Alister? Emo? Really? I actually thought "Finally, a male lead who isn't a weener like Carth or Kaiden"
Yes, thank you. These are character archetypes that go back to the foundations of literature. It's not that BioWare is writing with cliches, its that there are only so many types of personalities that writers can portray. The artistry lies, in part, in crafting unique variations on standard character types.Miki91 said:Well, actually these standard characters appear quite frequently in both video games, movies, manga, anime and so on. They are some of the classic main-characters-cliche that fill a lot of entertainment today. Sure BioWare use these over and over again, but many do! I'm sure you could find the character cliches in Harry Potter if you gave it a shot, and I'm confident almost every anime out there will include some of the classic characters that we know and love. The dark one, the happy cheery and innocent one, the careless one and the mean one. D'uh...
MarsProbe said:Xandus117 said:I agree with you on most of these except for Alistair and Garrus.
How is Garrus emo?Personally, I wouldn't even call Alistair emo.
alistair is not emo?!?
"OMG i dont wanna be the king", "to much pressure", "why dont you listen to me", "nobody understands me" always moody etc..
i hate alistair.
that's why;
i traded him with Loghain, he is evil but he is a real man.
Interestingly enough i found it the other way round. The setting was dull and generic, even more so than Faerun which is an impressive feat of writing but probably not in the way they wanted. The game featured a typical Bioware story and structure, opening segment, then a choice of 3 locations, before railroading where you had to go in its final chapters, with little side quests dotted about to mix things up a little. Maybe its because they've written the same characters so much that they were so entertaining and one of the few things along with the combat that kept me going through it. The little asides they make whilst traveling with each other were often hilarious.level250geek said:Honestly, I'll probably pick up Dragon Age because it seems to have a cool fantasy world in which to explore and some really good combat mechanics. I will not, however, expect an edge-of-your-seat narrative full of compelling characters and deep twists.
For the Ungrammatical was still characterized for me by nothing but his own Error, and therefore, on grounds of human tolerance, I maintained my rejection of personal attacks in this case as in others. But the Ungrammatical almost never achieves Correctness; it is the Correct who fall to the Ungrammatical. Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Mighty Creators: by defending myself against the Ungrammatical, I am fighting for the work of the Forum Lords. And so he [the Ungrammatical] advances on his fatal road until another force comes forth to oppose him, and in a mighty struggle hurls the forum-stormer back to 4chan. -- My StruggleSHREW: Why, because you're to stupid to comprehend the idea of north?
Thank you. I was going to point that out.Shamus Young said:Yes, I realized I omitted Kaiden after I'd submitted the article. He was more Emo than Garrius.
I never suggested they were.high_castle said:BioWare definitely uses archetypes, but their hardly carbon copies of each other.
I feel I should point out that Bioware didn't make Kotor 2.Bayushi_Kouya said:I also feel obligated to point out that there are many characters not mentioned in this article that do not have clear mirrors in other BW games. The Disciple and the tech spec from KOTOR2 leap to mind, as does Juhani from KOTOR1.
He used Kotor 2 and NWN 2 as examples of games that were built upon the same world and events as a Bioware game but by a different writing staff, thus with much different results. Writing in Bioware games does tend to be rather samey, particularly in terms of the cast.TheAmazingTGIF said:I feel like it is unfair to call Bioware on using archetypes and then citing examples from games they did not make (KotOR 2). While they might have started the universe they had no bearing on it.