Ziriux, here's a challenge for you - name every game you can think of that has space marines. Only mention a game of a series though, I don't want you naming every Halo game.

Metroid , starfire , wing commander , doom , command and conquer , quake , Outwars , starcraft , Ground control , Red faction , Natural selection , Timesplitters , deadspace , killzone , Turok , Eat lead , Warhammer 40k , Halo etc ...

93 games at least featuring it . WW2 games are at least 159 totals , but some of them are about subject as diverse as aviation , submarines , wargames etc ...
Most sci fi games are about making you land on foreign planets as a marine , and only a few actually about space flight and battles and wars .

But well might as well count the amount of heroic fantasy games too .

It is only overdone when in a generic fashion

I think space marine is synonymous with "boring." You know, it's the square head, buzz cut character you see all over the place.

That's not really what the article is getting at, but it's something that pisses me off anyway.

Well i just feel that one particular type of space marine is overdone :

the cussing moron and his "guetto" sidekick . It's already overbearing in movies without the need to copy it perfectly .

When i hear those guys from killzone and gears of war , among many , i just feel like rooting for the other side .

I think uninteresting characters like space suits with flesh inside, and buff men who curse like sailors or 14-year-olds who think it's funny/cool, should be left as multiplayer skins....at best.

The games that 'space marines' are used in are pretty few and far between. The term 'space marines' apparently can be used for any game that has a military character in a future setting. Hmm, ok. So any games set in the future should not use anyone in a military setting, we should just have social workers. Or newsagents.

Let's make it easier on game developers, any game that's set in the future should only have playable characters that are in the telecommunications industry.

I want to be a cable engineer saving the world.

I honestly don't think space marines are overused - or at least, in shooters?

The only shooters I can think of that are related:
Halo
Doom
Killzone
Mass Effect

Maybe Resistance, but I don't understand the story very well.

@Aphe
i gave you at least a list of games extensively using the term AND the usual archetype . For those i'm pretty sure , and most of what i've listed are series of games .

it's one thing to use in obviously violence related games , a military structure and personal in a space setting , but it's another to have the same base default behavior and personality

In Dead Space you are not a marine. I'm tired and I'll look tomorrow, but you just seemed to mention any game set in the future where you shot someone. Maybe you're right in most of them, but even so, how many games have been made in the last twenty years, and how many games have you mentioned involving 'space marines'? Not that many, a very very tiny percentage.

Rocket Sauce, how could u not like Mr47? (hes included in that pic of yours)

@Aphe
I never said the hero was a marine in dead space , nor in some of the titles i even mentioned . They just have a documented presence of space marines , be it playable or not .

IN Dead space you do see USM Marine Corps from the Valor ship .

A list was requested , i just gave a few example in a pretty long list of them .

If you feel that i listed everything that shoot in space , well that's probably because most sci-fi and space based titles do feature them , that should tell you why my list seems so arbitrarily exhaustive to you .

thats been around a long time.

I COULDNT CARE LESS a game is about some generic character. Why? because I could find a whole crap load of over used characters in ANY GENRA OF GAME.

How about kill off the girly many with crazy hair in JRPGS. Or my favorite: Kill off the horrible, and mosstly animal, characters in games that try to rip off mario.

All I care about is if the game is fun.

I think gordon freeman is pretty cool for a shooter. He went to MIT and has never been to space.

I didn't put that pic together, I just found it on the interwebs to use as an example. Never really played Hitman, though, so I don't have much of an opinion on him.

Master Chief wasn't the first 'Space Marine', not even close, but I think his success in the Halo series is the reason it seems so overused lately, people trying to copy that persona.

I couldn't care less as long as the games are fun to play.

I don't have a problem with that archetype. It's the lacklustre, hackneyed writing that makes me hate it.

Yes. When playing certain games I sometimes wonder if they let the developers write the manuscripts.

Don't you dare include Dead Space in that. Firstly, you're an engineer, not a marine; and second, there is always a good reason for you to be in a particular room. There is almost no dialogue whatsoever, and yet it creates a strong sense of story and character as you go along. All survival horror games should be as good.