The myth of the blank slate?

[Tortilla the Hun]

I actually had a good discussion about this in a chat recently. And, while not an entirely blank slate workout gender or form, I still think this one character fits the general idea of a blank slate.

That character would be Chel. Yes, that one, from the nearly universally adored Portal series. Just think about it, she has no clear back story, no voice, and no motive other than progress (and by extension, staying alive).

While she can be attributed characteristics of being courageous and defiant, she really only becomes these things through player action. The player's motives are her motives, if only because they are about moving forward.

She has no thoughts other than any the player may have for her. She is truly just a model to project onto. But that's not such a bad thing.

 

[DoPo]

Sorry if that was a bit of a spoiler.

Don't worry - the reason why I hadn't progressed past the beginning was because I couldn't stand continuing the game. I had played the demo and I thought I could endure the bits I didn't like but when I started the game I found out I was wrong. I don't really care for spoilers if I am never going to play anyway.

 

[cleric of the order]

There is no such thing as a blank slate, every charterer has to have followed some form of evolutionary history and thus has traits indicative of that evolution and constrained by that evolution, failing that has a physical form.

 

[The_Darkness]

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.

I've always, without fail, treated the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Commander as an AI that's watching things from the CCTV cameras. I think it's also being kept unaware that it's an AI, for some reason. But it does explain how it's able to make a second of combat last forever while thinking up tactics on the battlefield, and why the Council seems happy to just say "Hi. This is the XCOM project. You're in charge," at the start.

But yeah, the XCOM Commander is a very blank slate.

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.

I agree - Fallout 3 was my first thought upon seeing this thread, although that has "you care about your dad" in it. Oblivion might be the better example, since about the only defining attribute to that character is "you'd like to not be in prison"...

 

[TheSlothOverlord]

Starcraft and Starcraft II come to mind.
In both games your character never objects to anything, comments on anything or says anything at all, but it IS there, because other characters directly refer to him per "commander", "cerebrate" or "executor".
Other than that Terraria (and maybe Minecraft, but I never played it). Again, your character never comments on anything or displays any personality at all.

 

[Delerien]

Freespace (and Freespace 2) actually does this surprisingly well.
The pilot is almost always referred to as "Alpha 1".
I never even noticed the lack of any characterisation during my playthroughs until someone pointed it out to me.
Even during the big speech at the end of the second game nothing is really said about who it was.

 

[shteev]

Doomguy seems pretty invisible. You see his face on the display, sure, but to me that's just a way of graphically representing the state of my health rather than my own face.