Heheh... it makes me laugh because it makes me so mad...

Enlighten me. WTF is the Sakura Park thing? This is the tenth time (or so) I've seen it used on Massively, and I have no idea what people are joking about.

Re: the Sakura Park thing

Champions Online held a contest in which forum members were invited to name an asian-themed park in the game world, with the winner receiving a beta key.

The contest rules implied that the winning name should somehow honor or commemorate the fallen heroes of Milleniom City's past.

The winning contest entry, Sakura Park, does homage the real-life Sakura Park in New York City, itself a storied place (see Wikipedia) but many contest entrants were (and continue to be) outraged that the winning entry does not reflect the theme of fallen (super) heroes.

Of all the stupid shit to hold a grudge about...

On top of that, instead of one winner, I think 150 winners were announced since they all entered the name 'Sakura Park'. So there was no ultimate prize of in-game immortality and I think some people are aggrieved by that.

That is it? Who gives a crap about a stupid naming contest. Seriously.

Like some have said, the anger behind the Sakura park name is that it is horribly cliched, in anime, fighting games, and well... anything else close to asian...
I am sure many didn't name it based on a park in NY or the like, they only named it simply because they didn't feel like trying and threw in the first thing they came up with.

I was angry because that was the first thing that came to mind. Instead, I went with an original name instead. As did many others. Not only that, but the rules stated "Creative and Original" as part of the material for judging. Instead they chose Sakura park, which out of the 2k or so entries, was used in around 150 entries, or about 7.5% of the entries (a high percentage of just one name).

Not only that, but they also responded by saying a supposed "Top Ten" List was devised from the entries, and sakura park and its 150 entries some how managed to end up on that list, and just so happened to be the best on it. They have yet to release said list from what I know of, and argue that while they knew 150 people used it, it had no impact on their choice.

Yes its a contest. But consider how many people are wanting to get into the beta since it was announced a year or so ago, and are wanting to get into it. They saw a chance, tried, and watched as not just 3 people, but 150 got in instead, all cause of "Sakura".

I'm not mad about it still, annoyed yes, and it certainly has hurt Cryptic's image in my opinion, but I don't dwel upon it, just means I got more time for other games.