discoursedrome:

I was thinking. samus aran is the introvert power fantasy. what are the defining qualities of samus?

• Live in a cool tiny spaceship RV by yourself
• Curl into a ball and roll into a cave
• Everyone likes you and respects your work but you never have to meet or interact with anybody (I’m not counting space pirates and stuff but also shooting missiles at people from the other side of the screen is a very introverted way of doing things)
• No one can ever see or touch you and you always look cool
• Functionally invincible
• Your job is to become more powerful by discovering secrets in a magic cave

This explains why Metroids are the key antagonist of the series: they instantly get in your face, latch on to you, and take all your energy, so they’re like anti-introvert weapons

I’m 50% joking but 50% serious? I think successful games tend to appeal to specific personality types and this probably explains some of the conceptual appeal of Metroid and the things that determine how well a Metroid game “works”, so you could probably use this sort of psychoanalytic targeting as a step in game design