Characterization - How?

[Mr.Squishy]

I'm bored, the thread is search bar'd (up to page 4 at least) and I have something I wanna talk about.
I always hear how people are going on about how some games have excellent characterization but bad story or vica versa. Or I hear about how a game has awesome graphics, but really bad characterization. Space marine games as I like to call them are often of the latter sort, with crysis springing to mind (or so i heard).

But what I don't hear a lot about is HOW to characterize well and as such make your game deeper and more rewarding. Of course, being a (amateur)writer myself, I try my best to understand how, but it's far from easy.

So tell me - how would YOU characterize the protagonist of either your own game or a preexisting one? (related) how could characterization in existing games be improved or have been better when released? Why are good characters (like snake for example) good?

Please, discuss and have FUN ^^ you know, what we used to have before gaming started to feel like a second job. /yahtzee

 

[Batfred]

A task/ mission that actually matters to people out here in the real world. At it's most simple, rescuing a damsel in distress to something like freeing the world as we know it. That's why you can emote with JPRG characters (leads anyway).

Know one cares about some guy that wants to shoot bitches and ride some stolen car around town really fast. Don't get me wrong, you may have fun doing it, but it doesn't make you care about the character.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

This thread failed a bit..but I'll try and see if I can get it running with a bit 'o the 'ol ultraviolence discussion.

Empathy, empathy is the number one thing, especially if you're taking that character through the whole game.

If you can't at least understand why the character is doing whatever they are doing or care, then the characterization was a complete failure.

Of course, make the character a whiny little annoyance in a shallow attempt to provoke empathy, then you've got Wangst.

I very much see what you mean, but what do you mean is the best way to create empathy? or even a mediocre/decent way? As you said yourself, wangst is a horrible way (or..well, that was more implied) to create empathy for a character, but if the angst is justified, is there a chance that would create a stronger emotional connection to the character?

A task/ mission that actually matters to people out here in the real world. At it's most simple, rescuing a damsel in distress to something like freeing the world as we know it. That's why you can emote with JPRG characters (leads anyway).

Know one cares about some guy that wants to shoot bitches and ride some stolen car around town really fast. Don't get me wrong, you may have fun doing it, but it doesn't make you care about the character.

Again, I see what you mean, but if I had a quarter for anyone who complained about/used the whole "saving-the-world" plot, I would have enough money to make Bill Gates look like a hobo. Of course, you can see it as a classic or a cliche, but I haven't detected any other plots in games the last...i dunno..5 years? I recently played Planescape Torment, and even though it suffers from a couple of the problems that usually haunt bioware/black isle games, story and such is top-notch, and I actually sympathized with The Nameless One in his quest to find out who he was. It was refreshing to say the least, but I hope we can find more fairly original plots and/or motivations, instead of all ripping off Planescape Torment. I have also played FF VI, VII and VIII, and I admit those are good, even though they all basically have "stop the bad guy from destorying the world" as a plot. Sorry, i don't remember where i was going with this...anywho, what would you suggest as a good task/mission/motivation for the heroes?

 

[Distazo]

Its a very interesting question. Well, some good movies are able to do it. I don't believe that gaming should ever turn into the experience of a movie, but you can steal some plot ideas to get a reaction out of your audience/player. As a beginning writer you would probably know much more about plot building and character deveolopment than I do.

 

[Batfred]

A task/ mission that actually matters to people out here in the real world. At it's most simple, rescuing a damsel in distress to something like freeing the world as we know it. That's why you can emote with JPRG characters (leads anyway).

Know one cares about some guy that wants to shoot bitches and ride some stolen car around town really fast. Don't get me wrong, you may have fun doing it, but it doesn't make you care about the character.

Again, I see what you mean, but if I had a quarter for anyone who complained about/used the whole "saving-the-world" plot, I would have enough money to make Bill Gates look like a hobo. Of course, you can see it as a classic or a cliche, but I haven't detected any other plots in games the last...i dunno..5 years? I recently played Planescape Torment, and even though it suffers from a couple of the problems that usually haunt bioware/black isle games, story and such is top-notch, and I actually sympathized with The Nameless One in his quest to find out who he was. It was refreshing to say the least, but I hope we can find more fairly original plots and/or motivations, instead of all ripping off Planescape Torment. I have also played FF VI, VII and VIII, and I admit those are good, even though they all basically have "stop the bad guy from destorying the world" as a plot. Sorry, i don't remember where i was going with this...anywho, what would you suggest as a good task/mission/motivation for the heroes?

All fair points, however I was citing an example. The Damsel in distress is another that has been done to death, but with Ico, it was done in such a different way, that it suddenly mattered and became new and interesting again.

Resident Evil had a good concept. Yes, you always play a character that this is trying to stop the evil in a loclaised environment, but really you were just trying to get out alive. If you happened to kill shit too,then that was a bonus.
Take that to the Silent Hill extreme where you actively avoided combat and ran like a screaming little girl every time the surround sound went white-noisey and you have fear (always a grabber) and self-preservation without the usual dakka dakka. With both however, the direction and voice acting killed any characterisation though. How would we have felt about them if they were well acted and believable? Suddenly we may have had the great characterisation that we have been looking for. The motivations were certainly there.

 

[Twilight_guy]

How would I characterize someone? Have a ginat flashing sign that says "Feel sorry for this guy!" or "This guy is a jerk!" or "This guy is a dick!".

Actually, I think the best way to characterize someone is to watch them go about there business and see how they work under normal circumstances. In a video game this equates to having an extended intro in which the character goes about their humdrum life before something happens, shit hits the fan, and now you have to save the world and/or a princess.