Designing A Game. Need Cosplay Ideas

So I'm totally spitballing ideas (ie "crazy talk") with friends about a potential online game to get everyday people more engaged with politics impacting their local areas, and one potential obstacle I was considering was to have the entire game have a kind of film-noir-spy-detective-like theme and giving people bonus points if they do their quests (among other things, involving talking to local legislative staff, etc. while cosplaying along that theme, as well as having Expies of some iconic characters from that theme (James Bond, Carmen Sandiego) show up throughout the game. However, uh... those are the only two characters I can really come up with in the theme. Anyone have ideas for some others (to provide inspiration for costumes and allow for more variety in the material on the site), or other general design and writing ideas?

Um, how do you have a Film Noir Detective world without a Sam Spade expy?

Because I've never heard of him. ^o^ This is why I wanted to come ask other tropers!

Never heard of Sam Spade? o_O He's the iconic noir detective. Go watch The Maltese Falcon and get back to us. :P

Other ideas - I don't know how eclectic you want your cast to be or how broad your target demographic is, so these could be a bit all-over-the-map, okay? Okay:

• Father Brown
• Miss Marple
• Nick and Nora Charles
• Dirk Gently
• Tintin
• Peter and Valentin Wiggin
• Encyclopedia Brown and Sally Kimball
• John Constantine
• The Shadow
• Agents Mulder and Scully
• Nancy Drew
• ...Kate Beaton's version of Nancy Drew :P
• Lord Peter Wimsey
• Arsene Lupin

...more as they come to mind.

edited 9th Dec '13 8:46:32 AM by Noaqiyeum

Ooh, I've got lots of reading and movie-seeing to do. To be honest, I'm more of a general anime fan than anything. Umineko was my first traipse into anything resembling mystery (unless you count Encyclopedia Brown), so I'm new in this realm. I'm glad to have people who can help me find good research for this!

EDIT: On your second point, an online game is almost by definition going to have a younger target demo (which is good 'cause younger people have lower political participation rates). We're basically going after people who feel bored or turned off or don't get the current political discourse. So late teens, twenties, politically disengaged, that's kinda the demo we're going for. Maybe it can be tweaked to get older people interested later... right now, we're just trying to get a solid, feasible concept, though, so even talking about launching it is totally premature.

edited 7th Dec '13 2:12:39 PM by Clevomon

And if you want to go back to anime, The Daughter of Twenty Faces and Baccano have some characters you can use. Isaac and Miria are great believers in cosplay.

edited 8th Dec '13 6:05:33 AM by SKJAM

Ooh, you know who would make a really good expy for this premise? Anyone from the Daily Days, really, but especially Rachel.

Here's what I was thinking in terms of archetypes to fill, by the way:

• Archetypal characters -
  • James Bond (Tuxedo and Martini)
  • Carmen Sandiego (Classy Cat-Burglar / Impossible Thief)
  • Sam Spade (Hardboiled Detective)
  • Miss Marple (Little Old Lady Investigates)
  • Nick and Nora Charles (Detective Couple)
  • Dirk Gently (Anti-Badass Hustler Guile Hero)
  • Tintin (The Everyman Adventurer)
  • Encyclopedia Brown and Sally Kimball (Kid Detectives)
  • John Constantine (Trenchcoat Brigade - which is really sort of the modern form of the Hardboiled Detective, so playing Constantine and Spade expies off of each other might lead to some interesting characterisation)
  • The Shadow (The Cowl, Master of Disguise)
  • Mulder and Scully (Agent Mulder and Agent Scully, natch)
  • Nancy Drew (Amateur Sleuth)
  • Lord Peter Wimsey (Gentleman Detective)
  • Arsène Lupin (Gentleman Thief)
• Not precisely archetypal, but distinct -
  • Father Brown (The Soulsaver + Turbulent Priest... sort of ^note Father Brown is a quiet and unassuming priest who constantly catches people off-guard - people either try to shelter him from shocking events without realising he's heard it all before in confession, or assume Belief Makes You Stupid and try to con him before discovering that Good Is Not Dumb. His motive in hunting criminals is to persuade them to repent and turn themselves in, using That's What I Would Do and To Know Him, I Must Become Him to get there. <3 He's awesome, and it's really disappointing how much he's been forgotten compared to his equally-popular contemporary Sherlock Holmes...)
  • Peter and Valentine Wiggin (Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour + Sibling Yin-Yang)
  • Kate Beaton's Nancy Drew (Clueless Detective)
  • Rachel (Knowledge Broker Informant + Badass Bystander)
  • L Lawliet (Phone-In Detective + Celibate Eccentric Genius)

And I've found a few character trope archetypes that seem applicable, even if I haven't thought of a specific really good example of them.

• Conspiracy Theorist
• Defective Detective
• Femme Fatale
• Inspector Javert
• Intrepid Reporter
• Magician Detective
• Mystery Writer Detective / It's for a Book
• Ridiculously Average Guy
• Vigilante Man
• Wannabe Secret Agent