BAFTA poll names LARA CROFT as Most Iconic Video Game Character Ever.

Can't say I think much of this list overall, but Lara Croft has been polled as the most 'iconic video game character ever' by BAFTA:

https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/pres ... ll-results

This appears to have set a load of people off online (water is wet etc*), which is rather funny because Lara Croft and PlayStation in general was beginning to get on some gamer's tits by 1998 as well. I don't know how the poll was conducted ("...the poll was engaged with by over 4,000 players from all over the world") but the results to me say the age demographic must mostly skew 30-50, started gaming in the 90s, and lean very heavily towards the UK trajectory of the video games market. For whatever reason Mario never fully resonated in the UK until pretty recently (I'm sure the 1993 Super Mario movie didn't help in making the character phenomenally uncool with every single 12 year old on the British Isles; ironically it's thanks to another Mario movie that's now made him cooler than ever before), so despite the Mario games being some of the greatest games of all time, was easily usurped by Sonic in the early '90s, and Lara Croft and Crash "strawberry floating" Bandicoot in the late '90s. And by the early 2000s, Mario had completely hit cultural rock bottom.

The fact Hitman sits so highly surprises me in the sense that Sam Fisher is not also there, because between 2002-2005 it was in that mix alongside Halo and MGS. But like Tomb Raider, Hitman does have a movie. Or two.

That Sackboy is there at all must surely reveal those polled lean heavily towards hardcore PlayStation ~~users~~ gamers as well. I doubt if you showed 500 random people in the street who he was, you'd be lucky to get 2 people to name him. Same could be said of Shadowheart and Astarion from Baldur’s Gate. That's where the word "iconic" really starts to fall apart in this list.

^ the most iconic video game character of all time.

*insert diatribe here about how technically water is not, despite how the saying goes, wet.

I have a suspicion that it was a very short shortlist, and if it was listed alphabetically, Agent 47 would have been first, garnering more votes because of its visibility.

Still, it's a meaningless poll, so who cares? It only exists to promote the upcoming games awards. On which note...

The nominees for the EE Players’ Choice Award – the only award decided by players themselves - are:
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077
Fortnite
Lethal Company
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

That's it. Of all the games from the last year, you get to choose from those six. Cyberpunk, released in 2020, Fortnite dating back to 2017, and ... Lethal Company?!

Shadowheart above Pikachu, Solid Snake, and Crash Bandicoot? :fp:

Got to be Mario, surely?

Knoyleo wrote:Shadowheart above Pikachu, Solid Snake, and Crash Bandicoot?

Bet there was some concerted effort from the BG3 community.

I would have expected Luigi to also make the list.

Joanna Dark should be on the list had her owners actually bothered to do something with her for the past 20 years.

Mario should be top, I would probably say top 3 should be Mario, Sonic and Pikachu perhaps? Ryu from Street Fighter should be in the mix as well

That EE Game of the Year is awful :lol:

2023 was huge so you easily have games that, you know, actually launched that year.

Considering it was brits voting it could have been worse

Probably was and they just removed those ones

I'm glad to see Pac-Man on the list... but perhaps not so happy that he's behind Sackboy.

The list seems kinda okay, really. I had expected far more "recency" bias and there is elements of that. Personally I would have also considered Space Invader, Miner Willy (Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy), Rockford (Boulder Dash) and Donkey Kong... maybe Ryu and Ken (Street Fighter) and Mega Man, too.

Obviously should be Mario.

Does Pikachu count? Did he start off in videogames? If so maybe him, he's universally famous also.

shy guy 64 wrote:Considering it was brits voting it could have been worse

Probably was and they just removed those ones

~~6. The dog from The Dam Busters~~

Rocsteady wrote:Obviously should be Mario.

Does Pikachu count? Did he start off in videogames? If so maybe him, he's universally famous also.

Yeah the games came first.

I'd say

1. Mario
2. Pikachu
3. Sonic

After then gets more debatable. Lara Croft would be top ten though I think. You've also got likes of Master Chief, Crash Bandicoot, Pac-man, Link, Solid Snake and Kratos. And even more Mario characters like Luigi and Bowser. Steve from Minecraft too I guess.

Guess you all should have voted then, eh?

To do this properly, you need to randomly go up to 100 people, ideally while wearing a Les Dennis mask, and ask them to name a video game character.

I'm trying to think of which characters could be easily named by non-gamers.

Mario and Sonic are the obvious two. Pac-Man probably in third.

I think Lara Croft would be up there in the top 10, but she wouldn't come close to Mario or Sonic.

rinks wrote:Guess you all should have voted then, eh?

BAFTA poll names LARA CROFT as Most Iconic Video Game Character Ever.

Most iconic video game character ever

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