History Main / ArtifactTitle

* The ''HappyVideoGameNerd'' was originally named as such as he was a parody/inversion of the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd, reviewing underrated retro games with a positive tone if overenthusiastic tone. Nowadays, he also includes modern games and more mainstream titles, and has done away with the "happy" in favor of more natural and objective tone.

* The "ot" part of LetsPlay/Cicabeot1's channel name originally stood for "On Tour". As in ''[[VideoGame/GuitarHero Guitar Hero: On Tour]]''. He doesn't even do ''Guitar Hero'' videos as often anymore, let alone the ''On Tour'' spinoff.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Soul|Series}}'' series begins with ''Soul Edge'', which was then followed by ''Soulcalibur''. All the sequels afterward are titled ''Soulcalibur'' with a number. Technically this isn't an artifact title, because the weapon actually called Soulcalibur is still in the series, but [[SpotlightStealingSquad so much focus is put on Soul Edge that it just doesn't matter]]. In ''Soulcalibur II'', EVERYONE gets a form of Soul Edge as one of their weapons, while you can count Soulcalibur wielders on the fingers of a single hand! This includes the silly {{guest fighter}}s [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], ComicBook/{{Spawn}} and [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Heihachi]] (who fights bare handed).

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', while the title {{plot coupon}}s are the driving force of the first series, as time goes on, the show becomes less about the aforementioned Dragon Balls and more about watching [[InactionSequence long-winded]] bouts between various superhuman beings. Eventually, the balls are relegated to little more than a plot device the protagonists customarily fall back on when too many of their own [[DeathIsCheap die]]. This comes full circle in the follow-up anime series ''Dragon Ball GT'', where the Dragon Balls are the central focus again.

* GEICO stands for Government Employee Insurance Company, and as the name suggests, only sold insurance to government employees. It has since expanded well-beyond the point that its name makes any sense.

* ''Quartet'' was originally a four-player ArcadeGame that played like a side-scrolling ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}''; though another arcade version only allows two players, they can still select from four different characters. The SegaMasterSystem version, however, only has two playable characters: Mary and Edgar were kept, but Joe and Lee were removed. The Japanese Mark III version was retitled ''Double Target'' to reflect this change, but the overseas release kept the arcade game's original title.

* Division names in the [[AmericanFootball NFL]] suffer from this, especially before the 2002 realignment. New teams occasionally joined the league, and divisions ranged from four to six teams. By 1995 most of the [=NFC=] Western division's teams were east of the Mississippi River. Reluctance to break up traditional rivalries kept these divisions in place until the league finally reached 32 teams in 2002, allowing a realignment into eight equal-sized divisions. It didn't happen without a fight, and there are still oddball things like Dallas in the East and St. Louis in the West.

* The Tennessee Oilers were a brief historical example of this.

** In a more general sense, the title of the series was originally supposed to reflect its Victorian setting, since it's the kind of name that a superhero team would have chosen for itself in the late 19th century. Said Victorian setting has been out the window since ''The Black Dossier'' (which took place in TheFifties), with the last two installments taking place in TheSixties and the 2000s, respectively.

** His main series ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' originally focused on "nostalgic" movies and television shows from [[TheEighties the 1980s]] and [[TheNineties the 1990s]] ([[CaptainObvious hence the title]]). Since the 2013 revival of the series, the date limit has been removed and the show is more of a general review show, though still with a bent on relatively "older" films up to at least [[TurnOfTheMillennium the mid-2000s]].

** His main series ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' originally focused on "nostalgic" movies and television shows from [[TheEighties the 1980s]] and [[TheNineties the 1990s]] ([[CaptainObvious hence the title]]). Since the 2013 revival of the series, the date limit has been removed and the show is more of a general review show, though still with a bent on relatively "older" films up to at least [[Turn of the Millennium the mid-2000s]].

** His main series ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' mainly focused on movies and television that was at least 10-15 years old. Since his return to the series, the cap has been removed and the show is more of a general review show. (though only one film reviewed ever since - besides the editorials - was released after 2003)

* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' maker TSR's initials officially don't mean anything now, but originally stood for Tactical Studies Rules, a name which made sense when they were just doing tabletop wargaming but less so when the fantasy role-playing game developed as an offshoot became the company's cash cow.

** The Big 12 used to have 12 schools until 2011 when Colorado (to the then-Pac-10) and Nebraska (to the Big Ten) left and they didn't replace them (Missouri and Texas A&M also left the following year but they were replaced with West Virginia and TCU). Combined with the above, yes, there was a season where the Big Ten had 12 teams and the Big 12 had 10 teams.
** The Big East skirted this real closely. It started life in 1979 as a basketball conference with teams from Boston to DC - the only member west of the Appalachains was Pittsburgh. Then it added football in 1991 because of how lucrative the money was, but even then the teams added weren't that misnomering (the westernmost ones added were West Virginia and Miami). Then Notre Dame (Indiana) joined in 1995 (except for football, which it remains independent in). Three schools left for the ACC in 2004, so a bunch were added the next year including DePaul (Chicago) and Marquette (Milwaukee) (these two were non-football members - the farthest football-playing school added was Louisville). Then came the recent massive conference realignment starting around 2008, with the Big East as the tasty carcass because the other conferences had prestiege. To stay alive, the Big East had to resort to inviting any and every decent football program willing to jump from conferences less prestegious than they, including ''TCU'' (Dallas), ''Houston'', ''Boise State'' (Idaho), ''and San Diego State'' (yes, as in California). Ultimately averted - the schools in question (except Houston) all backed out at the last minute when other conferences convinced them to join them instead, and the Catholic 7 (the basketball schools that didn't play FBS football) [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere got sick of this whole mess and will leave on July 1st, 2013]], taking the Big East name with them. The remaining schools (those that didn't jump ship by this point) will be called the American Athletic Conference.

** The Big East skirted this real closely. It started life in 1979 as a basketball conference with teams from Boston to DC - the only member west of the Appalachains was Pittsburgh. Then it added football in 1991 because of how lucrative the money was, but even then the teams added weren't that misnomering (the westernmost ones added were West Virginia and Miami). Then Notre Dame (Indiana) joined in 1995 (except for football, which it remains independent in). Three schools left for the ACC in 2004, so a bunch were added the next year including DePaul (Chicago) and Marquette (Milwaukee) (these two were non-football members - the farthest football-playing school added was Louisville). Then came the recent massive conference realignment starting around 2008, with the Big East as the tasty carcass because the other conferences had prestiege. To stay alive, the Big East had to resort to inviting any and every decent football program willing to jump from conferences less prestegious than they, including ''TCU'' (Dallas), ''Houston'', ''Boise State'' (Idaho), ''and San Diego State''. Eventually will be averted - the three in question all backed out at the last minute when other conferences convinced them to join them instead, and the Catholic 7 (the basketball schools that didn't play FBS football) [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere got sick of this whole mess and will leave on July 1st, 2013]], taking the Big East name with them. The remaining schools (those that didn't jump ship by this point) will be called the American Athletic Conference.

* While Ciem herself is in the ''Ciem: Vigilante Centipede'' book series, she is emphasized less and less with each installment. In fact, by the third story, she's practically DemotedToExtra while being the DistressedDamsel, her friends ([[ADayInTheLimelight especially Dolly]]) having to figure everything out without her.

* ''StationeryVoyagers'' features its titular protagonists having to compete in season 3 with non-Stationery characters more and more often for screen time and relevance. They even get put under a spell that turns them human for a few episodes. By mid-season 4, they're back to being the main focus - just in time for World War III!

* The 101st Airborne of the US Army is now mostly an Air Assault unit. i.e. helicopter-borne forces.

** Ironically, "alternative" only started gaining traction when the genre began experiencing mainstream success. Before then there were a variety of names used: modern rock, post-modern, post-punk, college rock, indie rock.

* Pop: These days if a ballad is released without any rock overtones it's pop music, regardless of whether it is Popular or not.

* Averted by the British group Music/TheSmallFaces. The original lineup was made up of four short guys: singer/guitarist Steve Marriott and drummer Kenney Jones were both 5'5.5", while bassist Ronnie Lane and keyboardist Ian [=McLagan=] were both 5'6". When Marriott left the group and the other three reformed with the taller Rod Stewart (5'8") on vocals and Ron Wood (5'9") on guitar, they went by just the Faces.

** The original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' itself lacked the 2-player co-op mode from the original ''VideoGame/MarioBros.'', which is the reason why the preceding game was titled ''Mario Bros.'' in the first place. While ''Super'' has a 2-Player mode, it is of the alternating type, which reduces Luigi's role in the game to a mere afterthought (since there's no point of having a separate Player 2 character if both players have to take turn). The Japanese version of ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels Super Mario Bros. 2]]'' would try to justify Luigi's inclusion in the game by removing the 2-Player mode and making Luigi [[DivergentCharacterEvolution an alternate character with his own characteristics]], while the 2-Player mode in ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 SMB3]]'' allows both players to split the stages among themselves rather than having separate playthroughs for each one.