Have You Ever Stopped To Think About The Actions/Behavior of Game Characters?

[RegSNES]

For instance...

Mario: In Super Mario Bros. he would stomp on Goomba's, Koopa Troopa's, and nearly get his butt screwed up by Lakitu and his Spikies God only knows how many times all to hear "Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle" seven times. Seven. Freaking. Times. Now you think after hearing that line three times, Mario would stop and ask, "Whoa, hold up, stupid Toad guard. Why is that you guys are always getting caught and instead of the princess I find you freaks?" Joe Shmoe probably would have tolerated that crap 3 times before saying "Eff this, I'm out."

Sonic Blast Man: Here we have a super hero from another planet (betcha didn't see that coming) with extraordinary powers. In the game's intro, he hears a woman's cries for help. The woman is tied to some train tracks, and wouldn't you know, there's a train coming! Sonic Blast Man takes off to rescue the damsel. He makes it in time to save her. All he has to do is pick her up off the tracks, no problem. But that's not good enough for our hero. No, he lands on the tracks, winds up a punch and shouts "TAKE THAT!" smashing the train into a million pieces, causing tons in property damage and killing everyone that was on board the train. I'm not super hero expert but I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to rescue someone. And the guy is a hero after the fact! The woman he rescued is all "Thank you, Sonic Blast Man." Sonic Blast Man has this big grin on his face while holding the woman in his arms that just screams "Oh yes, I'm gonna get me some!"

[Snapple]

If Mario didn't want to hear about the Princess seven times, he should've taken the warp pipe.

[S-Wind]

I always wondered WTF made Jill think that a blue tube top, a black leather mini-skirt and a white sweater wrapped around her waist made for a good getup for escaping a zombie infested city.

I guess one can make the same criticism for virtually every female character in every videogame.

Mind you, it's not like all young women in real life always wear practical clothes either - for which I am grateful.

[Nirvana]

"I guess its ok to walk into random houses around town"

[Graham Mitchell]

"I guess its ok to walk into random houses around town"

...steal their money and beat up their chicken.

Judging by the subject line of the thread, I thought this was gonna be a discussion of morality in the behavior of VG characters. Glad it's not.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Push Upstairs]

I always wondered WTF made Jill think that a blue tube top, a black leather mini-skirt and a white sweater wrapped around her waist made for a good getup for escaping a zombie infested city.

I guess one can make the same criticism for virtually every female character in every videogame.

I've always wondered what why Blaze from the SOR series felt that red short tight skirts, tops, and boots was an ensemble fit for beating the shit out of endless punks.

"I'm going to bring that scumbag Mr. X down...time to get out the red boots!"

Also, why would you let the future or your civilization/the earth/your people rest upon the skills of a lone pilot and *ONE* spaceship? I can't possibly see the Allies beating the entire Nazi Military with a lone airplane and one crack pilot.

[Gentlegamer]

"I'm feeling weak . . . I'll just bash this garbage can and eat the ham that falls out on the ground to refresh myself."

[PSXferrari]

I've always wondered why defenders even bother to chase Bo Jackson while he's zigzagging down the field on Tecmo Super Bowl.

[RegSNES]

Don't forget Arthur from the Ghosts & Goblins games. In one game I think you had to play the game TWICE to rescue his girl. That means he literally had to go to hell & back and then back AGAIN just to rescue that chick. Is any woman really worth all that trouble?

And what about Frogger? What kinda freaking frog can't even swim?!

Characters that don't grab onto ledges when they are about to miss a jump. Haven't X and Rayman taught us anything?!

Metal Man is super weak against his own weapon in Mega Man 2. What was Wily thinking?

[Icarus Moonsight]

RPG's are serial offenders here. The "Fetch my slippers" events/quests are amoung the most retarded.

"Heroes! You must take this stubby candle to the cave in the north and give it to Grumpus the Dwarf. The broken bridge will be mended ONLY when this task is completed."

I think that the characters would say: "My Lord, the world is faced with a crisis. Should the chosen heroes really be bothered with such duties a lesser servant could attend to?" But, no. Their just fine with it.

I think to myself: Seems that I can't go on to more important matters until this trivial task is done. WTF?!?! No wonder the kingdom is in peril... the King is a dumbass.

[Haoie]

I've always wondered how the world functions in a platform game.

Just a X and Y axis, it's pretty, weird, to 3D people like me.

[PSXferrari]

RPG's are serial offenders here. The "Fetch my slippers" events/quests are amoung the most retarded.

"Heroes! You must take this stubby candle to the cave in the north and give it to Grumpus the Dwarf. The broken bridge will be mended ONLY when this task is completed."

I think that the characters would say: "My Lord, the world is faced with a crisis. Should the chosen heroes really be bothered with such duties a lesser servant could attend to?" But, no. Their just fine with it.

I think to myself: Seems that I can't go on to more important matters until this trivial task is done. WTF?!?! No wonder the kingdom is in peril... the King is a dumbass.

The thing I've never understood with RPGs is how can the characters be so comfortable just striking up random two line conversations with everyone in town?More importantly, why do the townspeople engage in the conversation rather than being completely creeped out by some random group of weird looking people trying to talk to them?

Of course, you can't say much for the townspeople either. They spend their entire day either standing in one spot forever, or pacing back and forth in the same general area. No wonder they're so willing to talk to someone.

[James8BitStar]

I don't tend to really think about it... I mean they're games.

However, I have found Console RPG worlds a bit of a wonder sometimes. How can two towns maintain an open trade route when to get from one to the other, you need to traverse a monster-infested cave? And why do these worlds have no more than ten towns?

Was playing Lufia II recently... very first thing you're hit with: People can't go to the next town cuz the cave to it has been blocked off and monsters stole the key. And yet, every shop in the game sells Warp Stones which allow you to teleport to any town which you've already been to...

[PSXferrari]

Was playing Lufia II recently... very first thing you're hit with: People can't go to the next town cuz the cave to it has been blocked off and monsters stole the key. And yet, every shop in the game sells Warp Stones which allow you to teleport to any town which you've already been to...

Good point. Reminds me of the Grand Theft Auto series. When you first start out, all the exits to other areas are blocked off for various reasons (i.e. the bridge is have repairs done and is currently shut down). So who do any of the civilians get in and out of the city? Basically it's like they're stuck in a little prison. Imagine if that happened in real life-- a lot of people would be losing their jobs for deciding to do simultaneous construction on every exit from the city. I think this alone explains why the people in GTA games are so violent.

[Tron 2.0]

Metal Man is super weak against his own weapon in Mega Man 2. What was Wily thinking?

Should be what, MegaMan thinks every time Dr.Willy pulls the sorry act.

Then he pulls the same stunt again on trying to rule the world... even though he's been beaten so many times.

You think by now,MegaMan would be piss off and let some body else be the hero.

[Jorpho]

Don't forget Arthur from the Ghosts & Goblins games. In one game I think you had to play the game TWICE to rescue his girl. That means he literally had to go to hell & back and then back AGAIN just to rescue that chick. Is any woman really worth all that trouble?

Well, it never occurs to him to wear more than underwear under his armour either.

See also http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html .

[exit]

It's odd how every legendary hero can't swim, they just die instantly when they touch the water. Oddly enough, there are swimming levels in Mario, but yet he can't swim outside those levels.

[James8BitStar]

You think by now,MegaMan would be piss off and let some body else be the hero.

In the arcade games and Rockman & Forte, that's actually an option.

Though then again, I'm sure when Mega Man DOES get pissed off:

A) He thinks, "If I don't fight, who is gonna be around to save Protoman when he invariably blows himself up?"
B) Or, "If I don't fight, then I get Roll's cleaning duties."
C) Or, the Shapings of the Protoculture manipulate his feelings so he winds up wanting to.
D) Or, he realizes that, deep down inside, he's really a destructive little robot and he enjoys blowing things up.

[XYXZYZ]

I hate it when stupid things block your path.

Link can run all over the world without getting tired, fight thousands of monsters, lift things, charge into things, and severely wounding him doesn't slow him down at all. But if a statue, or even a simple rock is blocking his path, why can't he CLIMB THE FUCK OVER IT?!

Or you can't access an area because there's a row of trees in front of it. I don't know how many times I've been upset that you have to get to this one location, but can't because the heroes don't know how to step up onto a rock.

But what really kills me are those platform games where the enemies are shorter than the hight of your standing, or even crouching shot (Myu in Zelda II) and you have to go out of your way to find some weapon or attack position to kill the thing, because the hero can't just aim his shot a little lower.