Cats are better than dogs (as videogame protagonists)
A completely unbiased assessment of the facts.
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Cats are better than dogs, if we’re talking about which animal makes for a better videogame protagonist. I’m not saying that cats are betterpetsthan dogs, or that they have more complex inner lives, or that their companionship carries more meaning. I’m just saying that cats are superior to dogs in every way that is related to being a videogame protagonist.
Any dog would be subdued by a security bot within 10 seconds.
On a general note, I want more games that star animals of any kind so long as they’reregularanimals, not anthropomorphized cartoon characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Conker the Squirrel, or Jazz Jackrabbit. I’ve had enough of characters whose last name is the type of animal they are, which for some reason is almost always a member of the ‘animals you can picture Huckleberry Finn shooting with a Winchester Model 1866’ family. The public clearly agrees, because platformer Stray, which stars a regular housecat, is one of the most wishlisted gameson Steamright now.(Update: Stray has now released to verypositive reviews.)
But would there be so much interest in Stray if its protagonist weren’t an adorable orange cat, and were instead a loud, excitable Bull Terrier, Shih Tzu, or Alaskan Klee Kai? Definitely not, because cats are better than dogs (as videogame protagonists).
Here are three reasons:
A cat would simply not be a robot, nor would it be a sidekick.
The Stray trailer above (onYouTube here) just wouldn’t work with a dog protagonist: Your average Airedale Terrier or Bernese Mountain Dog would drown out the eerie soundtrack with incessant panting and then try to carry that mop through a doorway it doesn’t fit through. Those may be endearing behaviors in a pet—to some people—but they have no place in Stray’s “long-forgotten cybercity,” where any dog would be subdued by a security bot within 10 seconds.
Does that mean that I think cartoonist Jim Davis correctly captured the difference between cats and dogs when he portrayed the dog Odie as a clueless, slobbering oaf and the cat Garfield as a feeling, thinking being? I’m not saying that.
When I told him I was writing about how cats are better than dogs, PC Gamer Brand Director Tim Clark laughed and said “let’s be real.” He offered this photo of his French Bulldog, Batman, as a counterpoint, and later referred to this article as “ridiculous” and “shameful.” I have included his (extremely biased) comments for the sake of balance.
I love dogs, in real life and in games. Dog in Half-Life 2 is an excellent videogame companion, for example. But try to imagine a robotic cat companion: It doesn’t make sense. A cat would simply not be a robot, nor would it be a sidekick, despite what the recent Pixar movie Lightyear would have us believe. (That’s not the first time Disney has lied to you about cats: In Homeward Bound, Chanceembarrasses Sassy by launching her into a sandboxfrom a teeter-totter, even though a cat would never be made a fool of by a dog.)
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I’m also obliged to acknowledge the counterpoint provided by Okami, an allegedly good videogame with a canine protagonist, but it’s not a counterpoint at all: Okami stars a wolf, which is not a dog, unless a tiger is the same as a domestic cat, a hypothesis I don’t suggest testing. And I’m not going to dig out my PlayStation 2 and hunt down a copy of 2003 Frontier Developments gameDog’s Lifejust to prove what I already know: that it would be better if it were called Cat’s Life.
I haven’t played Stray and I don’t know for sure yet if I’ll like it. I just know that it’s better than a hypothetical version of itself that stars a dog. The evidence barely needs pointing out, but here are a few moments in the trailer that prove it based on my completely unbiased assessment of cat and dog behavior:
To avoid any misunderstandings, I’ll say one last time that “cats are only regarded as fussy because dog people value naïve enthusiasm over substance” is the sort of opinion I’mnotexpressing here. I’m only talking about which household pet it’s more sensible to cast as the protagonist of a videogame, and the answer, clearly, is cat: the better animal (if we’re talking about which animal should star in a videogame).
Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the ’80s and ’90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call “boomer shooters” now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that’s right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he’s focused on the site’s news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.
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