Gordon Freeman to Remain Mute
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
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That's what fanfic is for. -shrug-JRCB said:
I can go either way, honestly. As long as the game is fun and the speaking characters are good, he can remain mute until he dies for all I care. Hell, better he be quiet, I don't enjoy too much talking when I'm trying to shoot (as Left 4 Dead has taught me).
This whole silent protagonist thing is part of a bygone era of gaming. It's lazy. You know what I know about Gordon Freeman? Basically nothing. I don't empathize with his struggle, I don't care if he lives or dies. Unlike the characters around him, who are actually characters, I could care less about Gordon. Saying that speaking protagonists are gimmicky is a cop out. Is Commander Shepard a gimmick? Is Nico Bellic a gimmick? No. A gimmick is an overused character attribute. SPEECH is not something that can be overdone.
That'd be awesome!Furburt said:
But seriously, I like the mute protagonist, Gordon Freeman is fine the way he is n my opinion.
Oh, I agree with that completely. Having Gordon mute, although I personally like to think of him as being able to talk and simply choosing not to, adds an interesting dynamic to the character and forces the player to imagine for themselves the sort of person he really is, aside from the whole Combine-killing/Xen-travelling/G-Man-manipulated side of him.Furburt said:
And as for the paul thing, they do look quite similar, and Paul has the coolest voice I've heard for a long time (aside from Scottish and Irish accents, which just sound uber-sexy
). Paul Saunders as Gordon Freeman? Yes, please!
Ross Scott is only voice for Freeman. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.Trivun said:Oh, I agree with that completely. Having Gordon mute, although I personally like to think of him as being able to talk and simply choosing not to, adds an interesting dynamic to the character and forces the player to imagine for themselves the sort of person he really is, aside from the whole Combine-killing/Xen-travelling/G-Man-manipulated side of him.Furburt said:
And as for the paul thing, they do look quite similar, and Paul has the coolest voice I've heard for a long time (aside from Scottish and Irish accents, which just sound uber-sexy
On a side note, I'm impressed no one's ever brought up the silence of Chell in Portal... granted she's alone, but so is Gordon half the time. Yet people are so divided on his silence, while no one's said a word about her.
I wish they would have hinted in the past games that he might actually BE mute, that would have been SO AWESOME. I don't remember that many disabled hero's in games...
Maybe they will say in ep 3 that he's traumatized from the shock of the events that have happed, and is unable to talk, although frankly he can handle himself alright just shooting things in the face, when they have any. Gordon Freeman had to dealt with a lot of scary shit all by himself and haven't had a minute of real sleep in the (what was them 4, 5 days?) since the mayhem started back in black mesa (unless you count the stasis time), I sure would be a little shaken up.
Maybe they will say in ep 3 that he's traumatized from the shock of the events that have happed, and is unable to talk, although frankly he can handle himself alright just shooting things in the face, when they have any. Gordon Freeman had to dealt with a lot of scary shit all by himself and haven't had a minute of real sleep in the (what was them 4, 5 days?) since the mayhem started back in black mesa (unless you count the stasis time), I sure would be a little shaken up.
Well, they were bringing up a hearing impaired (if not completely deaf) character in Episode 3, and including sign language.MasterSplinter said:
I'd actually enjoy it if Gordon were an honest to god mute. But he accepted his Black Mesa job over the phone, so...
GOOD!!!
Having the main character mute allows you have your own experience of the game and speak for Gordon, rather than Gordon speaking for himself and the game becoming a rail shooter with voice acting.
To me, its more immersive for him to NOT speak for it would be for him to speak.
Having the main character mute allows you have your own experience of the game and speak for Gordon, rather than Gordon speaking for himself and the game becoming a rail shooter with voice acting.
To me, its more immersive for him to NOT speak for it would be for him to speak.
The lack of speech makes him seem cold and professional. So why can't they make the game like that? I mean, Alyx is being used for some odd love subplot, but she has never even talked to him.
Gabe is beautiful the way he is.imahobbit4062 said:
Personally, I think that if you're going to have a serious game and you want the main character to be vocal, have him be vocal from the start. Otherwise we will have gotten used to him being the silent type, and when he finally does speak, we will reject him.
Gordan Freeman's role is a lot closer to a book character than a film character. It is not unusual for a book to have a main character exist solely as a pair of eyes to see what is going on and a mind to convey what they see. Having novel character's as totally understated and undeveloped was par for the course in many earlier books (before the popularisation of the "flawed narrator". In terms of narrative, Gordan Freeman serves this role perfectly by allowing you to see everything through his eyes (thus rendering the whole mind and discription element obsolete).
Good. They don't need to break tradition now. Personally, I don't see how everyone talks about him as the best character in gaming, but if he talked that would ruin the magic a little.
It's lovely to know that they've now totally given up on him, and resigned to keeping him as simply an arm and a crowbar.
I know why he doesn't talk. He's obviously a disguised Chuck Norris, and saying anything would ruin everything. Chuck Norris likes a challenge, but he's not getting one if they know it's him.
....The sad thing is, that kinda makes sense.
....The sad thing is, that kinda makes sense.
Everyone always latches onto the character content issue once they hear that he has a name; expecting a full bakground, but I think that it's better to have a bit of a back ground regardless of the developers goal of emersion levels because any other games that rely on too much of the character role being filled by the player that it reverses and creates a lack of emersion. Like for example: some games have holes in the script at certain points, such as your character constantly being called "Rookie" or "kid" and it changes so little to the point that you wonder if your character's mother called him/her that as a child.