Tom Turkey should've been a playable character instead of a caged decoration.

amcevil wrote:
I think it's pretty much a given at this point that everyone would prefer it if all characters were playable, that seems to be the consensus around here anyway. Though, it's highly unlikely that EA will be doing that.

Which leads to this question:

Has there ever been a character that was initially released as an NPC and then later gained tasks? (I can't think of any at all)

Not an NPC, but several characters have gained new tasks from their initial ones. So it's not like it can't be coded in for a NPC to be playable.

And I don't think every character should be playable, but some of the NPC's we have should have been playable. Such as Santas Little Helper, Capital City Goofball, King Snorky, Egg Council Guy.