Pimp My Write (I Still Write) January 21, 2010
Posted by shoinan in Character Discussion, Pimpage.Tags: play.tm, video games
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Yeah, I do still write about games. 2010 has started a bit slowly for me, not for lack of trying – sometimes life is life. But I’m happy to report that my first freelance piece for play.tm has now gone up. It’s all on player characters and how I feel that there’s plenty of room for development beyond tired tried-and-tested tropes. How’s that for alliteration? Anyway, please check it out and let me know what you think.
Anyway, I should have a fair old bunch of stuff going up both here and around the web in the next couple of weeks, including my long overdue rundown of my favourite games of 2009 and the startling hidden truths about Princess Daisy. Well, maybe just one of those.
Oh, in other news: Very British Gamer is coming back. You have been warned.
You Have Lost! is a blog about video games written by me, Sinan 'shoinan' Kubba. I'm the editorial and features director at TheGameReviews and I also host the Big Red Potion podcast. As you can see, I'm also a pirate but not of games (ha). E-mail: shoinan AT gmail DOT com. Screename: shoinan [PSN, XBLA, Steam & Twitter]. Your comments and feedback are always welcome. Please subscribe to my satiating feed by clicking 
Congrats on the Play.tm piece! It was a solid read, though I had a couple factual sticking points.
When did Samus ever “grow a narrative voice?” I don’t recall her ever talking and I’ve played every Metroid game. The stories get more complex, but not as much as Zelda, where Link has increasingly complex relationships with the supporting cast. I’m a huge Metroid fan myself, but always found Samus a very overrated character. I mean her only distinct character trait is that she has a vagina.
You also mentioned Jade as being “ethnic,” but I always thought she looked pretty white. I guess she could be partially Asian, but it never occurred to me that she was supposed to be a minority.
Anyway, aside from these minute points (which I could be wrong about) I otherwise dug the article quite a bit. I’d also be curious as to your take on Bayonetta in regards to a female lead and one that flaunts her sexuality at that.
Hey Jeffrey, thanks for the kind words
Samus speaks a fair bit in Metroid Fusion the GBA game. She also interacts with others v minimally in Prime, from what I understand. Note that she also speaks in Brawl. She will speak in Other M too – which is why I went with the plural there. But either way, I don’t think it was an important part of that paragraph, I was just pointing out that early Nintendo protagonists were silent more by circumstance than anything else.
re Jade being “ethnic” – I did say: “although the latter’s indistinct skin colour made her racial origin a mystery.” – I’ve talked in other pieces about Jade’s ethnicity being a mystery, but it’s still a fact that she’s celebrated as a strong ethnic character by many if not most. I tend to see her as ethnic too, and she’s very much worth bringing up in the discussion of player characters and race.
Really enjoyed this :D
Thanks Lauren :) Very glad you did!