The 50 Greatest Video Game Characters
http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-greatest-video-game-characters/default.asp
Sabreman is currently #24. Vote for him! :-)
Sabreman is currently #24. Vote for him! :-)
Post edited by merseymal on
Comments
16% of people say higher
84% say lower. HELP HIM!
don't forget to vote down the nearest rivals ;)
Now I've voted is 17%-83%... come on! :smile:
Sabreman: 10% - 90%... unfair!!
Not a very good list, not a very good idea for a list.
Spectrum characters miss Dizzy here.
I miss Green Beret character and (maybe I'm biased) Wally Week! :smile:
Nice idea for a list but the people voting must be 18-25
damn... we are getting old.... :(
Seems a pretty decent spread from older and newer stuff, it's certainly not dominated by post-2000 characters as someone has said.
But isnt Empire UK based ? So shouldnt be really 'global scale', i bet most people on Empire online are from the UK/Europe.
I bet you on the greatest films of all time list there'll be a TON of films from 1980 and earlier. I wouldnt say its from a 'minor computer', as Empire is UK based i would expect to see a few more UK classic game characters on the list, not every console one.
On any classic films list there'll be tons of old films on it at Empire, i would expect the same with games
Granted i didnt flick through all 50, gave up after seeing some of them. But it seems that most people just voted on games they 'grew up with' and didnt put anything positive on the older ones. Its a shame they dont have a broader mind. Yeah they might be 19 years old and dont even remember the SNES etc or 8-bits but its a shame they havent tried. As i said if they did the same for the top 50 films you would never have any films earlier than 1980 etc on the list
To be honest, I didn't look and presumed it was a "global" poll.
Ah, but if we take the character videogame era starting in the late 70's/early 80's then you have to run a similar comparison with films. Films didn't start in the 80's, 70's, 60's or even the 50's and although I agree that there would be several films there pre-1980's there would be very, very few (if any) from the start of the film era and into the next 20-30 years. I'm willing to bet the only a couple of films in a top 100 would be pre-1930's; Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Metropolis (1927). Hitting the 30's themselves you obviously have Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.
We all have a vested interest in the Speccy and I would love to have seen more Speccy characters in there, but I know it never would be.
It's not based on worldwide recognition, but instead on whether a character is any "good" or not. If we judged things based on worldwide recognition then Justin Bieber would be one of the world's greatest singers.
There's a much greater problem with the list, though, which is how does someone define a "great" videogame character? Take Miner Willy, sure he's a great character but in a very different way from, say, Gordon Freeman. Willy is a simple sprite with a lot of personality, Freeman is more of an "idea"; in-game he's nothing more than a pair of arms. It's possible to say "here are some gaming characters that we like" but to try and create a top 50 list based on something basically undefinable is just pointless. It's little more than the usual print-media penchant for eschewing proper articles in favour of lists.
Not everything is so literal. These kind of polls, whatever the intentions initially, are never based on a judgement of who actually is the "greatest" with votes given by voters who properly rationale these things. They're a popularity contest, plain and simple, so if a global poll was made tomorrow on who is the greatest singer I'm pretty sure Justin whatever-his-name-is would come out pretty much on top because of his popularity at the moment, primarily because lots of sub 15 year old girls would vote for him. Of course he isn't one of the greatest, and I'm not saying Miner Willy is a greater character than Freeman, or vice-versa.
Freeman is a more popular character than Willy and that's what this vote reflects IMO.
I'm agree that some of the characters from 2000s are cool. However, I haven't even heard about 8 of them, and some choices are really strange. Like Brucie - is he really greatest character in the whole GTA series (appeared in two games of 15)? Or MR X - how many people can even remember who it is in Resident Evil? For me it is somewhat inconsistent to have not widely recognizeable characters together with iconic ones like Mario or Link or Prince of Persia in the same list.
The list is OK for someone's personal choice of greatest characters, in his opinion only. It is really bad idea to open voting, by many reasons, and two the most important are predefined list and lack of definition of the 'greatest'.
I ain't disagreeing with ya there buddy.
Oh and Brucie is definitely a memorable character (from GTA IV). We're genetically different, baby!!
Dont you go slating Justin Bieber !
(Official member of the Justin Bieber UK Manchester branch)
Yeah, but my point is that this list is essentially being used in the place of proper journalism - eg an article about the history and development of video game characters and how many have become iconic. You can't really place something like gaming characters in a list according to "greatness" because, like I said, it's a meaningless term. And I'd dispute it being a popularity contest because if it was I doubt Sabre Man and Miner Willy would make the grade - they're niche characters from niche games whether we like it or not.
It's an unfortunate truism that a lot of people (men especially, it has to be said) love a list even if the list itself doesn't really tell them anything.
you got all the dance moves down as well ? hehe
but joking aside it's what we "know" .. much as I play some japanese games... that I think are great.. but outside japan.. people go huh?!?!
Can't remember what my point was...
Pretty odd list, but at least it's not all game stars from the '00s...definitely seen worse....
aye. nothing wrong with a 'top 50 hot girls on TV list'
i bet people wouldn't be wanting to see women from the 80's on there. :D
Personally I'd say the list was - intentionally or not - outstanding , with 2 (should that be 3?)of the greatest characters ever to grace PC RPGs. Minsc (and Boo) and The Nameless One are amongst the most iconic playable characters in any game ever , and I for one never expected to see either in any 'top 20' of any publication issued this decade
Would love to have seen Klp-2 , Monty Mole or Dynamite Dan in there though
LOL! I would never do such a thing, as my six year old wouldn't think she had a cool dad anymore... Hope you're prepared for the next few years Paul. JB will be an old fart when you're kiddie is old enuf. I've had to suffer Hannah Montana growing up, goodness knows what it will be with yours ;-)
If it's any consolation, once you get past the Balamory, Night Garden crap, they actually start watching some decent cartoons. Phineas & Ferb and Spongebob are *****way***** better than the shite like Scooby Doo and Flintstones we had to suffer!! Spongebob is actually, well, quite superb!