The Video Gaming World Has Made a Shift in its Preferred Hero.
The New Leading Man in Video Games
– February 9, 2008
The Video Gaming World Has Made a Shift in its Preferred Hero.
About the Author
David R. Dunham (Co-Founder) is a pastor, blogger, and avid fan of pop-culture. He has long been interested in the arts. He received honors for acting throughout high school and college, even being given a scholarship for musical theater to Youngstown State University. He is also an amateur musician, with one album, Get Well Soon, released in 2004. David has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and in Pre-Theology from Ohio University, and a Masters of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He currently teaches English Composition at Shawnee State University and serves as a staff pastor at Christ's Community Church. David and his wife Krista have two children, and they currently live in Portsmouth, OH. 
What? No Gordon Freeman?
Thinking about it though, I’m not sure that video game heroes have ever been of similar mold to the action heroes of the ’80s. I think the geek market, being the prime market for video games, has always been happier with average-looking heroes than the jock market has. Some historical examples:
1981:
• Mario. Slightly tubby plumber. Goofy Mustache. Overalls.
1982:
• Pitfall Harry. Lean fella in a pith helmet and khaki shorts.
1983:
• Dirk the Daring. While he does have some forearm-and-calf muscle mass, Dirk was a dork.
1986:
• Link. Essentially a spritely teenager in 1986 and becoming more and more childlike over the years until his Wii incarnation, which seems a return to the 1986 Link.
• Samus Aran. Not a man and not particularly buff. At least not in the two versions of the game I had played.
1987:
• Larry Laffer. Ew. I mean seriously.
1990:
• Guybrush Treepwood. Actually scrawny. Saving grace is nice rock hairdo.
1996:
• Lara Croft. Granted that she’s never been exactly realistic, but she’s still not your old-school action hero.
1997:
• Cloud Strife. Typical anime action hero. So very not Schwarzenegger.
1998:
• Gordon Freeman. C’mon, a physicist? With Rivers Cuomo glasses and a Jonathan Coulton Beard.
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Granted, during this time we also saw Solid Snake, Ryu (from Streetfighter), Duke Nukem, and Master Chief and Kratos from a couple years ago, but still, the video game hero was hardly monolithic in either design or personality.
I totally agree the Dane.