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Post by Hannes Vilhjalmsson on Feb 10, 2009 19:30:29 GMT -5
This week we talked about how characters serve an important role in creating an engaging experience, ranging from games to training applications. We reviewed classic character archetypes that seem to strengthen the way we relate to these characters, as we tend to place them into well recognizable categories. Name two characters you find compelling from any kind of virtual/fictional experience (provide web links if possible). Describe why you think they have such an effect on you. Are they archetypes? Are they a mixture of archetypes? ( here is a fun example of matching archetypes to TV characters) Are they fully defined or are they partially left up to your imagination? What makes these characters distinct from each other (different from each other)? What are the most important traits (features) that set them apart from regular/boring characters? Any useful things you can learn from the design of these characters? (imagine you'd have to create a new character from scratch for an interactive story).
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Post by gudleifur05 on Feb 11, 2009 8:01:47 GMT -5
My first example is a rather classical one. Alyx from Halflife 2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyx_VanceThe effect is clearly that in Halflife 2 you are put in the mindset that she is an important person to you and you should care for her. She is also a mentor archetype. There can be made strong connection in stories if you should care for your mentor and even save him/her but also having the respect needed. There is a experimentation to build up tension between her and Gordon Freeman which makes her different from other characters in the game. The other example is Aenea in the Sci-fi novels Endymion and Rise of Endymion: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endymion_(Hyperion_Cantos)#Aenea.27s_rescueShe has similar traits as Alyx. A mentor creating strong feelings towards the main character, Raul, and strong but vulnerable at the same time. As I said, I think one of the strongest connection in storytelling is a mentor which is not perfect but gets the respect needed.
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Post by Birna Íris on Feb 15, 2009 7:55:18 GMT -5
I am sort of the alien here because of my lack of computer game experience. I have some experience in children PlayStation games though. But I can't really say that Harry Potter, Crash, PacMan or characters from LEGO Starwars have a great impact on me. I don't have any experience in using virtual training applications either. So my example is from the movies:
I'm not very much for watching violent movies but I find Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 to be masterpieces in some ways.
Some of the archetypes are: The Hero is clearly 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman). Although she is an assassin, the watcher immetiately feels sympathy with her because she is also the victim. I think this is quite amazing that watchers can feel kind of relieved when the hero kills, but very angry and resentful even when the Shadow kills.
The Shadow is of course Bill himself (David Carradine), who left The (pregnant) Bride to die on a church floor. The ultimate assassination for The Bride is to Kill Bill.
The Threshold Guardians are the rest of the Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad (the squad that The Bride was apart of before she became pregnant). And The Bride is out to get them all.
At last I would like to mention the Mentor, the kung-fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia Hui Liu). The Shadow (Bill) was also trained by Pai Mei, but he didn't teach him the 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart' technique which he taught The Hero (The Bride). This fact (although not revealed until in the end) emphasizes that the Hero is in a way 'better' than the Shadow although they seem to be of the same kind (the killer one).
The Bride's story and character is revealed slowly through the two movies giving the watcher space to fill in the blanks with imagination. I think the reason for her impact on me is partly because of how affective the filming is. The perspective is not the typical one. The scenes are often like a piece of art and set the atmosphere in a very affective manner. Another reason is that The Bride is totally cool (icelandic: töffari) but still emotional (she leaves the assassination squad when pregnant and goes on this revenge journey because of her child). She also has a lot of discipline (shown in her training with Pai Mei), which is extremely cool.
Things I can use from the design of The Bride are to actually create a whole character before implementation. Although all of the characters elements and his story is not revealed to the user in the interactive story it is good to have designed it fully beforehand. This makes the character more alive I think. A character that is created on 'the fly', with random features is not a very believable one. Also it doesn't really matter if the character is good or bad in general, it's how you present it. Add a little sympathy and the character gets a whole new meaning in the users mind. What I can also learn from this is how the environment in a whole matters much. Setting the atmosphere right with the right setup (surroundings, lights, stunt characters etc.) is very important in the making of a virtual environment.
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Post by eirikurn on Feb 15, 2009 9:56:36 GMT -5
I enjoy stories that have character development instead of static character stereotypes because those stories most of the time have a very interesting flow as they need climatic moments and events to cause the development of the lead characters. These characters are also much more interesting in the way that they will surprise you and you will start rooting for them as their change starts to happen. The mediums that have in my opinion used this the best are role playing games, anime and of course the comics/manga they are based upon. Some american TV series have begun experimenting with this also, but they are often limited with the endless season greed, sacrificing conclusive story arcs for more cliff hangers and repetition (How many times can they kill/revive those characters in Heroes). I won't say that the Japanese characters are always perfect, they too often suffer from extreme stereotypes and story formulas, f.ex. the loud young boy that grows into a serious dark hero, but at least they have a planned story arc with a beginning and an ending. One favorite character is "Edward", a hero character in " Full Metal Alchemist", a young boy who's on a quest to undo the regretful actions he did that changed the lives of his family. I also must mention a classic character from " Final Fantasy 6" called Kefka that starts out as a small-time trickster that is never far away but during the course of the story he shapeshifts into the shadow.
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peter
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Post by peter on Feb 15, 2009 12:10:54 GMT -5
A memorable character from a programme I've been watching recently is Gene Hunt from the British TV series "Life on Mars". quick summary: The protagonist Sam Tyler, a police officer in Manchester, is run over by a car and falls into a coma. When he wakes up, he finds himself in the very same city, but in the seventies. Sam joins the local police force; each episode is a crime mystery on its own, but also further develops the main story thread, which is the investigation of whether Sam is dreaming, has gone mad or has travelled in time. A recurrent theme is how appalled Sam (and the viewer) is by the brute methods the police employ in this time and by how unacceptable the values (e.g. the prevalent sexism, drinking and smoking in the office, etc.) are to Sam and the viewer. Gene Hunt, head of the local police, is, in a way, an incarnation of these values, but he is also Sam's mentor, as most often a compromise between Sam's "correct" methods and Hunt's "direct" approach leads to the solution. Hunt is therefore, while ultimately a good guy and Sam's "mentor", always also a bit of a "threshold guardian", as Sam repeatedly has to overcome or come to terms with his methods and views. Hunt is not a deeply complex character, but the combination of the viewer's inability to tolerate some of his opinions on the one hand and a certain likability on the other hand make the character compelling and maintain the required tension. (Actually, I think the character was so well-received that they made a spin-off series revolving around Hunt...) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(TV_series)Another memorable character that instantly springs to mind is Gollum from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, clearly a "trickster" following his own rules. Corrupted by the desire for the ring, he is sometimes a threat, sometimes (it appears) a help for the hero and his fellows - and in the end he turns out to play an important role in the quest. The viewer is torn between pity and contempt for this poor creature, and if the story was told in a different way it is easy to imagine Gollum being the hero of it, constantly struggling in his "inner conflict". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GollumInterestingly, I cannot remember any strong characters in a videogame I've played recently. Maybe Drebin from Metal Gear Solid 4 (which I haven't finished), also a trickster or shapeshifter.
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Post by David H. Brandt on Feb 15, 2009 16:47:33 GMT -5
First, I name "Ash Williams" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Williams#Army_of_Darkness) in the classic D-class-low-budget-sci-fi/fantasy/failed-horror movie "Bruce Campbell vs. An Army of Darkness" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_darkness).
Ash plays the part of the Hero, who originally was a lowly clerk at S-mart, but in the movie's equally cheesy prequels (The Evil Dead and Dead by Dawn) he found himself sucked into a vortex which sent him back to 1300 AD, to a traditional fantasy setting in dire need for a traditional Hero. Ash however carries none of the traditional traits of a hero, being more of the "anti-hero" type.
Ash is shallow, cynical, rude, ignorant, arrogant, and entirely self-centered. While he does agree to play hero for the locals, it is only to use them for his own ends, compromising their wellbeing in the process. His cynicism is in fact perhaps his only redeeming quality as a hero, as he is all-but-immune to the melodramatic over-acting of the traditional fantasy adversaries, as well as entirely devoid of foolish handicaps such as fair play.
During the course of the film he is furthermore "cloned", creating the "deadite" "Bad Ash". Thus Ash is also a Shapeshifter of sorts. Characteristically for the movie, but uncharacteristically for Heroes in the fantasy genre, Ash informs Bad Ash that he really isn't that nice, ties him up in chains, and carves the screaming Bad Ash into tiny pieces with his chainsaw. Bad Ash however rises from the grave and becomes Ash's Threshold Guardian, standing between Ash and his ultimate goal: cowardly flight back to the future, with no regard from the wellbeing of the locals.
The film is a feast of wonderfully tacky lines, cheap special effects and melodramatic acting which typically backfires. Ash is indeed fully defined by the film. The most important trait of Ash is that he is a total misfit in the fantasy world, allowing him to get the right job done via all the wrong means.
Secondly, I name Sgt. Todd in the excellent C-class scifi movie "Soldier" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(film)). Todd is the best of a group of veteran super-soldiers that the villain Colonel Mekum replaces with a batch of genetically-engineered soldiers that are supposedly better in every regard. To prove it, Mekum has one of his men fight Todd and a few more veterans in hand-to-hand combat, which the new soldier wins. Todd is left for dead and cast out with the trash on a supposedly abandoned waste-disposal-planet. A group of stranded colonists that had crashlanded on the planet 12 years prior take Todd in and help him recover.
Todd is however unfit to participate in a normal society, having been trained from birth to be an obedient killing machine. Effectively void of humanity, Todd does not speak or socialize, and eventually is cast out of the society by the colonists when he regains his strength. Shortly after, Mekum, the film's Shadow by chance comes to the planet with his "fresh batch" on a routine training mission. Going by the book, Mekum classifies the colonists as hostiles and sends in his men. Todd's humanity has however been awaken by the colonists, thus he takes upon himself the role of the Hero and methodically uses his vast experience to kill them all, with little thought, effort, or acknowledgement to their superior genetics and firepower. His finally battle with the same soldier who once defeated him in hand-to-hand combat is repeated in hand-to-hand mode, but in a real world environment Todd plays this Threshold Guardian like a fool, defeating him with the oldest trick in the book.
Todd was a highly memorable character in a wonderfully cheesy movie. In the entire movie he is on the screen 85% of the time, yet says only 104 words (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120157/) and barely shows any facial expressions. This is highly unusual for Hero characters in any form of fiction. Large portions of the film revolve around non-combatant scenes where the camera is focusing on Todd in scenarios where you, the watcher, know that your mind would have been racing with all sorts of questions and all sorts of nonsense would have come out of your mouth, yet nothing comes from Todd. Todd is effectively undefined as a character by the film, leaving you with endless questions as to what is truly going on in his head.
Considering both of these characters together, they both had some very extreme personality traits that made them stand out in comparison with the environment. For one, it was cynisism and general ass-holery that was entirely out-of-place in a fantasy setting. For the other, he was so locked inside himself that the movie was some sort of hybrid-silent-movie. Both were simultaneously under-dogs and super-heroes of sorts. Ash was easy to relate to, as he was fundamentally just the guy-next-door. Todd was too, in a strange kind of way, although he had been turned into something entirely different. Strong characters, with emphasis on their defining features... that's the lesson to learn from these two, whether or not that lesson carries to all characters.
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Post by Stefán Freyr on Feb 15, 2009 17:06:38 GMT -5
Well, just like Birna I don't have much experience with modern day games. As I've said before, my gaming experience mostly come from the Sierra Quest games. These games all had some sort of a hero, albeit in very different forms. Police Quest had Sonny Bonds, a police officer starting as a traffic cop in the beginning of PQ1 and working his way up the promotion ladder throughout that game and in subsequent PQ games. PQ also has its own shadow character in the first 2 games, named Jessie Bains. King's Quest has a hero named King Graham. The KQ games take place in a rather complex world and have many characters that fit to pretty much all the archetypes. Space Quest has Roger Wilco who is a bit of a mix between the hero and the trickster as in the first game he is rather reluctantly forced into the role of a hero. Similarly, in Leisure Suit Larry the hero/trickster main character is Larry Laffer who's motives are always questionable but for some reason the player identifies with him. Of course, Larry's main motivation is to get in bed with beautiful women, so I guess that's the main reason (mostly male) players want to see Larry succeed in his quest. The most memorable mentor character to me would have to be Mr. Miyagi from the movie "The Karate Kid". For reasons unknown, possibly due to the fascination and mystery of the ancient Japanese martial art, Mr. Miyagi always invoked some sort of awe. It might also have something to do with the way he taught, giving seemingly useless exercises to his disciple ("wax on, wax off" and all that) with a revelation scene where it all suddenly made sense (at least, to a gullible 8 year old). Of course, the Lord of the Ring series have to be mentioned here as well because it almost looks like the world of Tolkien was written with this assignment in mind. It has it all and then some. Here's at least my take on the roles that the characters play in it: Frodo - Hero with a tiny bit of a shapeshifter in him as the ring begins to affect him. Sam - Trickster, although you never doubt his alliance to the hero he does provide comic relief. Merry and Pippin - Tricksters, in much the same sense as Sam. (aren't we missing a "Sidekick" archetype?)Gandalf - Mentor, Hero and Herald. Sauron - Shadow. Ringwraiths - Threshold GuardiansGollum - Here I must disagree with Peter to some extent because I think Gollum fits the archetype of a Shapeshifter much more than a Trickster, although he does fit that role also of course. References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Quest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Quest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Quest en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings
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sikm
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M.Sc. student in Computer Science at Reykjavik University
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Post by sikm on Feb 15, 2009 17:36:10 GMT -5
When I think of a memorable character in a video game the first character that comes to my mind is Link in The Legend of Zelda. Link is a hero who aims to rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon who is the Shadow. Link has to travel into eight dungeons and conquer a threshold guardian in each of them to get to the Shadow. Link begins his journey as an ordinary boy but strengthens to triumph over the ultimate evil. The hero has a symbol of courage, strength and wisdom. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_ZeldaThere are others that come to mind, like Ben Whatsisname in Full Throttle from Lucas Arts. Ben is a hero and is a leader of outlawed biker gang named Polecats. He has dry humor, ruggish and has bulky chin. His goal is to find a way to clear his name and save his gang. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Throttle_(computer_game)I must agree with Gudleifur that Alyx is also a very memorable character from Half-Life 2. Alyx acts as a mentor and a comic relief when needed (a trickster). She is very believable character with brilliant animation, combined with fabulous voice acting and script. It is really amazing how she manages to bring empathy to the game as to how the player should be feeling throughout the game. When Alyx is afraid, the player knows something bad is happening. When she jokes, the player laughs. When she cries, the player feels her pain.
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Post by kristjanbb02 on Feb 15, 2009 20:45:25 GMT -5
In all fairness I can hardly remember a game with very memorable characters compared to books and 'real'-rpg (vs other humans), hell even most movie tend to have more memorable characters. I liked the (mad) AIs from Marathon Trilogy (1994-1996 - Bungie game, pre- Halo). Durandal p2 (trickster,shadow,protagonist,antagonist), Leela (guide,mentor,tragic hero), Tycho (shapeshiftertragic hero,protagonist,antagonist), Thoth, etc. Text only but with lots of depth (kinda like book), but almost completely static (e.g always the same outcome, no real choice). Those AIs took on all the typical roles even sometimes made you feel like their tool rather than the hero. Every game that I have tired that tires to have more dynamic character based my actions/choices has ended up with extremely shallow characters. This can be even more damaging once you realize that a character is somewhat 'aware' of your actions you instinctively raise the bar usually just to be disappointed later on. This is especially true in the beginning of many games where the developers have taken their time to create all sort of fancy triggers and custom like responses in the intro / tutorial part, but get sloppy and repetitive as the game progress. Sometimes the illusion of choice and game depth can be the best compromise. Deus Ex (2000) did this very well. For many years (until I played it again) I thought the other characters had been influenced by me while the truth was that it was me that had been guided through a very narrow path and just never saw the walls. These invisible walls are going to put you in dilemma if you want to have a very open game without them then you have to give up some of the story and character depth. If you do not have them and try to go for deep story you will end up with story that either doesn't relate to what the player is doing or is very inconstant with what player is doing or did. There are some games that do appear to be exceptions, but on closer inspection they either distance the story from the character or make it shallow (to support all the multiple branches). Maybe this works for some players, but for me this isn't good enough. I want to be in story when I play a game (not on the sideline) or not at all. Over all I feel that trying to add too much character dynamic is wasted effort. Either you have a good (static) story to tell and you have to just carefully put the invisible guiding walls or if you want an open sandbox then empathies can not and should not be placed on the characters and story, but rather other elements of the game. This is just the unfortunate truth about computer games and why I like pen and paper RPG for both story and openness at the same time.
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Post by ellioman on Feb 15, 2009 21:21:48 GMT -5
First, I name "Ash Williams" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Williams#Army_of_Darkness) in the classic D-class-low-budget-sci-fi/fantasy/failed-horror movie "Bruce Campbell vs. An Army of Darkness" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_darkness). There are others that come to mind, like Ben Whatsisname in Full Throttle from Lucas Arts. Ben is a hero and is a leader of outlawed biker gang named Polecats. He has dry humor, ruggish and has bulky chin. His goal is to find a way to clear his name and save his gang. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Throttle_(computer_game)Good calls!! 2 very memorable characters and in my list of favorite characters! I always liked those kick-ass characters in the games I played and who's the most kick-ass character of all time?? DUKE NUKEM!From Wikipedia:Duke's personality in all his games since Duke Nukem 3D has been that of a hyper-masculine, egotistical, machismo-filled womanizer, and his missions generally involved killing aliens that had invaded Earth to enslave its women.Duke is a confident, aggressive, and frequently politically incorrect muscle-man, who, although not superhuman, nonetheless manages to achieve incredible physical feats of violence and conquest through sheer machismo and expertise with automatic weapons. Nukem is also a smart-mouth and his sneering visage is often found speaking one-liners while slaughtering his enemies. He is also apparently extremely sexually adept and irresistible to women, and circumstances generally find him surrounded by many buxom women. A Close second would be... Kratos from the God of war gamesGod of war games are probably the best games I've ever played on the PS2 playing wise and story wise. From Wikipedia:Kratos was the youngest and most promising captain in Sparta's army, quickly gaining recognition due to his violent tactics. During an attack by a barbarian tribe, they were outnumbered. Before being killed by the barbarian king, Kratos summoned Ares, the Greek god of war, and offered his soul in exchange for a victory. He continued to serve Ares until the god tricked him into killing his own family, after which he served several of the Greek gods for a decade. After becoming tired of serving the gods to erase the memories of his family's murder, he contacted Athena, who offered him forgiveness if he was able to stop Ares' destruction of Athens.
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thors
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Post by thors on Feb 16, 2009 4:44:41 GMT -5
I can't really say that I've "connected" with any of the in-game characters of the games available since I started playing computer games over 30 years ago. Perhaps since I choose my games in regard to realism - i.e. I try to cut down on realism to keep the distiction of reality and virtuality.
In books however, things are different. I grew up with books, and have been reading since age 3. The characters most memorable are Bilbo Baggins (Hobbit), the team of five in Enid Blyton's 'five' books and Watson and Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes).
Bilbo is certainly a 'hero' character, albeit a bit feeble one. But his ineptness at certain points in the story make the heroism stand out so much better, and makes it easier for the reader to identify with him.
The team of five (all heroes, but each with his own trait - be it a herald, mentor (George), or threshold guardian (the young ones)). is probably the team most youngsters can identify with. Normal people with no "superpowers", but plenty adventures.
In Sherlock Holmes, Watson is a rather particular mix of menton/herald/hero which works rather well. Moriarty however, the anti-Sherlock is not only the shadow, but a shapeshifter as well (in one story, Moriarty becomes the "good guy" and vice versa, until the very end where the story unfolds, revealing the truth).
Alhough I watch too many movies to be healthy, I really can't say there are many "outstanding" characters. A few particularly special characters may be as Birna mentioned, The Bride of Kill Bill, Leelo of Fifth Element (Threshold Guardian), Sgt. Ripley/Alien - Hero...
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Post by Ptur Sigursson on Feb 16, 2009 6:56:16 GMT -5
The first character that came to mind was Stan from the monkey island series (http://www.miwiki.net/Stan). Mainly because everyone that ever played the games remembers that character and how much fun it was to lock him inside one of his own coffins. He would without a doubt fit as a threshold character, since he was an obsticle that you would have to get rid off. The other character that I remember quite clearly is the purple tentacle from day of the tentacles, who grew a pair of arms and acquiring a thirst for world domination after being exposed to toxic waste. I would categorize him as a shadow, since he represents the main evil in the game.
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Post by ellioman on Feb 16, 2009 12:35:12 GMT -5
The first character that came to mind was Stan from the monkey island series (http://www.miwiki.net/Stan). Mainly because everyone that ever played the games remembers that character and how much fun it was to lock him inside one of his own coffins. He would without a doubt fit as a threshold character, since he was an obsticle that you would have to get rid off. The other character that I remember quite clearly is the purple tentacle from day of the tentacles, who grew a pair of arms and acquiring a thirst for world domination after being exposed to toxic waste. I would categorize him as a shadow, since he represents the main evil in the game. haha memories! Lucasarts created a pile of great games and characters in their games between 1990-1995. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LucasArts_adventure_games#Adventure_games_by_LucasArtsSuch asGuybrush Threepwood, LeChuck, Elaine Marley, Stan (Monkey Island) Sam and Max (Sam & Max Hit the road)Ben, Maureen "Mo" Corley, Malcolm Corley, Adrian Ripburger, Bolus and many more. (Full Throttle)
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Post by Eirikur Ari Petursson on Feb 16, 2009 15:43:56 GMT -5
Hi all, sorry for the late input and uff there are so many characters but link has always been my favorite character, just adore him and he is a hero of the story in legend of zelda but im not gona talk about him more because sikm has already mention him. In one of the funniest games i have ever played was Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe.The main character was called Simon and he was in fact a sorcerer which you played through the game and did some hilarious stuff. Simon would be categorized as an trickster. He was dressed in some funny red sorceress dress with a pointy hat and a pigtail. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_the_Sorcerer_2Another game that i adore is called Tales of Symphonia and is a rpg game and the main character of the game is Lloyd Irving and is the hero and he is accompanied by other travelers which you gather through the story. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_symphonia
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Post by thorgeir on Apr 19, 2009 10:55:35 GMT -5
I'm gonna keep it short. I think to the two most memorable characters I can remember from computer games are Duke from duke nukem 3d and Lara Croft from Tomb raider. What made Duke memorable was his coolness, one liners and attitude.I think what made the Tomb Raider series successful is that finally computer geeks all over the world where able to control a hot chick, and her breasts got bigger with every iteration of the the game.
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