Do you care about characters and is it important?

[Magugag]

So recently a friend of mine admitted that he doesn't give a damn about the characters in a videogame. At first, I was inclined to be a little annoyed. Characters and their stories and development are very important to me in any given game. Unless I'm playing Pong or something simple like that, I really expect and enjoy having interesting characters. My friend, however, cares little for them even when they're great, really only getting into the gameplay and anything the characters do that happens to be 'bad ass'. I can understand where he's coming from. These characters don't exist, there's no reason to become attached to them, but without the characters I would only feel like I'm getting half a game.

So I was wondering what you guys all thought? Are characters and their stories important to you? Has there ever been a character that you've really honestly cared about, whether they inspired anger, laughter or sadness from you?

An example for me would be the dog in Fable II. Fable II wasn't well fleshed out by any means, and the character interactions weren't complex or memorable. Even the dog I felt distant from for most of the game, save for the fact that I'm a dog person. I mean, you can't even really touch him to pet him or rub his tummy. How lame is that? However, there were a few scenes that really made you feel like that was a real dog and he was your character's friend through thick and thin.

 

[starrman]

Companion Cube in Portal - I found it very hard to incinerate him.
Louis in L4D - The selfish, med-pack stealing, rescue-oblivious little shit.
Caroline from Oblivion - She was one of the Cloud Temple guards and I developed a strange attachment to her. When she was killed after I tried to steal something on her watch and had to defend myself, I was filled with remorse. I laid her body on a bed as best I could and assembled a selection of fine armour in a stack next to her. I later took this armour and sold it, but the thought was intially there.

I think it's important to invest in your characters, it brings more enjoyment from a game and also illustrates a game's weaknesses, should the characters be crap. It's like going to see a film, I guess. You want to emotionally connect so that the story has more life.

 

[JokerGrin]

It helps in things like RPGs where the story should pull you in. I remember when I played Neverwinter Nights with my brother on LAN. I always took along the lovely Sharwyn. When she was killed once, I felt awful, carried on for another five minutes but then gave in and persuaded my brother to let me load up an earlier saved game. Not bad for someone that's really just a picture and text!

 

[lanydx]

I enjoy the characters and their devopment. Some characters I love (Naruto, Sakura),others I want to rip in half and make them eat their own ass.( Suskae)

 

[Blights]

I guess Emil from Tales of Symphonia 2 would be the character who managed to make an impact on me, his character development is crazy.

He grows stronger through the whole game, and braver.

 

[MarsProbe]

Yeh, I definitely think characters are important and do grow attached to them if they are sufficiently well defined.

Someone mentioned Fallout 3. I also found myself concerned for those ex-slaves that were trying to make a new life for themselves, as well as Sarah Lyons. Also, the nice girl (Sierra Petrova or something like that?) that gives you the Nuka-Cola Challenge quest, she was cool.

Half-Life 2: Besides the obvious choice of pretty much the whole cast (Alyx, Eli, Isaac, Barney) I always had a soft spot for Dog, Whether he was tossing Combine soldiers around like little toys, upending one of their tanks or ripping the face off a Strider, Dog was always the most awesome thing in the game.

Also, in Lost Odyssey, I found myself connecting with all the main characters and that game as well. Even the token "kids" weren't as grating as I thought they would have been. Favourite was Jansen though, perhaps I identified most with his random bumbling and slightly nervous nature. All mage-types should be more like him...

 

[Avatar Roku]

Well if you are talking about something like Rock Band or Pong, but if its like Fallout 3, I'm gonna do anything I can to protect people I like from the wasteland creatures or the raiders. I think I cared most about Sarah Lyons, Three dog, and the slaves who were trying to get to the lincoln memorial. I also care a lot about Okami because a dog has never been so cool to me.

You forgot Moira in your FO3 list. She was cool.

I loved all the NPCs in Mass Effect (I mean the named ones, not just the random people on the Citadel or whatever), save Kaiden. Without the characters, it definitely would have felt like less of a game to me.

EDIT:

Yeh, I definitely think characters are important and do grow attached to them if they are sufficiently well defined.

Someone mentioned Fallout 3. I also found myself concerned for those ex-slaves that were trying to make a new life for themselves, as well as Sarah Lyons. Also, the nice girl (Sierra Petrova or something like that?) that gives you the Nuka-Cola Challenge quest, she was cool.

Sierra Petrovita. I thought she was alright. I also liked Gob and Charon a lot!

How did I foreget Gob and Charon?! And Winthrop. And Roy Phillips. In fact, it might be easier to say all the ghouls are cool.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Good character development is almost becoming a mainstay of games nowadays, similar to how gamers expect games to have interesting storylines and good graphics. Characters who we empathise and identify with make a game much more enjoyable to play and seeing them go through their hardships and grow from those situations is just as satisfying as watching a similar experience happen with characters in a movie or book.

Take FFX as an example. Tidus was one of the most whiny annoying characters I've ever seen in a video game, and as much as I disliked him for the way he acted, I still respected him simply beause of his grim determination to not let Yuna die. That's an example of good characterisation that really enriched the game experience.

 

[megatron2.0]

Yes 100%. In gears of war 2 i was pretty sad when ( im not gonna give you the name) someone I liked died. SO yeah too get the most out of a game you need to connect to the characters.

 

[Magugag]

Half-Life 2: Besides the obvious choice of pretty much the whole cast (Alyx, Eli, Isaac, Barney) I always had a soft spot for Dog, Whether he was tossing Combine soldiers around like little toys, upending one of their tanks or ripping the face off a Strider, Dog was always the most awesome thing in the game.

Beautiful example, I totally forgot about Dog who is incredibly expressive and a great character despite never speaking a word. Though that game as a whole had impressive characters and really made you give a damn about them.

EDIT: Oh, and Inverse Skies, another good example in Tidus. That guy developed a lot throughout the course of FFX, that has to be admitted. Even if he was a whiny jock.

 

[MegaBastard]

I think stories that don't develop the characters, or just plain don't introduce them are worse in the long run. Like, say, in the movie Blindness. You don't know who any of the characters the movie's following are. It's just "Woman With Dark Glasses," "Man With Black Eye Patch," etc. I like to feel attached to the character I'm controlling, or even ones that are just supporting characters. It's more fun when you know who you're playing as, and even more so, why you're playing as them.

 

[RebelRising]

Two words: Mass Effect.

Every character, even the somewhat dull Kaiden, were very well written. Someone always had something funny, profound, or informative to say. And as a first for a game I've played, I though a lot about the past and future of these characters, and what their lives were like before they met up with me. I cared a lot about them, partly because they were complex and didn't fit into restrictive character types. There was always something more to them than meets the eye, and the dialogue factor of the game was key in showcasing those characters. Oh, and Garrus rules. He rules HARD.

 

[Splyth]

That's a big selling point for me in a game. We've seen all of the plots before. What separates the truly spectacular games form the mediocre ones are the characters. I care more about seeing how the chracters grow and develop through the course of a game. Otherwise It's just level grinding and item hunts...and I can only do that for so long.

 

[Incredible Bullshitting Man]

Well, I guess it depends, do you want to simply "play a game", beat challenges devised by some deviant developer, or do you want to be immersed in a complex and rich story line. I like to see characters have personalities and depth, I like to see them develop along with the game. So yes, tell Scarlett I do give a damn.

 

[Alexe123]

I think whats at the heart of your question is how by extension does the player feel a part of the world. As controlling the character, you're in effect stepping into their shoes. So how much you do or do not care has much to do with how the game appeals to your tastes. Then there's good plain old story telling. A well told story can make a game a million times better. Take for example Star Wars Jedi Outcast II, you really could feel the pathos of characters and it genuinely felt as something real was at stake. Compared to the follow up, Jedi Academy, the generic hero/bad guy you play as leaves a lot to be desired. But basically, its half and half, half you and half the developers bothering to use good story-telling techniques to push the right buttons.

 

[John Tacos]

The characters are what let you get into the player's shoes. In order to feel like you are a part of the story, you have to feel a connection with the characters. If it weren't for the yelling and screaming of the towns-people in most games, it just wouldn't feel right.

 

[Mr. Fister]

Characterization in gaming is important, especially if the emphasis of the game is in the storyline. What I find more important in the characters, though, is they're enjoyable to be around or not. It's never fun to be stuck with a whiny ***** for an entire game.


For my example of great characterization, simply take a gander at my avatar.