Male Protagonists
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I'm probably the minority but I prefer option C: the unrealistic female lead.
Sure it's unfeminine to kill loads of people without remorse and rip people's arms off without breaking a sweat, but it seems refreshing in a genre dominated by aforementioned men.
And of course as the gamer we get to admire their backside for 10 hours or whatever the going length is these days [much longer in FF13's case].
Sure it's unfeminine to kill loads of people without remorse and rip people's arms off without breaking a sweat, but it seems refreshing in a genre dominated by aforementioned men.
And of course as the gamer we get to admire their backside for 10 hours or whatever the going length is these days [much longer in FF13's case].
So, is this because you're feeling insecure as a man and now you're taking it out on perfectly entertaining video game characters?
That's the only point I could see to this article.
That's the only point I could see to this article.
I like where Space Game is going, with having the engine start to freeze and all. Action/Reaction: the ultimate balancing agent. Not enough games are actually balanced (in fact, almost no games are actually balanced); designers just throw hit-points at the problem until it feels right. Things need to have consequences that have real trade-offs, so that you're making an actual choice, rather than a calculation.
It's very cold, just above absolute zero, but being a vacuum theres no convection so things in space take a long time to cool down. Keeping cold is a bigger problem in space travel than keeping hot.Yer man o said:
An excellent article! Coudln't say it better m'self. Gaming could certainly go with more manly men (or women) and less macho-men. Hell, I'd take a silent protagonist like Gordon or Nameless Black Man (would have a name aside from "rookie" really have been all that hard, Rebellion?) from the new AvP over Fenix or such.
As to Batman; all over the place. He changes so much depending on who writes him.
Macho-men are acceptable in certain settings as with Kratos - the game's very much aware of his flaws, as he's a Greek Hero and Greek Myth is very much about murder machines who are deeply flawed in oh so many ways. Hercules or Ulysses, for instance - one killed his family in a blind rage, the other's hubris got all his soldiers killed in a variety of horrible ways and made his wife wait twenty years for his return.Anchupom said:
As to Batman; all over the place. He changes so much depending on who writes him.
I am reminded of an essay by James Ernest where he compared game design to carving a statue of a horse out of a block of marble by adding clay to it.
Love the article Yahtzee. I was so disgusted by the Prince's character in Warrior Within (not to mention the dreadful voice acting and stripperiffic female characters) that I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. Loved The Two Thrones though.
Manly or Macho?
Personally, i would have to say *****. I've never had fights with mythological gods and/or creatures whilst wielding MEGA swords.
More pity me.
Personally, i would have to say *****. I've never had fights with mythological gods and/or creatures whilst wielding MEGA swords.
More pity me.
Many video games really fail to demonstrate any kind of depth in their characters, male or female. Because of the pacing in games, it's rare to see a character outside of some kind of action-oriented mindset, and so often the characterization falls to the few emotions demonstrated while operating a flame thrower. Which is honestly preferable to games that shoehorn emotional content into the dialogue where it ought not to be. It's also kind of rare to have the soulless creatures of the uncanny valley convincingly show real emotion.
macho characters have their place in games indeed, but the problem comes when they are the only characters in said game. gears of war was a classic example of this, all the characters are exactly the same with no effort to create individuals beyond the one or two issues used to define them (Dom and his wife, carmine being green).
the biggest thing which defines the difference between macho and manly characters for me is that macho characters have very little skill in anylising the deeper issues involved with their situation, they follow orders and they do it blankly. they approach any situation with bravado and testosterone and that's it.
the manly characters i have identified with in games tend to be much deeper developed and much more aware of their place in the world. John Marston is the perfect example of this, he finds himself in the middle of a number of highly political situations, initially he attempts to sidestep any political debate but when the action moves into Mexico he cannot help but form his opinions about the issues at hand and comment on them.
the biggest thing which defines the difference between macho and manly characters for me is that macho characters have very little skill in anylising the deeper issues involved with their situation, they follow orders and they do it blankly. they approach any situation with bravado and testosterone and that's it.
the manly characters i have identified with in games tend to be much deeper developed and much more aware of their place in the world. John Marston is the perfect example of this, he finds himself in the middle of a number of highly political situations, initially he attempts to sidestep any political debate but when the action moves into Mexico he cannot help but form his opinions about the issues at hand and comment on them.
... Get out.-Torchedini- said:
OT: I tend to think of the more macho guys by the way their over the top masculinity is used to block out any other kind of character flaw. Most characters that aren't 'macho' have visible flaws in character, that are usually explored in the narrative.
In most cases "Manly Man" is best in an RPG, you identify with the character and even sometimes show sympathy toward him, on the flip side... if i had been playing Duke Nukem and suddenly the scene from gladiator where he's reliving his family's death came on the screen (with duke instead of Maximus)i would have been pissed! some games are meant for rampaging senseless violence and there are times when i want to pick up a rocket launcher and go to town on some covenant bastards. but for the most part if the game is going to be story driven i would greatly prefer a "manly" character. I'm not trying to be a smart ass to yahtzee because i love every video in the Zero Punctuation library and agree that Too Human is the worst game ever... but I think Macho men definitely have their place in gaming culture, and sometimes are a blast to play as.