Poll: What makes you hate a protagonist?

[revjay]

I went with all of the above but if I had to choose just one I think it would be lame characterization/personality. If the game is going to hand me who I am I want it to be well thought out and written.

 

[fozzy360]

If you're like Tommy from "Prey" who constantly disbelieves everything that happening around him while it's happening, then you're a bad protagonist.

*Talks with his dead grandfather in a spiritual realm who teaches him all sorts of neat powers*

"I don't believe this!"

Dammit, man! You're on a living ship populated by awesome aliens and you have interesting mythical powers. Stop bitching and go save the world!

Hey, he went from living a normal life to shooting the shit out of aliens and have spiritual conversations with his grandfather in less then an hour. I think he has the right to be in denial.

Anyway, protagonists I usually hate are usually something like Vaan from FFXII. Bland personality, mediocre voice acting, ugly or annoying character model. You know, general lameness; nothing that makes you really want to be him in the first place.

Not when he dismisses his grandfather and the abilities he grants him because it wasted his time.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I'm not entirely sure what you define "lame" as, so I'll go with other. If a protagonist is an utter asshole - and I mean really obnoxious, not an entertaining asshole - and more importantly they never grow out of it, then I'll hate them by default.

Really, none of those other things bother me. Bland characters just let me project myself onto them, character design is only a bonus, I don't hold crappy dialogue against the characters themselves, and cutscene stupidity is something I've learned to tolerate.

 

[hazabaza1]

If he's just a plain and simple jerk. Exhibit A: Renegade Commander Sheperd.

 

[Nomanslander]

If he's just a plain and simple jerk. Exhibit A: Renegade Commander Sheperd.

You know, the Mass Effect series is awesome as we all know....but it's true.

Commander Shepard is the least interesting character in the game, even compared to other games.

Even on Paragon he's too goody goody for me...lol

 

[BlankZero]

I can't stand it when games force a particular characterization on your avatar. If I wanted to watch some other person go through a world and solve all the puzzles and kill all the baddies and save all the damsels, I'd watch a movie. The best games are the ones that treat the main character as an extension of the player.

I can't agree even a little bit with the person saying that Gordon Freeman and the generic Pokemon Trainer are bad main characters. A character on-screen saying things I would never say and doing things I would never do might be entertaining, but it certainly doesn't immerse me in the game experience.

That's not to say that a game can't be good (or even great) if it has a heavily characterized protagonist, since a game's core mechanics are what define whether or not that game is enjoyable on a fundamental level. But the games I've enjoyed the most (BioShock, the Zelda series, Pokemon) all have one thing in common: their main character is essentially a blank slate that you can impose your own personality onto.