RPGs, playing A role or playing YOUR role

[IBlackKiteI]

I just saw a couple threads on RPG's and how players often say they get really involved in the character they play, in some cases imagining they are the character in the fantasy world, righting wrongs and fighting evil and such. Becoming heavily invested.

I don't find anything wrong with this, but I just personally never feel that sort of connection to my character in RPG's.
Although I strangely find myself somewhat invested in more developed characters in non RPG games, characters which already have their own stories and personalities already decided by the game rather than the player, rather than playing an RPG and using a canvas which the developers use to make the player think 'You are this guy'.

I'm not sure why but I just don't feel any attachment at all to my character, but I to towards characters which are moreso out of my control.
Including both protagonists and NPC's.

So, do you prefer playing a character which has their own personality etc, or playing your character which is fully controlled by you?

 

[DustyDrB]

I prefer to play a character. That's all I have to say about that.


[small]I was playing a role in that last line[/small]

 

[Mikeyfell]

I just saw a couple threads on RPG's and how players often say they get really involved in the character they play, in some cases imagining they are the character in the fantasy world, righting wrongs and fighting evil and such. Becoming heavily invested.

I don't find anything wrong with this, but I just personally never feel that sort of connection to my character in RPG's.
Although I strangely find myself somewhat invested in more developed characters in non RPG games, characters which already have their own stories and personalities already decided by the game rather than the player, rather than playing an RPG and using a canvas which the developers use to make the player think 'You are this guy'.

I'm not sure why but I just don't feel any attachment at all to my character, but I to towards characters which are moreso out of my control.
Including both protagonists and NPC's.

So, do you prefer playing a character which has their own personality etc, or playing your character which is fully controlled by you?

so many non RPG games now days are just rubbish
and the RPG's I do play are by Bioware, and I fucking LOVE BIOWARE
so I'll often role play
I never play "Myself" because I'm a looser
but I role play all the same

but when games have a fully formed storyline like Enslaved or well...games that came out on the PS2, and they're good those are amazing

but the problem is that people now days just want to play Call of Duty where you run around as some one dimensional twat and there's no story more complex than shoot anyone that isn't you.
so that's the only kind of game that comes out

so until FPS games die out I'll stick to RPG's

 

[Vault101]

This is one of the reasosns I didn't like oblivion my charachter was a non-entity..empty space, just a walking camera and all the NPC's seemed aware they were in a game and so bored with it its like they saw my charachter and were like "oh hello Camera!...ehh what ever.."

now compared to Fallout 3 at least as far as my charachter went I had SOMTHING to work with, I knew their motivations and they actually had dialouge (non-spoken but still dialoge) and dragon age did the whole charachters thing good as well

So yeah I prefer my charahcters to have some evidence of personality, my favorite being Commander shepard because s/he talks

I can't often imagine "myself" as the charahcter because I'm not an adventerer in a fantasy world BUT I like to guide that charachter to do what I would do in those situations that for me is role playing

 

[Vault101]

I just saw a couple threads on RPG's and how players often say they get really involved in the character they play, in some cases imagining they are the character in the fantasy world, righting wrongs and fighting evil and such. Becoming heavily invested.

I don't find anything wrong with this, but I just personally never feel that sort of connection to my character in RPG's.
Although I strangely find myself somewhat invested in more developed characters in non RPG games, characters which already have their own stories and personalities already decided by the game rather than the player, rather than playing an RPG and using a canvas which the developers use to make the player think 'You are this guy'.

I'm not sure why but I just don't feel any attachment at all to my character, but I to towards characters which are moreso out of my control.
Including both protagonists and NPC's.

So, do you prefer playing a character which has their own personality etc, or playing your character which is fully controlled by you?

so many non RPG games now days are just rubbish
and the RPG's I do play are by Bioware, and I fucking LOVE BIOWARE
so I'll often role play
I never play "Myself" because I'm a looser
but I role play all the same

but when games have a fully formed storyline like Enslaved or well...games that came out on the PS2, and they're good those are amazing

but the problem is that people now days just want to play Call of Duty where you run around as some one dimensional twat and there's no story more complex than shoot anyone that isn't you.
so that's the only kind of game that comes out

so until FPS games die out I'll stick to RPG's

thats a silly generalisation not everyone plays call of duty and there is a reason why Bioware games and Fallout ect are so popular (because not everyone likes call of duty type games)

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

It really depends on the game...and whether it makes any sense to create a character for the game.

 

[DustyDrB]

This is one of the reasosns I didn't like oblivion my charachter was a non-entity..empty space, just a walking camera and all the NPC's seemed aware they were in a game and so bored with it its like they saw my charachter and were like "oh hello Camera!...ehh what ever.."

Yeah I tried putting myself into a few Oblivion characters, but I just don't know how to go about the Dark Brotherhood. It usually goes something like this:

- "Oh, that guard telling me I'm more of a wimp than a mudcrab has me really mad! I think I'm gonna have a Dark period and kill some people! And I probably won't stop until I get some sweet robes or something..."

Then I'm done with that story arch and I've got all the murdering out of my system, so I put away my Shadowmere and go save women while riding a Unicorn.

That's why Oblivion could have really used some sort of faction system.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I just saw a couple threads on RPG's and how players often say they get really involved in the character they play, in some cases imagining they are the character in the fantasy world, righting wrongs and fighting evil and such. Becoming heavily invested.

I don't find anything wrong with this, but I just personally never feel that sort of connection to my character in RPG's.
Although I strangely find myself somewhat invested in more developed characters in non RPG games, characters which already have their own stories and personalities already decided by the game rather than the player, rather than playing an RPG and using a canvas which the developers use to make the player think 'You are this guy'.

I'm not sure why but I just don't feel any attachment at all to my character, but I to towards characters which are moreso out of my control.
Including both protagonists and NPC's.

So, do you prefer playing a character which has their own personality etc, or playing your character which is fully controlled by you?

so many non RPG games now days are just rubbish
and the RPG's I do play are by Bioware, and I fucking LOVE BIOWARE
so I'll often role play
I never play "Myself" because I'm a looser
but I role play all the same

but when games have a fully formed storyline like Enslaved or well...games that came out on the PS2, and they're good those are amazing

but the problem is that people now days just want to play Call of Duty where you run around as some one dimensional twat and there's no story more complex than shoot anyone that isn't you.
so that's the only kind of game that comes out

so until FPS games die out I'll stick to RPG's

thats a silly generalisation not everyone plays call of duty and there is a reason why Bioware games and Fallout ect are so popular (because not everyone likes call of duty type games)

of course not everyone
but enough to make the FPS genera a monopoly on what new companies make

so in the future instead of saying everyone I'll say "a monopolistic majority"
[sarcasm]but no body knows what that means [/sarcasm]

 

[theamazingbean]

I can go with either one, but I hate midling choices. Either give me a single well-developed character focus on, or give me a broad canvas to create with, now back to my tabletop.

 

[game-lover]

I pretty much prefer to play the role of a character. Playing "myself" just doesn't have the same burst of fun to it.

I can get heavily invested into my characters just fine. After all, roleplaying is still having to think about decisions and the result of such decisions.

 

[FalseMemorySyndrome]

Normally I feel more connected with a character if they have their own persona shinning through, not basing every action on your choice.

Like in Mass Effect 2. Regardless of how you play the game, I can't help but feel on terms with Shepard and his crew. I was pretty dissapointed that my entire crew didn't pull through the suicide mission (fuckin' Thane; why must you have a insain loyalty quest?!).

With Oblivion, I never felt anything for anyone due to the fact that no character had any depth. You had your good guys, normal people leaning towards being good guys then a couple of murderers and drug Skooma dealers. My own charcter could only be good or evil, and with dialogue options which simply mellowed down to "Sure NPC! I shall help you rescue your ______!" - "Your ______ missing? Too bad you won't ever find them after I kill you!" and of course the legendary "(Say Nothing)".

The only exception to this was when I was playing through the Wild Card scenario in Fallout:NV with a gambler style character. Because I had put a lot of thought into his charater (Naturally always analyzing the best odds and biggest pay-out), playing through the game knowing how it would be winner takes all and decieving everyother faction to increase his odds, it felt like I was actually playing as a character.

 

[veloper]

Just give me statistics, 6 teammembers and tactical combat.

I don't care if I have to play the Nameless one or asshole23.

 

[Telperion]

I feel it's difficult to really roleplay in CRPGs, since generally speaking you have a set of objectives that you have to complete, or else the game won't go forward. And usually the only way forward is to kill, kill, kill.

To me roleplaying is about choices and finding my own path to victory - which doesn't always include kill-kill-kill everyone. So, while at time I feel like, I'm roleplaying Sheppard in the ME games, most of the time I'm just blasting through waves of enemies with various weapons / powers. This sort of gaming doesn't really engage me on an emotional level, which is a prerequisite for (my) roleplaying. There are moments in ME 1 & 2 where it seems like I'm making a decision based on my emotions, but the choices are usually set up so that I already know what I'm going to choose based on the type of character I have chosen before the conversation wheel even shows up on the screen.

For example, if my character's background is a hardened combat survivalist then the choices presented on the conversational wheel suddenly don't feel so much like picking from a number of possibilities, but rather like picking the one that seems logical for my character. I suppose that's "playing a role", since I'm staying true to how I perceive Sheppard would act in any particular situation. However, for the most the part the choices made during the game's conversations are so obvious that you could just as well skip the conversation wheel and keep rolling forward with the in-game cut-scene. It wouldn't change anything, really.

What I'm driving at is that the choices made in video games are predefined by necessity, and thus they can never amount to more than a hollow illusion of what I perceive to be real roleplaying.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

I just saw a couple threads on RPG's and how players often say they get really involved in the character they play, in some cases imagining they are the character in the fantasy world, righting wrongs and fighting evil and such. Becoming heavily invested.

I don't find anything wrong with this, but I just personally never feel that sort of connection to my character in RPG's.
Although I strangely find myself somewhat invested in more developed characters in non RPG games, characters which already have their own stories and personalities already decided by the game rather than the player, rather than playing an RPG and using a canvas which the developers use to make the player think 'You are this guy'.

I'm not sure why but I just don't feel any attachment at all to my character, but I to towards characters which are moreso out of my control.
Including both protagonists and NPC's.

So, do you prefer playing a character which has their own personality etc, or playing your character which is fully controlled by you?

so many non RPG games now days are just rubbish
and the RPG's I do play are by Bioware, and I fucking LOVE BIOWARE
so I'll often role play
I never play "Myself" because I'm a looser
but I role play all the same

but when games have a fully formed storyline like Enslaved or well...games that came out on the PS2, and they're good those are amazing

but the problem is that people now days just want to play Call of Duty where you run around as some one dimensional twat and there's no story more complex than shoot anyone that isn't you.
so that's the only kind of game that comes out

so until FPS games die out I'll stick to RPG's

Actually, Black Ops has quite a nice twist to it's story and has a character with dialog and personality. And the shooting mechanics are damn good.

OT: I always do this, regardless of whether or not it's an RPG I've always gotten into character. Oddly enough though, I felt more in-character in Modern Warfare 2 than Mass Effect 2 where I just felt more immersed. Yeah, I'm odd.

 

[kogane]

I prefer playing characters I create (whee, Bioware). They never are me 100%, but they have... pieces of me, and so I feel far more involved in the decisions they make, and relationships they forge.

I've grown really tired of playing the same old "Totally Normal Dude, Who Just So Happens To Come Across The Girl/The Power To Save The World/etc" over and over again.

 

[GiantRaven]

I much prefer to play a character rather than be a character, which is why I find (to use a soon to be clichéd developer comparison) Bioware to be greater than Bethesda.

When I play Mass Effect I'm playing Commander Shepard who, even though s/he has a wide variety of opinions and character traits that won't be seen through a single playthrough is still a fully realised interesting character.

Compare this to Oblivion where you get the barest minimum of character developing input within dialogue section, being merely relegated to yelling buzz-phrases of the world at characters and having them reply. How you act in conversations with people has no bearing on who you are as a character.

There are, as I see it, mid-points between these two ideals that most RPGs seem to fall into with the Dragon Age, Fallout 3 (to use only recent examples) model of selecting a single dialogue choice in reply to/questioning another character but this still feels a little too close to being characterless to me personally, even though I still love games styled in this way.

Oh, and Alpha Protocol bloody well deserves a fanatical mention. Alpha Protocol approaches dialogue nigh on perfectly. It's fast, fluid, interesting and feels like you're really getting into Thorton's mindset no matter what combination of choices you pick. I'm perfectly willing to accept that I'm particularly biased about Alpha Protocol though since I would quite happily shout from the rooftops about how completely and utterly fantastic I think it is.

 

[VulakAerr]

I very much prefer to play into characters with bits of me in their personality. I'm less of a fan of playing as somebody whose personality already exists.

That said, I greatly enjoyed AC2 and ACB. Ezio is a likeable character and is probably my favourite protagonist of that type. What annoys me is when a developer uses the silent protagonist excuse. No, I don't feel more connected to Gordon Freeman because he's a fucking mute, not do I feel like I do, in any way, have similar motivations to the Master Chief. They are a character in themselves, so take advantage of that. Master Chief is a flipping superhero so run with that. Gordon Freeman could have been so much more than a blank slate and I find it SO frustrating that he's silent. Particularly in HL2 when there are so many conversations going on around him in which he doesn't interact at all! What's up with that?

MY Shepard, is my favourite character. I feel like when I play as manshep I can give him the same motivations I have, and when I play as femshep, I can play her as a character I might have written myself.