Who will be here in 100 years?

[Buyatari]

Times change and some popular characters just fail to keep up.

Looking back 100 years in comic books you will discover that the avg person is unfamiliar with almost every single character.

Yellow Kid, Whos that ?

Did you know Captain Marvel outsold Superman every month until DC sued and stopped their production?

Even in Videogames in the past 10-20 we have seen many popular characters fall by the wayside.

But who is here to stay? Who will be here in 10, 20, 50, or 100 years from now? Vote now and look back at this poll when you are 130 and see what a silly wipper snapper you were.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I predict that the non-character-centric stuff will survive: Pong, Tetris, etc. etc.; that's what'll have the real staying power.

[ubersaurus]

If anything Mario-and thats only if he ends up having the lasting appeal of Charlie Chaplin's tramp, or Popeye, or something. Which is entirely possible-provided Nintendo continues to exist in some form.

[Buyatari]

Well yeah I really wasn't looking for Tetris or Pong so much as they aren't characters. Tetris falls into the Monopoly classic game category. Timeless classic games that when altered only get worse. I'm sure tetris will be around for along time (if not forever) but I was looking for "Character appeal".

The ability of a company to slap a character on the package and sell a million copies.

Adam

[Captain Wrong]

Excellent topic!

I think it's going to be something different entirely. I don't think any of those characters will have 100 year's staying power. Well, let me re-phrase that. I think most of the examples you gave will still be around in 100 years, but will be much more minor figures. More like they're classics and everyone recognizes that, but they're not going to be the cutting edge they once were.

I think that makes sence.

[Balloon Fight]

Im guessing that Mario will be the one to stick around, because Nintendo has already been around a 100 years, and that they will most likely push their mascot to represent them.

[Bratwurst]

It's difficult to wager on this issue because a key difference exists in today's media than it did during the 1920s and 30s:

Permeation.

Merchandise, 'brand names', offshoot tie-ins (animated shows, clothing, books). Heck, the average lifespan of sorts for franchises is four times as much than it was back then. TMNT, Transformers, -20- years! 20 years, I could name more, dozens that have transcended the lives of several generations. Consider that against Charlie Chaplin and The Yellow Kid, known and revered as 'legends' but not in the public eye 24/7 anymore. Or to put it another way, more franchises of today are being remembered longer than they would have back then.

There are already old-as-dirt characters woven into the fabric of day to day public consciousnous, look at Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Characters in my mind well past their prime but plasticised and force fed to the world by the power of a corporation that refuses to die.

[jaydubnb]

It's difficult to wager on this issue because a key difference exists in today's media than it did during the 1920s and 30s:

Permeation.

Merchandise, 'brand names', offshoot tie-ins (animated shows, clothing, books). Heck, the average lifespan of sorts for franchises is four times as much than it was back then. TMNT, Transformers, -20- years! 20 years, I could name more, dozens that have transcended the lives of several generations. Consider that against Charlie Chaplin and The Yellow Kid, known and revered as 'legends' but not in the public eye 24/7 anymore. Or to put it another way, more franchises of today are being remembered longer than they would have back then.

There are already old-as-dirt characters woven into the fabric of day to day public consciousnous, look at Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Characters in my mind well past their prime but plasticised and force fed to the world by the power of a corporation that refuses to die.

I agree with this totally. Even if a game character loses poulairty, it can always be repackaged and introduced to another set of gamers in the future. Besides, unlike Charlie Chaplin, who only appealed to people now serving as worm chowder, kids will always be around. And where there are kids, there will videogames. And where there are videogames, companies will turn to past success to make money in the future (see what Hudson is doing on the GC). So unless the entire industry bottoms out, I suspect Mario and a bunch of other guys will be back unless a developer royally mucks a series up (Tomb Raider). But hey, in 100 years, maybe an uber-realistic Lara and a nude code will be in demand ;)

[Videogamerdaryll]

Some kind of Super Hybrid Robotic Cybernetic Super Mario character game programmed chip,inserted in peoples brains...

[Ed Oscuro]

Haha, four people voted for Megaman.

Yeah, he's had absolutely NO decent coverage in recent years. After all, Viewtiful Joe's the star of his own game, not Megaman.

Megaman's pretty close to extinction, really. He might stick around for a long time, but he'll never again be as popular as he once was.

[punkoffgirl]

I'm torn between Mario & Pac Man. Those two get my vote for the simple reason that, if you polled the average "man on the street" to see if he even knew who these characters are, those two are the ones he'd most likely know. That's what I'm going by - the more people who can recognize a character, the more likely it'll be around later.

[Raedon]

None of these will be around in 100 years.. they will be remembered as Buster Brown or whatnot but they will not be live franchises in 100 years. Hell HDTV will be an item that will be seen as the B&W TV by then.

I don't think many people have the ability to forsee 100 years of future.. So much could change its course..

There will be human like robots cleaning up after us in this Century for sure.
or..
There could be another 100 year War going on.. you never know..

I don't even think Nintendo will own Mario in 10 years. I already know kids who don't care about Mario or Nintendo.. Nindendo is now the Atari 7800

[RetroYoungen]

I think that little yellow circle will outlive us all. He's been a part of the gaming industry for many years, and I don't think his popularity has wained much at all. You ask a group of people who they think of when they think of gaming, and chances are they'll say Mario of Pac-Man. Even my nephew knows about the Pac-meister, and he's turning 7 in January, so I think there's a possibility that he'll stick around for a long, long time.

Either that or they'll all die. Which is sad, but is sort of the natural order of things.