But as with my example with people who weld, I don’t call all humans welders–just the ones who do welding. If I call the Caponians in the game “alien mindbenders”, it’s in regards to the specific individual aliens involved with the mindbending plot–not the Caponian race as a whole. Or to go with that Klingon example so we can stick with aliens, calling Worf a security officer does not mean I think all Klingons can be called security officers. Just as not all Klingons are security officers, not all Caponians are Alien Mindbenders. Alien Mindbenders are a profession (or class, as you suggested in the other thread)–not an entire alien race.
No, that’s different. Black & Decker is a brand name based on the names of the founders, not a descriptive name like Mindbender is. The Mindbender is called that precisely because that’s what it does, just like a welding machine is called a welder. Sure, The Mindbender is presented as a proper noun, but you can’t tell me its name has nothing to do with its function. The only reason there’s no real-world example is because a similarly descriptive name would quickly enter generic usage and lose trademark protection (in the US, anyway).
Unless you can prove to me that the wiki article was written by a disinterested third party, that proves nothing. I expect that wikipedia articles are maintained by people who have a passion for the topic in question. Someone who loves Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders so much that they wrote a wiki article about it is the FIRST person I’d expect to know the Caponians by name. Now what about people who never played Zak McKracken? How are they supposed to know the aliens were called Caponians? It’s not written on the front of the box or on the back. I had known the exact title of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders for almost 20 years before I finally got to play the game. In that time, I had never heard the name “Caponian” mentioned once. I guarantee that if you were to do a survey of adventure gamers, you’ll find that the name “Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders” will be much more commonly known than “Caponians” will be. Yes, I know evidence exists that shows the aliens are called Caponians. But I also know that people love to not do the research. It would be silly of me to expect people who never played a game to be familiar with the name of the aliens in it, especially when I have played the game and managed to forget. Around here, using the term “Caponians” makes sense, but for people who only know Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders as that game that’s kind of like Maniac Mansion, calling the aliens Caponians only means that I’ll have to then explain that they’re the ones doing the alien mindbending.
[quote]Anyway feel free to call the Stormtroopers the “Star Wars Empire Soldiers”, I don´t really care.
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That’s the opposite scenario. All Stormtroopers are Imperial Soldiers, but not all Imperial Soldiers are Stormtroopers. If I talk about Stormtroopers specifically, that means I’m only talking about the soldiers generally seen in white armor. I would not expect anyone to assume I’m also talking about uniformed officers, or the black-suited pilots or commandos. If the Caponians are the equivalent of the Imperial Army, the Alien Mindbenders would be a group of Stormtroopers within that army.
[quote]Status of Counter of times I already mentioned how tired I am of this discussion: just exploded due to severe overheat…
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Next time, don’t use a Galaxy Note 7 as your Counter. The life you save could be your own!
Anyway, to sum up, I agree with the following quote–with a caveat:
DISCLAIMER: I would also expect to see non-Alien Mindbender bios, such as the following made up example:
Name: Groxnar
Race: Caponian
Class: Carnivorous Plant Breeder
I DO NOT agree with the following totally made-up quote:
Italians are WAY more talkative than Germans.