The writing for both characters was pretty insipid. Not the actresses' fault, more the nerd writing the scripts could portray a female character well and/or in a form understandable to others.

And bear in mind that the others are videogame playing nerds (admit it).

I found it easier to relate to Zoey because her skin colour matches my own, Rochelle doesn't act like (white invented) black female stereotypes so I'm kind of lost. But Ellis as well is a cardboard cutout.

It's not easy to write scripts for interactive stuff, I know from experience. Nick works because he's just making comments to himself. Coach is very well acted - I'd be surprised if the actor had mandated changes to his own script, rambling on about food etc. And that fucking laugh on finishing a level makes me smile.

In summary, seeing as I've managed to confuse myself - asking some pimply dork to relate to a female game character who doesn't have big tits will leave him confused. Asking him to do so when she's black will scare the shit out of him. The launguage doesn't have a denominator for 'him that will die alone in around 60 years'.

Ten quid his desktop image is Zoe's head photoshopped onto some porn. 

I quite like Zoey. Just more my type.

That add-on sounds cool :) 

But a bit pandering. Will be intersting to see the Big Valve Plan though.

According to the Left4Dead Wiki Zoey and Franics were supposed to be flirting in the first game, but it got taken out because it was distracting.

Since the games are supposed to be based off of the films and they're for an adult audiance it'd be nice for the characters to have a bit more humanity.

Like having Coach or Ellis recognise more than just the places, or talk about their dead families. 

With Rochelle, my impression is that they were trying so hard to avoid any gender or racial stereotypes with her, that she came away with very little definition at all. I'm not gonna claim that I can back that up with some evidence from an interview or anything though. It's just the vibe I get.

Coach is played by an actor from that show which gets all the love in the Film Thread - "The Wire" (he played Cutty, for those who know it). He certainly got his share of good lines. I particularly liked him reading a sign in the fairground: "You must be this tall to ride. Sorry Ellis, it's been real man..." 

I agree with Preach's assessment. 

Two words: Hoop earrings.

Is that not enough of a gender and racial stereotype for you people? 

Actually yeah come to think of it, who would wear hoop earrings during a zombie apocalypse? WHO?? 

The black guy who's name I can't remember from the previous having his white shirt buttoned up to the collar and wearing his immaculate red tie. 

He's called Louis. Which happens to be my name :P 

I assumed that these were the clothes they happened to be wearing on the day that the zombie apocalypse started. And they haven't had a chance to change their clothes. 

That was sort of my thought as well. Fashion being the last thing on their minds at the moment... 

It's exactly NOT fashion that should be on their minds during a zombie apocalypse, but instead survival. Wearing a necktie and hoop earrings, or really loose clothing at all (Ellis strap on those overalls!) is a no-no during a zombie apocalypse. It's nothing to do with style but instead COMMON SENSE (as much common sense as you can have, you know, regarding a zombie apocalypse.) 

hey man, not everyone's read the zombie survival guide. �_� 

With all the zombies around, taking those things off is the last thing on their minds.
Just like you might have shown up in your Hello Kitty pajamas but no one would blame you as long as you kept shooting. 

Zwiffle

No no, the point is that this is what they were wearing when the zombies showed up. They didn't choose to dress like that. 

Really I think people read too much into this sort of stuff, I mean WOAH, Rochelle wears earrings? HOLY FUCK GUYS EARRINGS.

So pretend you are a woman for a minute, your walking down the street and suddenly 100 zombies run out at you, the 1st thing you are going to do is take off your earrings because they are not suitable for a zombie apocalypse?

It seems that people complain whenever characters in games resemble any sort of sterotype, so lets make all game characters have green skin and 2 heads and come from the planet zog? These people are human and come from Earth, so yeh they are going to resemble SOME SORT of sterotype.

/rant :P 

Yeh, that's fair enough Willem, but I think his point was that you'd at least take off the tie... 

Every second you're dicking around undoing a tie is more time that a zombie is trying to chew into your skull because you're not shooting the fucking thing.

Which is why I wear zombie-proof clothing in day to day life, just in case... 

And all that time sitting in safe rooms reloading/bandaging/changing weapons/etc they don't have time to take off the tie?

(I think we maybe play games too much, there's a certain inability to distinguish fact and fiction here... ;) 

In a zombie Apocalyse - that's got to be a replacement skin. 

negke/Willem, you completely missed my point. I understood where you were coming from in the first place, that's there normal everyday clothing, but my point was this: How hard is it to take off a tie, take out your earrings, or button up your overalls in a safe room? How long will that take? 5 seconds? Nonentity got it right away...

DaZ - yeah, I just kind of said it initially as a joke but I guess people took it to be a real argument :) But hey, if it makes some discussion why not talk about it. 

"that's *not *their normal, everyday clothing..." I just woke up cut me some slack. 

I can't believe we're even talking about this to be honest. :) They're probably distracted with the whole, "there's 10,000 zombies trying to kill us" situation. Cheers! 

You're right that everybody probably would have take it off. But the point that, for example, Louis still wears his tie is to reinforce his role as a business man. This way it's more easily recognizable and supports the intented impression of 'four random characters from different ends of society' teaming up in an extreme sitation (people who don't have much in common and wouldn't have bothered with each other if it wasn't for the zombie killing thing). 

Well to steer this into a different direction, since everyone has made their points (and only mine were valid!) it would have been cool if Louis had a red pen in his shirt pocket that leaked, and someone telling him after a bloody fight that he has red on him.

Or maybe they did that, and I never noticed.