If you liked it you shoulda made a sequel on it

If you like someone, you are likely to believe them. Liking something, or someone is the easiest way to convince you on doing something that you would not ordinarily do. It is an incredibly simple, and yet very difficult task to do. Movies become popular entirely because of how much you like the main character, and possibly even the villain. There are movies where everything is well acted, and paced, but the characters are so awful you don’t want to hang out with them. Videogames do the same, if you liked a certain game, game makers will try to play off of that game. Within games you find characters that end up so likeable, they become the symbol of that game.

One of the reasons why Middle Earth became so popular, is because Hobbits are very likeable. They are simple, happy country folk who deal with local politics by eating and drinking. A Hobbit is so recognizable, that I honestly believe that my Mom is somehow descended from them. Her family is small, quiet, enjoys eating, and wants to be respectable at all times. They are also the most likely to do some grand adventure around the world.

Both the Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings begins with Hobbits enjoying their lives, and not trying to deal with anything outside of their lands. The books spend a great deal of time trying to show how these small ones deal with things like Ringwraiths and Goblins.

The Avengers are not only likeable, even the villain has fangirls screaming for him. The films starring any of the Avengers have made hundreds of millions, and even billions of dollars.

In contrast Mr. Brooks had a character that was not likeable. The entire point was the feeling of unease that the movie had him as the protagonist. Kevin Costner and William Hurt give performances that are simply amazing. The movie was well shot, edited, acted, and would be lucky if audiences gave it a C. In fact, although I can praise it technically, I doubt I would ever recommend it to someone.

The idea of being likeable also works within games. Within a storyline, a likeable character can become your reason to continue playing, or move forward. In fact, a character that has enough fans can branch out to other games, and people will still enjoy it. A gamestyle that is really enjoyed will have copycats, and even dominate the sales of a given year, or time.

I already spoke about this before, when talking about the Father Daughter relationship in games. The game has a secondary character, that portrays a little girl -as opposed to a butt kicking guman, or Beautiful and Capable Woman. You feel the need to protect the girl, and form a father daughter relationship with her. Because you like her, you desire to save her from all of the evil things in the world.

The games are trying to tap your desire to protect or work with someone you like. The Final Fantasy series has done this as well.

This was an amazing moment of gaming.

The stories can be dark, and even twisted, but because you like the characters you continue playing. You want the characters to be alright, and win the day. You see a little of yourself within the character.

This is why so many characters in games are silent, or seem shocked at things they shouldn’t. They both represent themselves, and you. One of the best ways to compel people to like you, is to make yourself seem like them. If they are into sports, you talk sports. If they wear certain clothes, so do you. It creates a natural desire to follow the character, because the person views you as a part of themselves.

If the character is so well liked, they can branch out into other games, and you will follow. Mario, along with Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Donkey Kong, and even Bowser have become so likeable that they have appeared in numerous games.

The Super Smash Bros series, and Marvel Vs Capcom series both use beloved characters from multiple universes. We don’t think about the problems, because it is fun to imagine Samus vs Link, or Spiderman vs Strider Hiryu. In all honesty, the only problem I have with either game is that I can’t play Alucard or Simon Belmont. You can actually tell how long lasting a character is, if they can be placed in Super Smash Bros game, and people are happy.

Not only can a character, or world become likeable enough that you would play them, a gameplay style can do the same. In fact, if the gameplay is fun, you can have a way easier time enjoying it than thinking once about what it portrays. Pac Man was a pizza eating dots, and running from ghosts.

When a game gets big, copy cats follow. In fact, this has been a rule for gaming before videogames even entered the scene. When Super Mario Bros entered into gaming, just about every game released after that was a platformer. Every single game was based on the idea that if you pressed A you would jump, and B would use a weapon. The same thing happened with Mario 64. After the game’s release almost all platformers tried to move over to 3D.

This actually helped sell systems. If you knew how to play Super Mario Bros, and really liked it, then the other games on the NES would be fun. The games followed the standard, and worked to find their own special ways within them. It was the same consistency that let you enjoy these new games.

So, when a hit game like Halo came out, it was no surprise to find other games mimicking the control style, and game use. In fact, it helped sell the XBox and Xbox 360 because of the games that continued to fit the Halo controls style. The player liked the gamestyle, and thus enjoyed other games like it.

Liking something is one of the best ways to persuade someone to do something. If you like a character in a movie, you end up liking the movie as well. Even if the movie was well made, an unlikeable character may destroy it. In the same way, if you like a character in a game, they can become the reason why you continue to play the game. Super Smash Bros, and Marvel vs Capcom both use that idea of liking characters to make fighting games. Mario has appeared in hundreds of games. Not only can a character be liked, but a gamestyle. This helps a company because all of the controls and ideas are known, so the new game just has to mimic the right parts.

As you can see, if someone likes something, they continue to enjoy it. In fact, there are still pushes for movies like Ghostbusters, and Bill and Ted. In the same vein, there has been a Mario Kart on every Nintendo system since its debut, along with several others that fans demand be made. In fact, the newest Mario Kart is due out this May.