Male Protagonists

[Seneschal]

Anyway, nice to hear FSG:TG is progressing. Piloting a faulty ship and making it part of the gameplay sounds like a good way to introduce a sense of urgency. Only, the freezing thing isn't believable without some further elaboration - space isn't really cold (despite what The Phantom Menace tells you). If the ship had a faulty cooling system, with the coolant unable to stop circulating, you would have to run the engine to avoid it being frozen. But, if it's actually more intuitive for the average player to have space be an Antarctica-like environment where ships get hypothermia, it's a valid choice.

On the contrary, space is quite cold. Otherwise comets would't form being big balls of ice and such.
Anyway it is nice to hear about FSG:TG again.

Only in terms of a background temperature, but in fact, losing heat in space is much harder than in an atmosphere. There's nothing for heat to transfer to, so it must radiate, which is slower. Now, a human on Antarctica and a human in deep space would both freeze... eventually. And a human in direct sunlight in space would do quite the opposite.

But here, we're not talking about an unprotected human but a spacecraft. The problem would be keeping it cool, since, again, it has nothing to transfer the heat to and no surrounding medium to absorb it, so it must radiate. That's why space shuttles always keep their cargo bay open in space - those are radiator panels. If space somehow flash-froze everything that leaves the atmosphere, we wouldn't have this problem.

Anyway, I think questionable thermodynamics are a-okay in videogames, I don't mind. But I kinda liked how Mass Effect had futuristic-looking, yet actually explainable technology. I may have been a little spoiled by it.

EDIT:

Ezio, he is just fucking amazing, excuse me for my vulgar language, but that guy is everything I hold dear. A man of conflict, childish glee and elegant behaviour around people. A womanizer but certainly with a respecting attidude. Crushing injustice and enjoying the company of others. I kinda regret selling that game for a profit.

Oh, I was also surprised that he named Ezio as a good character. He didn't even mention much about him in the review, but I guess he has to grow on you first. I really thought the character was well-written and believable, which was actually undermined by his ridiculous body-count. It's like the person in the cutscenes is Ezio, but the hooded figure you play is a random psycho. Maybe it was just me.

 

[pfloriani]

Manly: Will not explode if he inadvertently comes into contact with a JRPG androgyne.
Macho: Will.

 

[veloper]

worst extra punctuation
where's the interesting bit and where's the point?

 

[ultimateownage]

So, where does Gordon Freeman come in this?

 

[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.