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Sep 11, 2009 3:36 PM
by: JohnnyMaverik
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Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 21, 2008 11:26 PM
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The Top 7... Lazy Character Cliches
Game design must be super, super hard. What else can explain the number of shortcuts being taken in almost every one? Genres are repeated, environments are recycled and storylines all begin to sound the same.
Most copied, however, are the characters. Dreaming up an entirely new personality with entirely new traits is a daunting task, so the majority of folks you meet in games end up feeling identical to the folks you met in previous games. If they don't look alike, they act alike. If they don't act alike, they at least talk alike. The only things that change are the name and the background. Maybe.
Sure, the following seven character types were probably original once upon a time... but that time was long, long, long ago.
The Top 7... Lazy Character Cliches
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2,879
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 12:07 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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Ahh, quite a fun read!
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Posts:
1,321
Registered:
6/9/07
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 12:38 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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Awesome article! Can't wait for the rest of Seven out of 10 week!
But you guys pretty much nailed all the character cliches. I'll post any if I think of them, though!
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Posts:
1
Registered:
7/21/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 1:01 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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NIce article. But I thought that you would put sly cooper in with the animal catagory. He completely screams that genre. ALso you could have mentioned two genres I ve seen a good bit of : the useless and the doomed soldiers. Usless guys are just that: useless. they can't aim, kill noone and are complete idiots when it comes to cover. the doomed guys are usually good, can hold their own and can help you out . But every time they are killed just halfway or aybe even a quarter of the way through the game and then never a trace of them through the rest THis ones role model: any black guy in an acttion film, except for Will smith of Morgan freeman (goddammit). oh yeah Pokemon sucks ass
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Posts:
1
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9/13/07
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 1:23 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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i have a cliche. all those stupid boss dudes. they always have some wierd glowing parts and/or extra limbs. oh, and some crazy ass magic power or ranged weapon that makes it, pardon my french n shit, such a bitch to kill. but all of this kickass killage seeping from this obviously angry beast is its stupidly flawed weakness.
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Posts:
250
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Posts:
5
Registered:
3/15/07
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Re: Laziest character
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 6:03 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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heyy ive got another cliche although, maybe not as strong, how bout those "trainers" or "sensais" that always educate you at the beginning of the game. They're obviously more poerful than you, but they're too lazy (or old) to do the job themselves, so they magically train you in less than a level's work, and your all set. Or another is the computer nerd buddy on the other side of your characters headset that tells you where to go...without them, your running around half the time finding yournext objective or way through the level,
just some ideas;)
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Posts:
1
Registered:
7/22/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 8:05 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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Why these Lazy Character Clichés are used
The Brooding Pretty Boy
ItÂ?s funny, you see guys like Travies Touchdown everywhere in high school, you know the type, the class clown who always interrupts the teacher, flirts with the girls, gets drunk at party and strips, but you never see him in video games. I guess when they went of to become construction workers and generic business men, the guy who always listen to the teacher, never got the courage to ask that girl out, and did not get invited to any of the cool parties, grew up to become video game designers.
The Pure Heated Love Interest
I have a funny feeling the only reason sheÂ?s used so much is that she would be the kinda a girl that would totally go out with you even if try to ask her out a dozen times, but canÂ?t cuz your just so darn scared! and would never reject you.
The Masked Mystery Man, The Buzz Cut Space Dude, and The Stereotypical black Guy
I guess it is true, Video game designers have only seen three movies; Aliens, Lord of the Rings and Starship Troopers.
The Animal with Attitude
Most likely some suits idea then the actual designer. Luckily, these guys have fallen out of fashion lately, only to be replaced with The Masked Mystery Man and The Buzz Cut Space Dude. I think I liked the animals betterÂ?.
The Half Naked Women
I actually thought this was going to be Â?The Half Naked Bad Grrrrl: She has no clothing cuz sheÂ?s just so bad!Â? but the world is a more horrible place then I could ever imagine and this applies to almost all female characters.
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Posts:
4
Registered:
7/22/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 11:27 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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I can't believe those fast, cocky, often kicky bastards or pretty boys with either long or spiked hair didn't fawking make it!
Street Fighter: Ken.
Tekken: Hwoarang.
The Bouncer: Kou Liefol (or something).
Soul Calibur: That red haired guy from Soul Calibur with chinese sword.
Sonic The Hedgehog: Sonic, I guess. He's fast and cocky but I don't see him kick much.
I forgot which series: The guy who craps to save his game on the Wii who fights with a lightsaber.
Fire Emblem: Mathew.
Virtua Fighter: The ugh..... that one guy.... I forgot his name cause I'm tired and sleeping sucks.
Naruto: That other... guy..... I forgot his name cause I don't care and Naruto sucks.
Inuyasha: Inuyasha. He's kinda slow.
Devil May Cry: Dante.
That's just to name the few I can remember. You can find at least one of those guys in just about every fighting game or RPG game, aside from Mortal Kombat. Hell, there might even be one in MK.
Also, counting those furry guys as an overused clitche is stretching it a little. There's a lot of animal characters that wear clothes. That's like adding aliens. Also, the army dudes with the shaved heads aren't too cliche.
I was too lazy to say this in the beggining of every sentence so I'm saying it now, this is just my opinion. I'm also hoping that "beggining" is spelt that way.
Good day to you, sir!
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Posts:
4
Registered:
7/22/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 11:33 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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But you guys were so right about the black guys. Did video game designers grow up on a farm watching nothing but MTV? The media is terrible to black people.
I don't think the big muscley thing was really a black video game stereotype cliche thing.
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Posts:
1
Registered:
7/22/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 11:56 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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I'll cosign that, great read. Had me suppressing laughter throughout class. Maybe I should reading top 7's during...
Anyway a couple of cliched characters that could fature in an extended list include:
1. The Scientist/Bookish/Nerd type: Always wears glasses, Dies shamefully early occasionally to make some kind of moral point oh and has no sens of style or humour.
2. The Bureaucratic type: Usually high ranking, possibly responsible for the whatever disaster has befallen your party, almost always betrays you and dies a horrible death.
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637
Registered:
6/21/07
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 1:07 PM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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That was a great article. I have seen a few "overzealous protagonists" though, Naruto, Goku, Megaman, Zatch Bell, and Luffy to name a few, though those are moreso TV than video games.
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17
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3/30/07
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 3:52 PM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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"The female protagonist of Portal remains fully clothed" "the hero of Portal just happens to be a normal-looking and normal-dressing woman, like 50% of the world's population."
Not sure where the GR staff lives but out here in Arizona the women dress in a similar fashion it's not uncommon to see a parade of bikini topped 30 somethings perusing a shopping center.
God bless the summer!
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Posts:
21
Registered:
6/23/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 5:18 PM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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Great read. It's so true. Those character archetypes probably account for 90% of the characters in games. I wish video game developers would get more creative in their story lines.
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1,220
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 6:49 PM
in response to: Trabajador88
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I got in today and demanded our boy Charlie put together a desktop background featuring the Animals with 'Tude from the Cliches feature. He obliged, and we thought we'd share it with you:
Click the pic for a high-res 1024x768 image. Yours free!
Tonight, my desktop icons sleep on a bed of awesome.
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Posts:
1
Registered:
8/11/06
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 8:01 PM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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I thought it was hilarious but for the animals with attitude you probably should have put all of the starfox characters (except the robot, rabbit, and frog/sorry can't remember names) for their own little sub category in that since their all showoffy animals with ray guns.
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Posts:
1,220
Registered:
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 9:12 PM
in response to: GamesRadarChris...
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Oh and here's the Half Naked Babes one as well
Click for high-res 1024x768 largeness
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Posts:
343
Registered:
6/14/08
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 22, 2008 9:19 PM
in response to: GamesRadarChris...
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Holy shit Rocky Rodent! I rented the **** out of that game back in the day. I look back at it now, and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but in 1993, that shit was RAD.
I'd love to see a few of these characters come back, actually - Gex, Rocket Knight, Bubsy (complete with his tshirt with the single exclamation point), Aero the Acrobat... I guess the whole 'attitude' thing wouldn't fly as well these days, though. Someone should make a SSBB style fighter with all these washed-up 90's game characters. I'd be all over that.
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Posts:
1
Registered:
10/13/06
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 23, 2008 12:57 AM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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What's wrong with the half-naked women cliche? It's fine with me, and most gamers that play games with half-naked women are male, so why does it matter? And for the pick of the Portal girl for the Portal girl and Grace Nakimura for antidotes, those are some seriously ugly chicks. I honestly hope that no more video game characters look like them.
I will be 6 feet 7 inches tall and make it to the NFL
Taylor Atkins
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Re: Laziest character cliches
Posted:
Jul 23, 2008 5:20 PM
in response to: GamesRadarCharl...
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I laughed at the McLovin' being the inspiration for half naked girls
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