On Silent Protagonists

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

I couldn't understand the fuss on Samus having voice, she had a voice through all the intro sequence in Super Metroid.

SR2 character voices were great. I tested a male and a female and they were great.

On silent protagonists, I agree it helps to get in the shoes of the character, but sometimes, it makes it hard to digest, for example, in CoD 4; with no backlground whatsoever of soap McTavish, it was ok to not have a voice. But in MW2, with CoD4 as the background and a voice actor, having the character silent while playing with him seemed a bit odd to me.

Back on Samus, she has been characterized for a while now, and no one complained. I haven't played Other M, but it seemed she is some sort of a twat, other way, I don't get why everyone complains about her character. Up until Prime 2, which is the last one I played, her character had great characterization.

 

[Xocrates]

That paragraph about Saints Row 2? Yeah, that's the reason I uninstalled the game and swore never to play it again. If I'm asked to create a character, I would appreciate if I have some sort of control over their actions and personality.

But that was after the bad guy killed, you know...

Obviously the protagonist wanted revenge.

That paragraph about Saints Row 2? Yeah, that's the reason I uninstalled the game and swore never to play it again. If I'm asked to create a character, I would appreciate if I have some sort of control over their actions and personality.

What? Why?

The character's actions were the reason I kept playing, despite the awful port.

Especially his reaction to every single trap in the game "Either it's a trap, or he's stupid." "Still going?" "Of course."

Both of your comments sidestep my point. I'm not terribly worried with what the character did or what its motivations were, but I felt insulted that a character I designed, to work as my in game avatar would simply disregard my intentions, and simply do whatever the game designers wanted it to do, even if it meant "tricking" me into doing it.

Had the game had a fixed protagonist, or even a selection of pre-made ones, I would be fine with it.

Though to be fair, I went into the game knowing very little about it (and had little interest to start with). The only reason I even played it was because I had gotten it for pre-ordering DoWII: Chaos Rising and was bored.

 

[mjc0961]

Hell yeah I know what scene that is. Fantastic revenge that you get on the Brotherhood.

As for Metroid Prime telling a story, maybe if it had tried to do it without causing me pain, I would have cared more. But I wasn't going to keep holding down the stupid L button to read a series of big overblown text walls that basically said "space pirates are doing bad experiments with some weird stuff and that means big scary monsters for Samus to fight." I'll have to apologize for not remembering the name of the weird stuff, it's been a while since I played that drek. But in the end I just stopped scanning all the stuff because I was sick of hurting my finger just to read something I already knew for the umpteenth time.

That paragraph about Saints Row 2? Yeah, that's the reason I uninstalled the game and swore never to play it again. If I'm asked to create a character, I would appreciate if I have some sort of control over their actions and personality.

You aren't really asked to create a character in full, just their appearance and voice. I thought the game and its advertising made it rather clear that you were always going to be a sociopath gang leader though.

 

[Feystar]

Totally OT and the link has probably been made by someone before... but seeing those two images one after the other in that article...

Yahtzee Freeman? Uncanny.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but didn't have the photos to back it up.

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

You aren't really asked to create a character in full, just their appearance and voice. I thought the game and its advertising made it rather clear that you were always going to be a sociopath gang leader though.

I concur.

 

[imnot]

You have reach?
PLEASE dont rip it to shreds!

 

[Xocrates]

You aren't really asked to create a character in full, just their appearance and voice. I thought the game and its advertising made it rather clear that you were always going to be a sociopath gang leader though.

Perhaps, but, as per my previous post, I didn't knew that going into the game.

Either way, it still feels as a rather awkward middle ground between player designed and pre-designed.

 

[jamescorck]

I do know the scene in Saint's Row 2. I won't spoil it either.

As for Samus' voice, I absolutely agree. You know who was the woman behind the screams and grunts in the Metroid Prime series? Jennifer Hale, who was Alex Roivas in Eternal Darkness and the female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 1 and 2. Why did Team Ninja not hire her!?

 

[Uber Waddles]

I'm sick of people saying that Samus not having a voice before this game made her a silent protagonist.

She talked all the freaking time in Fusion, having internal monologues in every other elevator shaft to heighten the sense of being trapped and alone on a ship with a story that sucked but was still ten times better than Other M, and the text introduction to Super Metroid, told in first person by Samus, is still one of the best I've ever seen, setting the mood for the game perfectly.

Just cause she's got a voice now doesn't mean she was silent before.

(I'm not counting the Prime games cause Sakomoto has already said they're non-canon and don't reflect the personality of Samus at all, which is BS but whatever it's his character)

^ This. Samus wasn't a silent protagonist. She hasnt been for a while.

This whole article is full of junk logic, like most of these posts. Metroid: Other M was bad because it was a bad game made by a bad developer. The team that did DOA not personify a female role correctly? No...

The "Silent Protagonist" is usually done so that the player can feel like they are contributing to the game as themselves: even if they have no direct hand in their actions. RPG's have been doing this forever, the character is built to reflect you but still sends you down the path to become the "hero of the land" or whatever cliche they're going for.

In CoD and other shooters its just not needed to make the character have a voice ingame; YOU'RE supposed to be the grunt taking orders from their commander, and its once again, supposed to shove you into the position of the character. I would like to point out though that MW2's characters were not silent protagonists; they did have dialogue. Just not much.

The idea of having a silent protagonist is to blend immersive properties into games that arent known for immersion. Or because making the character talk isnt something every game needs. The reason this didnt work out for Other M is because Nintendo handed control of this game over to a bunch of people whose staple in the industry is breast jiggling physics. Making the leap from sexy to stern, by a team known for, well, blatent sexism, is just something that would not be easy to do.

 

[Eponet]

I'm curious as to who Yahtzee would have voice Gordon Freeman in the event he begins to speak.

Totally OT and the link has probably been made by someone before... but seeing those two images one after the other in that article...

Yahtzee Freeman? Uncanny.

There's your answer

 

[MR.Spartacus]

So Gordon Freeman is like Gromit with a pry-bar fetish? It's good that he's quiet since obviously he's a sociopath.

 

[Jared]

I have to admit - I dont mind Silent protagonists myself.

I mean, Issac never needed up open his mouth, not did Gordon Freeman as mentioned - and he has become a legend for a man who has never spoken a word!

 

[carpathic]

I always thought freeman looked a bit like house too.

Kind of generically handsome.

I dunno.

I agree with the Gist here, that said, I think that when used properly, games do benefit from dialogue etc. I would much rather watch a stage play than marcel marceau

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I will say I am finding silent protagonists more and more annoying as of late. They don't do ANYTHING for me in terms of immersion, especially in story-based games where it feels like developers are copping out on having to characterize someone.

 

[Sebenko]

Both of your comments sidestep my point. I'm not terribly worried with what the character did or what its motivations were, but I felt insulted that a character I designed, to work as my in game avatar would simply disregard my intentions, and simply do whatever the game designers wanted it to do, even if it meant "tricking" me into doing it.

Had the game had a fixed protagonist, or even a selection of pre-made ones, I would be fine with it.

Though to be fair, I went into the game knowing very little about it (and had little interest to start with). The only reason I even played it was because I had gotten it for pre-ordering DoWII: Chaos Rising and was bored.

So you didn't like the game because it lacked a crappy two-way karma meter?

You're a gang leader. Good guy? Not a chance.

The game never claimed at any point that you'd make decisions.

 

[Meggiepants]

I actually wonder if Samus didn't have a voice until the very end of production. I haven't played the game, but with everyone complaining that all she does is repeat the obvious, it makes me wonder if the voice was added after the game was finished. That would explain her dialog as being completely unnecessary and repetitive.

 

[JuryNelson]

Damn, I really need to get around to playing Saint's Row 2 one of the these days.

It really is that fun.

 

[Jhales]

For some games, I don't mind having a silent protagonist. But ODST annoyed me with it. Not only did it have an awesome cast of voices, they let play as each of those characters, having their voice come out of the player. Then, after enjoying the cast of Firefly, you're thrown back into the Rookie. It's completely idiotic and jarring. Why bother saying that the Rookie is the player, but then have the player be characters with personality?
When I heard Reach would have a silent protagonist, I groaned. And then I saw that the cover doesn't even have Noble 6 on it. Why bother making the character for single player campaign if he isn't even going to be on the front cover?

 

[TimeLord]

I think they should give Gordon Freeman, Stephen Fry's voice in Ep3.

Then watch all the hardcore Valve fans go kill crazy!

 

[JuryNelson]

Both of your comments sidestep my point. I'm not terribly worried with what the character did or what its motivations were, but I felt insulted that a character I designed, to work as my in game avatar would simply disregard my intentions, and simply do whatever the game designers wanted it to do, even if it meant "tricking" me into doing it.

Had the game had a fixed protagonist, or even a selection of pre-made ones, I would be fine with it.

Though to be fair, I went into the game knowing very little about it (and had little interest to start with). The only reason I even played it was because I had gotten it for pre-ordering DoWII: Chaos Rising and was bored.

So you didn't like the game because it lacked a crappy two-way karma meter?

You're a gang leader. Good guy? Not a chance.

The game never claimed at any point that you'd make decisions.

xocrates has a point, even if the game in question only sidestepped that concern with what you're talking about.

It's like this: You can literally make your character look any way you want him to. And at any point in the game you can do pretty much whatever you want without consequence. BUT IN THE STORY MISSIONS, your actions, dialogue, personality are completely decided for you. If you go in expecting a sandbox style story, you'll be disappointed.

It's not a sandbox style story. It's a sandbox style EVERYTHING ELSE.