BA1a Contextual Studies Significant Characters

Here I will describe significant characters relating to how the industry has changed in from each decade of gaming


1980s - Link (The Legend of Zelda)
Introduced in 1986 Link is one of the most recognisable characters in video gaming, the character was kept silent and simple so that the player could fill his shoes and imagine themselves in his role, simple main characters are common in books and video games. Link could almost be considered one or the first role playing game characters. The character fits the hero archetype: the person who goes out and achieves great deed on behalf of the group, tribe or civilisation like most video game protagonists.

1990s - Big Boss (Metal Gear)
By this time games were big enough that incredibly deep and rich characters could be created, in contrast to Link, Big Boss has a long and emotionally driven story, many games started to make use of the larger file sizes available and made larger games exploring complex issues and immersing players, in the game Hideo Kojima wanted to players to experience 'tactical espionage action' and made of the change from 2D to 3D most of the industry experienced. I feel that some games truly became art at this time.

2000s - Chell (Portal 2)
At this time Video games became cheaper to make and more money was in the industry enabling creators take bigger risks with games enabling a much larger variety of games to be made, portal was one of these games, Chell the game's protagonist was designed silent like link. Some things never change.

2010s - The Narrator (The Stanley Parable)
At this time many games started to become more experimental and art-like, the successful games were the ones doing something new like Minecraft. A character that stands out for me is the Narrator in the Stanley parable who despite being a disembodied voice can be a complex and rich character. The Stanley parable like many games made use of branching storylines that each reveal more about the story, I imagine one day it will be possible to create a game with thousands of branches.