The Main Character

[Good morning blues]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

That's a complete cop-out. I can't very well "do it myself" if there aren't any tools in the game to help me out; all I can do is look at the screen and say, "My character is shy. My character really hates goblins. My character will take this quest because my character strongly believes in the rule of law." And then none of that has any in-game consequences whatsoever.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I liked Carmine from GoW. You win a cookie if you actually know who the hell this is. Hint: He doesn't take steroids.

Isn't he the one who always has the helmet on and is a new recruit?

He's the one who has his helmet on, isn't the size of a buick, and is shot in the head by a sniper just before you get the steroidotype that is Augustus Cole.

 

[waffletaco]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

That's a complete cop-out. I can't very well "do it myself" if there aren't any tools in the game to help me out; all I can do is look at the screen and say, "My character is shy. My character really hates goblins. My character will take this quest because my character strongly believes in the rule of law." And then none of that has any in-game consequences whatsoever.

Well actually, if you kill a guy, there are psychic guards that will chase your ass down. So yes there are consequences for being bad, but should there be consequences for being lawful? Do you expect some guy to go, "We hear you've been helping around town. We don't take too kindly to that around here in this town." If you say your guy is shy, you probably wouldn't take the mercantile or the speechcraft skills as major skills. Nor would you even try to raise them because you're so goddamn shy.

 

[Good morning blues]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

That's a complete cop-out. I can't very well "do it myself" if there aren't any tools in the game to help me out; all I can do is look at the screen and say, "My character is shy. My character really hates goblins. My character will take this quest because my character strongly believes in the rule of law." And then none of that has any in-game consequences whatsoever.

Well actually, if you kill a guy, there are psychic guards that will chase your ass down. So yes there are consequences for being bad, but should there be consequences for being lawful? Do you expect some guy to go, "We hear you've been helping around town. We don't take too kindly to that around here in this town." If you say your guy is shy, you probably wouldn't take the mercantile or the speechcraft skills as major skills. Nor would you even try to raise them because you're so goddamn shy.

Yeah, but that crap is all based on your allegiances and choices that I'm making outside of the game and could change at any moment. Even getting more speechcraft doesn't change how somebody talks to you - it just makes it so that it's easier to change their reaction score to you. In an Elder Scrolls game, I don't feel like a character - I feel like an avatar with a list of stats. In a better start-from-a-blank-slate game, there are ways to give my character some actual personality; games like Fallout and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines at least switch up the dialogue options. Don't get me wrong, I like the Elder Scrolls games, I just feel that for a role-playing game, they don't do a very good job of letting me play a role. I'm just a blank avatar with a sword in the middle of an impressive story.

 

[hypothetical fact]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

That's a complete cop-out. I can't very well "do it myself" if there aren't any tools in the game to help me out; all I can do is look at the screen and say, "My character is shy. My character really hates goblins. My character will take this quest because my character strongly believes in the rule of law." And then none of that has any in-game consequences whatsoever.

Well actually, if you kill a guy, there are psychic guards that will chase your ass down. So yes there are consequences for being bad, but should there be consequences for being lawful? Do you expect some guy to go, "We hear you've been helping around town. We don't take too kindly to that around here in this town." If you say your guy is shy, you probably wouldn't take the mercantile or the speechcraft skills as major skills. Nor would you even try to raise them because you're so goddamn shy.

Playing a role in a role playing game, what madness! Seriously though fallout 3 lets you roleplay slightly more with perks; for example I am roleplaying a robot so I take the lead belly, cybernetic implants, solar power, iron fist etc perks. I also setting my attributes as useless in charasma and intelligence and maxed in strength and endurance. The final step is to take the neutral course in all quests except when it involves other robots.

But if my main character will be preset then I want the model in the revealing outfit, so I have something to gawk at slackjawed while running around the map.

 

[waffletaco]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

That's a complete cop-out. I can't very well "do it myself" if there aren't any tools in the game to help me out; all I can do is look at the screen and say, "My character is shy. My character really hates goblins. My character will take this quest because my character strongly believes in the rule of law." And then none of that has any in-game consequences whatsoever.

Well actually, if you kill a guy, there are psychic guards that will chase your ass down. So yes there are consequences for being bad, but should there be consequences for being lawful? Do you expect some guy to go, "We hear you've been helping around town. We don't take too kindly to that around here in this town." If you say your guy is shy, you probably wouldn't take the mercantile or the speechcraft skills as major skills. Nor would you even try to raise them because you're so goddamn shy.

Playing a role in a role playing game, what madness! Seriously though fallout 3 lets you roleplay slightly more with perks; for example I am roleplaying a robot so I take the lead belly, cybernetic implants, solar power, iron fist etc perks. I also setting my attributes as useless in charasma and intelligence and maxed in strength and endurance. The final step is to take the neutral course in all quests except when it involves other robots.

But if my main character will be preset then I want the model in the revealing outfit, so I have something to gawk at slackjawed while running around the map.

Well other than the fact that you got pushed out of your mother's vagina at the beginning of the game, I'd say that's a pretty good role.

I made a Liam Neeson look-alike but fashioned the stats/skills to be a sickly decently charismatic, intelligent, weak, and lucky guy with tagged speech, repair, and medicine who would be a blank slate character that slowly learns the wastelands. Soon enough, he grows and eventually hates drugs because of what he had done for money after he got hooked on jet and later went cold turkey on the stuff for 2 months to get clean. All this suffering just after he left the vault all because of the 2 men he met at Megaton. That's right: this man got hooked because of Stahl and then blew up Megaton for the 1000 caps for drug money.

 

[Nutcase]

When you read a comic, you take two sequential panels and your head fills in whatever lies between them, like an action, a passing of time or a change of location. If in the first panel you see a man and a pile of boxes, and in the next the boxes are piled in the back of a truck and the man is holding a cloth to his brow, the panel combination causes you to "see" him loading up the boxes, sweating and wiping the sweat off.

From the reactions of other characters it seems obvious to me that "Gordon Freeman" actually does talk, but it happens between panels, so to speak. Your imagination fills in as much detail as necessary. Freeman isn't a character as much as a label and an empty vessel for you to fill. In a voice acted game, not hearing your own character's voice is an artistic choice that makes it easier. Erasing the text is just one step further.

A fleshed out character that was genuinely mute would be totally different.

 

[TheBadass]

I liked Carmine from GoW. You win a cookie if you actually know who the hell this is. Hint: He doesn't take steroids.

That was partly why I was so pissed when he die. Twice. Why couldn't the funny live? Kill Baird instead.

 

[Proto Cloud]

I've always wondered why most game characters are either half naked women doing things that normally include killing everyone, and if not that then men who are sarcastic and tough mother ****ers... and apparently all have brown hair and forgot to shave this morning. Not to mention both normally have cheesy romances in the game. It's only been a few times I haven't seen this. So I was wondering what your take on what makes a good main character.

Welcome to the world of First Person Shooters! For our first display we'll show you the famed "stereotypical" characters and then the "Power Armor"!

 

[goater24]

wWhat makes a good game character???? Well naturally a rugged half naked woman who doesn't shave regulary is my ideal game character.

That failing I'm not fussed how they look but what motivates them is what counts. Sombody you can relate to ie there emotions. When you bond with a character aethetics go out the window. Thats why old snes rgs are still to this day.

 

[MrGFunk]

So I was wondering what your take on what makes a good main character.

Good main characters, for me, are usually in games where emotion comes into play and they react in a believable way to the situation they're in. My great game characters are, and I'm shocked no one has mentioned this.

Ico.
Shadow of the colossus.
Silent Hill 2 (especially, but probably the whole series)
Link - Ocarina of time

I'm not bad mouthing anyone, I know the King of all the Cosmos and The Prince are cool characters, but they live in cut scenes, the Prince's presence in game is arbitary. Surely the main character is the Katamari itself

 

[mhitman]

You have to like the main character atleast a bit.

 

[xitel]

You know, to be honest, I actually liked Dante from DMC3. His sarcasm was just priceless.

 

[songnar]

For Elder Scrolls, you create your own character. Aside from how he or she may look, everything from his personality and memories are yours to decide. The only thing the game really does is set the lore and world and it also gives you stuff to do in said world.

I understand that, but there's really nothing in the game to give your character any sort of personality. They're just a blank avatar that goes between the stuff to do and reads lore every now and then.

Holy flamboyant, Batman! That explains quite a bit! For example - why the emo crowd doesn't like to play oblivion! BUH-ZING!

On a more serious note, yeah, I agree, most of the time the characters are not well made but if you ever get a chance to try the original Suikoden (a CHINESE rpg, yeah, Chinese and not japanese) do give it a shot. The characters are very well made even though there are over 108 of them.

You do it yourself. Like the saying goes, if you want a job done right, you do it yourself. You wouldn't want to play as someone whom you didn't like, right?

 

[JMeganSnow]

-He actually WORKS in a romance. Why? Because he's not a romantic. When the prince falls for Fara, he doesn't declare his love to the heavens. He starts planning their wedding like shes and object he can just take. He's been spoiled and it shows.

Lord, this was probably the funniest moment in the entire game, and it's placed so well when you don't have anything to do except trot down the corridor and listen to his silly plan for how he's going to "help Farah out".

Even better was that he never actually got around to proposing this plan to Farah, so they didn't have the tedious scene where she gets upset, which would have ruined it. The proper response, of course, is to burst out laughing as in Girl Genius.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Characters tend to be why i lean more towards JRPGs rather than western RPGs, take Oblivion for example, you don't get any personal dialogue. You must stare down these people until they give you your quests etc.
Whereas in JRPGs all the charaters have their dialogue, some of which is plain hilarious.
It always makes me enjoy a game that bit more.

 

[hattifnatt]

Why hasnt Mafia been mentioned yet? Dialoge and caracters in that game is awesome.