Philosophical questions re: characters and Ghostbusters

The specifics here relate to Ghostbusters games, but I suspect that there might be other games that bring up the same question: at what point can we actually say a character is involved in a game? In my opinion, they need to be named, or be recognizable, to be attributed to the game.

In the many versions of the original Activision computer game Ghostbusters from 1984, the Ghostbusters are never named, nor do they have any distinct characteristics. You just have three identical-looking white dudes. In this case, is it appropriate to link the Ghostbusters character pages (Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz) to the game? In my mind, it's not. The characters do not appear in the game in any meaningful way. Your Ghostbusters are generic. They are not Peter, Ray, and Egon. Someone has linked them to the page. I'm tempted to remove them, but I suspect they'd only be added again. But anyway, in my mind, they don't belong there. What do you think? Winston has also been linked to the game, and he's definitely not in it, because, sadly, as I said, you have three white guys in the game, and that's it.

This same issue applies to the Data East arcade game The Real Ghostbusters. At no point in that game are the characters named, nor do the colors of their jumpsuits even match the colors of the jumpsuits the characters wear in the show, so I would say that, despite the game's title, the characters themselves do not really appear in the game.

Thoughts?

I agree with your sentiments. I don't think the Ghostbusters should associate themselves with that game.

If it does not look like them AND the game does not say it IS them, then I think they shouldn't be related to the game.