Poll: Silent Protaginist?

[Sven und EIN HUND]

Whatever works for the game works for the game, half life is a gleaming example.... However, I'd prefer being able to choose what my character gets to say; after all, it is my character.

 

[twcblaze]

I've always preferred to choose what my protagonist says, silent protagonists always seem to come across as pushovers to me, I mean, how are you supposed to respect a person who can't tell someone to go turn the damn lever 3 feet from them them self?

 

[twcblaze]

This is largely dependent on how well it's handled. Persona 3, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, Super Mario RPG, and Persona 4 all have terrific silent main characters, but other times silent MCs tick me off. I think the key is having a great supporting cast/dialogue options to keep things engaging.

soul nomad actually had dialogue choices, so I'd put that under the option of "choose what they say" even though you didn't exactly have a voice

 

[Danpascooch]

A purely silent protagonist is just lazy. The challenge is making a talking protagonist that is likable, it's a challenge game developers should embrace (choosing dialogue is also ok, but I would still like the protagonist to say it like it Mass Effect)

 

[internetzealot1]

Acta non Verba

 

[likalaruku]

Choose what they say AND talking. Have a variety of voice actors to choose from & then have them record the same lines of optional dialog. I always wondered why Forgotten Realms-based games let you pick a voice & only had dialog for war cries, but never for NPC interaction.

 

[Evil Tim]

No matter how much of a Half-Life fan I am, I make it a common routine of mine to take "fans of Gordon Freeman" out into dark alleyways and slam a dumpster lid on their head for several minutes. (sarcasm, not trying to flame)

A silent protagonist is a humble way of trying to avoid inflammatory, disagreeable, or immersion-breaking lines from the "player" and also letting you project yourself there better.

Immersion is when you willingly take on a role assigned to you as your own; you are the character, but the character is not you. The silent protagonist assigns no role, and therefore avoids the issue of breaking immersion by never providing any; you can't invest yourself emotionally in a brick wall. It's not a humble solution, it's a cheap one. The only reason people like it is that it beats playing as a thundering idiot [hello there, Haze] because there's nothing to dislike about the blank slate.

In Gordy's specific case there's a further problem; in the HL2 games Gordon is actively shown as mute rather than silent; while in the first game the action is structured so he can answer everything by doing something [for example, "will you help me do this?" where you answer yes by helping them do this], the second has awkward moments where Gordon is expected to speak and is treated as having not spoken. This drives a wedge between player and character rather than being immersive, since the player doesn't know why Gordon refuses to speak and it seems neither do any of the other characters. Someone is being a dick in those sequences; either Gordon is deliberately ignoring Alyx, Alyx is mocking Gordon's inability to talk, or Eli didn't bother to tell his daughter that Gordon can't answer her.

It's largely the same problem as the idiot protagonist; you don't understand why your character is doing what they're doing, in HL2 due to lack of information, whereas with the idiot protagonist it's because their actions defy logic. Either way, a well-written player character [or even an amusingly badly written one like DMC1 Dante] beats any silent one.

 

[sephiroth1991]

*Sigh* the days of the final fantasy speech bubble.
Its not exactly silent protagonist. but i prefered giving them my own voices in my head ^^

i sooooo agree
OT: I like them to have a personality, and to respond to things. Why is it when you jam a camera into someone's face they stop being able to talk

 

[rokkolpo]

depends on the game.

not talking works like a charm for mario & link.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

I always thought that it works fine until someone says "Ok! We'll go and get some coffee and donuts and you go launch a near-impossible one-man assualt on this here giant monster! Good luck!" or "Lets split up so I can get inevitably captured/killed by a few guys while you take out a warehouse of badguys and then save my stupid ass!"

I mean, why can't I say "Shut the fuck up! Who the hell put you in command?!" or chuck a hissy-fit and cause a scene?

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

Anything but silent. If the protagonist talks, it's great. If I get to choose what he says, it's perfect.

I hate standing around like a mute idiot when another character is having a conversation with me. It completely ruins the immersion. Far Cry 2, I'm looking at you.

That's why I barely feel anything when a silent protagonist dies.

Spoiler

I couldn't care less about Roach in MW2. I was sad about Ghost, because he had an actual personality. We didn't know anything about Roach, except that he's skilled in shooting people.

Note to game developers - if you want us to feel sad when someone pours gasoline on the protagonist and burns him alive, give us a reason. We don't feel sympathetic for arms.