The Gamer's Quarter

[dhex]

i thought of this question after viewing the 400th novelty implementation of something from portal over on rockpapershotgun.com.

it is a bigger question than just games - i.e. why do some things become immensely catchy and some do not?* but as far as games go portal is a good place to start. considering the amount of time and effort put into various cutesy things - cubes made out of balloons, making a glados thingy for amiga, the turret casemod someone made, etc etc - far outstrips the amount of time most people spent playing portal. i've probably spent more time reading about this stuff than playing portal, even.

portal, unlike many other examples one might pull from the games/anime/con junction, doesn't have a tie-in movie or cartoon show, and didn't have any personalities at all beyond a demented computer (your actual character is a blank slate); yet people have become infinitely more attached to a cube with a heart on it that had no place other than being a sick joke/prop for a brief moment.

so what creates this kind of attraction? is it simply length? (i'm inclined to think in part it is)
is it all simply good design and characterization? creating a simple narrative experience? a dramatic montage of setpieces? mystery?

ending with a personalized song?

i don't have any real answers on this side, so i'm throwing this out there.

* as an aside, when people try to boil it down to marketing dollars spent or something along the lines of "false consciousness" as applied to industry xyz and their marketing efforts, i always briefly wonder if they're a plant from one of the larger ad agencies or adbusters (i.e. the only folks who directly benefit from such a narrative) or if every memeplex thrives on being opposed - or even hunted - more than anything else. perhaps it's a way of saying "we are so very important."
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[extrabastardformula]

In brief network externalities. The hype feeds on hype and enogh people got on board that you can talk about Portal and be understood. Playing Portal or ast least taking part in Portal mania is like a very simple language. This recognition also makes it a convenient sort of shiboleth for gaming culture.

Unlike Monty Python quotes of old geek culture, Portal references are easy to make. Monty Python lines on the other hand usually involve more than one sentence and a funny voice on top of that making them extremely intrusive to normal conversation as opposed to simply saying "huge success".

Barrier of entry is very low, with the game not requiring a beastly computer to power it nor the sort of time investment upfront that Final Fantasy VII would. The network rewards investing time into Portal as a hobby by getting your balloon animals featured on big blogs like rps and sexyvideogameland so there's incentive with very little demand in that you can stop making Companion Cube lunchboxes without getting behind a la WoW.

That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. I'll be sure to contribute more to this thread in the very near future.
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[fish]

wouldnt it be neat if we knew exactly what made things successful.
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you cant spell selfish without fish

[dmauro]

I think in the case of the companion cube, it's just a simple case of it being really neat. You have a cold, sterile, boring, metal cube that this machine (or the people who think like machines that run it) decided would make a good companion if you simply place a heart on it. A symbol of affection is mistaken for enough to produce affection. And ironically it was right (both in the game and in real life). In the game because the people were probably driven mad, but outside of the game we are attracted to it because it's a very simple and funny way to present an idea we're familiar with (the object/person we have to take care of). Beyond that, the cube also stands for the game, which was one of the best games of 2007. The companion cube is an icon for several things, and it makes for a nice plush toy, sticker, little drawing, etc.

[Redeye]

Signs versus Symbols:
What is a cube with a heart?
Lemon Curry



ok, so my haiku is 5/7/4


close enough
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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

[Scratchmonkey]

blah blah blah the 5/7/5 standard doesn't really apply because japanese syllables are different than english syllables so if you're really trying to recreate the rhythm of the form you should use less syllables blah blah blah required linguist response, etc.

[dhex]

[Cycle]

I think it's mainly because most people are idiots.
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[dhex]

sez the guy with the marathon logo avatar.
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[Cycle]

shut up.
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[aderack]

[Harveyjames]

[Cycle]

i dated a girl who liked just like kylie minouge once, i think it's the only reason i liked her.
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[kirkjerk]

Before I realized this thread was mostly about Portal having its moment in the geekculture sun, just seeing the title, I thought about what games are most "iconic". The one that comes to mind is the Marioverse. The games have such a rich history to draw on, and having successfully jumped from 2D to 3D w/ Mario 64, the baseline universe continues to grow, like how that Bowser Jr or whatever is running around Mario Galaxies as well, though in some ways it's harder to add to the more complex the games get.
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[dhex]

i'd rather it be about icons than portal, really. or iconoclastic countermovements, for that matter.
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[kirkjerk]

[Harveyjames]

Well, Mickey Mouse became an iconic figure in the 30s even though there were several characters doing the rounds practically identical to him, some of which predated him (Oswald, Foxy, Bosco [kinda], Felix the Cat). So we can rule out his design as the reason for his iconic status. Rather, I'd say it's because he was the first cartoon character to do sound, or at least to do it well. Is Super Mario iconic because of his design (maybe! Like mickey Mouse, he's designed mainly out of necessity, which is normally a good thing) or is it because he was the first character to star in a good platform game, pretty much, and then the first character to star in a good 3D platform game?

So iconic status is achieved by starring in something fresh, new and instantly popular, and having a visual design born mainly out of necessity. That's my current hypothesis.

Wait, fuck it, the Gibson Flying V guitar is kind of a form over function thing, so scrap that.

First we should define 'iconic'.

[dhex]

iconic - relating to an important or enduring symbol.
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[kirkjerk]