My favorite games are the ones when you get to feel like you've become friends with the characters. Like a good TV show, you slowly develop a fondness for them, their quirks, their faults, their one-liners. It doesn't have to be a fully fleshed-out 3-dimensional character in order for me to develop an attachment to them, however.
I count Baby from Super Monkey Ball as one of my own, even if he doesn't even get a chance to speak in the game, but rather just wheels around obstacle courses in a clear ball. That's my family nonetheless. Or Bella Goth from the Sims. I may never get to know what she's really like besides that she lives in the same neighborhood as my Sims and she has a cool name, but she's like a sister to me somehow. It's all about comfort and familiarity. I see those characters and I know I'm having a good time. That's what these memes are here to remind us of.
