Well, i wanted to ask everyone what do you usually call your characters in games such as Legend Of Zelda, Mass Effect, you know games like that. Just out of curiosity.
Myself i call them by my name, because i'm sad like that

For LoZ it's always Link. Otherwise it's whatever character it is.
Males it's my screen name.
Females is my old creen name udner Braids.

Do you mean in games where it actually matters? Where others will see it? or is it just personal? In games where I have my own tag, I make one up, or use the immediate surroundings to help me.

I tend to use the names given to me by the game. Otherwise, I have a small list of names I'll use for a character. As for online tags, I've been bouncing back and forth on a few tags. Think I'll stick with Necrohydra, though.

If this is a single player game where I'm the only one who ever sees the name, I tend to use the defaults. If it's a multiplayer game that's short term (a deathmatch or LAN party or something) I tend to use tiredinnuendo. If it's an MMO or something similar, I don't play it. (rimshot!)

But seriously, I generally try to give myself standard and "meshing with the world" type names in MMOs and the like. I've often been of the opinion that if you think a name is clever or funny... it isn't. Or at least it won't be in three months.

- J

When I play that type of game (RPG's) I call my character Ceestuff Engrabbit.

But I've never admitted that publicly before...

It varies for males, but for females, Hystaene.

Just to clarify i mean both, singleplayer and multiplayer. Thankee for the replies so far by the way.

Multiplayer games are always TheNecroswanson.

Normally it's John Galt for males and Dagny Taggart or Ayn Rand for females. I prefer to have NPCs know my philosophical views during ahead of time.

Personally I go with nouns, or noun forms of words,
Fustigus,
Tibia,
Risotto,
Sardonicus,
Though I do have a city of heroes character called Disco Biscuit.
for non mmo games I usually just use the default names.

Rob Inglis:
Do you mean in games where it actually matters? Where others will see it? or is it just personal? In games where I have my own tag, I make one up, or use the immediate surroundings to help me.

Behold! The mighty warrior deskchair, and his faithful sidekick, the witty bard teaspoon ;-)

I call my characters Thaliur, usually. Female characters (if I play them) mostly end up being called Khorena.
I use other names occasionally though, whatever comes to my mind.

Wow. Now that I think about it, I've used a ridiculous amount of names.

Multiplayer Usernames - Rockman, Tallgeese, DuckSandwich

Shadow Over Mystara
Cleric - Smite, Bishop, Khufu
Elf - Lilith, Ariel
Thief - Raven, Jill (In that game, the Thief is the Master of Unlocking)
Dwarf - Brutus, Skrunk
Fighter - Crassus (default name)
Mage - Cyrus, Magus

Knights o' The Ol' Republic
Lightside Male - Kerrek, Captain Kickass
Darkside Male - Darth Kickass
Female - Raven

Diablo 2
Paladin - Redeemer, SabreFrost (Holy freeze + sword user)
Amazon - Venom Huntress

Whole bunch of Diablo II characters are springing to mind.

Barbarian - Slaughter, FireCore
Amazon - Charisma
Mage - Kya
Assassin - IceHale (I had two copies of the rune word claws for you people who remember those)
Necromancer - Styles (Because I thought necromancers were only good for one thing... looking cool)
Paladin - Lightforge (Been using this name for years, only to have Blizzard name a set after it in WoW. I wish it was named after me. lol)

And I used to play a MUD years ago in which I had a humanoid spider wielding 4 swords called Blits.

I'd go on listing more... but I have to go to work.

Usually Thrust or Thrust Harbinger (old Btech name).

And just a question, but why is Kaneda upside down?

generally i like to name my rpg chars my own name. naming them something thats dumb kinda ruins the illusion for me. usually after i beat it, if i go back to it,(and thats rare) i name myself something that makes the npcs say dumb things like yahtzee says "fagballs" or w/e.

I always use Anarchemitis everywhere. It's orginal, long and elaborate enough to be recognizable and ludicrous to be repeated by someone else. I have yet to see an "Anarchemitis1" or equivalent. In this way I never have to put numbers in my name. :D
Please no one steal my style.

Hmmm... I usually just pick the names the game offers me. Pokemon games I'll either use Ash or name it after the version color (except I used Natsuko for my latest Sapphire file). I don't play MMOs much (=at all), so there's not much there. As for online tags, it's usually whatever I happen to be into at the time. (Example would be this username: I was working hard on said Sapphire version file when I registered, and natsu=summer, so blaze seemed appropriate.)
Of course, then we get into how I name the characters in my stories... and that gets pretty fun. Anyone else out there make up new characters, and names for 'em?

Depends on the game - Mass Effect i used Bengy. Close enuff to my name. But other games where its visable to other people, something much cooler is required. In a prev life I used Kergen. Which then got ripped off into Kermit (bastards!)

Most recently i got thru Ian M Banks books for cool Sci Fi names. Just about all of his AI names are brilliant, ie: Fate Amendable to Change, Ethics Gradient, Problem Child, Sleeper Service, Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence.

Awesome stuff.

I made my name 'I am' once, expecting something funny to come of it, but alas, it just made it seem like Pokemon had really bad grammar. "I am picked up a widget" sort of thing. Not that great.

Icerift.

I don't know why but I randomly thought of it a long time ago, like when I was 12, and I use it for it's nostalgic value.

Khell_Sennet:
Usually Thrust or Thrust Harbinger (old Btech name).

And just a question, but why is Kaneda upside down?

KAAAANEEEEDAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, couldn't help it.

Bastak

Neither can I...

TETSUO!!!!!

He's still upside down isn't he...

In single-player games I usually leave it as the default. If there is no default name, I'll use my real name or name them after a bird of prey.

Online games, I always use an established handle.

as a writer i tend to go with names from characters in my books. Den Anima is my favorite character and one with a personal meaning to me so i generally only use it when playing with friends.

but if i'm using a guy i generally go with either: Nightmare_gorilla, Den Anima, or Poshu Oshu. because if you can make people fear the name poshu, you are one bad dude.

for women it's either Chey Anima, Danny, or Clair, Chey is a name i recently came up with that i liked so much i married her to den for the last name, as for danny and clair, well they're just female names i kinda like.

though as i said they are characters from my books so i try to match the actual characters themselves, for a really big grey haired war veteran, i use garez, for a younger lanky guy i use the name niko. they just work to me.

If its possible to fit it in i go Richard Cranium. If not then just my actual name

Normally just the default, but on multiplayers, I almost always go with Sypher or DuctTapedGerbil.

I don't know why on the last one, I thought of it years ago.

For online shooters I have a few different online names that I alternate. I'll stick with a name for a while if I frequent a server a lot or get to know some people. For some strange reason I seem to do better after changing my name.

For MMORPGs I try to keep a name that fits in the world. Even if I don't roleplay, I still don't like adventuring with guys like DeEZnutZ69. I often pick a name with a mild Buddhist influence (like Bodhi or something).

For single player games I often keep the character's default name if I can. Or I use my real name if it seems appropriate.

Lime Head. I always go with Lime Head. Why? Lemon Head is overused and all the other fruits (vegtables?) just sound mean.

I use my initials (RJ) most of the time because im lazy and don't like to spell things out, but when i feel like digging myself further in the pit of social outcastdome that i inhabit i use the name of the main carachter of the book i'm reading

For single-player games I choose pretty random names either based on the character's appearance or words that I think will be amusing when they pop up in dialog. Pokemon characters are usually 'Slut' or 'Manslut' (With Pokemon called 'Assmunch', 'Stripper' and 'Testacool', among others), my kotor2 char is 'Grizzled Toughguy' (with respect to Yahtzee for his observations about male video game heroes). If (as in the case of a lot of JRPGs) there are wacky symbols available like smiley faces or music notes, I'll usually just string a bunch of those together.

Multiplayer is almost always chaos95, or if numbers aren't allowed/two names are required I'll usually use Marat Rel, which I got from a random RPG name generator many years ago.

I have always used Hank for male characters. In MMOs I tend to grab a Japanese dictionary and name the character something really lame that sounds sort of neat. Like Aoijin. (blue man--a blue drenai).
Also, I tend to use Longsack...don't ask.