Final hard decision on Xeno/Exomorph name

I am just looking for a final definitive vote on what any “xenomorph”-like aliens should be called in the game. There’s been discussion about it before but I can’t find anything being set in stone. So let’s do that now.

Xenomorph can supposedly not be copyrighted due to being a pre-existing geology term, and while the Alien franchise catapulted that as a name into popularity it is dubious to say that blocks other games from using it as a name for their aliens; it’s also just ancient greek for “foreign shape”. The design of the Alien is more of an issue were we to copy that, but we’re using a distinct design.

Xenonid was suggested in the GH thread as a name, as that is what RMC, the big alien-fighting fork, calls its aliens. Our aliens do not look the same to RMC’s aliens though, so while in some sense parity would be nice it wouldn’t necessarily be accurate (though I am well aware players treat them the same). Xenonid is probably more accurate to the specific lore and species of RMC which isn’t the same as upstream.

Exomorph is another option. Exomorphs are apparently also part of Alien lore but much less common, and is also just formed from ancient greek words.

Lastly, it’s worth considering that “xeno” as a shorthand might conflict with the Xenoborg antag.

What to do?
  • Xenomorph
  • Exomorph
  • Xeno
  • Xenonid
  • Other (Comment)
0 voters

I would just go with “Xeno” instead of “Xenomorph”. Legally safe since it’s literally just “alien” in greek, and keeps the movie reference. The name just fits the most.

Xenoborgs should have their own unique sci-fi name in my opinion.

The poll was remade since I accidentally didn’t make it multiple-choice (and it let me include Xeno as an option). Please revote if you already voted.

I like ‘Xeno’ personally since it’s a fairly common use word in most sci-fi settings for “alien”. The default brevity of the word means most peeps are kind of required to defined what they mean so I don’t see it causing too much conflict between Xenoborgs and Xenos in general (Just calling Xenoborgs ‘xenos’ doesn’t make much sense either on the individual level or as a callout and I don’t see something like that catching on.)

Unwarranted aside info-dump on 'Xenomorph' being near certainly fine to use. Worth noting that the concern here would be whether or not xenomorph is a trademarked term, as we are not at all borrowing from the actual creative design of *Alien*'s "Xenomorph"—it's just a thing with the same name and is an alien.

It’s not a registered trademark from a quick search (actually there is a trademark for Xenomorph but it’s some random company, but that’s irrelevant), and even if it was… we’d still be fine to use it, as trademark infringement occurs when (among other things) there’d need to be a “likelihood of confusion” which would mean we’d have to be like… presenting the xenos in a way that could make you think they were actually associated with the Alien franchise in an official capacity. And even then, as long as a server is non-commercial in that it doesn’t offer any goods or services, you’re still fine. (See Lamparello v. Falwell - Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions. Also good reading is Abercrombie & Fitch Company v. Hunting World, Incorporated – CourtListener.com which talks about types of trademarks—in this case, if it were registered, Xenomorph would be at best a ‘suggestive’ mark, or possibly just a descriptive mark. And honestly there’s many other reasons why it’d be extremely hard to call such a use trademark infringement, but I think that’s more than besides the point.)

Also for actual evidence that we’d be fine: there’s an unaffiliated (but based on) video game, as well as a Dutch band called Xenomorph, so I really doubt Disney—(wait, Disney owns the Alien franchise now?) cares about protecting the term.

I am not a lawyer I just (for some reason?) like talking about and reading IP law.