Video Game People

In the early days, and I mean the really early days of home video games, you had Pong: two bars, one square ball and that's it. Anyone could easily master the concept of Pong within seconds of seeing it.Even more elementary than that was the fact that there were no characters, no plot, no storyline, no real purpose of the game, except to bump and bash that cubed ball back and forth. Pong was, besides being a pop-culture phenomenon at the time of its release, just a simple technological thing to do. Pong was just a video game, and that's all it would ever be.

Now, today's video games, like the Microsoft Xbox 360 are more than just toys or things to play. They are now worlds with people and experiences that gamers get involved in and have serious personal stake in as well. Video game characters, especially, have evolved and grown over the years. Even though Super Mario was cute, he didn't really instill much emotion in people. He didn't say much, his emotions were limited and his experiences were fairly mundane. Heck, in his original solo adventure, he couldn't even go too far backwards! He was just the thing that you used to finish the game.

Now, video game characters, like the ones featured in the Sony PSP are people, with expressions and emotions. They have a history and a purpose. They have a back story, and they are vengeful. They have facial expressions that video game players can relate to. They aren't just video game characters: they're tragic heroes and misunderstood villains. They live and work in worlds that are at once foreign to us but recognizable too. Today's video game characters speak to us, and for us. We want to hear what they say, and see how they act and react. They aren't just computer generated characters by designers, they are actors, with a script to follow and a mystery to unravel.

The advancement and evolution of video game characters is to be expected, since video games themselves have advanced and evolved. In the old days, video games usually took place in a finite world - that is to say that a video game player could sort of make out and define where and how the game would and should end. Because of that simplicity, it was easy to figure out what the character should do and be. Today's video games, like the ones featured on the Microsoft Xbox 360 or the Playstation Portable, take place in immense worlds where a lot of random possibilities can occur. That requires the character in the video game to act and react in ways that we can't really predict.

Also, today's modern video game characters can be so likeable and interesting as well.They can have interest, emotions and depth that we can relate too and sympathize with. And, with cross-media branding being at the forefront of just about everything these days, you can bet that a popular video game with an exceptionally popular main character will be made into a movie, a comic-book or a TV show.While that's great for media companies looking to make more than just a few extra dollars, it presents a real opportunity to flesh out and give the main character some more depth. Because even though video games and their worlds are impressive, they are still limited by their programming & design scope. But a movie or a TV program can really give new emotions to a character whom in some ways, already seems to be more than human.

Apple iPod Nano

- Freddy Mason