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On Videogame Characters And The Poochy Effect

Posted by simoniker on from the verified-simpsons-reference dept.

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing videogame characters/settings that excessively ape popular culture. The writer summarizes: "A new evil is spreading throughout the industry to stifle gameplay and original game characters, the need to set games in 'cool' or 'hip' settings that meet with mainstream approval", and points to Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil, which he says underwent a "...last minute change in the main character to make her more Gen X compatible." He continues: "For Jak II, developer Naughty Dog seems to have wanted to incorporate every possible 'hot thing' in gaming, from a goateed main character to dark themes." But he concludes by lauding some "breakout successes" in terms of original characters, including Halo's Master Chief and Viewtiful Joe.

2 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. All over the place by bugbread · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry, but this article is so all-over-the-place I can't begin to really understand it.

    First, can anyone tell me what they did to Good And Evil to make it more Gen X? I haven't played it, and he helpfully fails to provide any examples.

    Second, since when is a goatee Gen X? If I remember, goatees went out of style like 4 or 5 years ago.

    Third, how does Viewtiful Joe not meet these criteria of evil that he describes? It's based on an amalgam of movie and TV characters, and the author of the article himself says in his Viewtiful Joe review that "Joe, the star of the game is a Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit's singer) look alike".

  2. Jak & Daxter by JWhiton · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is why when I first saw Jak and Daxter (or however you spell their names) on a magazine cover I just cringed. They were obviously designed to appeal to as many focus groups as possible. I think the Poochie comparison is a good one because they must've drawn them up with 10 people all saying what they wanted in the characters, creating a bizarre amalgamation that doesn't look very good in the end.

    I guess there's a lot of pressure to create franchise characters these days. There's lots of money in creating the next Mario, but somehow I don't think you'll get there if you just combine all the current popular characters into one frankenstein character.