Sword Art Online different character appearances and naming issues [warning: many spoilers]

I recently read through the novels that were translated on baka-tsuki, which made me aware of some issues with this series. The Sword Art Online series ends up taking place through a few different games (Sword Art Online [SAO], ALfheim Online [ALO], & Gun Gale Online [GGO]), and the appearance of the avatars used by the characters can change between the games. There might be a need to differentiate between which game (or perhaps novel volume, though that would be less ideal) the depicted character is from.

There is also the issue with using the character's names, as they have both an avatar name and a real life name. In most cases the avatar and the real life person will have an identical appearance if they're a Sword Art Online player (outside of perhaps hairstyle and color, though eye color was also changeable), as their real life appearance was forced upon their game avatars (episode 1 and volume 1). Kirigaya Kazuto /Kirito ends up with a trap appearance in Gun Gale Online in volume 5. Two non-SAO players where this is an issue is Asada Shino/Shinon and Lyfa/Lyfa's player (though there are currently no images on danbooru depicting her real life appearance, but it may become an issue as the anime progresses past episode 12-13, assuming the 25 episodes listed on wikipedia and AniDB is accurate). Additionally our current tagging has used the game handle name for all the characters, but for the character "Asuna" we're using her real life name, "Yuuki Asuna" for the character tag.

Current Characters with issues:
Asuna (Real name: Yuuki Asuna, revealed at end of volume 1 which would equate to probably around anime episode 12-13): Real Life/Sword Art Online (post #1122700), ALfheim Online (post #1137436 one on the right)

Kirito (Real name: Kirigaya Kazuto, revealed also at end of volume 1): Real Life/Sword Art Online (post #1096910), ALfheim Online (baka-tsuki image ), Gun Gale Online (post #1154668).

Silica (Real name: revealed at the end of volume 4 which probably equates to episode 25): Real Life/Sword Art Online (post #1142517), ALfheim Online (post #812763) (more or less the same, though change in outfit and now has cat ears and tail).

Shinon (Real name: Asada Shino, revealed early in volume 5, same volume the character first appears): Real Life (post #1120998), Gun Gale Online (post #1152417, post #1152420), ALfheim Online (post #1025327, 3rd from the left).

Characters with potential issues in the future:
Lisbeth (Real name: revealed in volume 2, probably equates to around episode 6, same volume the character first appears): Real Life (w/o pink hair)/Sword Art Online (post #1210439), ALfheim Online (baka-tsuki image more or less the same, slightly different outfit and presence of pointy ears).

Lyfa (Real name: revealed halfway through volume 3, probably around episode 15-16): Real Life (baka tsuki image black hair, likely black eyes), ALfheim Online (post #1187473)

Shorten version: There is an issue of lumping all character depictions under one character tag, though the appearance of that character can vary between real life and the various avatars they might use in games of the series. There is also an issue on which name is used and when that name should be applied, right now almost all the characters are labeled under their game handle name regardless of how they're depicted and in the case of "Asuna" the tag being used is "Yuuki_Asuna" which is her real name and somewhat of a spoiler (it reveals the fact she didn't use another name in the game which wasn't revealed until the end of volume 1, likely episode 12 of the anime).

I had been thinking of doing this kind of organization for a long time- blame my laziness for not doing it.

But then at certain times/images, the Avatar name should be aliased to their real names- probably if multiple versions of the players avatar are in the image- but then that would be in the lines of spoiling.

Wouldn't using their real names for their real world appearances and player names for their avatars without linking the two be the best method for the avatar/real-world issue?
Well, the copyright tag would still spoil it somewhat, anyhow.

As for differing character designs at different timings like:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=28815784

kirito, kirito_(sao), kirito_(ggo), kirito_(alo), kirito_(beta), etc à la idolmaster costumes would be the most detailed way to tag it, but it seems overkill.

Having thought it a bit more, for the most part there isn't going to be any significant difference between SAO and real appearances, so for SAO players we can probably stick to using their avatar name. Real names then should end up being used for the few characters that appear later where there isn't a match between their avatar and their real selves.

As for Kirito, while it might be overkill, I was thinking somewhere on the lines of sticking to the SAO to indicate the SAO series and then tacking on the game acronym. In the case of Kirito it would be "Kirito" (covers both real and SAO appearance), "Kirito_(SAO-ALO)", "Kirito_(SAO-GGO)", "Kirito_(SAO-Underworld)", "Kirito_(SAO-Beta)", etc. On the plus side, Kirito is really the only character that will cause a big issue with appearances, as the other characters so far only have like 1-3 appearances to worry about.

I'll be perfectly honest, I'm not going to spoil a show as good as SAO for myself to read through this. I'm dedicated to Danbooru and all, but only to a point. Not really an admin-like answer but oh well...

So, simple answer, that should apply in just about every thread like this:
If you think it's spoilery enough that you need to ask (especially someone like you who has a history of good judgement on various issues), then yes it's probably a spoiler and you should use the tag that isn't a spoiler. If any spoiler tags are in use, I'd say just edit them.

It should usually be based on how they're being referred to in the current media, and in most cases that means the anime. Sometimes tags are long since established before the anime comes (OreImo's Kuroneko for example) and it's kinda too late, but those cases are infrequent.

NWF_Renim said:
Having thought it a bit more, for the most part there isn't going to be any significant difference between SAO and real appearances, so for SAO players we can probably stick to using their avatar name. Real names then should end up being used for the few characters that appear later where there isn't a match between their avatar and their real selves.

+1. It'll also help resolve any issues later on when someone might draw an image with Lyfa's RL character cosplaying as Lyfa.

As for Kirito, while it might be overkill, I was thinking somewhere on the lines of sticking to the SAO to indicate the SAO series and then tacking on the game acronym. In the case of Kirito it would be "Kirito" (covers both real and SAO appearance), "Kirito_(SAO-ALO)", "Kirito_(SAO-GGO)", "Kirito_(SAO-Underworld)", "Kirito_(SAO-Beta)", etc. On the plus side, Kirito is really the only character that will cause a big issue with appearances, as the other characters so far only have like 1-3 appearances to worry about.

That's probably the best way to go about it, although the extra SAO affixes might be too much. The other option is to add more copyright tags for ALO, GGO and Underworld, but isn't as good of a fix.

Also, for Cline, it should properly be Klein according to the Material Editions 2 (baka tsuki). IIRC, the author had the names romanized in English.

Requesting a push to aliase the *_(sao) names to *_(sword_art_online)

Aliasing Asuna_(sao) -> Asuna_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Cline_(sao) -> Cline_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Sachi_(sao) -> Sachi_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Pina_(sao) -> Pina_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Yui_(sao) -> Yui_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Eugene_(sao) -> Eugene_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Oberon_(sao) -> Oberon_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Sakuya_(sao) -> Sakuya_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Yuuki_(sao) -> Yuuki_(sword_art_online)
Aliasing Shinon_(sao) -> Shinon_(sword_art_online)

Is there another sao that they could be confused with? If not I'd rather not see a bunch of tags moved from easy to type to annoying to type.

Log said:
Is there another sao that they could be confused with? If not I'd rather not see a bunch of tags moved from easy to type to annoying to type.

The alias would still allow you to type the easy option.

To be honest, in cases where we can, I'd prefer to use shortenings of series names when having to use it to qualify things like name tags. I find it rather obnoxious when we end up making what should be a short tag into a very long tag unnecessarily, it's visually very annoying imo. It seems unnecessary to have to include the full series name every time, since the image will naturally be receiving the series name anyway.

On the flip-side, using abbreviations too often can make it a pain for new users, or taggers unfamiliar with the series.

At minimum I think this is a good case where an abbreviation works. The title is in English and the Japanese themselves are using SAO as the abbreviation for the series. On Pixiv there are 135 pages of images under the SAO tag, while ソードアート・オンライン has 120, and ソードアートオンライン has 47 pages.

I'm not into SAO, but my $0.02 was to basically agree the following:

NWF_Renim said:
In the case of Kirito it would be "Kirito" (covers both real and SAO appearance), "Kirito_(SAO-ALO)", "Kirito_(SAO-GGO)", "Kirito_(SAO-Underworld)", "Kirito_(SAO-Beta)", etc.

...with some differences:

• Any of these tags (except "plain" Kirito which should not exist, see point below) should implicate to Kirigaya_Kazuto.
• Real-life should only use "plain" tag (Kirigaya_Kazuto), while in SAO he should still be under a decorated tag, i.e. Kirito_(SAO).

SdCdS said:
I'm not into SAO, but my $0.02 was to basically agree the following:
...with some differences:

• Any of these tags (except "plain" Kirito which should not exist, see point below) should implicate to Kirigaya_Kazuto.
• Real-life should only use "plain" tag (Kirigaya_Kazuto), while in SAO he should still be under a decorated tag, i.e. Kirito_(SAO).

I disagree, since his full name should be considered a spoiler as they're probably not going to reveal it until like the halfway point in the anime and it wasn't until the end of the first light novel they revealed it (should be noted it's also long for a light novel, since the author himself didn't initially release it when he made it for a light novel contest because it ran over in length). It's also not particularly necessary to use his full name, as his SAO and real life appearance is identical outside of clothing. Additionally, while the game avatars may look like their respective players in most cases, that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be actually controlled by their original player (in volume 7 one player logs their mother on their alt avatar so they can hold a conversation with her in-game), so I wouldn't suggest implicating avatars to specific players.

NWF_Renim said:
Additionally, while the game avatars may look like their respective players in most cases, that doesn't necessarily mean they have to be actually controlled by their original player (in volume 7 one player logs their mother on their alt avatar so they can hold a conversation with her in-game), so I wouldn't suggest implicating avatars to specific players.

Maybe we should not automatically implicate everything, but some level of implication may be beneficial for easy searching. Of course, how much we should implicate can be discussed.

just asking if the spoilers still stand? it seems the real names resurfaced in the wikis (asuna_(sao), kirito, sword_art_online).

I can't read Japanese, but I guess whatever is revealed on their website would be okay. Someone who could understand what is there should double check what I'm just guessing appears to be there, which is Kirito's real name is there (not sure if it links the character and the avatar but it's an unavoidable spoiler due to the player's appearance and original avatar appearance being the same), but Asuna's real name doesn't seem to be listed and Lyfa and her player don't appear to be shown linked (and there is an appearance gap).

http://www.swordart-online.net/character/index.html

NWF:

I have noticed that you have started "separating" the avatars according to game (based on your "overkill tagging" suggestion) , spotting the *(sao-alo) et al. tags on some posts already.

Are we formally going with this convention?

I'm in agreement with the "it seems to be overkill" thoughts that some had posted.

There wasn't a real conclusion on whether to do it or not to do it and the conversation died. I wanted to cover the major visually changed characters, which is what I've felt I've mostly accomplished with the ones I added.

With what I've done if people want a simpler system it is much far faster to simplify from what has been done, than it would be to start from scratch or a simpler system and make more complex. If this thread doesn't go anywhere, then at least then with the change I've made there is something in existence to help subdivide the tags instead of nothing being done and nothing to subdivide the images.

The asuna_(sao-alo) tag is a little problematic right now as its used for two very different looking character designs, and I thought of dividing it up into asuna_(sao-alo1) and asuna_(sao-alo2) or something along those lines. Anyone have any opinions on that? Yui should probably get a yui_(sao-alo) tag like several of the others since she gets a distinct appearance too (looks like it has been started by now, though not populated yet).