Topic: Games and Characters You Relate to & Why

@jump As a teenager myself I wish my face had the bone structure of Andrew Garfield's. I feel like films like TASM and Twilight brainwashed the general public into thinking those were what teenagers in high school looked like

I also personally can't stand Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker, especially his scenes with Kirsten's MJ. They both talk like what a 4th grader's conception of love sounds like

@TheFrenchiestFry @jump. I'm getting a little lost in the details, but I'm still interested so I'll give it a shot.

@kkslider5552000 I think when games manage to pull of something distinctly human it can really resonate. It doesn't have to be a character necessarily. I'm reminded of the town in Night in the Woods (Possum Springs, I think?). I live in a rust-belt state so seeing a small, run down main street with empty storefronts felt very authentic to me. I haven't played Celeste, but it sounds like it accomplishes that "human feeling" too.

Commander Shepard....man it's been awhile since I've played Mass Effect. When the first game launched I played it right away and made my own custom Shepard. After awhile it became apparent to me that they had a canonical look for him and it did something to my OCD brain where I couldn't believe my character was the real Commander Shepard. It became a mole on the lip of the game, I couldn't stop focusing on it. I think when the second game came out I just started over. Really hope the trio come to Switch someday.

Lol I never imagine anyone posting on a Nintendo forum looks like that.

@Dezzy A thought dawned on me once when I was listening to a podcast with Marc Bernardin a black writer, who said before he ever identified himself as black he identified himself as a nerd as he grew in a black neighbourhood so the only thing that was different about him was liking nerd culture. The same thing applies to myself and others who before hitting the gym, having a growth spurts or whatever were kids like everyone else who played Nintendo which stayed with them as an adult.

It's actually an outdated reference thinking of gamers as the nerd stereotype as so many people have grown up with video games, comics etc so it's become mainstream. My gym bag has the tri-force on it and you would be surprised by the amount of times people in the gym have come up to talk to me about Zelda.

@jump A lot of things that were considered "nerd culture" or "geek culture" have really crossed over into mainstream territory. Star Wars used to be one of the only things that I felt really overlapped with both crowds but I do think stuff like Toonami, the MCU being a major success (unless your name is Edward Norton) in addition to stuff like franchise revivals like Disney-era Star Wars and the new Jurassic movies have definitely had a hand in bringing stuff that was considered niche into the public eye

@TheFrenchiestFry It's definately more mainstream than 20 years ago. I can't quite put my finger on why. You're probably right about the popularity of MCU and other franchises, it's probably having a gateway drug affect to other bits of "nerd culture". That, and it's really easy to access obscure things. Before the internet I was lucky if I could find a Godzilla movie ANYWHERE. Now Criterion has released all of the Showa era originals in a big book collection.

@Losermagnet In regards to Godzilla the 2014 film definitely did bring a significant amount of interest back to the IP after it was laid to rest for nearly a decade after Final Wars, which is especially commendable considering the last time we tried to Americanize Godzilla it was so bad that it was better to just watch the real Godzilla beat him in a fight

I will personally always defend the 2014 film for how it actually tried to elevate the character above cheesy popcorn entertainment, especially since I think I'm in the minority when I say I thought King of the Monsters was really bad.

@TheFrenchiestFry the 2014 movie is alright. I'm a little bitter that Bryan Cranston was set to be the best protagonist the series had ever seen, then he dies abruptly a third of the way in and is replaced by a department store mannequin.

I'm conflicted with King of the Monsters. I've only seen it once (in theater) and I enjoyed it, but it did feel like junk food. Evidently it's a contentious film. I really enjoyed this vid on it. I still don't think it really achieved what it was going for, but i am thinking about it a little differently.

Hopefully the link works, I'm a bit of a luddite.

@Losermagnet I think the film was so hellbent on listening to feedback about there being not enough Godzilla that it ended up just serving as nothing more than a giant fanservice flick. As a fan myself I honestly think all the spectacle came at the expense of good writing, well rounded characters and a reason to actually get me engaged when Godzilla clashes heads with Ghidorah, Rodan or Mothra

Also not helping things is that the fights themselves look like shaky cam garbage due to all of them being at night, in the rain and with excessive amounts of close ups that actually provide less of a sense of scale to these monsters compared to the 2014 film.

@TheFrenchiestFry @Losermagnet I think the advent of cable offering a wider exposure of things to watch and then the internet really making niche things more accessible after that are the drivers behind it. Before that to maintain fandom in something you will have to put in a lot of effort to.

Slightly random example, Slash from Guns n Roses has a huge interest in dinosaurs and talks about how his life style of sex, drugs and rock n roll whilst spending 8 months in a row touring is partially replaced with looking up dinosaurs news on the internet and is very active on a scientific dinosaur forum (he wont say which one) but something like that wouldn't have been possible on the same level in 80s/90s.

Ha well, from taking a quick look around at some gaming conventions, I think the stereotype still has quite a bit of statistical validity. It's obviously not a 100% hit-rate, but it's far from a 0% hitrate too.