A rant on why I hate Silent Protagonists.

[amoamaremetallum]

Recently, I've been playing Fable III to death, and I do dang well enjoy it. It's a good game and (I think) it has a nice plot and story, if it does seem a little bit rushed out. But there is one thing I hate that I've been seing more and more of games lately: the silent Protagonist.

While I do admit that the Fable III hero does have a voice and speaks several times, it's just so obvious that it was done poorly. I could have a man, standing 7ft tall, monstrous weight with large buscling muscles, awesome mutton chops with a mohawk, and a suit of armor that would weigh down an elephant, but I'd sigh in embarassment when he'd open his mouth for a few seconds, because he sounds less manly than the girls in my school.

But I hated him MORE, during the Aurora level. I don't think it's a spoiler too much, but if you're worried, ignore it. You and your faithful teacher who is probably the person you appreciate most in the game, descend into this tunnel, where darkness attacks you and drives him insane. It's a good piece of writing and by far my 2nd favorite part of the game (reaver's mansion, FTW) but there are ABSURD parts on my character.

Here is a line from the level. Your master was blinded by this darkness, and weird sounds are going off.

"You can hear it too, right? I'm not Crazy! I'm not crazy!"

"..."

That's it. You're best friend is freaking out, blind, and thinks he's insane, and your character just ignores him.

There are so many other (and better) examples that I could rant on about, but I can't remember them at this point.

Does anyone else have a complete and utter hatred from the bottom of their heart for silent protagonists like I do? Discuss.

TL; DR Silent protagonists suck.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Eh, I hate cheap ass dubing of games.

~.~ Bad enough your main character doesn't even talk, except once in awhile in text, but he has barely anything to him. He doesn't even have eyes.


But what really ticks me off, is there's cutscenes of the characters talking throughout the game... but the English copy has no voiceactor's... and this is the fifth installment! They could've kept the Japanese voices... but no, now I have Silent NPC's that try to talk but no sound comes out.

 

[RatRace123]

I did find the Fable 3 example to be a bit odd, you're character definitely does have a voice and actually talks a fair bit in the beginning, but then after a certain point you just suddenly shut your gob, your given plenty of chances to talk but you remain mostly silent.

It felt like the voice acting was horribly underused, I'm not looking for a character who says something every six seconds like Spider-Man, but why did they bother having your character speak... if they don't have him freakin' speak!?

I prefer protagonists who are either completely silent or completely voiced that way the script is written around that type of character.

With Fable 3 it sorta feels like they sorta forgot that they gave the hero the ability to speak and only remembered it near the end.

 

[amoamaremetallum]

I did find the Fable 3 example to be a bit odd, you're character definitely does have a voice and actually talks a fair bit in the beginning, but then after a certain point you just suddenly shut your gob, your given plenty of chances to talk but you remain mostly silent.

I'm sorry, I rather meant this to be a rant on silent protagonists being silent in, awkward situations, you know. As in, if you were ever going to talk in the entire game, a good time would be when your friend is insane.

 

[Raykuza]

I actually love silent protagonists. I like being allowed to project my own thoughts, emotions, and judgments onto the situations through the character.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

It's good to see people who won't keep quiet about silent protagonists.

 

[amoamaremetallum]

It's good to see people who won't keep quiet about silent protagonists.

I see what you did there...

 

[Istanbul]

Fallout 3 > Fable 3.

Do you ignore the person in front of you? No! But you have some choices on what to say, and that helps to inform the dialogue. Silent protagonists have had their place, but at this stage in the game (so to speak), it's reasonable to expect enough conversation trees to be programmed so that on-the-rails dialogue isn't necessary.

 

[Vault101]

I think theres a difference between your charachter being SILENT and having NO PERSONALITY

in fallout 3 and dragon age for example my charachters don't "speak" but they have personality or even Issac clarke from deadspace dosnt even get written dialoge...but theres somthign about him like body language or somthing..plus he dose provide text comentary in the menu thing

I couldnt play Oblivion because my charachter had NO perosntaliy..she was just a non-entity just empty space/ a camera

in the case of gordon freeman..yeah he is silet but its the charachters around him, that talk to him they bring him to life in a way (if that makes sense)

 

[badgersprite]

The only place I think silent protagonists really work these days is in FPSs. To be honest, I hated having Mason speak in the middle of a Black Ops mission, because it was distracting when I was trying to focus on other things. It worked way better in other games simply having other people tell you where to go, reacting to targets and stuff.

In RPGs, I think it depends on the game. In open world games where you're not interacting with people much, silence kind of makes sense. There's not some big epic binding story concerning you constantly, so you don't really need a specific character with a specific voice. In other games, games with real plot, or more focus on interaction, where your character has a definite past and a definite story arc (ie Fable III) then yes having them speak makes a lot more sense, because you already are becoming a pre-determined character the second you start playing.

Personally, I like voiced characters, because I find the experience of becoming a character is generally more enriching, at least for me.

 

[Vault101]

I did find the Fable 3 example to be a bit odd, you're character definitely does have a voice and actually talks a fair bit in the beginning, but then after a certain point you just suddenly shut your gob, your given plenty of chances to talk but you remain mostly silent.

I'm sorry, I rather meant this to be a rant on silent protagonists being silent in, awkward situations, you know. As in, if you were ever going to talk in the entire game, a good time would be when your friend is insane.

Yeah like in F.E.A.R. 2 Becketts non-ability to talk gets in the way of the story

solder: there's a crying woman! I'm going after her....
Beckett: Wait! don't do that! there somthing freaky going on..its a trap! remeber? the other guy died horribly when he did that!
solder:...oh ok then
Beckett: in fact EVERYONE STAY AWAY FROM THE CREEPY GIRL!

see? that all it would have taken

 

[the Revenator]

To be fair sometimes silent is better than a speaking protagonist. Like in Fable 3 the characters voice is horrible, like you said, and it is better that he doesn't speak, ever. But like in Halo: Reach it is perfect, the character only talks in cutscenes and that's it, perfect. Another example is Metro 2033 (fuckin awesome game) like Artyom rarely speaks and is adds to the game altogether. Then again I HATE HATE HATE the people that any game hires to speak in Russian, it sounds like balls that's why I won't change the language to Russian anymore.

 

[SimuLord]

I actually love silent protagonists. I like being allowed to project my own thoughts, emotions, and judgments onto the situations through the character.

Someone was going to say this before I did. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Mount&Blade...and it's why Grand Theft Auto 3 is my favorite GTA game.

Especially in first-person, there's nothing that says "this character is yours to do with as you like and we're going to stay the hell out of your way" like a silent protagonist. It's basically trusting the player to make the character his or her own, something I wish the artiste game directors (David Cage and Hideo Kojima, I'm looking at you) would put their own egos away for long enough to do.

 

[Vault101]

I actually love silent protagonists. I like being allowed to project my own thoughts, emotions, and judgments onto the situations through the character.

Someone was going to say this before I did. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Mount&Blade...and it's why Grand Theft Auto 3 is my favorite GTA game.

Especially in first-person, there's nothing that says "this character is yours to do with as you like and we're going to stay the hell out of your way" like a silent protagonist. It's basically trusting the player to make the character his or her own, something I wish the artiste game directors (David Cage and Hideo Kojima, I'm looking at you) would put their own egos away for long enough to do.

technically your charachters speak in fallout its just not voiced, and as for oblivion like I said I hated my chachter being a non-entity, Like I know the point is im suposed to project onto them but I at least want somthing to work with (like fallout 3)

plus for me its a little hard projecting myself onto a tough male gun toting badass being a chick who could barley lift a gun

HOWEVER this probably does work fine for shooters (the kind without cutscenes) and for some reason I always liked Issac clarke from dead space

 

[Legion]

I actually love silent protagonists. I like being allowed to project my own thoughts, emotions, and judgments onto the situations through the character.

That and it adds a hell of a lot more atmosphere.

I am currently playing Alan Wake and I am getting sick of the tense atmosphere getting cracked by his constant narration and "wise-ass" remarks. Dead Space 2 on the other hand seems to work (based on the demo) because the character is supposed to be slightly insane, so what he says is less likely to be a typical "bad-ass one liner".

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I do find silent protagonists to be a lame, lazy device that gaming needs to grow out of. I don't buy into the whole "it's to immerse the player!" excuse since if you NEED to use that kind of trick to immerse someone in your world then it just raises the question as to whether or not the world is worth getting immersed in. I mean, dear Buddha, writing a protagonist is the most basic of narrative necessities and gaming CONTINUES to make this failure. If you're going to write a story-based game then WRITE THE BLOODY HERO

 

[Pr1de]

I do find silent protagonists to be a lame, lazy device that gaming needs to grow out of. I don't buy into the whole "it's to immerse the player!" excuse since if you NEED to use that kind of trick to immerse someone in your world then it just raises the question as to whether or not the world is worth getting immersed in. I mean, dear Buddha, writing a protagonist is the most basic of narrative necessities and gaming CONTINUES to make this failure. If you're going to write a story-based game then WRITE THE BLOODY HERO

they are just trying to save a few bucks but it doesnt make it right.