There's some Venn overlap between the fabulous FTL and upcoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown : in both, you can name your dudes. Names carry incredible meaning in these permadeathy games: they're opportunities to imbue identity into the tiny digital people you're pointing into certain doom.

Still, when we're asked what to call something, it's not uncommon for our minds to lock up. You sit there, hands hovering in front of an empty prompt, Ctrl + Fing your brain for the perfect nombre d'game that suits the character's aptitudes or role. You crawl your mind for former classmates, footballers, and celebrities, trying to summon the perfect name. This is Naming Paralysis , and it's nothing to be ashamed of. I have it too.

To alleviate this condition, we've created The PC Gamer Character Name Repository , a shared Google Doc that we'd encourage you to throw XCOM and FTL-friendly names into. I've begun by contributing “ Carl Winslow .”