Games as history

September 21, 2008

Remember Pac Man? the original cool yellow dude around before Homer Simpson? Well, he is one of those gaming characters which will be remembered for the ages. He will be around in history museums with big cool boards teaching 8 year olds about his rise to fame and how he was the big thing at time of the release. Now we have had Master Chief as a big icon but the fact is most of the games coming out now don’t have memorable characters. Even the most hardened gamer will find it difficult to remember all the character names of the player characters in the current big releases like BioShock for example.

Perhaps this will be a sign of future things to come with big action becoming more important than character development. The thought to be left with is, when the future comes around and people look back at the big gaming icons from the ’00s which big characters will be seen to represent us now? Let’s hope it’s something as positive as Pac Man.

As a fun easy quiz, what are the player character names in these games? (no prize, answers after the continue click)

1) Stranglehold

2) Halo

3) Half Life

4) Call of Duty 4 (x2)

1) Inspector “Tequila” Yuen

2) Master Chief

3) Gordon Freeman

4) MacTavish and Paul Jackson