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The Top 7... Lazy Character Clichés

Copy, paste, unoriginality! The most overused archetypes of all time

Words: Charlie Barratt, GamesRadar US

Description: Behold the most shameless - and least surprising - character cliché of all time. Yes, in the fictional worlds of gaming, clothing is apparently in short supply and temperatures are clearly scorching. Why else would 99% of the women - from spies, ninjas, vampires and sorcerers to reporters, golfers, mechanics, archeologists and high school students - choose to dress up like a bunch of Las Vegas strippers?

Oh yeah... money, that's why. On an unrelated note, have you checked out our Sexy Fan Art gallery lately?

Common characteristics:

  • Skin.
  • Skin.
  • More skin.
  • Um, some other stuff like a weapon... or a face... we think?

 
(Download this collage as a desktop wallpaper!)

Possible Inspiration:


The Antidote:

The female protagonist of Portal remains fully clothed, from head to knee, throughout the entire game. Moreover, her gender is not used to sexualize the shooter, or market it to horny teenage boys, in any way. No, the hero of Portal just happens to be a normal-looking and normal-dressing woman, like 50% of the world's population. Imagine that.


Did we miss some great examples of these clichéd character categories? Did we miss some categories altogether? Of course we did. 
Let us know about it in our forums.

To see more GamesRadar Top 7s, head here.

Hear more about this article in TalkRadar.

Jul 21, 2008

 
9 Comments
CuddlyBomber - 3 months 4 days ago
Ah Man i just listened to talkradar11 and the top 7 was hilarious.
MSCR - 2 months 23 days ago
Pretty good article, a bit preachy sometimes and I fail to see how that raziel thing is a prettyboy. Moody and shit sure, but the guy runs about naked, has no visible genitals and isn't half his face missing?

Other than that, pretty insightful stuff.
Coolbeans69 - 2 months 17 days ago
That was pretty funny
Psyrate - 2 months 2 days ago
The truth has never been so hilarious.
melloe - 1 month 13 days ago
well done. but you forgot Samus in the collage of masked characters?
Major_Wuss - 29 days 6 hours ago
LOL at including Viva Pinata in the Animal with Attitude page.
NeotericDope - 9 days 4 hours ago
All of these fall into the antidote category:

Black stereotype antidote:Eli Vance (Half Life)

Half naked woman antidote: Alyx Vance (Half Life), Faith (Mirrors Edge), Zoey (Left 4 Dead)

Masked men antidote: (Mega Man) not completely masked, but he's covered in a helmet and owns.

Love interest antidote: Once again Alyx Vance (Half Life)
crustdbeat - 8 days 21 hours ago
forgot about jax from MK,

they emphasize his arms a tad dont they?
crustdbeat - 8 days 21 hours ago
Thanks for the wallpaper!!
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