Why is Gordon Freeman so popular?
- Thread starter Anticitizen_Two
- Start date
Eugh...
Valve purposefully left Freeman personality-less so that it feels as if its you playing - that's why they do it in the CoD games. Its also why the game has no cutscenes whatsoever.
Its not like they tried to create an actual character and totally failed (is it, Bungie?). The favoritism is mainly born from the irony of it.
I wouldn't call him generic either - not in his "appearance" (admittedly only seen in concept art and on the box), profession or his "thing" with the G-Man.
Freeman's an icon outside of the game; inside he's you.
EDIT: As someone else pointed out, if you're going to say its stupid to like him then I'm going to say its equally stupid to dislike him.
Valve purposefully left Freeman personality-less so that it feels as if its you playing - that's why they do it in the CoD games. Its also why the game has no cutscenes whatsoever.
Its not like they tried to create an actual character and totally failed (is it, Bungie?). The favoritism is mainly born from the irony of it.
I wouldn't call him generic either - not in his "appearance" (admittedly only seen in concept art and on the box), profession or his "thing" with the G-Man.
Freeman's an icon outside of the game; inside he's you.
EDIT: As someone else pointed out, if you're going to say its stupid to like him then I'm going to say its equally stupid to dislike him.
After thinking (and reading other responses) it's this, good game + nerd + ability to kill things like he does + the whole saving the world angle + being a mostly blank slate = wow I love this character.Programmed_For_Damage said:
It's not using a crowbar, it's only using a crowbar, to do all kinds of things, mostly killing stuff.SantoUno said:
A good character doesn't have to be made so through "awesome one-liners" or "snappy dialogue", the best way to create a character is from the environment. You feel so emerged into the world of Half-Life by the way characters look at you, speak to you, and generally act around you. The way the story progresses just makes you really get a feel for Gordon even though he doesn't talk.
You really need to play the game to get it, but the characters that don't talk tend to be the best because the player fills in the gaps. Half-Life 2 will most likely always be my favorite game because of the Immersion, and Gordon Freeman is part of that immersion.
You really need to play the game to get it, but the characters that don't talk tend to be the best because the player fills in the gaps. Half-Life 2 will most likely always be my favorite game because of the Immersion, and Gordon Freeman is part of that immersion.
My two favorate sentinces in the history of spoken language.Mr. Gency said:
Please do not post low content or image only replies -Mod
I'll be sure to keep that in mind.
BTW: How can you be genaric when you're a power-armor wearing, crowbar wielding theoretical physicist? Oh, I forgot, YOU CAN'T!
whats funny about that game (the first one) on the final mission of each gang, the main character would end up saying some sort of one liner, lol it caught me by surprise. Like one of them was when he was in the elevator with Johnny and everyone else, and Johnny was saying how he was gonna fuck the ***** up that they were gonna kill, and then main character suddenly says "Hope you don't mind hepatitis." I lol'dEatbrainz said:
Because he's a PHD in physics who can still pulp you with a crowbar. And even better, he never complains, he never philosophises, he never thinks he's making clever one liners when he's not and he NEVER wastes our time with bullshit. He just mans up and does the job he has to do.
Pretty much this. People liked the game, so they glorify every aspect of it to fuel their fanboyism.SantoUno said:
Well a large part of why Gordon Freeman is so popular is not atually anything to do with him per se- it's because he's the protagonist of what is, let's be honest here, the best fucking FPS series ever made. I mean, look at the character he's constantly being compared with in this thread. Master Chief isn't popular because he's a great character, because he isn't. He is, if anything, more boring and generic than Freeman (I'll explain how that is later) but he's become one of the most recognised game characters of this generations simply because he's the protagonist of Halo, one of the other most popular FPS series ever. Games like Modern Warfare can't do this because they don't have a fixed protagonist, but Chief and Gordon are fixtures in their series.
So what makes Gordon more popular than Master Chief (other than Half-Life being better than Halo) even though he has NO personality at all? It all goes back to the feature which first made the original Half-Life memorable- its total immersion storytelling style. The game does not use prerendered, 3rd person cutscenes, or remove control of Gordon from you at ANY point (with the only exceptions being when Gordon is physically immobolized, such as when the soldiers capture you in Half-Life or when you're buried in rubble at the start of Episode 1). You can always at least look around. You can stand in front of characters when they're talking to you and listen, or you can wander around looking at the walls and letting them prattle on in the background. To make a long theory short, in Half-Life you ARE Gordon Freeman. The effect of the silent protagonist has NEVER been used so well, not in Zelda, not in Chrono Trigger, not anywhere. This is where Master Chief fails- he has his OWN character and personality, preventing me from overlaying mine on him, but his is completely boring and generic. When I was playing Half-Life 2 I identified so well with Gordon that I intently roleplayed him at every opportunity, nodding or shaking my head with the mouse when people asked me questions, looking away awkwardly when Eli teased me and Alyx and even talking back to the characters out loud. Gordon may not have a voice or personality, but that's because he has mine.
Finally, there's the fact that he's such an original character, but his story develops so well. As has been pointed out by countless people, Gordon is a theoretical physicist who gets thrown into the biggest shit-fest in human history by sheer chance and comes out the other side alive and covered with alien gore. Then he finds himself on a dystopian earth where he's become a messianic figure to the human resistance and he helps topple an alien invasion. And he dos all this with only a suit of powered armour created for science lab experiments, a goddamn crowbar and whatever weapons he can pick up off the ground or pry from his opponents' cold, dead fingers. But Gordon avoids the trap of becoming some kind of Gary Stu by the gameplay. Throughout the series Gordon racks up a headcount that would make the Doom marine whistle appeciatively, but if you go barelling into combat like the over-muscled space-marine you're ostensibly replacing you'll come out with the arse hanging out of your HEV suit. If you want to win at Half-Life you have to fight smart, which shapes Gordon's success- he becomes this legendary figure NOT because he's some kind of unstoppable war god, but because he's SMART. He's a survivor and he slays the Nihilanth and topples the Combine because that's what he has to do to survive.
This is the beauty of Half-Life and the reason why Gordon Freeman has become such an iconic character in gaming. He's earned his accolades. After all, didn't YOU earn them when you blew up the Citadel?
So what makes Gordon more popular than Master Chief (other than Half-Life being better than Halo) even though he has NO personality at all? It all goes back to the feature which first made the original Half-Life memorable- its total immersion storytelling style. The game does not use prerendered, 3rd person cutscenes, or remove control of Gordon from you at ANY point (with the only exceptions being when Gordon is physically immobolized, such as when the soldiers capture you in Half-Life or when you're buried in rubble at the start of Episode 1). You can always at least look around. You can stand in front of characters when they're talking to you and listen, or you can wander around looking at the walls and letting them prattle on in the background. To make a long theory short, in Half-Life you ARE Gordon Freeman. The effect of the silent protagonist has NEVER been used so well, not in Zelda, not in Chrono Trigger, not anywhere. This is where Master Chief fails- he has his OWN character and personality, preventing me from overlaying mine on him, but his is completely boring and generic. When I was playing Half-Life 2 I identified so well with Gordon that I intently roleplayed him at every opportunity, nodding or shaking my head with the mouse when people asked me questions, looking away awkwardly when Eli teased me and Alyx and even talking back to the characters out loud. Gordon may not have a voice or personality, but that's because he has mine.
Finally, there's the fact that he's such an original character, but his story develops so well. As has been pointed out by countless people, Gordon is a theoretical physicist who gets thrown into the biggest shit-fest in human history by sheer chance and comes out the other side alive and covered with alien gore. Then he finds himself on a dystopian earth where he's become a messianic figure to the human resistance and he helps topple an alien invasion. And he dos all this with only a suit of powered armour created for science lab experiments, a goddamn crowbar and whatever weapons he can pick up off the ground or pry from his opponents' cold, dead fingers. But Gordon avoids the trap of becoming some kind of Gary Stu by the gameplay. Throughout the series Gordon racks up a headcount that would make the Doom marine whistle appeciatively, but if you go barelling into combat like the over-muscled space-marine you're ostensibly replacing you'll come out with the arse hanging out of your HEV suit. If you want to win at Half-Life you have to fight smart, which shapes Gordon's success- he becomes this legendary figure NOT because he's some kind of unstoppable war god, but because he's SMART. He's a survivor and he slays the Nihilanth and topples the Combine because that's what he has to do to survive.
This is the beauty of Half-Life and the reason why Gordon Freeman has become such an iconic character in gaming. He's earned his accolades. After all, didn't YOU earn them when you blew up the Citadel?
Fucking this, he is someone who I can relate to in some sort of nerdy way.ThrobbingEgo said:Tifa. Has. Boobs. [http://images.google.ca/images?rlz=1C1GGLS_enCA301CA303&sourceid=chrome&q=Tifa&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi] /Discussion.NeoAC said:
Gordon is scrawny and nonathletic. His crowbar-fu is all in the suit. He can't run unless his suit's batteries are charged up.Burningsok said:because he goes against everything that a typical scientist nerd is... scrawny, nonathletic, wields a damn crowbar, dude i can go on with this. defends against head-crabs, has the hots for girls (Alex), can save the entire planet without smashing his own giant nerd glasses/bifocals, crowbar... did i say crowbar already? He gives all nerds hope
He's the everyman. A regular guy (who happens to have an informed ability major in quantum physics) who gets his hands on a powersuit. He's the perfect player-insertion videogame character.
People who consider Gordon Freeman "generic" obviously don't know the fact that he was the original FPS silent protagonist in the first truely all-FPS game.
Freeman is a representation of the player character. So he is the player.
That's what makes him popular.
Love this picture.
That's what makes him popular.
Love this picture.
Because every nerd dreams of saving the world.
I have to say that the talking thing never really bothered me as long as it was good talking. Garrett from Thief is my favorite game character, and he mutters to himself all the time.
I have to say that the talking thing never really bothered me as long as it was good talking. Garrett from Thief is my favorite game character, and he mutters to himself all the time.
That's only cause she has tits, annnnnnd cause of FF fan boys, also he's John Freeman's brother! thats whyNeoAC said: