Poll: Silent or Talking Main Character?

[Hitman 43]

It all depends on the game the character is in.

 

[CheeseSandwichCake]

Only make him talk if you don't give him a grumpy old man voice and shitty one liners.

Otherwise, do the Half-Life approach to your main character.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

I've never really been one to care about immersion in a video game. I look at video games to be a medium similar to film - and the immersion that comes from a film is not generated by having you be the protagonist. Nor is this the case in literature. We have a greater understanding or greater insight in to the protagonists mind set, emotions and decisions when the story is told from the frame of reference of that character, or when there is an omnipresent narator than we would were we presented with the character from the frame of reference of a different character.

This is, in my opinion, the same effect that we get when we are given control of a character in a videogame. The character not talking shouldn't be what creates the immersion, if the story of the game is good enough, the characters are compelling and you are genuinely interested in what happens to them, that is what creates immersion. I don't think I have ever come across a game where a character spoke and I thought the game was worse for it.

I agree with this guy 100%. You don't need to be the protagonist to be immersed in the protagonists situation. I really felt a connection to John Shepard's situation by the end of Mass effect, same with Master Chief in Halo. You don't need to be the character to appreciate their situation.

 

[gentleben]

I always prefer talking, unless past games have aleady established a character as mute. Case in point, Samus Aran. Voice can only help charcterize a character. If a person is mute, they at least need to appear from time to time visually. Samus may be mute, but you can learn a bit about what she feels when you see her in some cut sceans, even more so when she lacks a helmet.

Pardon my ignorance here, I haven't played enough of the new Metroid (gamecube and beyond, maybe an hour max, although I did play the Metroid fusion and the remake of the original on GBA) games to know whether this has any merit, but who has Samus ever had to talk to? Samus is a bounty hunter, she works on her own, flies her own ship, and never comes in to contact with other humans. Unless space pirates have started speaking or she's picked up a navigator or something, I can't think of any reason why she would need to speak, which is why silence works in that situation.

 

[Gamer137]

Pardon my ignorance here, I haven't played enough of the new Metroid (gamecube and beyond, maybe an hour max, although I did play the Metroid fusion and the remake of the original on GBA) games to know whether this has any merit, but who has Samus ever had to talk to? Samus is a bounty hunter, she works on her own, flies her own ship, and never comes in to contact with other humans. Unless space pirates have started speaking or she's picked up a navigator or something, I can't think of any reason why she would need to speak, which is why silence works in that situation.

I forgot to mention that point as well. Another reason Samus can pull it off being mute is because she rarley has the chance to speak. Although she is given the chance the talk in MP3 because the allied cast can speak. Regardless, at least her motive is clear. She is working in a military job. Her goal as a a good and not evil person is very clear. If anything, you can say she is just shutting her mouth and following orders. She is not forced into her situations, unlike most mutes who can't even begin to say "No."

 

[Gerazzi]

You can't have bad dialogue if there is none

 

[Dale Cooper]

Silence ruined Dead Space.

 

[linkmastr001]

I'd say it varies.

If the main character 'talks without talking' (i.e. Paper Mario and Zelda) where the only thing that the character says is something you already know, Im fine with the silence.

If it's and RPG with one character, I can also live with silence.

If it's a game where you control a group of characters, I don't understand when the 'main' one doesn't talk (why ignore your buddies who are helping you save the world?)