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Gaming Icons Get Star On 'Walk Of Game'

Posted by simoniker on from the outside-stann's-chinese-takeaway dept.

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.

4 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. heh by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.
  2. Must-Have Characters? by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Must-Have Characters? by macrom · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In no particular order :

      Ken and Roberta Williams
      Howard Lincoln
      John Carmack
      John Romero
      Shigeru Miyamoto
      Warren Robinett
      Dani Bunten
      Noel Bushnell
      Steve Wozniak
      Richard Garriott

      And the list goes on. I'm thinking more of the people behind the games. Kinda like giving Mickey Mouse a star on the Walk of Fame, but not Walt Disney.

  3. The Problem With Honoring Characters by exick · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.