It goes way further back than Wikipedia claims (2019). Hell, CoD: Ghosts made a huge deal about your canine companion’s interaction when they announced it, and I remember petting the dog was a meme back then (2013).
It’s on the timeline around amusing 4th wall breaking idle animations and attacking a neutral character invoking a deadly/game-ending response tropes. I’m sure there were even text based games where animals just served as a way to waste a player’s turn. The main one I remember is Black & White because it actually had some learning algorithms that trained your pet to be good or evil. Interesting game for the time.
It goes way further back than Wikipedia claims (2019). Hell, CoD: Ghosts made a huge deal about your canine companion’s interaction when they announced it, and I remember petting the dog was a meme back then (2013).
It’s on the timeline around amusing 4th wall breaking idle animations and attacking a neutral character invoking a deadly/game-ending response tropes. I’m sure there were even text based games where animals just served as a way to waste a player’s turn. The main one I remember is Black & White because it actually had some learning algorithms that trained your pet to be good or evil. Interesting game for the time.