Character Actor

To keep going on the video game theme, I think one of the main reasons it has become difficult to launch new intellectual properties in the industry is that 3D gaming (not 3D as in stereoscopic 3D, but 3D in terms of depth of playing field) has made it next to impossible to market new iconic characters.  Most new games made feature either a first-person perspective or a third-person perspective.  In the case of the former, the player never gets a chance to see what his or her character looks like, and it is very difficult to market a character that the player never sees.  In the case of third-person games, the camera is nearly always situated behind the player, meaning that all the player ever sees of his or her main character is the back of his or her head.  It's similarly difficult to market the back of a character's head.  More to that point, I think that this perspective, although convenient for gameplay purposes, takes away from some of the connection with and caring about the character that a player should feel.  A successful video game should make the player both concerned about and responsible for the well-being of the character on the screen.  Note that games that aim for immersion (you ARE the character!) are the best-off in the first-person perspective, but, again, it is difficult to market immersion more than once.  For games that are supposed to be character-driven, the side-scrolling template is the most effective.

Which character would you rather try to turn into a franchise:

This one?

metroid.retropixel.net

                  

Or this one?

metroid.retropixel.net

                       

              

Much as I love Metroid Prime (it's one of my top 10 favorite games of all time), I doubt I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if it had not been able to trade on the preexisting image I have of Samus Aran from the 2D games.  How can the industry fix this?  I'm not really sure.  Sales do not seem to be suffering (although most new franchises are shot down after the first game tanks), but the larger danger is a lack of creativity in the industry.  How can developers create a new character that will grab the imaginations of gamers in the 3D era?