How to Characterize a Main Character

[Fatalistic]

I just got done reading the Extra Consideration about morality systems in games. Yahtzee brought up a point about GTA having a very difficult time characterizing the main character because he had to have been someone who could go ballistic at any given time.

So, since I'm interested in inventing stories and creating characters, what do you think, Escapists, are qualities that would create a very interesting main character? It can be from any sort of setting and with any sort of background.

 

[Laxman9292]

I think that the problem wasn't that he could go ballistic at anytime, but rather he wasn't characterized well enough as someone who could snap. I think if done properly a character on the brink of collapse who can just hulk out at any given time could be very engaging.

Personally, I'm sick of the innocent little kid looking for revenge/finding out he's the super ultimate hero of all time etc. I would rather have a character where it makes sense that they are the way they are. Like the way Master Chief is a badass military killing machine who saves the world because he was kidnapped and trained to be one since he was 5, rather than a magical macguffin that says he is the savior of humanity and ONLY YOU hold the power.

For example, rather than an archetypal young rando being the key, I think Avatar:TLA (the show) did a good job of illustrating this. They knew Aang was the avatar because the avatar is reincarnated as a different bender in a cycle (fire, air, earth, water) and when the last avatar died the airbenders searched their ranks for the next one. It makes much more sense that way rather than a random little kid being the One.

 

[Ando85]

I think the best main character type is the silent protagonist like mentioned before. Having a silent protagonist makes the player feel as though he is the main character, and this adds to the game's emersion. If a character has a distinct personality that doesn't fit the player it makes it feel like you are detached and just witnessing instead of actaully into the game itself. If that makes any sense. Good examples include Dragon Quest 8 and Lunar.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I'm playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines right now as a Malkavian, and I've got to say, insanity sure does add a lot to a main character, especially when the player doesn't know the extent or effects of the madness. In the aforementioned game, the host of a news program my character was watching spoke directly to her and told her a joke. This, combined with ambiguous e-mails from an ambiguous sender (default in the game), lead me to believe my character was being watched by that anchorman. However, upon looking up the interaction on the internets, I learned that the instance where the television spoke to my character was something unique to and characteristic of being a Malkavian, the vampire clan whose main distinction is crippling insanity.

Basically, after you've set up the suspension of disbelief you need for storytelling in any medium, you can throw people for a serious loop by gradually showing them that their perception is horrendously skewed by hallucinations and paranoia.

 

[Woodsey]

Either unify the character and the player (any RPG; Gordon Freeman), or have an incredibly strong and interesting lead (Thomas Angelo, the Prince from Sands of Time), with the inconsistencies between the character in the gameplay and the character in the story as small as possible.

Niko Bellic doesn't work because he's crying like a ***** about killing someone one minute, then running over grannies and having easy escapes from the police the next. Thomas Angelo does work because the world is built to create the illusion that he really isn't a hideous murderer (through the police system), even when you can technically be.