Has anyone seen an actual blank slate character in a video game? I was thinking about this and well a lot of games can have characters with very little characterization, but I have never seen a character completely blank. They always go in and defined something like gender for some reason. It's more like we get blank mad-libs with some parts filled in and other parts not. What is the blankest character you can think of?
The myth of the blank slate?
- Thread starter nomotog_v1legacy
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I don't think when people say blank slate they literally mean no traits at all. Most the time you need a model and even if your character consists of only a floating pair arms and some exertion noises they are going end up being gendered. It just means minimal, usually the absence of dialogue so the players insert their own thoughts and feelings.
Most blank would probably be the Bethesda RPGs (a bit less of one with Fallout 3 though), Mount and Blade and other similar rpgs due to minimal dialogue, little background info and a CC.
Most blank would probably be the Bethesda RPGs (a bit less of one with Fallout 3 though), Mount and Blade and other similar rpgs due to minimal dialogue, little background info and a CC.
Your guardian in Destiny?
I mean, you have the backstory of being someone who was dead brought back by a little robot, but other than that? Other than a few sprinklings of dialogue in a few cutscenes, any characterization is in the player's mind.
I mean, you have the backstory of being someone who was dead brought back by a little robot, but other than that? Other than a few sprinklings of dialogue in a few cutscenes, any characterization is in the player's mind.
I don't think a blank slate character can work in any kind of narrative, since we need some kind of personality to identify with or be able to project (i.e, written dialogue). Or at the very least have a clear motivation for why we do what we do. Which is why I think the common term is "faceless" protagonist or player proxy. It's still a character, you just don't see it act independently of you.
Magicka. You never talk or see what you look like under those robes. Same goes for all the wizards in that game actually.
There's also strategy games I guess. Games like Halo Wars and Starcraft (I think) it's explained that you, the commander/general is looking at the battlefield from orbit in your spaceship. Same thing for XCOM but I don't exactly know how you can see everything since your base is underground.
There's also strategy games I guess. Games like Halo Wars and Starcraft (I think) it's explained that you, the commander/general is looking at the battlefield from orbit in your spaceship. Same thing for XCOM but I don't exactly know how you can see everything since your base is underground.
Most WRPGs?
Usually the only characterization you have is why you exist, or why you're in the situation you're in at the start of the game. Be it because you're the son of an evil god, or because you're just one of several students in an adventurer academy. There's also the invisible entity in strategy games, particularly in RTS games like Starcraft.
But really, in most management type games it's like this, except the part that the character owns whatever business the game is built around, he is not really important, since he is supposed to be you.
Usually the only characterization you have is why you exist, or why you're in the situation you're in at the start of the game. Be it because you're the son of an evil god, or because you're just one of several students in an adventurer academy. There's also the invisible entity in strategy games, particularly in RTS games like Starcraft.
But really, in most management type games it's like this, except the part that the character owns whatever business the game is built around, he is not really important, since he is supposed to be you.
There's a little first-person puzzle game on Steam called "Kairo", where you play as someone traversing bleak and bizarre landscapes. As there's no dialogue, no mirrors and no character model, there's no way to know who or even what you are.
Umm, what games have you been playing? Let's see:nomotog said:
- Neverwinter Nights - pick race, sex, class, attributes, and everything. The only thing "defined" for the character is that they went to that hero academy thing...which is the tutorial. Almost the same happens in the expansion Shadows of the Undrentide, only instead of hero academy, you have a private tutor for heroes. Hordes of the Underdark then picks up after it, though if you start a new character, they'd have a bit of stuff defined, as it's assumed they've done some generic heroics until they got to the expansion.
- in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning the entire premise and major plot point of the game is that your character is just that - a blank slate. You remember nothing, you know nothing, you can do whatever you want, including your classes and stuff.
- the Elder Scrolls games give you pretty much complete freedom. At most you could say that they define "being a prisoner" as being a background (though you aren't in Dagerfall, and that actually has you as an agent of the Emperor established at the start) but other than that you're a random smuck with no defining characteristics. Even the prophesies are shown to not be strictly true.
- KOTOR 2 actually did that in a novel matter - you get to choose how your backstory actually played out during various conversations, almost nothing is set in stone.
- in Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura the only detail about your character that's very definitely nailed down is...that you were in a Zeppelin. It's the one that crashes in the beginning and you survive. I don't think I'd call this much of characterisation. That's, I believe, pretty much the entire background we get on your character, too. Well, unless you pick a history (they give some bonuses and penalties to your character).
- similar to that in Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines the only background detail you get for your character is "they've been seduced by a vampire". Unless you also count "they were in Santa Monica at the time". Even Samantha, who appears much later for a single conversation, and who claims to know you, may not actually know you. Sure, it's very likely she did, but there is the possibility she really did took you for somebody else. I guess it loses some more points because you can't choose your appearance (it's only one skin per clan/sex combo) but still pretty much complete freedom of the background. There are histories again but they are optional
- Dragon Age: Origins has the origins but aside from them (and you can choose which one you have) there is nothing else defined for your character.
That's just from the top of my head. I guess the most blank slate of all would come from KoA, as, again, that's the entire point of it but I think ES would come pretty close.
EDIT: Turned out there is some backstory for your character in KoA I was not aware of.
I think I would class ES as more blank slate than KoA even though KoA uses it as a theme simply because KoA dose give your character a background and you had a personality before you died. Their current personality and skill set is a blank slate and they have no fate but their history is not blank. ES you never even got told why you were in prison except in Skyrim where it's that you were crossing the border illegally. You can make the background whatever you like so long as they get imprisoned. You are tied to a prophecy but in ES prophesies aren't guaranteed.DoPo said:
Well, I've not finished KoA (actually I've not moved on from the start) but I assumed your backstory was pretty much discarded after the resurrection. I don't know if that's the case, but that was what I was working on.DementedSheep said:
Blank slate character is not an absolutely unidentifyable nothingness. It's just a character with minimum character traits. Almost any wRPG main character is an example of blank slate character. IMHO, most recognizable sign of this type of character is lack of initiative.
WRONG!SoreWristed said:
Without going into details you do end up meeting some people from your past and they tell you what you were like. It was a bit annoying when I got to that because it's pretty far in and I had already had a back-story in mind because I had assumed your past would be remain irrelevant. Ah well.DoPo said:
Sorry if that was a bit of a spoiler.
Well, My first thought was the characters of Final Fantasy, the first one, I mean. It took me until the internet age to find out that the white mage is apparently a girl. Talk about an example of amazing female characterization right there.
Also, I guess in games like X-com or CoC, I mean, They're so blank slate that they're usually represented as some faceless amorphous voidbeing of some sort, along the same species as Anonymous, or Slenderman I'd guess.
Also, I guess in games like X-com or CoC, I mean, They're so blank slate that they're usually represented as some faceless amorphous voidbeing of some sort, along the same species as Anonymous, or Slenderman I'd guess.