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redirected from Main.AK47

In a number of computer games and RPGs, you get real guns being given fake names. They have the appearance and the characteristics of the real gun, but not the name.

The reason appears to be avoiding potential lawsuits from the manufacturers of said firearms, never-minding that in many cases the unique likeness of a particular gun may be a registered trademark (as in the cases of Heckler & Koch, GLOCK or Beretta) along with the gun's model name.

Arguably, a trademark registration for the gun's shape would be used to stop someone else from manufacturing the product. Without actually using the name, in order to argue 'tarnishment' or some other claim regarding a trademark, the manufacturer would have to show in court that the shape of the weapon was well known by the public - or possibly with gun users - such that the use in the game in some way causes them injury to the goodwill associated with that mark. A potentially much higher legal standard with respect to a weapon's image over its name. There can also be (for games in the U.S.) First Amendment issues with respect to use of an image (or the name) for the purpose of exposition (describing a gun by its name or by an image of it.)

Compare I Know That Gun.

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Examples (Video Games):

• Anarchy Online has lots of possible examples, but the fastest to see would be the IMI Desert Reet, aka Desert Eagle in the far future.
• Counter-Strike for (almost) every gun; the real names can be found if you look at the console, though. Also, there's a patch that replaces the fake names with the actual names; the "Maverick Carbine", for example, becomes the "Colt M4A1". Interestingly enough, the real names were used in the Half Life mod version, but not the retail stand-alone product. Probably a key difference is that the Half Life mod was free, but the retail Counter-Strike wasn't.
• Goldeneye 007 (and most other Bond games for that matter) have this; example: "RC-P90" for the FN Herstal P90. Goldeneye's "sequel" Perfect Dark avoided this by using made up weapons from the future, but one Cheat Code let you use weapons from Goldeneye that had had their names changed again for legal reasons. It got a bit confusing.
  • In all of the EA 007 games they used fake names that were ridiculously close to the real ones, like "Kotchler & Heck" (for Heckler & Koch) or "Wolfram P2K" (for Walther PPK or P99). They also called the Desert Eagle an "Iac Defender".
    • In The World Is Not Enough, Mustang 44 and MAR4=Colt Anaconda and M4 respectively, Raptor Magnum=Desert Eagle .44, Meyer Bullpup=Steyr AUG, Deutsche M45 and M9=Heckler & Koch UMP and MP5 respectively, Ingalls=Ingram
  • In a funny subversion to this, Perfect Dark includes the Klobb in Goldeneye. Though there probably wouldn't be any issues keeping the gun name (the gun was named after one of the staff in RARE), the gun was renamed to KL01313.
• Resident Evil 4 used plenty of actual firearms, but most with either generic descriptions ('shotgun,' 'rifle' and so on) or pseudonyms. The exceptions are the TMP (Steyr TMP), Red 9 (a real-life name of the 9mm Broomhandle Mauser, from the large red number nine on the grip to inform soldiers what ammo to load it with), Striker (though it's actually a slightly different model, the Protecta, since it lacks a winding key on the drum) and Chicago Typewriter, which is a real-life nickname of the Thompson (of which the one used in the game is the M1A1, unless you're wearing Leon's mobster outfit on the PS 2, PC or Wii versions, wherein the clip visible on the gun becomes a drum magazine emblematic of 1920s gangster flicks).
  • Indeed, the Resident Evil series avoided this trope completely until the enhanced Gamecube remake of the original title, whereupon they began to use fake names as well (i.e. the Colt Python becomes the Silver Serpent). Standard-issue STARS Beretta M92Fs are now called Samurai EDGE. The name first appeared as Barry's custom gun in R Emake. As of Resident Evil 5, they seem to have returned to using licensed weapons again.
  • With the exception of the nicknamed weapons like the "Lightning Hawk" magnum, the "Jail Breaker" (auto-)shotgun, and the "Hydra" (breech-loading) shotgun (though that one's probably a custom job). Also, the S&W M500 doesn't quite resemble the real life M500, but that could just be this troper's less-than-expert knowledge of guns talking.
    • The "Jail Breaker" and "Lightning Hawk" exceptions are doubly strange as the previous Resident Evil games correctly referred to those guns by their real life names as the "Striker" and "Desert Eagle" respectively.
• Soldier of Fortune used lots of obvious real-world guns that were given either flatly descriptive names (such as calling what is clearly a SPAS-12 simply the shotgun) or fake ones, such as "Silver Talon" in lieu of Desert Eagle...
  • Soldier of Fortune 2 featured real-life gun names, but the Gold Edition bought back favourites like 1's 'Silver Talon,' which had the same name as before. Of course, nobody cared because they were busy admiring the Gorn or trying to beat that pissing stealth level.
  • Soldier of Fortune: Payback uses both real and fake names for its guns. For example, the M16 is referred to as such, but the SCAR-L is given a fictional name.
• Avoided pretty spectacularly in the Metal Gear Solid series. All of the guns (that really exist) are given their real names. Interestingly, the Word Of God has it that, in the first, they deliberately picked extremely obscure guns that no-one would have heard of to make the guns sound made-up (ex. FAMAS, SOCOM - the former being the standard-issue French assault rifle). Even more interestingly, the huge commercial hit of the game meant that other games started using the obscure guns in homage and imitation, causing a switch to more mundane AKs-74us, M4s, and M92Fs in the second.
• The original demo for Hitman 2 used real names for firearms such as the 9mm Beretta, but these were changed to generic/false names for the full game. Perhaps weapons producers don't like their weapons to be associated with bad killings, as if there are 'good' killings. He has since come to use a pair of AMT Hardballers, never referred to as such. Instead, they use the poor cover name Silverballers. But then again, Silverballers could just be a name for highly modified Hardballers
  • An odd case with Hitman Blood Money, upon close inspection the 'SLP.40 Pistol' clearly reads "HK USP" on the slide and grip.
  • He could just be calling them that.
• Every Heckler & Koch weapon in the game SWAT4 is given a generic label ("9mm submachinegun" for the MP5A4) or a changed name ("Gb36" instead of G36). You would think that, given H&K weapons are on the cover of nearly every Tom Clancy (or military) game, they would allow them to be associated with the police. Especially as the MP5 is a very popular police firearm worldwide.
  • Averted in the same game in that everything by Colt is licensed (complete with small-print legalese), and therefore correctly named.
• In a subversion of this trope, nearly every weapon in the Fallout series of PC games uses the name of its real world counterpart, if it has one. Except that the P-90 isn't made by Heckler & Koch.
  • This ends with Fallout 3, where all guns have generic names like "Assault Rifle" (similar to an HK HK33), "Chinese Assault-Rifle" (a Chinese variant of the AK-101), etc.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City seemed to fall under this as well, with rather generic names for its firearms. GTA 3 and San Andreas were slightly more willing to use assault rifle names, although other weapons were still generic-named (if not generic-shaped). The game extended this trope from the guns to the vehicles, with identifiable Real World models given different names.
• Massively averted by Spycraft 2, which includes a truly monumental list of firearms and some supplements with more.
• The Timesplitters series uses and subverts this in about equal measure. You can shoot someone with a Luger pistol in Timesplitters 2, but the AK-47 is referred to as the "Soviet S-47". In Future Perfect, it's worse - the Lugers are Krugers, and the S-47 is the Soviet Rifle. Most of the weapons have generic names - Shotgun, Pistol 9mm, etc.
• Ace Combat uses alternate, generic names for a lot of real-life aircraft.
  • This seems to be averted since 04. In fact, they have a whole section sometimes before the title and always at the end credits giving a big fatty copyright notice.
  • Weapons, on the other hand, are given generic names like UGB (Unguided Bomb), though missiles are clearly modeled on real-life weapons. Like the F-14 carrying the AIM-54 Phoenix.
    • Might be explained by the developers not wanting to sort out the technical differences between various forms of small unguided bomb, long-range AA missile...et cetera. Easier for the gamer and the developer, so probably an Acceptable Break From Reality.
• Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl has a variety of weapons, ranging from semi-antique to state-of-the-art, which are given obscure alternate names, though they exist in real life (for the most part). Examples: the AK 74 becomes the "Akm 74/2", the AKSU 74 is the "Akm 74/2U", the Abakan is the "Obokan", the Franchi SPAS12 is the "SPSA14"... et cetera. Unpack the game data and look at the weapon configuration files, though, and they all have the real names.
• Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines both plays this straight and averts it. The Franchi SPAS 15 is called the Jaegerspaz XV, the Uzi is given the ludicrous pseudonym Lassiter Killmatic, and the Glock 17 is called the Brokk 17c. Strangely, the Steyr AUG and Colt Anaconda are called by their proper names. Like many of the above examples, if you look at the game files the rest of the guns are called by their actual names as well. The Utica M37 is a pretty clever pseudonym, since it must have taken some actual research on the part of the developers to discover that Utica is a small town in Upstate New York like the actual weapon's hometown of Ithaca. The connection may run deeper than that, since Utica (a Phoenician word meaning colony) is the possible root word for the name Ithaca. As well as them both being separate places of interest in the Mediterranean during classical antiquity.
• The trope is averted almost completely in all Tom Clancy games. From the original Rainbow Six to Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, all weapons in a game are called by their real-life names, to include manufacturer names, at least in the earlier Rainbow Six titles. One of the few exceptions is the H&K G36K assault rifle, which was clearly a stand-in for the FX-05, the standard-issue Mexican rifle that was based on the G36 series, and was made on the same equipment used to produce G36 rifles under license by the Mexicans.
  • Though curiously played straight with the FN Fiveseve N pistol, which is called the "AP Army" in Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six 3. Perhaps they had a falling out with FN-Herstal.
  • Also played straight in H.A.W.X., where many of the missiles carried by the accurately named planes are given generic equivalents such as the Joint Strike missile, replacing the more traditional AIM-9 Sidewinder. Like the Ace Combat example listed above, an Acceptable Break From Reality.
• All games in the Call of Duty series avert this trope.
• Averted completely in America's Army, since it's owned and paid for by the United States government.
• The Saint's Row games do this with all of their firearms, but if you look at the weapon closely you can probably identify its real-life counterpart. Most obvious is the AK renamed the "K6 Krukov".
• There was recently a real-life incident where Colt Defense sued Heckler & Koch and Bushmaster Firearms, since Colt had a trademark on the name of the famous M4 carbine supposedly being infringed. While H&K followed this trope in its out-of-court settlement (changing its HKM4 to the HK416), a district court judge in Maine not only ruled in favor of Bushmaster without a full trial, but declared that "M4" was now a generic enough name that the trademark should be revoked.
  • A similar incident happened with the Mexican army-produced FX-05 Xiuhcoatl, which looks a bit too much like the Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle. The lawsuit was eventually dropped due to both having completely different mechanisms. The similar looks were due to the gun being made on the same machines used to make regular G36 rifles under license from Heckler & Koch for a few years before this incident.
• The Syphon Filter series uses a mix of real names, fake names, generic descriptions, and completely fictional guns. Examples: HK5=H&K MP5, 9mm=Glock 9mm, .45=Colt 45, G18=Glock 18C, H11=H&K G11(they both use caseless rounds), K3G4=H&K G3KA4 (compact version of the G3, BIZ-2=PP-19 Bizon SMG (a gun with a special helical mag.), PK102=AK102, Silenced Sniper Rifle=H&K PSG1
• The Max Payne series is all over the map on this one. You can wield the Jackhammer automatic shotgun, Colt Commando assault rifle, and Desert Eagle and Beretta 9mm handguns, but the second game has Max using a "9mm", as well as an "M4", "MP5", and "Striker". The AK-47 is referred to by the slightly more generic but still technically correct "Kalishnikov."
• Mafia notably completely averts this trope with regard to the various guns the protagonist can use ingame, but plays it completely straight when naming the cars he can steal.
  • Though Smith & Wesson didn't use model numbers until 1957, making some of the revolver names a Did Not Do The Research.
• The Quantum Of Solace video game as an odd variant; a good deal of the guns are named in the form of ContinuityNods to previous Bond films. The Glock 18 is the GF18, the M1911 is the CR1911, and the AKS-74U is the FRWL.More here.
• In the Lupin III game, Treasure of the Sorcerer King Lupin's trademark Walther P38 is referred to just as a "Thirty-Eight".
• Curiously inverted at times in Black - while all the gun names are real, many of the models are modified.
• No One Lives Forever plays the trope straight, with the exception of M79 grenade launcher and AK 47. What's most puzzling, the Dragunov Sniper Rifle is referred to as "Geldmacher SVD", while "SVD" only would suffice. Same goes for the sequel.
• Entropia Universe, despite being set far in the future, provides players with guns made by Meckel & Loch (a play on Heckler and Koch) and Starkhov (the Starkhov rifles are even clearly patterned after AK47◊ and similarly named).
• In The Club, all firearm models were hastily edited during the late beta (some early screens, game intro and unlockable character artworks clearly show "real" firearms), turning them into horrid mess, but some are still recognizable: "SP Hornet" is a Steyr SPP submachine gun, "Hammerhead" is the Desert Eagle and "PD 9 Black Widow" is a P90 (bit hacked up, though). The most egregious example is most probably "Raptor" rifle, consisting of a G36 stock, AK 47 main body and thick pipe for a barrel.
• The first Splinter Cell is undecided on the issue: text files (subtitles included) refer to Sam's rifle as "SC-20K", but when you're ordered to retrieve it in the Langley mission, you can hear Lambert calling it a F2000. It's played more straight with the "SC Pistol" (in reality - FN Five-Seven).
  • The game DOES take place a few years into the future (as of it's release anyway), so it could be assumed that his guns are new guns made for special ops.
• The first Soldier Of Fortune game plays the trope straight (calling the Glock 17 "Black Panther" and Ingram MAC 10 "T-31 Bulldog Suppressed" for instance), but the sequel averts it almost completely (SOF 2 Gold still calls the Desert Eagle "Silver Talon").
• Army Of Two largely averts this trope, although with some exceptions (M4 called "S-System" and FAMAS G2 called "Felin 2C" for instance).
  • These two examples are still aversions to some degree, with S-System being a version of an M4 fitted with a selective interface rail system, and there is a Felin variant of the FAMAS for use with the French infantry combat system of the same name.
• Counter Strike does both. It has other names for the weapons in the buy menus, but had the actual name in the kill reports in the console.
• The first Parasite Eve uses real model numbers, but no manufacturer names and only generic textures. This is forgivable in most cases, but gets a little out of hand with Grenade Launchers, wherein Aya wields a generic semi-auto launcher while the two basic models present in the game are the M79 (single-shot) and the M203 (a barrel attachment to the M4A1 that eventually was depicted properly in Parasite Eve II).
• In Super Robot Wars Original Generation and subsequent series your Gespensts always have M95 Machinegun as one of their standard weapons, a Humongous (Sub)Machinegun no less. In real life, this is M-950 Submachinegun made by Calico that scaled up 10 times.

Examples (Other Media):

Film

• In Die Hard 2, McClane identifies the weapons used by terrorists in the airport as "Glock 7"s that are supposed to be completely ceramic and undetectable by airport security systems and "cost more than you make in month." Actual Glock pistols (of which there is no "Glock 7") use polymer frames, but the rest of the weapon is steel. Glock pistols readily show up on airport x-rays, even their polymer frames because of the high density of the material. Oh yeah, the majority of Glock's product line hovers around $450-$600.

Tabletop Games

• Played straight in the GURPS Basic Set. All guns are given a basic descriptive name such as "Auto Pistol, 9mm" or "Assault Carbine, 5.56mm". However this isn't meant to be so much deceptive as it is generic and they later gave statistics to dozens of real life firearms.
  • The second part of this trope popped up almost immediately as people started trying figure out how accurately the real guns were portrayed.
• In Shadowrun, played straight for half the gun names and manufacturer names. The other half of the manufacturers are real companies. This troper isn't a gun hobbyist and so doesn't know if half the names are accurate.
  • In some cases they had a real manufacturer name, but a higher number and a few embelishments to an otherwise familiar form to make them seem more like a futuristic advancement of the weapon.

Real Life

• Both journalists and politicians tend to be something other than firearm experts. As a result, the California Assault Weapons ban outlaws both the "Gilbert Equipment Company Striker 12" shotgun and the "Calico M-900 pistol", neither of which exist. Gilbert Equipment Company tried but never succeeded in importing the Daewoo USAS-12, which is probably what was meant, and the Calico M-900 is a rifle. Also, the Armsel Striker-12/Protecta are a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT series of shotgun (commonly known as the "Street Sweeper"). Journalists tend to consider nearly any rifle used in a crime the well-known AK-47 until proven otherwise, although the high cost of these models mean that they are not usually the weapon of choice for criminals.
  • Similarly, anyone discussing a machine gun used during wartime will usually be convinced that it is a ".50 cal" even if it is being used in a context where such a weapon's use would clearly not even be possible, such as an on foot infantry assault.
  • This troper has seen a local news report refer to a "TEC-9 assault rifle". The TEC-9 is a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. It is easily modified to be fully automatic, turning it into an "assault weapon", but there's a pretty big difference between a full-sized assault rifle accurate out to some 600 yards, and a small handgun that would be lucky to hit anything past 25.
• The US national assault weapons ban was practically made for Loophole Abuse. While it specifically banned the civilian version of the AK-47, it left the door wide open for gun companies to build or import similar weapons that had a few minor cosmetic changes, such as a restyled stock, and sell them with a different name.
• There was recently a real-life incident where Colt Defense sued Heckler & Koch and Bushmaster Firearms, since Colt had a trademark on the name of the famous M4 Carbine supposedly being infringed. While H&K followed this trope in its out-of-court settlement (changing its HKM4 to the HK416), a district court judge in Maine not only ruled in favor of Bushmaster without a full trial, but declared that "M4" was now a generic enough name that the trademark should be revoked.
  • A similar incident happened with the Mexican army-produced FX-05 Xiuhcoatl, which looks a bit too much like the Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle. The lawsuit was eventually dropped due to both having completely different mechanisms.

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