Today we are celebrating the 7th anniversary of the US release of Uncharted; Drake’s Fortune. We will be posting various fun things throughout the day to mark this special day, so keep your eyes peeled. The US market was treated to the pleasures of this game almost a full month before the rest of the world, so spare us a thought. Despite being UK based we decided this date was the one to mark as it is the first time mere mortals got their hands on the game.
Why are we celebrating the 7th birthday?
What is special about that number? Well, the number seven has long been associated with the theme of luck; another name for which is ‘fortune’. This is one of the clever double meanings of the Uncharted titles; and the theme of Nathan’s luck is a recurring one throughout (especially in Uncharted 2, to my mind).
And why do we care so much?
Uncharted has had a massive impact on my own life; I have always been a ‘fan’ of something – as a child it was Jason Donovan, and then R.E.M, Morrissey, and Tori Amos… I love Doctor Who and it’s spin-off Torchwood. For a time I was a big part of the ‘fandom’ for Robin Hobb, whose Farseer books I hold very dear (and from which incidentally I took my PSN ID of LadyPatience). But it was not until Uncharted that I found my ‘thing’. I won’t ever pretend to have always been a ‘gamer’, but I have always enjoyed playing games. Back in 2006 I was living alone and fancied having a games console to keep me company, and as it happens I settled upon a GameCube (mostly because of Zelda). My then boyfriend bought me one for Christmas, and when we moved in together shortly after he tried to persuade me that we *needed* a PS3. Well, truth be told, I didn’t believe we did. A certain amount of persistence later, my fiancé (as he was by then) pulled up a trailer on his laptop for a new IP that was only be available on PlayStation, and that he believed I would enjoy. Well, I am guessing you know which game trailer he showed me… And that tipped the balance. The following day we were proud parents to our very own PS3. It came bundled with Drake’s Fortune and another game (Resistance; which didn’t really get a look in).
As a student of, and person generally interested in, history, classics and archaeology, Uncharted fitted nicely with my interests. The crossover between fact and fiction has also always fascinated me, and Uncharted’s blend of historical curiosities and supernatural goings on hits the spot. It is interesting that when we tweet some of the ‘On This Day’ facts, where we can directly link it into the the twists in history (eg the non burial of Drake) that Uncharted narrative gives us, far more people engage with us. Generally all the Uncharted related history goes down well, but the twisted history is the most popular.
Anyway.
We’ll kick off the “7 7s of Uncharted” in an hour, but we will be getting started on Twitter as well, so follow along. We are @AllUNCHARTED.
Super mega thanks to Tom Goulden (@boomerangmouth) for the special banners and avatars. And thanks to David Plugge (@MythologyGamer) for the image above.