Male Protagonists

[cauby]

Small question here Yahtzee:are you gay?This article was almost like if a girl was describing the man of her dreams:"the manly man this,the manly man that"
Ok,i'm kidding.I get what you're saying,macho men in videogames are more like neanderthals than human sapiens,but since you pointed out the Prince as an example of both a manly and macho character,what about the 2008's prince?Does he belong to a third,different categorie(douchebag)?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Wow spot on. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I hated the "bro" shooters so much and this really nailed it. Everything about the characters from looks to their speech screamed asshole. But also forced co-op games suck butt anyway.

 

[Hawkeye16]

You made a list of macho characters without ONCE mentioning Duke Nukem.

 

[Reenix]

It depends on what you define 'manly' as.

Having a muscular build - manly
Having a female companion - manly
Having a deep voice - manly
Having a closet full of skinny jeans - not manly
Having a love of skincare - not manly
Being good at Pokémon - not manly

I think I'm bang in the centre.

 

[sunpop]

I've said it a hundred times before, read the chronciles of the black company by Glen Cook and you will see the true meaning of character and story telling. Even the side people have more character than the entire cast of gears of war, except for carmine who is actually a person.

 

[The Lizard of Odd]

THANK. YOU. Thank you. Yes..thank you so very much. For writing this. Well said, very succinct, effective, appropriate...true.
Yes...
Thank you.
*bow*

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

You already talked about female characters before, but what is the terminology for female variants of manly and macho?

Sorry, the topic here is on dominantly male characters. maybe next time.

 

[Kojiro ftt]

Nothing wrong with the occassional Macho Man, especially if it fits a story. Maybe even a story of growth?...

The sad thing is I know real world macho men who don't understand the difference. And would tell you to re-attach your balls if you tried to explain it to them.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Ugh. I found this article lacking somewhat. At points I wasn't sure whether the comparison of 'manly' and 'macho' had stayed firmly within videogame world. Perhaps a greater use of videogame examples would have given me and better idea of the difference he was trying to point out. I understand he was likely commenting on these character types appearing in all fictional media and not just videogames, but I still feel the article didn't really do it for me.

However, I love to scrutinise whenever masculinity gets discussed, so perhaps I'm taking this too seriously and/or thinking about it too much.

Small question here Yahtzee:are you gay?

He's not. From what I can deduce, and because I vaguely remember him mentioning having a lady friend at some point.

 

[triplea]

You made a list of macho characters without ONCE mentioning Duke Nukem.

I think the difference is that Duke Nukem was an intentionally comical character while the likes of Marcus Fenix are intended to be taken seriously.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

So, where does Gordon Freeman come in this?

I dunno, the "Chuck Norris" category?

 

[abhoho]

"He has the greatest respect for scholars and technical experts who have mastered necessary skills that he himself lacks. He is patient with children, and respectful of the opposite sex. The manly man romances women he finds particularly intriguing, and given the appropriate mutual consents, will do her tenderly and satisfyingly right up the Edith Piaf. And she will love it."

I'm not sure how you played Nico Belic, but this is not how I played Nico.

Also Alex Mercer from prototype. In the cut scenes he comes across as a nice but damaged person, "I only kill what's necessary" Then they give us back control and I become a massive jerk, who takes women up skyscrapers to thrown them at helicopters.

 

[The Lizard of Odd]

So, where does Gordon Freeman come in this?

Silent protagonists are kind of their own thing. Seeing how all characterization is provided by the player... in reality it's whoever you want them to be. Link could be a gay forest fairy, a manly romantic hero, or a complete dick (EXCUUUUUSE ME PRINCESS). Gordon strikes me as a manly man, simply by how all the other characters act around him, but with quite a bit more nerd mixed in.
All we have to work with is their appearance, how other characters act around them, and how the original creators see them.

But the simple fact is that, in the end, the creators left it up to us to decide.

 

[ccesarano]

Examples in film:

Manly man = Bruce Willis in Die Hard (the first one)

Macho man = Arnold Schwarzbewithyou in Commando

Considering the state of modern games writing, I imagine most games writers/designers have the latter on their Top One Movies of All Time list.

 

[Captain Pancake]

You do realise that Kratos, the figure you have nerdgasmed over in previous articles, comes under macho?

On a different note, good to see that the space game is coming along.

 

[shogunblade]

I know everybody wants to know Kratos and Gordon Freeman, but what about Solid Snake?

The man balances between the two so often, it's hard to tell.

But it was an interesting read, and I enjoyed reading the differences between the two.

On a somewhat similar note: I have yet to achieve the purchase of a 360, Wii or PS3, so I grab Solid Snake because he's the only character I happen to have played all the games for (i borrowed a friends PS3 for MGS4).

I'll get with the times eventually.

 

[Yeq]

I'm sort of against the idea of the first category as a manly man. He's 'manly' in the sense that he's not a boy; that is to say, an adult. However, he's described essentially as both capable and not an emotionless twat. That makes him mature, but nothing than a woman can't or shouldn't be.

I sort of get the idea of "masculine" equalling "doing everything and helping out those in need", but I'd really emphasise the maturity aspect of that rather than its gendered perspective, because put in a stressful situation I'd damn well expect a mature woman to be able to start helping out and shit (if not necessarily, as was pointed out, start destroying everything, since odds are in our society she wouldn't be strong, or more importantly, trained enough to do anything all that effective).

 

[Billion Backs]

I kinda like what Yahtzee described as a "macho man". Emotions are fine an dandy, but completely sociopathic destruction for the sake of destruction is very liberating.

 

[VGStrife]

I know everybody wants to know Kratos and Gordon Freeman, but what about Solid Snake?

The man balances between the two so often, it's hard to tell.

But it was an interesting read, and I enjoyed reading the differences between the two.

On a somewhat similar note: I have yet to achieve the purchase of a 360, Wii or PS3, so I grab Solid Snake because he's the only character I happen to have played all the games for (i borrowed a friends PS3 for MGS4).

I'll get with the times eventually.

Clearly Manly.
(<<MGS fanboy)
Pretty sure he keeps going on about "love blooming on the battlefield" and even regrets killing some people :O
(Plus tranqing people makes it so much more fun!!)

 

[Supernova2000]

If Fun Space Game: The Game turns out to be an X universe knock-off in which all ships are hopelessly dependent on jump gates to get around and can travel at sub-light speeds which, in interplanetary terms, are best summarised as 'standing still' and having capital ships that can only pathetically 'pew pew pew' each other to death then Yahtzee will have missed the point by at least a hundred light years.