The FOFC video game character draft

[Vince]

Heh. Not sure that Ramzavail will be too pleased with that pick there, TP.

[ice4277]

For my final pick, there were a couple characters I was tossing around in my head from games that I am particularly fond of. However, when it came down to it, I felt the need to take a character who has taken on a legendary status amongst a certain group of gamers (this group). With my final pick, I select:

Dean Houston (FOF)

No need to explain any more, really.

[Northwood_DK]

Can sombody please pick up Max Payne !!!

[corbes]

Who's Dean Houston?

[corbes]

dola-

is that the referee who tells you your score at the end of the year?

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by corbes

Who's Dean Houston?

See http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...threadid=17162

[corbes]

Originally Posted by ice4277

See http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...threadid=17162

I know, I know. I was being a jackass. Sorry. It's not even 8:00am and I'm already being a jackass.... sigh...

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by TargetPractice6

My next pick comes from one of my favorite games of all time. It really wasn't that widely played, but I liked it so much I have to pick a character from it.

So with my final pick I'll take....

Ramza Beoulve, Final Fantasy Tactics

I was thinking about picking the Cid of this game, which is why I contested Vince's pick of all the Cids. However, you don't get or even meet him until later in the game. So I figured I'd take the main character.

I cannot believe it.

For weeks, my 10th round pick was scheduled for Ramza. I would have never figured somebody would have picked him.

Great pick. Good for you.

[corbes]

I've got adventure: Link

I've got news: The Paperboy

I've got the sexiest pair in the draft: Leisure Suit Larry & Ms. Pacman

I've got old school toughness: Kung Fu and Commando.

I've got a non-character from a good game: Player 1 From Pole Position.

I've got villians: The Centipede, and Wario.

I need a little more new school, and maybe a little more toughness, so I go with:

Raiden, my favorite character from Mortal Kombat.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by ice4277

Dean Houston (FOF)

Hmm... we said no characters based on real life people. I thought it was common knowledge that Houston was based on the life of John Wayne Gacy?

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Hmm... we said no characters based on real life people. I thought it was common knowledge that Houston was based on the life of John Wayne Gacy?

You may have me on a technicality

[Ramzavail]

Since my pick was stripped from me by TP - I will go with a player from one of the most customizable baseball games ever created and a game that was so far ahead of it's time it is unbelieveable. I will choose the best hitter in the game...

Babe from the American Dreams in Baseball Stars

[Vince]

I cannot believe it. I figured that no one...NO ONE would take that pick. So obscure, yet so good. Amazing pick, Ramzavail. Now I have to find someone else

[Ramzavail]

TP made me do it!

[Vince]

Now I'm just gonna have to get crazy...

[SirFozzie]

FOr my last pick, I'm going to poick a Final Fantasy staple. I think this out paces the Cid thing, because if you ask a lot of people "what character do you normally see in every Final Fantasy game".. They won't say Cid, they'll go for the character who's best line is "WARK!!"

Chocobo!!!

(I still wish I had an old graphic someone made, of a Moogle dressed up like Samuel L Jackson from Pulp Fiction, and the tagline: "Kupo, MotherF**ker!"

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

(I still wish I had an old graphic someone made, of a Moogle dressed up like Samuel L Jackson from Pulp Fiction, and the tagline: "Kupo, MotherF**ker!"

Good one,

[cthomer5000]

OK. We need a chick and this is one of the best and most original games of the last 10 years.

Gum, of Jet Grind Radio

This also gives me both a TurboGrafx and Sega Dreamcast character as well... I deserve some sort of unsuccessful console bonus.

edit: I was incredibly tempted to take the DJ of Jet Set Radio. That guy was great.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Chocobo!!!

Which one?

[SirFozzie]

The Yellow One. (ie standard Chocobo)

[TargetPractice6]

I thought he was asking which specific one. It seemed to me he was getting at this rule: "4. You're drafting specific characters, not general types. Blinky from Pac Man is OK. "Ghosts" in general are not."

[TargetPractice6]

Sorry, Ramzavail. I would have taken Orlandu or Delita, but I had to go for the main character.

[Ramzavail]

It is ok - it was a good pick.

Those were also two great characters - but you have to go with the main character, I understand.

[SirFozzie]

Just like Tennis Mario and Super Mario and Super Smash Bros Mario are the same, the Yellow Chocobo should be the same

[TargetPractice6]

Chocobos are fairly common animals in Final Fantasy though. Not really a specific person like Mario.

[TargetPractice6]

Dola,

Whoa that was my 1,000th post!

[mauchow]

Can you say, RC Pro AM! Woot...

I hinted it earlier a few pages back, but nobody seemed to want the pick... Someone actually messaged me that they knew the answer, but already had a racing character.

[Maple Leafs]

Yeah, I thought Chocobos were general characters, not specific ones. Like taking "cars" in Frogger.

Unless there was a specific one named "Chocobo" in one of the games. I can't claim to be an expert.

[SirFozzie]

Fine.. The Yellow Chocobo from FFVII.

[albionmoonlight]

This whole exchange is funny for those of us who know nothing about Final Fantasy.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

Can sombody please pick up Max Payne !!!

I thought he was a wrestler.

[corbes]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

This whole exchange is funny for those of us who know nothing about Final Fantasy.

I gather that there's some animal named a Chuck-a-bo, (as in, to throw a person named "Bo"), which may or may not be a specific animal or a larger species of animals, whose distress call is "WARK".

[SirFozzie]

A Chocobo (pronounced CHOE-co-bo) is a two-legged, ostrich like animal in the FInal Fantasy series. It's main job is to move your party around faster then they can normally walk.. Plus look cute.

They are afraid of anything they're not familiar with, so when you start a battle, the Chocobo gets scared and runs off.

Chocobos are usually yellow, but there are green, red and black ones too, that can climb mountains, or swim seas...

Here's a Chocobo


Since, as animals, they don't speak, the sound that comes out "Wark"

[Ramzavail]

Thats correct. Thats a chocobo.

RC Pro AM - Wouldnt be a good pick - what would you take? a green truck?
Max Payne - isnt a great pick either - his games were average at best.

[Vince]

Ok, I've had more time than I should have to consider this pick...it's the last one in the entire draft. I've got a ton of ways I could go with this still, but here's how it went down.

Max Payne, while a viable character in one of the best games of the last few years (sorry Ramzavail, I disagree heartily that his first venture was aveage at best), just wasn't the player we were looking for. One game, with a sequel that the jury is still out on, was just not enough for our team at this point.



The Black Mage from Final Fantasy I was an early favorite to be my last round sleeper, but the RPG presence in this draft has been underappreciated, and we decided late to go in a different direction.

The Tank from Blaster Master was one of my favorite cool gizmos growing up, and managed to make its way to Game Boy and even a sequel on the PlayStation (I didn't know this either). However, it just didn't have the publicity that we wanted.


Diablo (from Diablo II) was a really cool bad guy, and my team is notably lacking in the bad guy category...but I just couldn't pull the trigger.


In the end, we went with a character from the game I probably spent more single-player time on than any other game, ever. With unlimited potential and incredible versatility, this guy was the linch-pin for one of the greatest games of all time. It all began with him. With the final pick in the draft, I select...


The Settler from Sid Meier's Civilization.

Would this brave explorer (group of explorers) be the foundation of one of your greatest cities? Or would he build the roads that would later lead your armies to speedy victories over your adversaries? I was certain from the beginning of the draft that I wanted one of my sleeper picks to be a unit from Civ, but I was torn for the longest time on which unit I would make it. Would it be the lowly Warrior? Or the popular Legion? Perhaps the Phalanx, the best really early unit...in the end, I decided that the building block of civilization had to be the representative.

I wanted to represent this pick with a picture of the old covered wagon that was the settler from the original, but I can't find any darned pics of it on the web. Ah well....

[Vince]

So, my team in it's entirety -

Mario
Simon Belmont (Castlevania)
Master Chief (Halo)
Sub Zero (Mortal Combat)
Billy Lee (Double Dragon)
Joe Musashi (Shinobi)
The Guy on the Bike (Excitebike)
Cid (Final Fantasy IV)
Erdrick (Dragon Warrior)
The Settler (Sid Meier's Civilization)

I'm pretty happy with that. I've got the most popular video game character of all time, three martial artists, one Airship mechanic, a bionically engineered guy who fought off an entire race of aliens single-handedly (Master Chief), Dracula's most famous foe (arguably), a long dead ancient Dragon Warrior, and the foundation of Civilization as we know it. Not bad

[SackAttack]

Were you guys really so hard up for draft choices that characters like Revolver Ocelot, Tails, Knuckles, Mother Brain, Kid Chameleon, or even some more contemporary characters like Klonoa, Viewtiful Joe, Ninja (from I-Ninja), couldn't find a home? Princess Zelda gets no love? As for evil badguys...where's Dr. Robotnik?

I mean, I feel the love for Tetris - goodness knows I play that game on my GBA SP on a nightly basis - but we're talking about an industry with twenty years of history to draw upon, and that's just since the NES rose to power in late '84, and THAT'S just console gaming. Never mind the arcade realm or the world of PC gaming.

Twenty years of gaming, and you guys couldn't find 120 characters without resorting to inanimate objects?

C'mon. I know gaming is franchise-happy, but surely, with as many companies as there are producing games, there are six characters a year memorable enough to warrant inclusion ahead of the 'player one paddle from Pong.'

Just my two cents on what was otherwise an enjoyable thread to read. Great job for the most part. It's just those head-scratchers that have me in this 'what the fuck?' mood.

[ice4277]

Sack, don't be hatin'

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Were you guys really so hard up for draft choices that characters like Revolver Ocelot, Tails, Knuckles, Mother Brain, Kid Chameleon, or even some more contemporary characters like Klonoa, Viewtiful Joe, Ninja (from I-Ninja), couldn't find a home? Princess Zelda gets no love? As for evil badguys...where's Dr. Robotnik?

You kindof stole my thunder there as I was going to make a team of "non-drafted" people and you named 3 of mine (Mother Brain, Zelda, and Dr Robotnik).

SI

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

You kindof stole my thunder there as I was going to make a team of "non-drafted" people and you named 3 of mine (Mother Brain, Zelda, and Dr Robotnik).

SI

Maybe we should do a draft for non-drafted characters

[Maple Leafs]

Should I be embarassed to admit that I'm stunned nobody picked Parappa the Rappa?

[Ramzavail]

No - In every draft there are going snubs - I don't think anybody that Sack mentioned were so obviously that we were boneheads not too choose.

I think if we would have chosen the guys Sack mentioned - he would have said at the end of the draft - how could somebody not pick anything from the game Pong!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? That game has been around for 4 decades - blah blah blah. IE: A no-win situation.

IF I-Ninja was chosen - I would have laughed - that game is pathetic.

Parappa the Rapper would have been a good pick - Parappa 1 was classic, Parappa 2 stunk - but I wouldn't say "goddamn how could we forget about him?"

[corbes]

I thought about taking Princess Zelda, but if Zelda were safe and on my team, she would never fall into the evil clutches of others, and Link would be out of work, and get old and lazy.

[albionmoonlight]

I had to pick between the Metroid and Mother Brain and went with the Metroid because of the name of the game.

I should have gotten Princess Zelda--it would have fit with my pick of the Mario Princess, Clyde, and the Metroid.

I never thought of "player one in pong" as an inatimate object. I thought of it as a representation of a person at a ping-pong table. Different from the straight line in Tetris.

Overall--good draft. I'm waiting to hear other commentary on it.

[corbes]

I compiled the teams. I decided to post it in a new thread so that more people would see it.

[corbes]

dola-

After drafting Raiden in the 10th round, I want to cut him and sign Princess Zelda as an undrafted F.A.

[Maple Leafs]

(Looks around...)

So, uh, what do we do now?

[Danny]

An All time Sports player draft.

[albionmoonlight]

This thread sure was popular. It got more replies than any thread other than playoff hockey. It has more replies than any thread other than playoff hockey and more views than any thread other than playoff hockey, reference thread, and TPF thread.

All in all, I say that the draft is a success.

I think now we wait for the final SterlingIce review. At least, that is what I am doing.

[Desnudo]

The fun for me is in the doing. Thanks for putting it together Maple.