I think I found the problem with game protagonists

[Vault101]

this ocured to be while thinking....

theres always a debate going on as to which peopel prefer..talkative or silent?

my answer is BOTH are fine depending on what your going for

I think the real problem is when they try and have it in between, I think eather make your charachter actually interesting OR give the player some actual options for projecting onto them

I think this generally happens with the whole "white brown haird male" protagonist thing, like Mason from red faction gurrella, I dont hate him he's a nice guy but hes so horribly bland, why is he like that? do you think the intention was to have a degree of "projection"? or just to give him that mass apeal

 

[hazabaza1]

I like the whole Fallout/Persona/Dragon Age, etc style. Give your character no voice, but provide a lot of dialogue options.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

When a protagonist is silent, I think it gives the player more room to actually be the character, to speak for them. The downside is, it then gives the character less, well...character.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

When a protagonist is silent, I think it gives the player more room to actually be the character, to speak for them. The downside is, it then gives the character less, well...character.

On the contrary, I think it allows the player to give the character a part of their own... um, character that's been tailor-made for the way the player wants to play the game.

 

[Crimson Butterfly]

I think it all comes down to they style of game.

When the player has no dialogue options and is mostly a spectator to all interactions there's a strong case to give your protagonist a voice since the player has a hard time projecting a personality in these instances. It has to be done well though and fit with the actions of the character in-game.

Games where you have that interaction, such as ME & DA for example, it's often better to make them silent in my opinion. You have so much choice in how you want your character to act it would just break the experience if I was creating an "evil" protagonist and they spoke and squeed through cutscenes like a pubescent girl... sort of. I'm sure you can see where I'm going.

There are always exceptions to the rule but I can't think of one right now. Not long awake!

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

On the contrary, I think it allows the player to give the character a part of their own... um, character that's been tailor-made for the way the player wants to play the game.

Hmm I suppose it does. Now that I think about it, I actually quite like protagonists who either don't speak at all, or speak AFTER I've made a choice for them.

 

[Henkie36]

Well, the characters I was relating the most to was Niko Bellic, a protagonist with lots of personality, history, backstory and so forth. They tried to pull the ''silent protaganist'' with GTA III, and I found him completeley unrelatable. Even one GTA later, Tommy Vercetti is still one of my favorite protaganists.

I liked Soap from CoD 4 alot more in MW2 because then, he had a face. I liked Alex Mason more then any of the other playable characters from the CoD franchise.

So yeah, I prefer the ''designers determine for you what the character is like'' kind of way, because, well, gamecharacters tend to be bland in and of themselves, and giving him/her no voice or personality only makes this problem worse.

 

[flashpointXJ]

i prefer the fallout, elder scrolls and dragon age origins take on characters. I like to ability to put myself more into the characters. If the main character is going to have dialogue in a game i'd like to be something that actually has some meaning.

 

[StriderShinryu]

this ocured to be while thinking....

theres always a debate going on as to which peopel prefer..talkative or silent?

my answer is BOTH are fine depending on what your going for

I think the real problem is when they try and have it in between, I think eather make your charachter actually interesting OR give the player some actual options for projecting onto them

I think this generally happens with the whole "white brown haird male" protagonist thing, like Mason from red faction gurrella, I dont hate him he's a nice guy but hes so horribly bland, why is he like that? do you think the intention was to have a degree of "projection"? or just to give him that mass apeal

I have to agree. The worst type of protagonist is the one where they are very clearly defined. from their appearance to their personality to the way others in the game deal with them, and yet they are left "mute" just to give the player some feeling that they "are" the character. It just doesn't work.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I think this generally happens with the whole "white brown haird male" protagonist thing, like Mason from red faction gurrella, I dont hate him he's a nice guy but hes so horribly bland, why is he like that? do you think the intention was to have a degree of "projection"? or just to give him that mass apeal

The usual "white 30's male" is mostly the developers projecting their wishes, and then a writer is asked to lay a persona on top of it.

I think the main problem with Red Faction Guerrilla is they didn't have any good writers (or not enough time, hard to tell), so it's not just the characters that are bland, the whole world feels empty and devoid of any sort of emotion.

This is usually a problem with games, what are really the intended features and what are just plain fails.

 

[Smertnik]

I hate silent protagonists. I don't want to project myself onto my characters, I know I'm not an invincible superhero. I want to experience a story. And having a strong protagonist is pretty much a must for a good story.

 

[Arjen Ab]

That kind of depends imo of the type of person. Squall for example while most don't like ff8 was a rather defined character while not talking. The thinking was he didn't like to talk at all. He was an over thinker so every word he said was thought about 3 million times before he said anything.
But doing that well is rather hard so most game-developers should consider are we watching the movie of a person while defining his actions or are we believing we are doing it ourselves.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

When a protagonist is silent, I think it gives the player more room to actually be the character, to speak for them. The downside is, it then gives the character less, well...character.

that makes sense. the character isnt vocalising their opinions like 'we should kill them all' or 'for science' which could conflict with the players, but really its just a person standing in a room holding a weapon and probably jumping on a table because they can contribute or interact in any way.
Dragon Age/Mass Effect/Fallout 3/NV did it quite well by having multiple options for each personality (especially in the Fallout games, which have character-defining perks (Black Widow for example) which add more.

 

[Vault101]

I think this generally happens with the whole "white brown haird male" protagonist thing, like Mason from red faction gurrella, I dont hate him he's a nice guy but hes so horribly bland, why is he like that? do you think the intention was to have a degree of "projection"? or just to give him that mass apeal

The usual "white 30's male" is mostly the developers projecting their wishes, and then a writer is asked to lay a persona on top of it.

I think the main problem with Red Faction Guerrilla is they didn't have any good writers (or not enough time, hard to tell), so it's not just the characters that are bland, the whole world feels empty and devoid of any sort of emotion.

This is usually a problem with games, what are really the intended features and what are just plain fails.

I havnt finished red faction G yet but I was think it could totally work having the option to be female like in Saints row 2...that would be awsome

also I dont know if its a glitch but why the hell does one of the main charachters have different hair colur in game to the cutscenes? I mean what the hell kind of an oversight is that?

as for the world...I mean sure the set up is a little cliche (in the opening cutscene..aside form omg! its that guy who does every voice in New vegas! soon as I found old baldy was Masons brother I was like "ok....I'll give him 5 minutes to live)

and then right after you find the nano-forge theres that scene where mabye they are suposed to be establishign some kind of "romance.." I literally said outloud "oh for chirsts sake!" still it showed mason to have a little more charachter, though to be fair I dont think its suposed to go anywhere...

I DID however love that part where you first enter the badlands (to get the nono forge) I found it very creepy and rather unexpected...especially the voice in your head "you will burn for every iota of damage..parker"...ohhh it sends shivers down your spine

 

[Vault101]

I hate silent protagonists. I don't want to project myself onto my characters, I know I'm not an invincible superhero. I want to experience a story. And having a strong protagonist is pretty much a must for a good story.

I also agree....Im about as far from a white 30's male as you can get (except for the white part)

 

[Valagetti]

Well it depends doesn't it on the game player. Yes I prefer the extremes, but the character has to be likeable, unlike Cole Phelpes. But Gordan Freemon is likeable because of his actions. As in having a 'full blown' character is hard to pull off and even harder with moral choice mechanics, inFamous 2 takes the crown for that. Having Moral choice makes the character more bland, Mass Effect 2 pulled it off alright, but I still didn't like MY Commander Shepard.
I say take a chance and make your game protaganist a talkie.

 

[RuralGamer]

I like the whole Fallout/Persona/Dragon Age, etc style. Give your character no voice, but provide a lot of dialogue options.

I agree; having a voiced character is only so useful as how much it adds to the game; if it restricts your options, then no; give me the opportunity to choose from a dozen 'silent' options. I think Mass Effect is the only game with a voiced character I think has really worked and even then, its not because of the voice actors (Jennifer Hale is OK, but the male Shepard has to slow down and cut the creepy factor at times); for me, its probably the way the game works that makes it appropriate. But other than ME, no, give me a silent protagonist; whether or not TOR works is yet to be seen, but I doubt it'll have the same choice as KOTOR.

When a protagonist is silent, I think it gives the player more room to actually be the character, to speak for them. The downside is, it then gives the character less, well...character.

Agree with this as well. Really wish they'd kept the silent protagonists in CoD; I just don't feel it worked in BlOps, especially when Mason states the obvious.

 

[ABLb0y]

I prefer voiced characters. My favourite protaganist is Rubi Malone from WET, and that's because she's a bad-ass, ball-busting *****. She wouldn't be like that if she didn't have a voice, she'd just be a woman who occasionally stabs guys in the junk.

 

[Cheesus333]

I like the whole Fallout/Persona/Dragon Age, etc style. Give your character no voice, but provide a lot of dialogue options.

I like this too, but the problem is that it's difficult to predict their tone when they say it which, of course, can have wildly different effects.

For example, "No problem, glad I could help" could be sincere and enthusiastic, or bitter and resigned, or even sarcastic and mocking. And yet all of those would be represented the same textually.

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

Well, FFX did alright with this. The only problem was that your character's name (Default at Tidus) was never pronounced. That is because that was the only customisable character name. I didn't really notice this till a boss fight @ Gagazet where Seymour kept on saying "Son of Jecht.... Son of Jecht..." I see what you did there Enix XD