Feedback on Future Racketboy Mascot

[CRTGAMER]

I have been curious, why the name Racketboy? When I first stumbled onto this site I was thinking a tennis afiliation.

Since the mascot will be part of the site design, maybe something that encompasses what this site is? I agree with dsheinem. The anima image just doesn't seem to fit Retro Gaming recognition. Maybe the use of a well known INSPIRED not copied Retro character?

I was toying around with an older Mario Tennis character to match "Racketboy". A problem of only symbolizing Nintendo. There are too many consoles going all the way back to Atari, Bally and Coleco. Trick is a universal mascot that shows allegiance to all the brands, yet is synonymous with Retro.

Please keep the site clean and Java animation free. A lot of blog sites are clogged with animation and are painful waiting for all the script loads.

[Flake]

I have been curious, why the name Racketboy? When I first stumbled onto this site I was thinking a tennis afiliation.

I'd heard it was a nickname based on Racketboys real name being often mispronounced as 'Racket'.

[racketboy]

I have been curious, why the name Racketboy? When I first stumbled onto this site I was thinking a tennis afiliation.

I'd heard it was a nickname based on Racketboys real name being often mispronounced as 'Racket'.

Yeah, I honestly wasn't expecting the site to be that popular when I started it, otherwise, I would have come up with a better name

Kinda late to change now...

[Flake]

I have been curious, why the name Racketboy? When I first stumbled onto this site I was thinking a tennis afiliation.

I'd heard it was a nickname based on Racketboys real name being often mispronounced as 'Racket'.

Yeah, I honestly wasn't expecting the site to be that popular when I started it, otherwise, I would have come up with a better name

Kinda late to change now...

Personally, I think the unassuming site name keeps out some of the dirty, unwashed masses. I'm probably wrong though; The guides hosted by the site rank so high on google searches that it doesn't take much effort to figure out what racketboy.com is all about.

[SpaceBooger]

Based on reading the comments in this post here is my recommendation - ask the artist to render the character in both 16 and 8bit. But keep the current character especially since the artist has already spent time on it and you seem to like it.
That way you have more options. I think in 8bit it will look less "anime" and more "retro gaming."
Doing this will keep your options open and give you an option out of the over saturated 16bit pixel art that has taken the internet over recently.

Personally I am a fan of "text art" and love text based logos, therefore I agree with those who think the text logo that currently graces the top of the pages is perfect.

[racketboy]

One other thought that just popped in my head (and feel free to shoot it down)
Instead of holding a controller, what if we made the character more that looks like he's in a game -- the most logical old-school genre that has a character holding something that would indicate a game genre would be a gun like a run-n-gun.

Thoughts?

As much as I'd like to have a mascot, maybe it's not the best place to spend energy.
Maybe a more iconic logo would be better...

[SpaceBooger]

One other thought that just popped in my head (and feel free to shoot it down)
Instead of holding a controller, what if we made the character more that looks like he's in a game -- the most logical old-school genre that has a character holding something that would indicate a game genre would be a gun like a run-n-gun.

Thoughts?

As much as I'd like to have a mascot, maybe it's not the best place to spend energy.
Maybe a more iconic logo would be better...

Hmm... maybe it's just the teacher in me, but I don't know if having a mascot holding a gun would be a good image. Maybe a gun-arm like MegaMan - that I could dig.

[racketboy]

One other thought that just popped in my head (and feel free to shoot it down)
Instead of holding a controller, what if we made the character more that looks like he's in a game -- the most logical old-school genre that has a character holding something that would indicate a game genre would be a gun like a run-n-gun.

Thoughts?

As much as I'd like to have a mascot, maybe it's not the best place to spend energy.
Maybe a more iconic logo would be better...

Hmm... maybe it's just the teacher in me, but I don't know if having a mascot holding a gun would be a good image. Maybe a gun-arm like MegaMan - that I could dig.

That did cross my mind, so you're probably not the only one...
hmm...

[CRTGAMER]

Yeah, I honestly wasn't expecting the site to be that popular when I started it, otherwise, I would have come up with a better name

Kinda late to change now...

Personally, I think the unassuming site name keeps out some of the dirty, unwashed masses. I'm probably wrong though; The guides hosted by the site rank so high on google searches that it doesn't take much effort to figure out what racketboy.com is all about.

THIS. I think the extra step of searching a specific gaming issue generates the hits at google. A more common title with the word game in it will just invite a lot that who may not offer useful contributions. Besides the title Racketboy is recognized as quality gaming information.

One other thought that just popped in my head (and feel free to shoot it down)
Instead of holding a controller, what if we made the character more that looks like he's in a game -- the most logical old-school genre that has a character holding something that would indicate a game genre would be a gun like a run-n-gun.

Thoughts?

As much as I'd like to have a mascot, maybe it's not the best place to spend energy.
Maybe a more iconic logo would be better...

Definitely should not have a character representing just one franchise though. Maybe a better approach in showing representation of a gamer. I really like something along the Racketboy Avatar. A gamer locked in with eyes in a blur playing a video game. Even though the headphones may represent current gen gameplay, maybe not a bad thing. The animation style could reflect allegiance to all vintage games new and old. Maybe the dots in the eyes of the current avatar of the Jet Set character puts a tease of watching the pixels of older games such as Space Invaders.

[AmishSamurai]

One other thought that just popped in my head (and feel free to shoot it down)
Instead of holding a controller, what if we made the character more that looks like he's in a game -- the most logical old-school genre that has a character holding something that would indicate a game genre would be a gun like a run-n-gun.

Thoughts?

As much as I'd like to have a mascot, maybe it's not the best place to spend energy.
Maybe a more iconic logo would be better...

I feel the logo as-is is iconic enough. I don't think we need a new one or a mascot period.