What's in a (really weird) name?

Edit: 3/5/04 4:00 p.m. EST: This was supposed to go up yesterday morning, but I forgot to uncheck the "Draft" option. Whoops. Here it is.



On or about Dec. 3, 2003, Atari and Reflections decided to change the name of anticipated driving title Driver 3 to Driv3r.



"Big deal," I'm sure many of you are thinking. "Who cares what the name is? I've got important work to do posting new screenshots of M3tal G3ar Solid!"



But I think this raises some important style questions. Should an outlet always stick to a game's official name (on the first reference)? What if that name is really stupid and hard to read? Does a game company have a right to have their game referred to how they want. Does a game publication have the right to give a game a nickname or abbreviation that doesn't suit it?



A good thing to do when faced with a perplexing style question (and no style guide is available... but stay tuned for news on that) is to check out what other publications did with the situation. Unfortunately, in this case, that method doesn't exactly provide a clear consensus:

• IGN gives a nod to pronouncability and says that Driv3r is "also know as: Driver 3, while sister site Voodoo Extreme notes that the name Driv3r is "Driver 3 for the leet speak impaired."
  
  
  
  
• Gamers.com's game page give no mention to the official title, referring to the game only as Driver 3.
  
  
  
  
• GamePro gives no mention to an unofficial title, calling the game Driv3r in a news story about the game's delay. (GamingWorldX similarly fails to mention an easily readable name in an extensive preview... they even keep the title all capitalized: DRIV3R)
  
  
  
  
• GameSpot says the name is "(aka Driv3r)" in their story about the delay.
  
  
  
  
• Gamer.tv wants you to know that Driv3r is "the name for the third Driver game. Honest."
  
  
  
  
• Perhaps most perplexingly, EBGames calls the game Driver 3 on all its pages despite hosting a GameSpot preview that calls the game Driv3r.
  
  
  
  
• And finally, in a bit of editorializing, Gamers Europe says Driv3r is "a name so terrible we feel like dying. And/or killing."

I have my own thoughts on what the "official" style should be for this one, but I'd like to hear your comments first (since it worked so well last time). Post your thoughts using th3 comm3ts link b3low.