Get Off My Lawn – The Importance of Portal 2

About the author

Randy Yasenchak

is the editor-in-chief of Elder-Geek.com. You can follow him on twitter @randyyasenchak.

6 Comments

1. 
   Korne
   July 05, 2011

   Nice little feature. Out of all the things that you said would be looked back as important, I only see the fact that anyone could enjoy the game because of the non-violence aspect to be important. I would say Chell is a good female character, but just like Freeman, she isn’t really much of a character. She’s just an empty… I won’t say it, but I think you get the pun.

   When I look back at important steps in games, I look at Mario 64 for 3D platforming, Rockband for local social gaming, Halo 2 for console online play, GoW for the much copied anti-hero (not to mention making qte popular, even though they were in games before it).

   I would also like to look at SotC for pushing the ability to make the player’s emotions add elements to the story (in SotC’s case, guilt). We haven’t seen a lot, but a few games have worked these same emotional draws, like Flower and even LA Noire. When more developers understand how to make players emotionally tied to the events in the game (something I don’t hear a lot of people talk about), we will be in the future of gaming.

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2. 
   Oliver Surpless
   July 05, 2011

   Even though, I’ve never played Portal, I recognize what it did for the industry.

   I’d love to see new episodes of this series. Anything that features FFVI sprites is awesome in my book!

   Well-loved. Like or Dislike:   +7

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3. 
   zkylon
   July 05, 2011

   Nice little feature indeed. I would argue that exploiting gamers’ hype so you can sell them your product earlier isn’t really comparable to curing Cancer, but i suppose there’s some truth in that there’s prowess in the combined efforts of the gaming community.

   On the rest, i think picking point n°1 was key, though i wouldn’t call Portal entirely non-violent. There’s a general feeling of deadly abrasiveness and hatred against you and the game uses it and plays with gamers’ expectations with violence, but you’re not the death dealer, no. What’s so great about Portal’s non-violence though, is that while there’s many non-violent games out there (ignoring the AAA market, for a second), most of them are pretty abstract or cute or whatever. It’s difficult for a game to be realistic, to deal with violent themes and to not engage you in real violence yourself. Think of Grim Fandango, for instance. Those games are far and in between, and even indie games don’t often touch that (my two next games may touch this, though at least one of them will).

   Very good idea, i like this feature.

   May i nominate some of my favorites (i’ll ignore those you’ve already mentioned) for further episodes? STALKER, Mount & Blade, Fallout (not 3), Persona 3, Bloodlines, Deus Ex, Braid, Planescape… Different kinds of importance in all of them, but all of them worthy of 8 minutes of video.

   PS: a security question for comments, really? Can’t you put that in account creation or something?

   Well-loved. Like or Dislike:   +4

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   • 
     Korne
     July 06, 2011

     I like the idea of Braid, Planescape, Deus Ex, and Fallout… but instead of Persona 3, make it Persona 4. Persona 4 tackled issues that other games consider taboo, like gender confusion, homosexuality (even though it is semi-dodged in the NA version), and depression.

     Like or Dislike:   +3

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     • 
       zkylon
       July 06, 2011

       I just said Persona 3 because it’s the one i played and i think it’s got one of the most ingenious designs in recent gaming. Maybe Persona 4 ups the ante but Persona 3 invented it, so it also makes sense for it to be chosen. In any case, the design is the star, so you can’t go wrong with any of them.

       Like or Dislike:   0

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4. 
   theblondepenguin
   September 03, 2011

   about the whole normal women thing… I just want to point out L4D and L4D2 Zoey and Rochelle both normal not overly sexual characters and they have real personalities they talk they interact and they are main characters

   Like or Dislike:   +3

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