Quit It, Gaming Edition

[T'Generalissimo]

Blanky McEveryman: Savior of Worlds.

The blankity-blank protaganist works best in games where the main focus of attention is on something else much more interesting. Bioshock, for example, is a game that I can't imagine would be much improved by the addition of a protaganist personality, because it would detract from the focus on Rapture. Plus, I can't imagine any personality that wouldn't respond to the entire experience with something along the lines of "Aaaargh, this is so fucking creepy!"

This, I think, was the problem at the heart of the Metroid: Other M brouhaha. The problem wasn't that they changed (or ruined, depending on your opinion) Samus' personality but rather that they added one where there really hadn't been one before and changed the focus from the enivronment to the protaganist. Of course, it didn't help that a lot of people didn't actually like the new personality, but that's a whole 'nother discussion and one I'm really not interested in getting into.

I certainly don't disagree with you though, there are definetly games that would have greatly benefited by giving the player character something to do other than just defeat all the challenges that appear in front of them.

 

[ShenCS]

Seriously though, Americans? You guys were NEVER the underdogs in the cold war. The RUSSIANS were the plucky underdogs fighting against a power that outclassed them in almost every single way through sheer force of will. Yeah they scared the pants off of you, but hell if they HAD attacked you? Their economy would have collapsed and their union would have crumbled. They could never win the Cold War while you guys were sitting happy making treaties and friends to constantly stack the odds in your favour. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro-Russian or anti-America, but it's really, REALLY weird how often America try to make out like they were the ones who were in greatest peril. The USSR stood against the US on the personality of their leaders alone. And massive amounts of paranoia.

Also, the Master Chief/Cortana dynamic is, I'm fairly sure, supposed to be more motherly than anything else. She was based on the brain of the woman who raised him or something. I'm not entirely familiar with the SPARTANs' backstory; the Rookie from ODST was much more interesting.

As for prophecies, if you like them getting subverted to hell and back, go play Tales of Symphonia. Of course I've ruined a plot twist but go on anyway. It's damn satisfying.

 

[Woodsey]

"Case in point: Nathan Drake is the most innately-hateful protagonist since Leisure Suit Larry. The second Leisure Suit Larry. Every time he opens his mouth, I want to kick his teeth down his throat."

You got DANE COOK from Nathan Drake? Really?

Dane Cook's just an obnoxious prick, Drake actually comes across as someone whose aware when he says something and it falls flat on its face.

 

[Korne]

Fun read... I agreed with some stuff, and disagreed with others. Here are some thoughts.

The Hail Mary thing is very true, and can actually hurt just as much if the role is switched (the male character in your ear), even if not many games use it today.

I think Nathan Drake is closer to Ryan Reynolds than Dane Cooke. Drake is a wise cracker that comes off as an everyman wisecracking asshole rather than a look-at-me, 'I'm better than you' asshole. As long as the character is fairly rare, he will continue to be endearing, but as soon as half of all major characters are like him (which may have started last year), it will get old (sort of like Chevy Chase).

You brought up Cole as a young angry man, and I kind of think that was a poor example for the topic. You can kinda see why Cole is so angry according to the story, but the reason he is angry in the game has nothing to do with the developers wanting to connect to the fanbase... it has to do with the KARMA SYSTEM. Hell, even Shepard of Mass Effect has this problem if you go through the bad actions. I'm surprised you didn't bring up Karma Systems as a bad way to pad a game and bring the illusion of choice. If there is a trend in todays games that I want to see fazed out, it would be the karma system.

Totally agree with the locked door minigames... but I do think Fallout 3 handled it in a pretty awesome way.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

If games stopped doing the following things, MovieBob would be very, very happy.

See this, Bob?

I'm not sure why you picked Infamous as an example at the end. That guy seemed like he had pretty good reasons to be angry and distrustful: He got framed for blowing up the city, three different super-powered secret organizations wanted him dead, and the various covert government agencies wanted to use him in their internal political struggle. He certainly didn't seem like he was just being angry and waving a cause around while ignoring reality to me.

This is my point exactly. I tried thinking about Cole, and how he was just an angry you man, mad at the world...but he really isn't. Before the explosion and quarantine, he had a normal life as a parcel runner, had hobbies, and even had a girlfriend. Then everything goes to hell, so he gets mad. But he is still able to work with people, and there's plenty of justification in his story for the anger he feels. Another point is that his anger is directed. He knows who's responsible, and he is mad at them, not the world. I think he get's mad at fate, though, but I don't think that counts.

He even works together with the police, tries to re-establish ties with his estranged friends and helps innocent bystanders in the hero path, which is the one that always seemed to me to be the more coherent of the two.

 

[Fensfield]

Mostly I agree but..

That destiny complaint's kinda meh. Frankly, half the time, I wish they'd pull away from the 'screw destiny' plot - /that's/ the overdone one. Yes, a clever subversion - ala the mentioned Lord of the Rings one - is always great. But.. destiny's a blunt instrument for many works. It's not always exactly true - that actually seems pretty rare - but it's very often inexplicably easy to just ignore it.

'Course my favourite games tend to make good use of it - Suikoden II, for instance, whose entire story revolves around fate bending artefacts and the repercussions for their users - especially when said artefacts have an agenda. Soul Eater, for instance, routinely screws around with destiny to make wars and thus get thousands of souls to eat, starting with its bearers loved ones. But.. well.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I dunno about Nathan Drake. I found him to be one of the best characters I've seen in games in a while. Otherwise, I mostly agree, except if one of the "Blank Slate" characters you're talking about is Gordon Freeman, because there's some really interesting stuff going on with that character, it just requires a bit of imagination from the player.

 

[MasterSplinter]

Bob, it's about time we talk.
It has become evident to everyone that you can't make an article/video/review or whatever without using the expression "in and of itself"
It's ok, you can get better, but first you have to admit you have a problem.

 

[MajoraPersona]

You know, for a game where there isn't any steam-based technology, BioShock sure gets compared to Steam-Punk games a lot. It's pretty weird, to be honest.

And that annoying minigame was apparently a hold-over from when the turrets were semi-organic or something.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I could not agree more. If something isn't original or unusual, it gets a big sigh from me of late.

Nathan Drake is actually bearable if you change the language to Polish or French.

 

[MB202]

So you don't like blank slate characters? Is that why you liked Metroid: Other M? Because you actually got a "official" personality for Samus, even though her personality is that of an obsessive yet submissive woman, over-flamorizing a man who let her nearly get cooked to death and literally shot her in the back?

If that's not the case, then sorry, but it WOULD help explain why you actually defended that game. You know, aside from using it as another opportunity to call out the "trolls", though who exactly these "trolls" you're referring to are, I haven't the foggiest idea.

I do agree with you on the Russians thing, though. Seriously, SPACE Russians? We've really gone THAT far?!

 

[New Troll]

Regarding Blanky McEveryman: Savior of Worlds. I have a feeling a lot of the public would have the opposite issue. For most, it's harder for them to wrap themself around someone else, easier to just pretend it's them. Actually wanted to say it's almost 'acting' you're asking for everyone to be able to do, but maybe they're already acting out since they're changing themself to be the protagonist. I do agree with you though. I like a character with story, though I generally prefer a story I can relate to. And there lies the issue. What makes a story everyone can comprehend? So the more basic, the better. Meh.

p.s. the Piano Man rocks! Always displayed his LPs right next right next to my Billy Idols.

 

[eels05]

Half-aside, but thank you for bringing in Angry Young Man to the discussion - it's one of my favourite songs right now precisely because it completely skewers the entire concept of an "angry young man" - he's really not that popular and he won't really be successful, it's the whole point of the song.

I've quoted it repeatedly in the past to get out of political discussions I don't want to get dragged down in. I once believed in causes too.

Congrats on copping out of your responsibilities to the world, but it's not actually a wise or pragmatic thing to do. It's just spineless apathy and social programming. The world is going to hell and people like you sit on the sidelines and smirk because you're trying to reinvent your moral cowardice as a virtue.

Bob comments that he's confused that something that was written in the 1970's still resonantes with character archetypes today- but it actually makes perfect sense. American and more broadly western culture has been dealing with the collapse and failure of that era ever since it's end, and bob and you exress a contempt for the 'angry young man' which originally springs from the self loathing and rationalisation that baby boomers in that era used to get past their own failures.

Ever since then, the idea of standing up and fighting for a cause has been heavily marginalised, and the result is that the world is slowly but surely going down the drain. Occasionally people notice that it's happening- like in hurrcane katrina, and the financial collapse- but after years of guys like you copping out and beating people down for having integrity, it's very hard to take any effective action. So instead people just watch helplessly and guys like you act lik you have it all figured out, when in relity you're just inflicting a bullshit self-fulfilling prophecy on everyone around you.

Still, it beats actually doing anything, doesn't it? Muh easier to sit on your fat asses watching movies and doing rant videos on the internet.

The rest of the points were pretty good, although i'm interested in how people tend to polarise about nathan drake.

I think Bobs main point is that the Angry young Man character is being used by game developers as a lazy way of conecting with their supposed target market.Its like they've frozen the psychology of the self at that point in time when shaking your fist at the world is a natural response and now use it as a lazy go to for character design.Least thats the way I'm interpreting Bobs words.
As far as your respose to Saberstar goes maybe you need to reign in the over generalizations a bit.

 

[The Random One]

I think I'll defend using Russia as the go-to scary guys. There is no force in the world that can realistically offer a threat to America, at least not in the unsubtle 'rar I declare war on you, filthy Americans' way that international politics happen on games; but if you were to write down all countries from most to least likely to fit that role, Russia would be at the top. They don't have the means, but they're still a mean ol' superpower, and if you don't believe they at least have the want ask the Estonians [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_cyberattacks_on_Estonia]. (Alledgedly.)

The real enemy du jour is terrorists, but as much as people don't like dragging politics into this, most gamers are liberals, (and even more game makers are liberals), and American liberals see terrorists as a boogeyman invented by the conservative Republican party and don't take them seriously any more. Of course, the real best enemy would be a ficticious terrorist organization that was well developed as its own character. If you asked me, I'd make a game about a ficticious war in a ficticious modern country, but people who make and play this kind of game are drooling so hard over realism that's hard to convince them to buy this.

As for the projected character, I remember an anedocte I heard about when TV execs were going to publish a British comedy show about a bunch of losers living together. They asked who was the guy the audience was supposed to identify with, to which the makers replied, no one, you're supposed to laugh at them. From this, I put forth that the projected character is pretty much an American invention. Feel free to offer counterproof, though.

I agree with most your other points, though. The female character blabbering on the main character's ear is probably a fascet of how games don't know how to be subtle. They think they must be screaming the amazing things that are happening on the gamers' ear all the time or they will be too distracted by the shiny particle effects to figure it out on their own. Ech. And there are few things I like more than a slightly wrong prophecy.

 

[Kenji_03]

Angry Young Man

I'm curious, how many video game characters ACTUALLY fit the song "Angry Young Man" to a T? I can name a few (sadly, square is the biggest offender)

(All Final Fantasy)
Cloud Strife (FFVII)
Squall Lionheart (FFVIII)
Titus (FFX)
Vaan (FFXII)
Sion Barzahd (The bouncer)

(other close ones?)
Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)
Travis Touchdown (No more heroes)
Raiden (MGS2)
Alec Mason (Red Faction)
Alex Mercer (Prototype)
Mr. Diaz (Hybrid Heaven)
Jack Slate (Dead to Rights)
Master Cheif (Halo)
Vito Scaletta (Mafia 2)

 

[acutekat]

Can't believe you have to explain who Billy Joel is.
Also, I don't think the things you described are very big problems in video games. I believe that there should be more variation in story lines and character archetypes; however, yelling at someone to stop is not the answer, no tabula rasa characters, no Gordon Freeman, no Russians, no Red alert series, telling people you can't put a puzzle in a shooter and you strangle innovation, it shouldn't matter if bad games get made with bad mechanics, the developers will learn from it and make better games with better mechanics. About Master Chief, I liked him, and I liked Cortana, I played the games and read the books and the graphic novels and really got into the whole mythos of the halo universe and I didn't think that the Cortana Master Chief relationship was a Mother-Son relationship, more of a partnership. The prophecy bit I don't really have an opinion on and I haven't seen to many examples of the others. if it works it works, and if people are buying bad games and making them financially viable you have to take a step back and give serious thought to what is really motivating the purchase of these games. Finally, I find it ironic that you put the angry young man bit in there, because if you look at the way you wrote the article someone could say you were acting a bit like an angry young man.

 

[VanillaBean]

Great article agree with every point minus the glow off of melee weapons. Sure it can be annoying but when done right (see Kingdom Hearts) it really does look great, unfurtently the good use of this in games is a minority.

Also loved Uncharted 2, but hated Nathan Drake. Seriously one of the biggest tools in gaming history, he's the only reason I refuse to replay Uncharted 2.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Damn you, moviebob! I now have "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" stuck in my head now. "Brender and Eddie were both goin steady in the summer of 75..." Good song, though. I have to wonder if I'm that angry young man sometimes. I wish I wasn't.

 

[NeoShinGundam]

Hey man, show some RESPECT for the Joel!! He also gave us Only the Good Die Young.

 

[Defense]

I don't actually mind Blanky McEveryman in Dragon Quest games. The addition of a voiced protagonist wouldn't really add much to the game in my opinion, and they already have really interesting histories. Not only that, but Dragon Quest manages to add a lot of charm and pokes fun at the mute protagonist sometimes.

Angry Young Man

I'm curious, how many video game characters ACTUALLY fit the song "Angry Young Man" to a T? I can name a few (sadly, square is the biggest offender)

(All Final Fantasy)
Cloud Strife (FFVII)
Squall Lionheart (FFVIII)
Titus (FFX)
Vaan (FFXII)

There's a difference between 'angry' and 'emo', and even then only Squall fits the emo role on that list, for no good reason at least.