Pedophiliac Protagonist.

[Ordinaryundone]

I've got a question...how, exactly, would the character being a pedophile come into play in the game? I mean, its not like they could act on their urges and keep the game rateable. Heck, making it to overt would probably cause more trouble than its worth. But if you keep it subtle, it just becomes an informed attribute that anyone can choose to ignore, and thus ceases to be an important part of their character. Like the "Solid Snake and Otacon are gay" theory. Is it possible? Yes. Is the subtext there? Yes. However, it doesn't effect the story, the gameplay, or really anything about the characters and their relationships. Its just meaningless background detail. There have already been pedophile characters in games. Hell, even some "heroic" ones (the blind guy from Drakengard comes to mind). But pedophilia is NOT accepted in modern society, even as subtext, so it can only ever be portrayed as a bad thing and it will never factor into gameplay. So what is the point?

I understand you want to have "challenging" characters in games, but remember these are GAMES. The gameplay is the most important thing, first and foremost, and in most cases the story needs to serve that purpose as well. Just calling a character a pedophile for the sake of having a pedophile character is both pointless AND tasteless.

 

[SillyBear]

Why do you want to play a pedophile?

Please don't tell me you are one of the freaks on here that is attracted to children.

 

[SilentCom]

I don't care much for the whole pedophile protagonist idea however it seems many people here have very one sided opinions. Personally, I'd like a game where you get to play as an evil mastermind and destroy the world. No seriously, why is it that you're always the hero trying to stop this from happening and not the other way around? The world isn't going to destroy itself you know.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I don't care much for the whole pedophile protagonist idea however it seems many people here have very one sided opinions. Personally, I'd like a game where you get to play as an evil mastermind and destroy the world. No seriously, why is it that you're always the hero trying to stop this from happening and not the other way around? The world isn't going to destroy itself you know.

You could always play Evil Genius!

 

[lovest harding]

I think this idea is much better suited to film or book.
There's no real way to make an interesting or good game around that idea.
I can see the interest in making this kind of thing in media (exploring a person's deepest thoughts and secrets can always be interesting if done well), but as a game I don't see it.
What would the gameplay be? Try to keep the main character's hands from touching a kid with quick time events? It's just a bad idea all around.

I think there's one instance where it might work and that would be the Psychonauts/The Cell approach, either entering his mind or his dreams and having the events be more symbolic than real, but that's sort of a catch all. Pretty much any subject can be tackled like that. But then what would be the point? If we're not actually confronting the entire idea, then there's no need to use it all.

EDIT: So, overall, I don't see a way to make a good game with a pedophile as a protagonist. And if we aren't making games to be good games, then I think we're missing the point (don't get me wrong, I love artistic games, but if they're artistic for the sake of art and at the expense of game, then they're interactive art not artistic games).

 

[Shockolate]

I think it would be better if you made the character an Ephebophilia, which is adolescent and not pre-pubescent.

Being attracted to someone who's close to being "legal" would most likely get over better than a child.

My two cents.

 

[holy_secret]

I've always wondered how it'd be with a completely unlikable protagonist. This really takes the cup though. I'm not sure it would work, considering how damn sensitive that topic is. You know how people are.

Methinks thine doth protest too much

It's "Methinks thou doest protest too much".
Why can't anyone get the second person singular conjugation right?
I don't mean to be rude. This just catches my attention in a bad way just like hearing a knife scratching porcelain or a child cry.

 

[Giest4life]

Um, yeah, no. You cannot sell me a game in which the main protagonist is a pedophile.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

It won't work.

Let me rephrase that, I'm almost certain it will definitely not work.

Look, my view on the issue is that frankly, it's a character with no support. As someone above me had posted, just because something is taboo doesn't make it deep or extraordinary, it's just a taboo. Right there you insure that it is a character that almost no one can relate to, and those that do won't say they relate to them because of the implications within that.

The simple fact of the matter is no matter how you play it, most people will get angry. If it's just mentioned in passing that they're a pedophile and not much else is called attention to it, then everyone would rightly complain that it's just arbitrary and pointless. If it's such a big part of them that the game evantually has us feel sympathy for the character, then everyone would rightly complain that they're sympathy could be taken by several news-media outlets as showing sympathy to molesting in general. To be perfectly honest, there is only one way I can see a pedophile being a protagonist in a video game.....they have to be hated at the end of the game. That's right, I put that out there, they must be hated. Why? Because you ask me what it means to be a deep character, it doesn't just mean someone who is different and it's their difference that makes them accepted by someone. A deep character is someone who's very nature demands that other characters and even the player must analyze and examine, a character who is not only not perfect, but actually has the risk of being hated. After all, who's to say being hated doesn't make you deep. Just look at several villans out there. We hate them and the chracter they represent, but that doesn't make them any-less deep. Hell, just look at James Sunderland. The man murdered his wife, and while we may beat the game well after learning that, we still have a hatred for James himself, even after we understand why he did it he is still someone we look at and say he was wrong, and that his actions are disgusting, but god-damn if he isn't a deep character then I don't know who is. But I know my idea of a pedophile protagonist who ends up being hated wouldn't work as well. Because someone somewhere will look at that and say that it is offensive to other pedophiles, that the story forcing us to hate the protagonist means that we will inevitably hate all with pedophilac urges, which can be viewed as discriminatory.

That's just my thought, and why I think that the first rule to any deep character isn't "Do they embody some social taboo" but rather "Can they be wrong? Can they actually be hated?"

 

[Devil's Due]

Please don't tell me you are one of the freaks on here that is attracted to children.

This is the problem with the topic right here, anyone or any protagonist as the OP is suggesting would be stigmatized by someone like SillyBear here without a second thought. Even if you made the character a great person, who never did anything, but is eaten away at his / her thoughts of children on the inside they'd be screamed at, hated, and the media (read: Fox News) would make a shitstorm out of it without understanding it. When society stops screaming and closing their eyes at issues and instead tries to figure out the cause and how to cure it, then we can work on these sort of issues.

So to society: Quit crying and screaming, try to find the reason behind it (the gene, mental connections, who knows what creates this, rape, and other such intense urges that consume people), and diagnose it. It's never going away until we figure out the root. Never.

And as for the thread: Will probably never happen until 20-40 years from now when society hopefully tries to cure these issues and can accept talking about taboos more openly.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Dude, I don't even think movies or books could get away with something like that these days. I can only imagine what would happen if a videogame attempted that. The controversy would be maddening.

 

[Gorrila_thinktank]

We see this in many games; the characterization creates a different understanding of the character and hence a different experience. Game developers show that this works by casting characters that they know will get an emotional reaction from the audience. Examples of this are found primarily in the survival horror genre were the protagonist is a young (relatively) defenceless female. The camera is brought to the 3rd person to notify the player of whom ?exactly- who they are controlling. We see a similar ? plot twist? of the proposed Pedophiliac Protagonist in Bioshock where Jack is revelled to have be brain washed all along, making a theme of the rest of the game a question of player choice and control. In the same way, the revelation of this character trait need not be directly tied to the game play mechanics, its revelation within the story arc could directly impact the way the player responds to the character ala Bastion?s Zulf.

To illustrate this point further we can look to the original Metroid. Samus? revelation as female at the end of the game is a surprise that has reverberated through the ages. Does this knowledge that Samus is a female change game play? No, and rightly so. It does however significantly change the context in which the games narrative is framed in our socity

 

[Jegsimmons]

well theres an idea that dies on the run way if i ever heard one.
gay character? im fine with.
lesbian? Defiantly
Pedophile.....uh....no. Probably because if the other 2 have sex its fine, if a pedophile acts on his urges he goes to prison. We shouldn't make something like this sympathetic. Because its kinda wrong. Keep it in your own head but for gods sakes dont let it out.

 

[Bob_Dobb]

Well that would give FOX and Friends more ammo to direct at gamers and it would probably be banned.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

Don't they already have Japanese games like that? Yeah, lets not. There's no good to be had from a pedo's point of view and should not be socially accepted.

 

[Death God]

Um.... no. Our form of media receives enough hate and blame without people having controversial topics. But to add in the mix of pedophiles onto of it and to have them as the main character were are supposed to root for? This would give way too many hand-holds for those disagreeing with gaming protocols and give our media less of a chance for success. Plus, having the focal-point of the main character have a sexual attraction to kids doesn't make for an interesting character design; it makes the character have a bit of a twisted mind-set and it would be awkward in anyway to even insert the fact that he/she is a pedophile into the storyline. Enough said.

 

[SquidVicious]

It is doable in other genres. Off the top of my head I can think of at least one film, the 2004 Kevin Bacon film The Woodsman. The film doesn't really make him out as a likable protagonist, but you do feel for him as he tries to repair his damaged life, and your heart sinks when he recidivates. That said though, I don't think there's a way to transfer that into a video game format without crippling the medium as a whole. I don't even want to imagine the field day Fox News would have if a game starring a pedophile were to ever see the light of day, especially if a few seconds of bare ass can get their knickers in a twist.

As bold and intriguing as the idea is, the damage it would do to the medium could never justify its creation.