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Gaming Icons Get Star On 'Walk Of Game'
Thanks to Businesswire.com for hosting the press release announcing a 'Walk Of Game' within the Metreon Center in San Francisco, honoring "groundbreaking videogame titles and franchises" in the form of Hollywood Walk Of Fame-style stars. No inductees have yet been announced for the walk, set to "...commemorate some of pop culture's most indelible icons of the digital screen", but it'll be interesting to see if Mario gets a star inside the Sony-owned Metreon, and whether creators will be honored in addition to game characters.
If they don't put down Mario, everybody will know that it's nothing but a farce, and Sony will lose face. Of course it'll have Mario!
but it'll be interesting to see if Mario gets a star inside the Sony-owned Metreon,
If they don't honor Mario, they automatically lose all credibility. Mario played an undeniable role in shaping modern video games and was at one time the most popular and most recognizable mascot (either in the world or in the USA, can't remember which...)
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
- Professional Achievement in the Field of Entertainment
- Longevity of Five Years or More
- Contribution to the Community
Lara Croft springs to mind somehow. As does Mario. Both have a movie (or two) in their credits, have been around for 5+ year and could be considered professionals. "Contribution to the Community" might be a problem... Also, according to the FAQ deceased persons can be nominated, but I strongly assume they had to be alive in the past, so this is a star-stopper, too.But, hey, let's start collecting. If we raise the $15.000 maybe they'll grant the star anyway.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
Here's a short list of characters I think would be good for the walkway. I know that everyone has different opinions, but there are definitely a few that should be on their "Walk of Game" regardless.
-Mario. There's no arguing this one.
-Pac-Man. One of the most popular arcade games of our time.
-Donkey Kong. Like Pac-Man, his arcade game was enormously popular.
-Lara Croft. She's made a huge cultural impact, so she's in.
There's also the characters that would be nice, but probably wouldn't be accepted...
-Q-Bert. Seems appropriate to me - he works well with square tiles...
-Pitfall Harry. Pitfall was one of the Atari's better games, and he would be a great choice.
-Link. The Legend of Zelda series has been proven to be a hit time and time again, but the character isn't very well known outside of the gaming community.
-Guybrush Threepwood, just because he's so damn cool.
Anyone have any more suggestions? I'd love to see what others are thinking...
Goo goo g'joob.
Seriously, my local movie theater created their own "Walk of Fame" and my alma mater sold bricks that you could put your name in to make a walk of fame.
Oh wait, I just realized! It's a press release! Hype hype hype hype! It's just a gimmick to get you to go to the movies and pay $10 for a ticket and $23.50 for popcorn and a large drink.
I'm totally in favor of paying homage to video game characters that achieve "legend" status, but this type of thing is bound to run into a snag that other similar places don't worry about.
Video game characters are property. The Hollywood Walk of Fame doesn't have to get permission from Lucille Ball's owner in order to give her an award and honor her, but Mario belongs to Nintendo, Sonic belongs to Sega, etc. There would have to be some serious hoop-jumping in order to get names, images, videos, statues and the like on display in a museum of this kind.
Mario would be first on my list too, but knowing the tightness with which Nintendo grips its IP and given its current competitive stance with Sony, I find it hard to believe that they would allow Mario's likeness to be used to put money into Sony's pockets.
However, I'm all in favor of honoring actual people in this way. Creating a place where gamers could wander through the history of video games and read about the careers of legendary innovators like Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell, Shigeru Miyamoto, and John Carmack sounds like an awesome idea.
San Francisco Chronicle - the near future
This Friday, popular game character Mario was honored with a spot on the Sony Metreon's Walk of Game. The plumber graciously recieved his Star and subsequently killed the 4 Sony presenters when they shook his wildly flashing invincible hand.
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
I live in San Francisco right now, though I will soon move for college. The Metreon is an excellent location for this sort of thing, because it has a very video-gamey feeling about it. The architecture is very futuristic, and there are big shiny lights in and around the building itself.
However, I often go to the Metreon and don't spend a thing, because they often put up gimmicky things like this and I'll go regularly to check for a new exhibit. When Minority Report was in theaters they had the cool car design in it on display, in full scale. Last time I went they had an "interactive projector" where you blocked the projector's light from above with your body and it changed what was displayed in that area - for example, revealing a new picture, or making ripples.
Sometimes they still manage to suck me in and play their DDREX machine, though. But $2 for five songs is too much! As are the $2 sodas.