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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"She did a lot to thrust videogames into the realm of mainstream media."
And Sony trained gamers to hate 2D games and regard anything with colour or non-realistic visuals as kiddy. Should we praise them for that?
Lara Croft has a place in the industry like a tumour has a place in your brain.
I never said that we should praise Lara Croft, I said that she's earned a place in the industry, or maybe I should say videogame history. There are no doubt people that curse Star Wars for ever being made, but it doesn't change the fact that that particular movie had a major impact on the film industry. William Shakespeare was seen as a trashy writer in his day, along the lines of Trey Parker and Matt Stone or the Farrelly Brothers today.
By the same token, we consider ourselves coinneseurs of videogames, but just as the masses had the final say in the enduring popularity of Star Wars and Billy Shakespeare, our favourite medium is going mainstream, and we aren't in control of what's cool anymore. So maybe what I'm saying is that Lara Croft doesn't deserve a place in videogame history but she's going to get one anyway. And in a sense, I think she does deserve it, because she definitely is one of the forerunners of the mainstream videogame media, for better or for worse.
Maybe thirty years from now the videogame-developing equivalent of Quentin Tarrantino will say, "I made this game based on those trashy Tomb Raider games I played when I was a kid." and everyone will marvel at the work of art he or she has made, and we'll realize that Lara Croft is an important part of videogame history, even though she's not a good part.
My personal picks would be Ms. Pac-Man and Chun-Li for credit as pioneering heroines in the videogame industry.
Topic: PBS special "Video Game Revolution" (Read 7362 times)
