Among Us' Lack Of Characters Is Why It Has Endured

thegamer.com:

Among Us' time in the most immediate viral spotlight may have been and gone, but it remains an incredibly popular game. In fact, compared to a lot of other flash in the pan viral hits (anyone remember Fall Guys?), its popularity has endured beyond its most immediate moments in the sun. The game continues to get updates, remains the topic of countless memes (probably the best indicator of an IP's popularity), and has a range of merch including a very strange advent calendar last year. Oh and also it's a video game that people continue to play. In a world full of crossovers, tie-ins, and movie spin-offs it feels like part of the reason Among Us has endured is because it has no characters.

I don't want to rag too hard on Fall Guys. It's a nice game, I had a good time with it. I won some crowns, had some laughs, yeeted some beans - you know how it goes. It came and went, and that's all it needed to do. But it felt like a slow death, a macabre marionette show, when every so often a new crossover was announced and a couple of iconic characters were jellybeaned and cut in two in the hopes of drawing back dozens of players still interested in Fall Guys. It arrived at the perfect time, but once that window had closed, that should have been the end. Instead of deflating with dignity, there were desperate attempts to reinflate it, not by patching up the holes, but by constantly pumping in more and more IPs in the hopes of somehow pulling off a miracle.

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Among Us is a much simpler beast. While crossovers are not unheard of, they are much less disruptive. For Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Among Us got a Ratchet hat, and that's pretty much it. Even the characters themselves