Could We Find a Different Abbreviation for Skyward Sword?

[Michael Heide]

I know it's fast to type, but SS has baaaad connotations, especially here in Germany. Couldn't we call SWS for Skyward Sword?

Thanks.

 

[Link-182]

Sorry if it does... but I don't think it really affects anyone. Well... I guess you. But I mean Twilight Princess had TP, aka Toilet Paper. And you COULD make up any horrifying abbreviation to any game... MM, could be Monkey Molesters... I dunno lol,that was random. But the SS in Germany ended in 1945. That's a little long to be getting worried over two letters I think, and I'm German.
I don't mean to offend by saying SS but it just means Skyward Sword, and if your not reading it on a Zelda fan site then you know its bad, but if its on Zelda dungeon then we mean no harm.
SWS... I saw it yesterday and it just confused me at first. I don't think people will catch on unless your making it specific every time. Maybe ZSS. I dunno...

 

[athenian200]

A different abbreviation?

Well, not a totally different one. We could make it so that it's more than just SS, though.

What about LoZSS? That would be unambiguous, I think. No chance of it being mistaken for the Schutzstaffel if we use that. I guess we don't want people to think we have a whole bunch of Nazi sympathizers on here.

 

[Michael Heide]

Har. Har. I'm not talking about mistaking one thing for another. I'm talking about not using that acronym out of respect for their victims. Maybe I'm a bit over-sensitive to this, but let me put it this way: If the next Zelda game was called "Knight of the Karma Kingdom" or whatever, you'd probably try to avoid anything that makes you think of burning crosses.

 

[athenian200]

Har. Har. I'm not talking about mistaking one thing for another. I'm talking about not using that acronym out of respect for their victims. Maybe I'm a bit over-sensitive to this, but let me put it this way: If the next Zelda game was called "Knight of the Karma Kingdom" or whatever, you'd probably try to avoid anything that makes you think of burning crosses.

I... actually didn't intend my post above as a joke. I seriously thought that might be the issue with that acronym. I guess not.

Well, I think in that case, we would probably abbreviate it to K3, or ZK3 out of convenience. Because we could do that without increasing the number of letters.

With Skyward Sword, that's harder to do. Anything you can up with would have more letters, or the same amount. I suppose we could try S2, or ZS2, but that might confuse people into thinking it was the sequel to something, while not being any faster to write.

It's really tough to come up with an alternative at this point, though. Why couldn't Nintendo have just called it "Skyward Blade"? Then again, this isn't the first time they've done something like this, so I wouldn't be surprised if some have already gotten the suspicion that the Zelda developers are secretly in favor of the Nazi ideology.

This definitely doesn't make them look good.

 

[Michael Heide]

I apologize for the snarkiness. I thought you were yanking my chain.

And the Dungeon from Zelda 1 was a counterclockwise swastika, a symbol from buddhist mythology.
The nazis used a clockwise swastika.

 

[arkvoodle]

I know it's fast to type, but SS has baaaad connotations, especially here in Germany. Couldn't we call SWS for Skyward Sword?

Thanks.

Although I understand perfectly clear, I don't think Nintendo needs to change the name of their game. In short, letters are letters. One abbreviation does not stand for everything.

I could say PP, which could mean Pumpkin Pie or Party People. SS doesnt have to be automatically related to the SS soldiers of Nazi Germany.

And about your example of the KKK thing. It doesnt necessarily have to be associated with the racist group either.

Don't take offense, i'm simply pointing out the obvious fact that not everything has a negative connotation.

 

[Michael Heide]

Although I understand perfectly clear, I don't think Nintendo needs to change the name of their game.

And I don't ask them to. It's not about the full name, it's about the abbreviations. Every time I read "SS", my toenails coil up.

 

[arkvoodle]

And I don't ask them to. It's not about the full name, it's about the abbreviations. Every time I read "SS", my toenails coil up.

I do understand what you mean, but the abbreviation SS isnt meant to be offensive or vaguely related to the SS soldiers.
It's also too widely known and too popular to change SS as the abbreviation for Skyward Sword. Maybe if you prefer you can use SwS or even the full name, Skyward Sword

 

[Ryan]

Zelda WMP cause it uses wii motion plus!

 

[Xinnamin]

People would probably understand ZSS to mean Skyward Sword if you really don't want to use SS, at least ZSS is probably the next most common acronym as I'm not sure how recognizable SWS or something of that degree would be.

The acronym SS is actually pretty common. I remember for a while I kept confusing SS for Pokemon Soul Silver. Pretty much no one these days will associate SS with Nazi Germany anymore unless the context of the conversation points at it, since that's a part of world history that's happened long enough ago that no one is really gonna think about it, especially in the video game community. I can understand your discomfort, and I respect that, but it's not a big enough issue for enough people that people will make an effort to change it.

 

[dumb180]

I actually had to think a moment before I got why the OP thought of SS as a negative acronym.

First, I don't many people think of the Waffen SS when they read SS anymore. It has a lot of meanings. Of course there's Skyward Sword, but an even more common one would be Strong Safety (here in the US).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_(disambiguation)

Second, even if the SS were the only ones to wear the acronym, we should use it anyway. I think that giving them exclusivity to the acronym actually glorifies them in a bizarre way. So I guess I'm saying we need to use SS to abbreviate things more often.

Something to the effect of "What if it was KKK?" was asked. KKK, amazingly enough, is also a fairly common acronym.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKK_(disambiguation)

 

[Ventus]

I like the OP's idea of using SwS, or even Xinn's ZSS (but I always think Zero Suit Samus, thanks a lot, SSBBrawl). You could call it Skyward Blade, since Blade and Sword have similar first-reactions (blade always comes into my head as a sword/rapier...), and that actually looks cooler than Skyward Sword.

 

[MOTLEYlink]

I see what you mean, SS seems to be one of the best acronym for this game but I have no problem calling Skyward Sword by its full name.

 

[PhantomTriforce]

Well, I guess the best way for you to communicate it is with ZSS, for Zelda: Skyward Sword. People will understand that.