Talk:Video game character

short list. I propose a list of all playable video game characters throughout history.
 * Then that'd be large. Very large. Maybe it'd need a different article only for that sort of thing, if people were really willing to create something like that. The list you see here is meant to be just a list of examples. To illustrate the article's theme itself.--Kaonashi 04:02, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Is it just me, or does this list seem very Nintendo heavy? The linked list at the bottom of the page adds weight to this.

FF7 Bias
Why is nearly every character from Final Fantasy VII included on this list? Sure, the game is popular, but all three of the GTA games outsold it and I don't see Big Smoke, Candy Suxxx or Sonny Verona from those games on this list. GTA has a higher profile than FFVII, so what's up. On top of that, I don't see how Barret or Yuffie are famous video game characters. I'm removing them. Treima 02:35, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Namu to that! And what about the other Final Fantasy games? Wikipedia should be as unbiased as possible, and not a haven for FF7 fanboys.

Other not-very-famous characters on list
Waluigi? I hadn't even heard of the guy before I tuned into this article! I'm gonna remove him. Treima 01:26, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Replace the list
Based on an AIM conversation with ALTTP, I think it's clear the list needs to removed and replaced with better information. Here's our conversation:
 * Andrevan: actually I don't know why the list is there to begin with
 * Andrevan: why not just
 * Andrevan: take it out and replace it with discussion of the types of video game characters
 * Andrevan: e.g. heroes (Mario, Sonic, Cloud, etc.) villains (Dracula, Bowser, etc) supporting types (Tails, Luigi) and damsels in distress (Princesses, Aeris, etc)
 * Alttp15: And anti-heroes.
 * Andrevan: right right
 * Andrevan: anyway that's my recommendation
 * Andrevan: take out the list and make it that
 * Andrevan: talk about characters being mascots
 * Andrevan: how characters like Mario became icons greater than Mickey Mouse etc
 * Andrevan: how characters can become bigger than the game itself sometimes
 * Alttp15: Mhm
 * Alttp15: I removed the list
 * Andrevan: ok

Andre (talk) 20:37, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Redirect article?
I say redirect rather than merge, because while I am firmly a fan of a multidisciplinary approach to things, there is no content in this article worthy of being merged. This is nothing but a list of sample characters that invite pointless edit warring over who's favorite games gets in. It doesn't even bother to link to much better articles on the archetypes it talks about.

Moreover, I'm not sure how much content could be added. There is no article on television character, opera character, literature character, or theatre character. That's because characters are characters are characters, whether they're in video games or radio plays. Any time spent cleaning up here would be better used expanding the fictional character article with more information on its usage in video games.

Anyway. Fictional character seems the best to redirect to, though it's slightly imprecise in a few rare situations (according to the article, it only applies to totally made up characters, so Liu Pei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Rasputin from Shadow Hearts would technically be non-fictional characters. Whatever.). We could also redirect to the character disambiguation page, or just create a new disambiguation page here (and perhaps point to player character and non-player character as well for the role-playing sense- though that's a bit distant from the way most computer/video games use them. Then toss in mascot while we're at it.). That said, I'm still in favor of just straight redirection to fictional character, since it's right 99% of the time- that's what tv-char-stub uses, for example.

Thoughts? SnowFire 18:00, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Video game characters are of much more interest than literary characters or opera characters. - A Link to the Past (talk) 18:54, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, fictional character would lack any mention of a joke character or secret character or mascot character. This article can easily become a good article for discussing video game archtypes. - A Link to the Past (talk) 21:17, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
 * First off, that's an, er, unusual opinion, and while you're welcome to have it, it doesn't really impact on whether this article is salvageable.


 * Secondly, I'm sure that articles on those can go into lists at stock character. Most of those examples aren't unique to video games, anyway- mascots are in tons of old movies/serials/radio plays/television shows, Shakespeare had fools in his plays for comic relief, and yes, there have been "secret" characters in books before, usually of the mystery variety (though on that count, I'd agree that it's seen more often in video games). SnowFire 22:18, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The literary secret character is nothing like the "video game secret character". That is nothing like what a VG secret character is. - A Link to the Past (talk) 22:26, 17 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I suspect you misinterpreted me; I didn't mean the surprise killer at the end, I meant something more along the lines of an unseen character, something close enough in meaning to require a big "also check this article out" warning at the top of secret character. Anyway, fine, you think they're very different.  There's already an article on secret character - why not just work it into a general article, rather than having this page for just one extra usage?  SnowFire 22:38, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Wow - I was really surprised to find the article for video game characters redirected to fiction characters! I expected something more in the way of a mention of avatars, NPCs, and some history of text up to 3D representations; as well as the all-important levels and methods of control of the player characters. And some history of notable characters. Mario, Ms. Pac-Man and Sonic, for early examples. Not Alice in Wonderland with critique. (A fuller list would be linked to.) gnomelock 02:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)