Making friends with humans was a smart evolutionary move by dogs. We’ve kept them by our side, learning from and caring for each other. And now they’re coming with us to the virtual realm, too.
Dogs in video games make sense. A pixelated pup offers companionship through this often-solitary pastime. They offer humor when things get tough. A virtual dog is a shortcut to emotional investment in an otherwise alien digital play park. So why do games developers insist on making their virtual dogs unpettable? Are they afraid we’ll be too busy mashing the ‘tummy rub’ button on the joypad to fulfill our primary mission?
Here at Protect My Paws, we are big fans of Can You Pet the Dog?, a Twitter account that catalogs which video game dogs you can and can’t pet in-game. We analyzed their data to create an instant guide to the best pettable pooches and the dogs that gamers wish they could pet the most.
Image Credit: Ubisoft.
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Methodology
All data on dogs featured in video games and whether or not you can pet them was collated from the Can You Pet The Dog? Twitter account and their game reviews on Steam, which were later cross-referenced with the tweets.
A total of 463 tweets mentioning dogs and in video games were analyzed, recording the number of likes for each tweet using Twitter API. Platform availability of each game was looked up on IGDB. Only games and dogs with the highest number of likes for tweets about them are featured.
Data collected in June 2021.
We’ll start with the most pettable dogs!
Image Credit: Finji.
10. Pet the Pup at the Party
Tweet Likes: 37,147
Image Credit: grey2scale.itch.io.
9. Ordem Paranormal: Enigma do Medo
Tweet Likes: 38,010
Image Credit: Dumativa.
8. Astral Chain
Tweet Likes: 38,685
Image Credit: Platinum Games / Nintendo.
7. Enter the Gungeon
Tweet Likes: 45,1000
Image Credit: Dodge Roll / Devolver Digital.
6. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Tweet Likes: 49,503
Image Credit: Ubisoft.
5. Overland
Tweet Likes: 52,924
Image Credit: Finji.
4. Monster Hunter Rise
Tweet Likes: 52,972
Image Credit: Capcom.
3. Far Cry 6
Tweet Likes: 73,544
Image Credit: Ubisoft.
2. Dog Petting Simulator
Tweet Likes: 77,905
Image Credit: Studio Cacti.
1. Luigi’s Mansion 3
Tweet Likes: 124,729
Image Credit: Nintendo.
But You Can’t Pet These Video Game Dogs
“I was frustrated that [The Division 2] purposely put dogs in a poor situation, meant to evoke empathy from the player, but there was no way to comfort or care for these hungry, frightened creatures,” Can You Pet the Dog?’s author told The Guardian. This notion comes at a moment when developers are wondering why video games near-exclusively tap into the ‘fight or flight’ instinct rather than our impulse to ‘tend and befriend.’
Image Credit: Sony / Playstation.
10. Final Fantasy VII (Remake)
Tweet Likes: 12,001
Image Credit: Square Enix / PlayStation.
9. Minecraft
Tweet Likes: 12,655
Image Credit: Mojang Studios.
8. Genshin Impact
Image Credit: miHoYo.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019)
Tweet Likes: 24,471
Image Credit: Nintendo.
6. Yoshi’s Crafted World
Tweet Likes: 25,091
Image Credit: Nintendo.
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
Tweet Likes: 26,443
Image Credit: Infinity Ward / Activision.
4. Among Us
Tweet Likes: 28,809
Image Credit: Innersloth.
3. Doom Eternal
Tweet Likes: 37,041
Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks.
2. Shadow of the Colossus
Tweet Likes: 42,573
Image Credit: Sony / Playstation.
1. Bloodborne
Tweet Likes: 45,103
Want to see a breakdown of video game dogs by console? You can find that here, too!
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This article originally appeared on ProtectMyPaws.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks.
