posted
Having looked at different titles of action/adventure/Sci-Fi shooters during the past 18 months, I've come to one conclusion;
The market is being hijacked by Brownhaired Beefcakes!
It feels like they've gotten a renewed hold of the computer game market and, with the exception of the "helmeted mute heroes" (HALO/Crysis/Dead Space etc), these generics are soon in total control. Even poor Turok, former representative of native american long-haired dino killing pride since 1954, has been reduced to a crewcut, slack-jawed bodybuilder with a comlink.
The budding growth of cool women in games (Mirror's Edge/Heavenly Sword/Half-Life Episode 1-2) is promising but still in its infancy, and while ethnic or otherwise unique heroes (Gordon Freeman - nerd, Duke Nukem - blond+raybans, Niko Bellic - bosnian, Hitman 47 - cueball) pop up now and then, they are few and far between.
Sure, muscly men have always been the predominant main characters in action games, but never before have major franchises and game companies across the board collectively put out a group of games (in the same 18 month period, mind you) that has near clone-like protagonists. This sudden walnut-beefication didn't really occur to me until I saw screenshots from the new "Far Cry 2". I like Cryteam-games, but seeing a bland buzzcut ex-military/ex-underwear model flamethrowering africans by the dozens, it rang a new kind of alarm bell in my head.
Let me explain my angle. If "Far Cry 2" would have a hero with a shred of distinctiveness or personality, it would be simple to view the slaughter in the game as his personal cause (like Max Payne or Gordon Freeman), but when he's made out like some republican wet-dream version of the ultimate american hunk (grown up in nuclear family, lost virginity at 14 in backseat of '68 Camaro, football scholarship, handpicked for Army Rangers at 18, three tours in Fakenameistan, awarded the Congressional Medal by President Seagal), when they put that guy at the head of things, it feels almost like another attempt to win the War on Terror, through wishful thinking.
Oh, and looking at the group picture again, it's a bit worrisome when the only guy who knows how to shave among these assholes is the Sith. What message does this send to our impressionable youth? :.)
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
There exists a fictional person with the name Crashdown?
Ventrilognus: I was at first going to add the panzerclad fatass from G.of.W to the wanted-list but then I noticed he wears a beanie to hide his hair (in my heart I know it's most brown), and I was afraid someone was going to call me on it. "Nullificata hoc beanie".
quote:It is like everyone is that DBag from Prison Break. Now you've got me thinking.
A seed planted is a penny in the piggybank! I wish I was educated enough to be able to harumph like Dr Ball.
Early "Gears of War" viral marketing and advertisement showed a BHBC guy in orange armor without beanie, saying hello to a cyborg-dobermann and then shooting it. But I can't find any traces of that character or advert on the net anymore, it's like Microsoft has erased that timeline altogether.
The soldier says "here boy" and then starts screaming and jumping and shooting at the burned-out walls and ceiling, it was quite memorable.
[ December 01, 2008, 08:24 AM: Message edited by: Nim ]
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
And I was gonna start a video game thread...
Yeah I've noticed a lot of meatheads in game lately. I think it's due to the increase in popularity of actions games, 1st person shooters to be exact. What can I say except that game makers have gotten lazy, story-wise. Hell I remember SEGA was doing a Vectorman remake with the character being the robotic version of a Roll Fizzlebeef type. And shame on you Nim for not mentioning Samus Aran!
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Um, that's not a new character, I was talking about recent development of gaming girls. Not that I think Samus Aran is much of a representative for the cause, I don't see much in her that girls (or humans, for that matter) could indentify with, at the level she's operating.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
That Timeshift guy looks like Bruce Campbell jaked on heavy 'roids.
The only Turok character I've ever seen is a native-american hunter that kills cyborg dinosaurs for some reason. Maybe they dug up his ansestors or something.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Turok, yes. He has now been de-haired, upgraded with a ten-pound jaw, a boxer's nose and hands that are larger than his head.
Update: New suspects found, brought together by a streak of irony (explained below).
Funny story, I was actually going to post only that Killzone-boy here (the title I was thinking of earlier, whose name had escaped me) and when I finally found it on Gamespot, "Resistance: Fall Of Manmeat" was in the "If you like that (Killzone) you might also like this" suggestion sidebar. And when I then clicked on "Resistance", these other titles ("Cold Winter", "Syphon Filter" and "Uncharted") popped in after it, not wanting to be left out. I'm starting to get paranoid, I'm seeing these things everywhere now. It's just a matter of times before one of these things get a home-cooking show.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Good grief. I couldn't identify any of these in a line-up of them all. What happened to original characters like Duke Nukem and Lara Croft? Or even Commander Keen!?
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I don't think using sequels to games as a comparison is fair. I mean, it's like saying "Dammit, all these James T Kirks look like Bill Shatner!" (Well, aside from one.. who looks like a Hollywood manboi clone).
posted
Yeah, at least Duke never pretended to be anything other than an over muscled meat-head.
I tend not to play out and out action games so I honestly haven't noticed this trend but it's not surprising. A bit odd really, you'd think in this day and age there'd at least be a more diverse ethnic variety. Actually on that basis alone Alyx Vance is way ahead of the pack, considering she's of mixed heritage. I suppose you might count Jade from BG&E in that category too as her ethnicity seams to be intentionally ambiguous. Zoë Castillo and April Ryan from the TLG games should get an honourable mention too.
Getting back to the meat-heads, I think it's just a matter of brown haired white guys being a "safe" neutral look and probably shows there lead character was the last thing on the developers' minds when they made these games. Not surprising considering they're mostly of the run-and-gun variety.
posted
Agreed, and besides the identification issue, it doesn't affect gameplay the slightest, assuming the game in question can hold its own. In the case of "Far Cry 2" and "Crysis", though, making the main character a bland, rank-and-file US soldier/generic american mercenary instead of an individual with his own story (like Niko Bellic of GTA4) makes him a representative, one who blows up and torches everything in front of him. :.)
Here's a character in an upcoming title that at least stands out a bit, even if he's not exactly a role model. Even if they are reusing half of the old environments for Dark Athena (but with added features and graphics), it will be nice to see some development in the franchise, since it seems to be dead in the water on the movie-side (and perhaps for the best). Oh, and Michelle Forbes will do the voice for the merc captain! She gets a double-gig for 2009, I believe she'll be voicing "Judith" for the third and final Half-Life 2 expansion as well.
Registered: Aug 1999
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