Oo0o0o0o0, this is gonna be a good one, isn't it?

I'd say talk about James Sunderland, but I know it's inevitable :)

Nobody beats Sludge Vohaul as a great "bad guy" in videogame history. For those that don't know, he's from the Space Quest series. Just look at my avatar.

Are we beginning to see the development of not just console fanboys, but now game fanboys? People who will defend games such as Call of Duty 4 to their death and can prove any kinda of negative aspect of the game is actually a good thing?

Or have people like these always been here?

ALSO,

Do you find it easier to get emotional evolved if your playing yourself in the game, or playing a well structured character?

What do you think of a lack of story/character arcs in alot of popular games (namely FPS's)? For instance, Half Life 2, while being a great game, lacks any real change in the protagonist since it's from first person, and the story while having minor rises and falls in conflicts, is relatively at the same beat through out. Is this perhaps just result of storytelling in games and the arcs are supposed to appear in the player his or herself, or it something that just needs more time to evolve?

i remember you guys talking about the fact that Gordon Freeman being a mute made the game more involving for the player, and that got me thinking

is it better for playable character(s) in a game to have a distinctive personality, like the cocky/cheesy/awesome Dante from Devil May Cry (may favorite series) or to be mute non characters like Gordon Freeman from Half-Life (my other favorite series)

For a long time, the only characters you'd ever really see in games were the brooding, spiky-haired, reluctant hero, or the balls-to-the-wall badass space Marine, or the one-dimensional, giant breasted heroine. A lot of people complain about the lack of originality, but isn't there at least some merit to each of these stereotypes?

Sometimes, I don't want to think about the complex motives behind my character's actions; I just want to shoot aliens and blow things up. Is that really so wrong?

What are some characters that aren't that popluar among the gamer nation but you think deserve more attention then they have?

In light of Suda 51's recent comments about 3rd party "hardcore" games not doing so hot on the Wii, what do you think it's going to take for them to actually do well? Is Nintendo to blame for marketing the Wii so hard as a "casual" machine, or are "hardcore" 3rd party games just doomed to be overlooked and ignored as they were on the Gamecube?

Kefka. That should be all I have to say. Most memorable villian ever, in my opinion. Do you agree/disagree? I also wanted to say that:

I think Kefka is a pretty cool guy. eh poisons Citizens of Doma and doesnt afraid of anything

What makes characters that do not talk like Link or Crono so memorable?

In this day and age of voice acting, what do you guys feel like is lost (and/or gained) from the prominence of voice acting in games?

So to make that on topic, do you care more about Andrew Ryan or the smorgasbord of GTA3 characters?

Games are interactive medium, and thus allow the player to impact the character and the game world. Do you feel games are better served by leaving the player some room to define the character for themselves, or have a fully defined character from the outset?

With the success of Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Command and Conquer 3, as well as other RTSs like Supreme Commander, World in Conflict and Universe at War coming out soon for the consoles, what are the odds that Blizzard will try to port over Starcraft 2 to the PS3 or 360?

@ flaming_burrito

Obviously, the ability to self-insert is lost, and a game's sense of drama can be ruined by bad voice acting, but you also gain. FFT on the PSP was improved by the addition of voice into its FMVs, mainly because the lines were so florid just reading them ala' subtitle (as in the JP release) would probably cause you to facepalm in despair.

Also, adjusting voice acting and writing can change a game's style entirely. Robot Alchemic Drive's Japanese release felt somewhat cheesy, but on the whole took itself seriously. The English release was pure comedy, with the so-bad-it's-good voice acting that perfectly captured the qualities of those ancient dubbed robot cartoons.

Characters with strong personalities can be as memorable as characters with little personality. Take for example Gordon Freeman as opposed to Solid Snake or Dante. Gordon Freeman is little more than a shell for the player, but the way Valve's carefully written his interactions with Alyx, where Alyx's lines never actually imply the truth of Gordon's personality, where a player could think anything, and still have Alyx react realistically to Gordon's outward actions, allow the player to insert their own self-image (with added glasses, beard, and Ph.D)readily. Dante and Snake on the other hand, are completely their own persons. You are just the guy pressing the buttons, and you'll like it that way.

It's probably pretty obvious, but character memorability is in the writing.

Alright i'll chime in this time:
Which Video game charachter would you like to see naked?

Which sort of protagonist do you think works best? (You can define that however you like. Which one is more immersive, which one makes the gameplay more satisfying, whatever.) The silent protagonist, i.e. Gordon Freeman? The non-silent but stoic protagonist, i.e. Master Chief, Marcus ThickNeck? The colorful, Han Solo-esque type of protagonist? Fill in the blank with whatever other types come to mind.

(My apologies if someone already asked this.)

Classically, we've all got this image of a video game protagonist - Dante was a good example, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, even. Which characters in video game history do you think have made the greatest bounds, in terms of innovation in character design? Is it necessarily a good thing that video game characters aspire to be cinematic, or can originality be found even in the same-old-tough-guy archetype?

is kirby teh secks?

With video games pushing themselves to the limit (or what seems like the limit right now), and characters looking more and more real, how much do you think advanced animations/motion capturing has to do with how we perceive and feel about a character? (Obviously this doesn't apply to older games, just the newer ones.)

I remember when I first saw the Mass Effect commercial, I thought it was an ad for some new Sci-Fi Channel show, then I did a double take. WAH?!? That's a video game character?

What do you think is more important in developing our attachment to certain characters, is it how we see the characters acting or what we experience through the character?

In my own experience, having to go through various shitholes and firefights with Freeman made him one of the most significant game characters to me.

I would like a discussion on getting the "FREE" game undertow. YAWN.
The other topic is the BNP in COD4, I was playing alongside people called "White Empire" and the like who were in the clan [BNP], and yes they were shooting people and shouting things like "Die Paki Bastard".
1: Who allows the [BNP] (joke or not) to be allowed as a tag.
2: Surely Microsoft should clamp down on this sort of thing, much more offensive than the obvious humor of BuckFitches.

and yes I reported these asshole through the dashboard, not that it matters.

Um ... you guys want to bash conservatives? Then bring me on and have at it. I'm a hard-core, gaming conservative who has been gaming since the days of the Atari and Commodore 64. I also think that Jack Thompson and that yutz who was bashing "Mass Effect" (whatever his name is) are assholes. (Need I remind you that even Rush Limbaugh stood up for gamers whereas that bitch Hillary is looking to regulate video games?)

So, put away damned broad brush. :P

Anyway, the most recent, memorable characters in gaming? That's easy: GLaDOS and the The Weighted Companion Cube. I mean, let be serious here: two inanimate objects have been given a life of their own among the fans to the point that just about every gamer knows what "This was a triumph" means.

what is it about halo that makes master chief such a memorable character to most people? i honestly feel the grunts have more personality and/or likability than "mr. only says afew sentences each game".

leon kennedy also is another character i didn't care much about yet capcom seems to think i do. claire had more to her that made me feel more inept to protect/finish her story than leon.

Mostly talking about link here but how much do you feel different graphical styles affect the same character? I prefered the style used in wind waker, it gave link so much more personality than he has in ocarina or twilight princess.