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General discussionWhy is Sin stylized as SiN(22 posts)solved(22 posts)solved
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Posted December 06, 2018
I'm doing some research on this. Personally I remember reviews of the game in some magazines when it came out back in the day, but i don't remember how it was spelt and that's the extent of my knowledge of the game in its original form. I only bought the game on GOG recently.

Was it stylized as SiN originally back when it came out (in contemporary materials like reviews, promotional materials and so on). It seems like it's spelt SiN in modern (today's) materials, like its wikipedia, mobygames and GOG entries.

But looking at the game [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiN#/media/File:Sin_Box_Front.jpg]box[/url] and cover art says "sin" (all lowercase), the manual says Sin, the readme and official patch notes say Sin, and the [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205025441/http://www.ritual.com:80/sin/index2.html]original webpage[/url] also says Sin.

Can anyone with more knowledge of the game shed some light on when/why SiN became prevalent?

(It seems that the sequel SiN Episodes became officially stylized such, e.g. official page and box art).
Post edited December 06, 2018 by ZFR
This question / problem has been solved by Judicat0rimage
Posted December 06, 2018
I know nothing about the game in particular, but, judging from other games, I would assume it's something like Brütal Legend where the ü seems to be left as a ü or turned into a u at complete random based upon the whim of whoever happens to be writing the title at the time. On Steam, for example, there's no umlaut to be seen on the title, yet it's included in the game description.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/225260/Brutal_Legend/

Something similar is likely happening here where the official stylization of the game is SiN, but this wasn't communicated/forced on everybody involved with the game and is thus inconsistent since it's easy to slip the mind and far simpler just to say "Sin". The people who made the manual might be an entirely different team from the people who put together the box art.
Post edited December 06, 2018 by zeogold
Posted December 06, 2018
See:

Se7en
007/--'
GoG (for some of us)
M*A*S*H

and all these purely stylistic plays with logos or designs. Plus, in the case of SiN, there may be the idea of distinguishing the original from the reboot.
Post edited December 06, 2018 by Telika
Posted December 06, 2018
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zeogold: I know nothing about the game in particular, but, judging from other games, I would assume it's something like Brütal Legend where the ü seems to be left as a ü or turned into a u at complete random based upon the whim of whoever happens to be writing the title at the time. On Steam, for example, there's no umlaut to be seen on the title, yet it's included in the game description.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/225260/Brutal_Legend/

Something similar is likely happening here where the official stylization of the game is SiN, but this wasn't communicated/forced on everybody involved with the game and is thus inconsistent since it's easy to slip the mind and far simpler just to say "Sin". The people who made the manual might be an entirely different team from the people who put together the box art.
Yes, I thought myself that it's a quirky stylization that gets dropped and forgotten about sometimes depending on where it's posted, of which Brütal Legend is a good example. (like my ZFR get changed to Zfr on websites that insist on using Proper Case in nicks or zfr if caps are not allowed).

However in this case I can find zero (literally zero) of old examples of when it was stylized SiN. Nor in the game itself. All "SiN"s appear in recent material.

A good way to spot this is to look at the art. While styling may be dropped from text (e.g. due to absence of umlauts or other special characters), it's usually kept in art
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/225260/header.jpg?t=1479167529.

For SiN, I can't find anything like that. In art it's "sin"; in text it's "Sin".
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Telika: See:

Se7en
007/--'
GoG (for some of us)
M*A*S*H
Yes, but while you can see the above stylization on lots of official material, I can't find any SiN stylizations in any material that was contemporary with the game's times. Hence my question to people who might remember the game from back when it came out or have followed it and know when the stylization became common.
Post edited December 06, 2018 by ZFR
Posted December 06, 2018
avatar
ZFR: I'm doing some research on this. Personally I remember reviews of the game in some magazines when it came out back in the day, but i don't remember how it was spelt and that's the extent of my knowledge of the game in its original form. I only bought the game on GOG recently.

Was it stylized as SiN originally back when it came out (in contemporary materials like reviews, promotional materials and so on). It seems like it's spelt SiN in modern (today's) materials, like its wikipedia, mobygames and GOG entries.

But looking at the game [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiN#/media/File:Sin_Box_Front.jpg]box[/url] and cover art says "sin" (all lowercase), the manual says Sin, the readme and official patch notes say Sin, and the [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205025441/http://www.ritual.com:80/sin/index2.html]original webpage[/url] also says Sin.

Can anyone with more knowledge of the game shed some light on when/why SiN became provalent?

(It seems that the sequel SiN Episodes became officially stylized such, e.g. official page and box art).
It's most likely retroactive. They later decided that SiN was the stylization they wanted gonig forward and decided to push it retroactively to the first title's written name to make sure you know it's the same series in the descriptions you're reading etc. That's my best guess at least.
Posted December 06, 2018
BeCaUsE iT lOoKs CoOl.

EDIT: Wait, no it doesn't. My mistake.
Post edited December 06, 2018 by SirPrimalform
Posted December 06, 2018
I dusted off my box of sin and the box art, manual, and all the paperwork state the word "sin" lowercase, refences to the company are reported as "SinTek".

In the box there are two pieces of paperwork among the others that bear the words: SiN and SIN:
https://i.imgur.com/MrA8SM7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9l07UoD.jpg
Post edited December 06, 2018 by Judicat0r
Posted December 06, 2018
avatar
Judicat0r: I dusted off my box of sin and the box art, manual, and all the paperwork state the word "sin" lowercase, refences to the company are reported as "SinTek".

In the box there are two pieces of paperwork among the oders that bear the words: SiN and SIN:
Thanks! So there is at least one old SiN reference.

You didn't follow the game a lot by any chance? Know when SiN became prevalent?
Posted December 06, 2018
It seems that the press used to call the game like that because it was cool, I guess.
If you go in the Mobygames reviews section of the game there are many references to the game's title as "SiN".
Some of them are not in english so I don't know if there's some kind of expanation in there.
The sequel to sin it is called sin as well.
Posted December 06, 2018
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Judicat0r: If you go in the Mobygames reviews section of the game there are many references to the game's title as "SiN".
Some of them are not in english so I don't know if there's some kind of expanation in there.
Thank you. Those reviews are just what I wanted. I didn't know you could find old reviews on mobygames.
Posted December 06, 2018
avatar
zeogold: I know nothing about the game in particular, but, judging from other games, I would assume it's something like Brütal Legend where the ü seems to be left as a ü or turned into a u at complete random based upon the whim of whoever happens to be writing the title at the time. On Steam, for example, there's no umlaut to be seen on the title, yet it's included in the game description.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/225260/Brutal_Legend/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut
Posted December 06, 2018
avatar
Judicat0r: In the box there are two pieces of paperwork among the oders that bear the words: SiN and SIN:
https://i.imgur.com/MrA8SM7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9l07UoD.jpg
Wow. Just noticed you added the scans. Thanks a lot!

Looking at the first one, I *think* it didn't mean to say SiN but SIN. All uppercase. But the uppercase I was stylized with a dot on it.

So it was Sin or SIN (like Quake and QUAKE) or sin. But due to the sylization of uppercase I, the allcaps variation sometimes changed into SiN and that's how it came about.

It's not the N that got capitalized, it's the I that got "lowercased".
Post edited December 06, 2018 by ZFR
Posted December 06, 2018
Yeah maybe, there's big ambiguity there: The Dr. Sinclair's company is called SinTek after him, so if Sin is short for Sinclair it should be "Sin" and there's the religious reference as well.
So who knows I guess.
Posted December 06, 2018
Original materials are all styled as _sin_
https://www.mobygames.com/game/sin/cover-art
Posted December 06, 2018
avatar
zeogold: On Steam, for example, there's no umlaut to be seen on the title, yet it's included in the game description.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/225260/Brutal_Legend/
Just a thought, but on Steam the reason for that might be that it's easier to find the title if you don't have to type in "ü" which most users probably won't even find on their keyboard?

Apart from that, your theory sounds reasonable though.
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General discussionWhy is Sin stylized as SiN(22 posts)solved(22 posts)solved
(22 posts)solved