Poll: Who is the Player Character, exactly (in linear, single player games)?

[Smertnik]

I never really got the appeal of projecting yourself onto the game character. Playing a video game is the same as reading a book or watching a movie for me - someone thought up a story and I get to experience it. Why would I want to put myself in?
This is probably also the reason why I can't stand blank slates.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

I am the character.
Their struggles are my own.
Their victories are my own.
Their failures are my own.

...well at least I'd like it to be most of the time.

As others have said, it depends on the game. It's sort of natural for me to project myself onto my PC's, but the game itself has to 'meet me halfway' so to say.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I felt like I was Adam.
Spec Ops: The Line, I felt like I was Walker.
The Walking Dead, I felt like I was Lee.

^And these are games with 'fixed' protagonists that we cannot alter. I still feel a strong connection with them all, enough to consider myself truly in their shoes.

Then there's several RPG's that let you create your own character. I also tend to see them as an extension of myself, even if I create some sort of otherworldly non-human character. It's odd though.

I never really saw 'myself' as Shepard in Mass Effect. No matter what, even though I was projecting myself onto him and would do things 'my way' if it really were me, I can't say I felt like I was Shepard. I always felt more like, I was controlling someone else.

Same thing with Dragon Age, I felt like I was one with my Dwarf commoner in Origins, and felt nothing of the sort for Hawke. (Why is it that I feel like I'm Adam, Walker, and Lee, and not Shepard or Hawke? Perhaps it's just something exclusive to Bioware.)

Then there's other games with characters I cannot comprehend forming a personal bond with. Such as every single person in Gears of War. No matter what, as much fun as the game gets, my body, heart, mind, and soul find it impossible to project onto anyone in the Gears series. I also can't with Kratos in GoW or Dante in DMC.

So I guess the game needs to do SOMETHING to draw me into it enough. Enough to consider myself truly in the shoes of another person. Some games do it, some just don't.

 

[chad_quixote]

A lot of it depends on the game, but since I use games to escape the monotony of my current life - I like to allows myself to imagine this is me.
I remember in spec ops the line, feeling bitter and burnt out towards the end, and making some of the hard decisions - I began to wonder, am I playing a game,and would I make these same decisions?

 

[alexwbyrd]

I picked option number one because to me, immersion is important for enjoying a game. Even in games that don't have character creation and customization features, I still like to project myself completely into the protagonist. For instance, even playing the Witcher games, I imagine myself as Geralt and even think (if only briefly) about how he grew up, and all the significant events that occurred in his life that led to the point in the game. In that instance it's very easy to do cause I read some of the Witcher stories myself.

 

[elvor0]

Depends on the game really. In a game with a predefined character I prefer to see them as part of the story of which I am experiencing, whereas in an RPG where you make the character from scratch (Mass Effect being a sort of anomaly here, given Shepard is sort of his own character, with the benefit of being able to choose how he is.), I prefer to project on him, and act as if I was in that world, leading to me choosing my actions based on how I would act in a given scenario.

The problem I have with blank slates however, is they never really feel part of the world, we just don't have the technology for proper insertion of the character, so if they don't have voice acting it just feels really off putting. I remember in Kingdoms of Alamur, you had to give a rousing speech to the troops, but all you got where reactions from the crowd and your character was mute, so it lost the effect completely. This is why I like Shepard from Mass Effect, he is his own character, and the options are just facets of his personality, so when he gives his speech when you take over the Normandy in the first game, it actually feels rousing as opposed to a dead scene, because he does actually speak. You still get to project on to him and make decisions as to his personality but he feels organic and actually part of the world.

I picked option number one because to me, immersion is important for enjoying a game. Even in games that don't have character creation and customization features, I still like to project myself completely into the protagonist. For instance, even playing the Witcher games, I imagine myself as Geralt and even think (if only briefly) about how he grew up, and all the significant events that occurred in his life that led to the point in the game. In that instance it's very easy to do cause I read some of the Witcher stories myself.

How are the books by the way, I was thinking of reading them, having thoroughly enjoyed The Witcher games, but I've only found one of them to be published in English, which is a bit of a shame, as I'd really like to explore the world a bit more before the third game comes out.

 

[Flames66]

Usually, my character in any game I play is a digital representation of myself. I occasionally play as a different character and make an interesting story, but I prefer to play as myself.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I like to put myself in their shoes, sometimes it's hard as a lass to do that though, but I try.

 

[hermes]

It really depends. One of the options when designing a game is that the camera helps reinforce one of those perspectives. For example:

- In first person, I am the character. No matter the name they refer to, I am meant to be the doom guy, the dragonborn, Gordon Freeman or Paul Jackson in Call of Duty 4.
- In third person, I am not the character, but I am helping direct their actions and the world around him, while I accompany him during the quest. For example, Uncharted, Deus Ex or Spec Ops.
- In a far away camera, I am not even close to the character, I am the one directing him/them. I am the commander. Examples include XCom, Dragon Age Origins and Starcraft.

So, there are no "right" or "wrong" ways to perceive yourself in relation to the character, as long as the game is consistent with its intend, all of them are valid...

 

[skywolfblue]

The character is a character in their own right. I am not them, I merely play them.

^ That.

That's part of the reason I don't like silent protagonists. They feel hollow. I like to hear that the character actually has hopes and dreams and watch them react like a real person, not a nebulous persona that I'm suppose to imagine.

 

[Twilight_guy]

The term 'player character' refers to the character/model in the game. The emotional and personal context of that can be debated but the term does refer to the character that is being controlled.

 

[Kyber]

In RPGs i play myself and roleplay.

 

[bulbasaur765]

It depends on the game; unless the character already has an established back-story or personality, I'm see myself as the player character.

 

[Starik20X6]

Depends on the game and how you play that game. In an RPG where you create a character from scratch you have the choice of recreating yourself or creating an entirely new character to inhabit. In something like Super Mario, Mario himself is absolutely his own character and not the player at all, but the player is guiding him.

 

[LazarusLongNL]

I am going to basicly repeat the common awnser.

I play as closely to my own character when i am playing ANY game that allows that, this does not only include RPG's, imagine ARMA 2(3!), DayZ games that offer free form play like Elite. Even management/building sims such as Dungeon keeper, Evil Genius.

I only feel i am not the character when its a game on rails, like most people. For instance with Batman, even with the freedom, your pretty much pretending to be Batman.

 

[Torrasque]

I consider myself to either be the character, or be like the puppeteer if you've ever watched Ghost in the Shell.
If I am the character, I try to make all decisions that reflect my own personal opinions and such.
If I am the puppeteer, I control the actions and manipulate the thoughts and decisions of the character, but am separate from the character entirely, I can leave their body at any time. Unlike the puppeteer though, I still sometimes care about what happens with the character and their decisions. I don't just use them as a tool and don't give a damn what they think or do.

Edit: most of the time when I am the puppeteer, is when it is a second play-through, and/or I can see the whole character, and/or the character has a personality of their own.

 

[TiloXofXTanto]

I view it in quite a variable way.

If the character has a defined in-game personality, I see them as a "person" in and of themselves. I am but a force, a hand of fate or instinct guiding their finer decisions.

If the character is a blank slate, the definition of Tabula Rasa, then I view the character as an avatar of myself, a mask which I may assume, a medium used to interact with a world of which I am not a part. They are but a hand, and I am the man, the mind, which controls its actions, however I am not them, for they are not person, but persona.

If they are betwixt those two extremes, then I become their conscience or Id or both, depending on my mood.

Never is the character merely its own entity to me, for then I would be watching a movie, play, or the like. If I am in control and I consider them 100% separate from my personality, then I am not them, they are me and their actions are their own, I merely facilitate their wishes.

 

[JLML]

The Player Character is one of the many voices residing in my head taking a (virtual) physical form, interacting with the (virtual) environment.

 

[Snatcher]

In RPG's I'm the one who saves the world!!! Even though nobody in-game seems to really acknowledge that (Yes, I'm looking at you Skyrim).