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Look at this guy
Look at this STUPID IDIOT

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I mean Imagine if you were working for a corporation
(Probably Not)

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And you assign a Character Designer
 to design a mascot

4
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Who will represent ALL
 of your products in the future

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Maybe you start thinking

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How do you make an appealing character that will draw in all demographics anyway

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First would

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probably be Self-Insertion

9
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If you make it an animal

10
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or put someone behind a mask

11
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Suddenly

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anyone can identify with that character

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00:00:25,860 --> 00:00:27,680
Animals are universal

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Every culture has stories
 about animals with human cunning

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And the mask can hide someones identity

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while still being able to show their personality

17
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It doesn't have to be that way

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that the less the character to looks like a specific person

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the more we can identify with that character

20
00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:43,420
N0. 2

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could be a

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Key-Demographics

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If you want to sell to the boys.
Make it a boy.

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00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,700
If you want to sell to the girls.
Make it a girl.

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00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:51,040
Or a pretty boy

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Kids are pretty simple minded

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00:00:52,780 --> 00:00:53,880
So you could have a do all

28
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So it appeals to more people

29
00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:57,300
But demographics also cross barriers

30
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And the gender doesn't have to be important

31
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It can as be a good character

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Or you could intentionaly make it more ambigous

33
00:01:04,239 --> 00:01:06,039
And lastly you just have to give it

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APPEAL

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Use your sense of aesthetics to get something that people

36
00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:11,500
would actually like to look at

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Maybe make them young

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since it's for younger people

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Have simple clothing

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Some nice colors

41
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along with that

42
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a character should idealy
 be recognisable from a silhoutte

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If the shapes are clear then no matter what situations

44
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they are put in

45
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we can still see that character from a distance

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Soo...

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All of that considered

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Imagine your character designer comes back and he's like

49
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Okay, I got it.

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It's a middle aged man.

51
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And he's kind of fat.

52
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What?

53
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Why is it an old man?

54
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Who is this going to appeal too?

55
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What is his demographic?

56
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You're going to have to say something, because kids don't care about some middle aged fat man.

57
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So yes, did you come up with anything else?

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Oh yea,  I, I did.

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Hi name is Luigi.

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He's the same guy, but he's green.

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Okay, maybe Mario is a bit of a clever design.

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I mean he is the biggest gaming icon.

63
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And he is one of the most recognized mascots on planet earth.

64
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Mario was NOT developed today

65
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Back in the pixel era, it was hard to make a character stand out

66
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So a mustache and a hat, it was clear and simple stuff

67
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that made the character sand out against a bunch of other bland pixel guys.

68
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But the thing is, even as the games developed

69
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Nintendo could have just replaced Mario with someone else.

70
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In the game Donkey Kong

71
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he just plays as unknown guy.

72
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The star of the game is Donkey Kong

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Donkey Kong fill the criteria.

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He's and animal.

75
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He's a childs demographic.

76
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He's a strong silhouette character.

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Donkey Kong could have easily been redeamed

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to be a good guy you play as in a future game.

79
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He was already established as a main character, main title figure.

80
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So they could have just kept using him

81
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The already established character with the big video game title.

82
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*Donkey Kong*

83
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Then I guess all that was necessary for Mario

84
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was to stick out with that mustache and hat.

85
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Basically it's just really weird to me.

86
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There was no obligation by Nintendo to keep using Mario.

87
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The character is so ODD.

88
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And even as new games were coming out

89
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Nintendo could have easily pushed towards...

90
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Kirby

91
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or Link

92
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to take his spot.

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Kirby is lovable and cute.

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And Link is a young, heroic, hot stud.

95
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From a business perspective these characters make sense.

96
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They would sell more.

97
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But instead Mario's design was fleshed out

98
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and developed into this entire weird universe.

99
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And that is the norm we live with.

100
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But really...

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It's really such a god damn oddity.

102
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Nintendo has developed a lot of great designs

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and there are a lot of good reason why they have appeal

104
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and why people are drawn to these characters.

105
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But how many corperations would bet on something as wild as

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*This*

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when developing a game.

108
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By practical means

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it's as if none of this should actually exist.

110
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Because the lesson here is that

111
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if everything was designed by committee

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to fill in the perfect blanks of what a character should be...

113
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to fill every niche or demographic, we end up with

114
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a big blank boring mess.

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그런 세계에서 마리오의 존재는 
존나 기적입니다.

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*whoa*

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<sweet internet melodies>