Viewing Thread:
"The Monkey Thing"

What is this thing about gamers perceiving monkeys as 'cool'? Why is it that whenever a new game is going into development one of the questions that the gaming press and gamers usually ask is "Will there be any monkeys in it?" Did it all start with Donkey Kong or is there a deeper symbology that goes straight over my head?

What, essentially, is the big fuss about monkeys all about?
Why are hedgehogs left out of the equation?
Why not frogs?

I was trying to compile a list of all console and PC games that include monkeys. What is fascinating is that monkeys seem to crop up in all genres, from FPS - TimeSplitters 2, Arcade/Puzzle - Super Monkey Ball, Platformer - Donkey Kong of course, Adventure - Pirates, Legend of Black Kat, Action-Adventure - Tomb Raider 2, Racing - Diddy Kong Racing, the list is large and seemingly endless, so I gave up trying.

There's even whole games devoted to monkeys, like as mentioned previously SMB, DK and DKR, not to mention Monkey Hero, Skull Monkeys, Sea Monkeys, Monkey Magic...

It's a bit like the word 'spam'; someone somewhere coined the phrase first but the origins have been lost in the mists of internet gossip and hearsay. I feel it's VERY important that we trace the origin of the 'Monkey Thing' before it's too late, so we need facts and fast.

I've tried doing a few haphazard searches on Google using "monkeys and gaming", "monkey" AND "videogame" etc., but need better search strings. "The origin of monkeys in video gaming" doesn't bring up any results at all, which is surprising as the phrase "The origin of the word Spam" brings up 11 hits straight away.

You'd have thought that with gaming becoming a more academic pursuit (you can do an Honours Degree with 'The History of Video Gaming' as a major module now) that some bright spark would have done a paper on it. But they haven't, which is troubling, because I fear the origin of the monkey may vanish forever.

And for all you game developers of the future reading this: next time you justify adding a monkey to your game, don't just palm yourself off with the excuse that 'Monkeys are cool', think to yourself 'WHY are monkeys cool?'

pb wrote:
> Perhaps monkeys are actually creating the games we play, not games
> designers? That would explain a lot. In fact, they're probably also
> running the games retail business and Nintendo UK's release policy
> too...

When I read that I got a surreal image of a monkey standing on an office chair going "Ook. OOOK!" and banging his fists on a keyboard. Then he violently shook the monitor in frustration, while several other monkies around the office looked around to stare, then turned back in embarassement. Nice image though. :)

pb wrote:
> Is the same magic that made monkeys so successful in games what also
> made the Monkees so successful?

No. There's a distinct difference between magic and 36,000 tonnes of hallucinogenic drugs.

Is the same magic that made monkeys so successful in games what also made the Monkees so successful, or were they perhaps real monkeys disguised as humans in a bid to take over the world? We should be told.

Perhaps monkeys are actually creating the games we play, not games designers? That would explain a lot. In fact, they're probably also running the games retail business and Nintendo UK's release policy too...

Or an ape.

Then again he could have just been a tail-less Monkey.

To my knowledge he was an ape, having no tail. However Jumpman, aka Mario nowadays, was in the game chasing a piece of tail (Pauline).

Therefore: Ape + Tail = Monkey
(Albeit in a very abstract, and typically 'FM trying to scrape himself out of a barrel' roundabout way).

Then he's either an Ape and should thus be excluded from this discussion, or he's been in a terrible accident and we should offer him our sympathies. Or mock him.

He doesn't have a tail.

I think.

I thought Donkey Kong was an Ape. Does he have a tail or not?

Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island and Curse of Monkey Island as well as the considerable number of other Monkey games were all symbolically represented by the '...' following Monkey Magic in the original post.

I put it to the jury that you're nit-picking.
Wait...monkeys do that too. There's more to this monkey-business than meets the eye methinks.

Current theories from this thread:

It all started with Donkey Kong.

It's because we're so closely related to apes that we feel a cousinly urge to include them in our gaming endeavours.

They don't exist, it's just a big conspiracy to make us THINK we exist.

In Summary:

If posters stopped monkeying around we might get to the bottom of all this.