Top 50 Video Game Characters Nomination Thread: Your Favorite Game Boys and Girls

[Kirin]

This is tough. The field is so broad, it feels like if I go too far off the beaten path into random side-characters, especially in games that are any less than TT-blockbuster status, there's little chance of overlap. But I don't wanna go with *just* obvious picks either (though... a few obvious ones are definitely making it in my list because they gotta). Tricky balance. Of course, the answer as always is to just go with my gut and see what happens. Will get something in soon.

 

[Peklo]

I only had 20% of my list populated by folks from my favourite series, which I consider an act of significant restraint.

 

[RT-55J]

Good heavens my shortlist feels anemic. I gotta find a way to flesh this out without resorting to filler picks.

I suppose this would be easier if I actually played games was more of an RPG fan.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Are you forgetting the guidelines?

So what defines a character in a video game? Well the most important thing is they have to be defined as such. Random mooks are off the table and no, the L block from Tetris does not count either. They would naturally have a name, though I don't know that I'd count random NPCs from Skyrim, say, as actual characters for our purposes.

They don't really have to have dialogue or a well defined personality as long as they stand apart from the gaggle of mooks and weirdos that populate most game worlds. They do not have to be playable, and they can be heroes, villains, or anything in between. They also must be an original character for the game.

Hey @Issun has there been any overlap in the lists so far or has everyone been picking entirely different characters?

 

[RT-55J]

Are you forgetting the guidelines?

I mean, I'm aware of the guidelines. I'm just having trouble coming up with a list of characters that I feel particularly strong about. :3

 

[Torzelbaum]

I mean, I'm aware of the guidelines. I'm just having trouble coming up with a list of characters that I feel particularly strong about. :3

Yeah, guidelines can't help with that...

But it's also OK if you don't have a full list.

 

[Baudshaw]

Added my list. I feel the opposite, I have too many characters to add. Granted, a lot of them are extremely obscure, but I'd still like including them. That being said, I'm only doing one entry per game so that Fire Emblem and Pokemon don't mog the competition

 

[RT-55J]

okay complaining was just the thing i needed to do to get my list down to having only 2 empty spaces

 

[Issun]

Are you forgetting the guidelines?


Hey @Issun has there been any overlap in the lists so far or has everyone been picking entirely different characters?

I actually haven't looked too closely at the lists, as I'm still whittling mine down and don't want to be influenced by other people's picks.

 

[Violentvixen]

I actually haven't looked too closely at the lists, as I'm still whittling mine down and don't want to be influenced by other people's picks.

I did this too when I ran a list, made my personal deadline a little earlier to give me time to ask people questions but didn't really look until I'd locked in my own list.

 

[RT-55J]

okay phew i got my list in.

i'm sure it has several omissions or misplacements that i will regret, but such is life

 

[Issun]

37 1/2 hours left!

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

37 1/2 hours left!

Oh, I thought they were due today, and was going to ask for more time. Alright, then!

 

[Issun]

One day left, though like I said that's a soft deadline. I'll communicate after that how close I am to fully closing off new submissions.
So far I have lists from @Torzelbaum, @WildcatJF, @Aurelia, @Johnny Unusual, @nataeryn, @Violentvixen, @Peklo, @Baudshaw, @RT-55J, and @4-So, as well as myself.

 

[Violentvixen]

I am really excited for this list. I'm sure there will be several characters I'll be bummed I forgot, but overall this was a hard list to whittle down to characters I really

My approach to making the list was to scroll through my Backloggery with Excel open, then every time I scrolled past a game where I thought of a character I wanted to add to the list I'd add them to the Excel file. That had me at 50-something characters which was a good starting place.

The second pass was "have I specifically talked or written about this character before?". Could be a forum post, could be in person, just a "was this character important/interesting enough to me to let other people know about them, or want to talk about?". It worked quite well to get me down to a reasonable number, I was kind of surprised.

Then I had to rank order and that part is never easy but I got there.

(Or Issun will come back and say I completely misunderstood the assignment lol)

 

[Issun]

So the hard deadline is tomorrow at 7 AM PST. I am going to start writing entries at that point so that's the cutoff.

 

[WildcatJF]

I am really excited for this list. I'm sure there will be several characters I'll be bummed I forgot, but overall this was a hard list to whittle down to characters I really

My approach to making the list was to scroll through my Backloggery with Excel open, then every time I scrolled past a game where I thought of a character I wanted to add to the list I'd add them to the Excel file. That had me at 50-something characters which was a good starting place.

The second pass was "have I specifically talked or written about this character before?". Could be a forum post, could be in person, just a "was this character important/interesting enough to me to let other people know about them, or want to talk about?". It worked quite well to get me down to a reasonable number, I was kind of surprised.

Then I had to rank order and that part is never easy but I got there.

(Or Issun will come back and say I completely misunderstood the assignment lol)

I love learning about others' ranking systems. For me, I recently recorded videos on my favorite men and women in video games, so I compared the two to sort out a shared list.

 

[spines]

for me i feel like i could've practically filled up the whole list with characters from just a few different series, but that's never what i want to do...i started off just really trying to go through a lot of games that really landed with me and picking the top one from each. then i kind of gave a simple rating of 1-3, with 1 being auto-includes and 3 being likely omissions, but then i went through and tracked a few demographic criteria just to make sure my list wasn't totally monotonous (in terms of characters being heroes, humans, etc.. actually, i joked in discord that my goal was to avoid sending an entire list of characters who are ethereal women talking to the protagonist's brain but i ended up adding none of them...). in the end the 1s and 2s were slightly more than 25, so i cut out a few 2s and replaced a couple with 3s who met the criteria i wanted...

this one was fun! i'm excited to find out i forgot someone super obvious who would've perfectly solved every criteria at once

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

@Issun I need a little more time, if I can get it. I got caught up in work stuff yesterday, and wasn't able to finish.

 

[Issun]

Okay. Probably won't get started today anyhoo so new cutoff is 7 AM PST tomorrow (Sunday).

 

[Purple]

Have some at the buzzer noms I didn't think to put in any real sort of order.

 

[Issun]

Submissions are now closed. Thanks to everyone who submitted. Keep your eye out for the countdown.

 

[Issun]

Tabulation is done. The top 60 (yes 60, if the character was your #1, they're on the list) starts soon.

 

[Violentvixen]

Tabulation is done. The top 60 (yes 60, if the character was your #1, they're on the list) starts soon.

Ooh, this'll be fun.

 

[RT-55J]

dang i should have flipped the positions of my first and last place nominees (for legal reasons my lawyer has advised me to tell you this is a joke)

 

[spines]

Tabulation is done. The top 60 (yes 60, if the character was your #1, they're on the list) starts soon.

it occurred to me i could've picked one of my slightly less known characters for #1 in case something like this occurred, but i decided to suck it up and put my goat in the top spot

 

[Issun]

So it'll be a bit longer before the thread is up. Trying to plan things out with the list's surprise special guest star(s).

 

[Aurelia]

I'm excited to see how this turns out!

 

[RT-55J]

I too am very excited to see the results, and willing to contribute something if needs be.

 

[Issun]

Looking at Monday as the probable start date.