: Platoon and Geeks With Guns (GWG). Both Squads already had a rich history, with Platoon going back to the CC4 days (2001), and GWG being there from the start of Operation Flashpoint (2002).

[sanctuary 19]

Username comes from AD&D, that was an usefull level 1 spell from the Cleric class.

Avatar comes from a piece of the heroic fantasy illustrator Larry Elmore, took this part as it was as beardy as i am :D

[CyclonicTuna 87]

So, my nick comes from the Belgian comic book Tintin, from the name of the crazy scientist called Professeur Tournesol in French but in some other languages Calculus or Bienlein or Zonnebloem.

Oh that's so cool! I'm a huge Tin Tin fan :D! But I have the comics in Dutch so I know him as "Professor Zonnebloem". I never knew he was called Tournesol in french :P.

[mrcash2009 0]

Interesting thread on how people thought up names.

Mines pretty straight forward, logged in here back in 2007 using a forward thinking year (bad idea really) and watched/read Johnny cash film/bio and at the start of the film you have cash in thought being asked "mr cash?" over and over ... so that stuck when I logged in. I was going to go for a blinged up diamond encrusted cristal image and go all money,money,money ... but thought best not too.

[rulie-JDF- 10]

"rulie" is just short for rule.303 which is from the movie Breaker Morant. My avatar is from the "Free rulie" movement. Im not actually a Kangaroo though...:p

[CyclonicTuna 87]

Keep em coming guys! Love reading these :D

[eduzumaki 12]

Great tread my nick name comes in an obscure past when i needed an account in a Naruto's forum so why not make a funny combination my name Eduardo with naruto's last name Uzumaki so there is since 2008 with this nickname Eduzumaki .

[Miroslaw Kowalski 54]

Yeah...when i was 10 I signed in into the first forum i ever saw. It was a Yu-Gi-Oh! (a TCG) forum. And I wanted to have a name that represents my favorite card. And as bad as my english was at this time I thought its name was "BusterBlader" (it actually was "Blade Buster"). So I named myself "BusterBlader" which resulted in everyone just calling me "Buster". So I finally ended up with the name "Buster".

Avatar....I never ever had one :D lack of ideas (maybe anyone has one?)

[Colossus 2]

I think I just wanted something that sounded cool at the time. I took the nickname "Colossus" after the Colossus of Rhodes. Don't know why I started with having avatars of old black and white war movies I've watched, but it has gone to be a thing.

First up was Colonel Mathieu, played by Jean Martin in "La battaglia di Algeri" ("The Battle of Algiers") from 1966:

The next being Major Saint-Auban, played by Richard Anderson in "Paths of Glory" from 1957:

And as of right now it's Major John Howard, played by Richard Todd (or William Shatner is disguise) in "The Longest Day" from 1962:

:)

[krycek 349]

Let's say me and Mulder had different opinions,'nuff said!:blues:

[Lenyoga 326]

Let's say me and Mulder had different opinions,'nuff said!:blues:

I often used someone who's very fond of cigarettes as profile pic. Didn't you technically kill me off or not at one point?

[Maio 293]

Good thread.

I chose this nick back in 2007 when I started playing SWAT 4 with a friend. We though it would be funny if we chose food based nicknames :o He stopped playing SWAT4, but I continued and people started knowing me by "maionaze" so I kept it.

Although to be honest, I am considering shortening it to "Maio" as:

1. I don't really like maionaze :j:

2. Most people I play with usually end up calling me just Maio anyway.

As for my current avatar. It's the offspring of my indignation towards Nikos( the guy in the picture) lack of a suitably awkward head piece to go with his stylish choice of clothes. For you new guys, this is how he looked before the makeover.

[CyclonicTuna 87]

Avatar....I never ever had one :D lack of ideas (maybe anyone has one?)

I dunno. The first thing that came to mind for me was the movie Bladerunner. At least that's what I sort of would associate your nickname with at first sight. I mean every name has a background but it doesn't necessarily have to be asociated with your avatar.

You'll think of something ;).

[chrisb 196]

Mine, well that's my name, obviously ‘b’ for the initial of my surname.

The avatar, William Henry Pratt ‘Boris Karloff’.

In the very early 1970’s in the U.K. there was a film on every Monday evening starting at 10.30 or sometimes 11.00pm, the slot time went under the title of ‘Appointment With Fear’, obviously the film playing would always be a horror film, my favourite’s were anything with Karloff in, I was 11yrs old in 1970, so the films could be pretty scary. Not only that, but I had to talk my mum into letting me stay up to watch them, that could be even scarier ;).

I usually ended up watching them on my own because everyone else went to bed :butbut:

[Heinrich Kramer 172]

My nickname comes Indirectly directly from Arma 2 Itself.

I wanted a new Profilename since the last one was a nickname i picked when i was 9, and i didn't want to take my Computername (as arma does for the first Profile)

so it suggested me SYSTEM as a profile name and i kept it.

since SYSTEM is a nickname that most forums don't accept, i changed it to TheSystem in the BI forums.

in other Forums i am also known as [GQRF] SYSTEM or GQRF_SYSTEM since it is my clantag.

Kind of boring, i know, but i am not too big with my imagination in such things

[rowdied 44]

My name is roderick. Growing up I was called a lot of things, good and bad, but mostly it was hot rod, rod da bod or rowdy roddy piper. I use to use rowdy a lot way back when I first started signing up for forums but ran into people using that moniker already so I decided to use rowdied. I choose the name rowdied because I use to die a lot playing with my friends. "rowdy died again" is what I would always here, so I combined the two rowdy + died = rowdied.

My avatar is a VW symbol because I am a hard core VW fan.

that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

[[aps]gnat 28]

Great thread idea. Even better stories ! Thanks guys, real interesting.

@ProfTournesol

Tin Tin! Of course, I'm a big fan but been too long since I read them ...... (starts googling 2nd hand Tin Tin books)

Mine .... Nat (first 3 letters of my first name) was been my nickname forever. Once I started gaming ......

........ Tabletop gaming that is, including Miniatures (American civil war, WWII, Ships of the line), (100's) boardgames of every variations, war and otherwise, Roleplay (D&D, Traveller etc) ......

I simply added a "silent G", and everyone joined in.

Of course "it" (Gnat) does ring a little true for what I like to do in games, fly about annoying the shit out of things on the ground :D

The avatar; One of my favourite cartoons, Calvin and Hobbes and a favourite alter-ego , Spaceman Spiff.