Clementine Defies Studio Shit

Clementine has recently come to become one of my favourite characters in gaming and so far is the best character of 2014. She's smart, brave, loyal, honest, optimistic & tough, she's everything needed to be a good character, let alone a kid character! Clementine is one of the best kid characters in fictional history, let alone gaming, she was already awesome in season 1 of The Walking Dead videogame, but in season 2 is when she really becomes her own. And despite the fact that it is an RPG, she still has a clear and defined personality throughout the series and there is never an option that feels out of character, that shows how well defined she is...no wait a minute wouldn't that mean the opposite? I'm getting off track here. My point is, Clementine is fantastic for all of these reasons, but the reason why she's become one of my favourite characters in gaming isn't because of any of that, it's because she goes against everything that stupid studios tell me that I should like.

Videogame companies seem to have this stupid idea that people can't relate to a character unless they're a straight white male character, which is total bullshit, whoever said that is an idiot. Me personally am a white male adult, Clementine is a black female child, if this theory were true then I shouldn't be able to relate to Clementine in the slightest, but I do, a lot, I freakin' love Clementine, she is a badass.

In fact most of my favourite characters don't follow this trend, Ellie from The Last of Us is a lesbian teenager, I am most certainly not a lesbian teenager, but I still think she's amazing in every way. Wheatley & GLaDos from Portal are robots yet they are some of the funniest characters in gaming. Mass Effect has some of the best characters I've ever seen in gaming, and most of the best aren't even human, let alone gender, sexuality or skin colour, if anything the humans are the lamest characters in those games. Making a character the same gender or skin colour doesn't instantly make them relatable or likeable. For example, every single protagonist in Assassin's Creed is a straight white male (Connor is stupidly half-white) and they are some of the most boring protagonists I've ever seen in gaming. Master Chief, though barely seen is also a straight while male and he is boring as hell! Why? Because he has no personality!

Clementine has a personality, Ellie has a personality, Wheatley has a personality, GLaDos has a personality, Garrus has a personality, Thane has a personality, Liara has a personality. These are characters that I relate to and like because of who they are as people, not what they look like! Or even if it is, the same generic looking archetype that you see in every game is not appealing to gamers, so stop this shit studios!

I know that it's not just gaming companies that have this lame idea but it's definitely the one that bugs me the most seeing as videogames have the most potential to be as unique and out there as they want yet they still follow stupid cliches like this and it doesn't make any sense and they need to get it through their thick skulls.

-Danny