Your thoughts on 'mute' protaganists

[DustyDrB]

I think I hate first-person for the same reason a lot of people hate mute characters. If I can't see my character, I have no connection to it, cannot become immersed, and do not care about it.

Someone mentioned Fable. I did hate the player character in Fable because they try to make such ridiculous things into actually interaction (farts, fist pumps). I'd rather there be no attempt at conversation that that crap.

 

[soapyshooter]

I hate the idea. At least make him like Master Chief, talks but not a lot. Its so awkward having a silent protagonist.

 

[The Spectator]

Haha, well I like it because a series was made based on it: Freeman's Mind. Which is pretty funny.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Recently I did something which for some reason I never thought I would do, played Half-life. Quite why I thought I would never do this I had no idea, but it got me thinking. Gordon Freeman is possibly the most famous of the 'mute' protagnists in games and manages to remain silent even when facing off against *possible spoiler!* a 30 foot flying alien with a head that evolution obviously ignored.

However, I liked this as it allowed me to project my thoughts and feelings into Gordon's emotional blank canvas. Granted, others may not share this view but I'd love to find out what the feelings are of other Escapists on this matter.

It doesn't usually bother me at all, however it really got to me in Dragon Age. But I suppose they reserved the brilliant voice acting for Mass Effect, but still I wish the main character had talked more. I got bored after 50 hours in that game, forced myself to finish the last 20.

 

[Ironsouled]

Hmm, depends on the game. If its an RPG the silent protagonist is just Stupid. A shooter though.. I feel a bit more like I'm the one busting caps in nazis... and chuckling all the way. I don't have to get immersed in a shooter, although I have run across a couple truly immersive shooters and loved em... but immersion isn't necessary in a game I play to decompress, at least in my opinion.

 

[ultrachicken]

I like characters that don't talk much. I don't like characters that never talk or never shut up.

 

[Nicarus]

I kind of like how Halo does it. The soldier sometimes talks.

And when he talks, awesome happens.

As for the subject, I find it strange at times. One thing comes to mind, and that's Golden Sun. In the first game, Isasc is silent and the villian (later protagonist) Felix talks. Then it goes the other way around in the sequel. What's with that?

I also like Yahtzee's way of putting it: if the protagonist could talk, then they could warn people of stuff by saying "That is the stupidest idea ever!"

I don't mind the silent protagonist, but I would prefer some kind of sayings.

 

[WayOutThere]

Muted protagonists are acceptable and perhaps even preffered in games where story doesn't matter. However, it games where story does matter it is STUPID. It is an obvious hiderance to your ability to tell a story and it apparently done this way so you can, as the OP said, for immersion but I never #*@% notice a diffrence.

Half life is supposed to be immersive but I scoff at that. So what if I never leave Gordon's perspective if all there usually ever is to actually immerse me is a bunch of drab shooting action? All this does is leave me unimmersed and wondering why they never expect me to talk. You want me to feel like I'm actually the protagonist? Give me some #%^@ dialoge options so I can make his personality my own! That's something that would actually make a diffrence! Instead we're left with stories that easily could have been improved upon.

Alright, maybe I'm just venting a little bit. Most of the games with silent protagonists I've played had some of the better stories found in gaming (FEAR, Bioshock, The Suffering, Dead Space, and even Half Life). In the former two games having a silent protagonists goes half-way towards making sense the poor history-less bastards.

So in summary I suppose I can't have much of a complaint until I see games with silent protagonists telling sub-par stories by video games standards as blisteringly idiotic as I think the whole idea of silent protagonists is.

 

[Christopher Waldron]

Speech options do seem to make the most logical sense, although in most options it'd be the choice between nice, nuetral or bad which dosent really work as a means of developing personality in my opinion.

 

[traceur_]

HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE them!

It's just so bloody unimmersive.

Dragon Age would have been a good game if the player character had a voice. There's nothing worse than picking "You bastard! You murdered my family! I'll kill you" in the dialogue menu then seeing your character stand there with a blank face like he's waiting for the bus.

I want to be told the story, not bits of it and then made to fill in the blanks with some nerdy role-playing crap. I don't want to be a hero, unless you can make the character look exactly like me and respond to everything exactly as I would, then it falls helplessly into a mangled heap at the bottom of the uncanny valley. I want to hear and play the story of someone else, I have at least a decent idea of how I'd react to that stuff in most games (running away screaming "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Running! Running! Running!"), I want to see how this other guy deals with it, how he kills the villain and saves the damsel or whatever.

 

[Christopher Waldron]

If somebody was wiping out all the aliens trying to kill me I think I can deal with him being a bit rude to me.

 

[GrinningManiac]

I hate the way some games do it where they get all the characters around you to tell the player what his protagonist is doing

"Don't look so scared"
"What's that, John? He's right, we should recombobulate the thingamijig-o-matic!"

 

[Christopher Waldron]

Although to be fair when other characters go on long winded explanations of what you're doing to get around the whole 'strong silent' thing, it can be quite funny.

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

I really hate it. It makes it impossible to care about the character you're controlling. Like in Modern Warfare

Spoiler

When you finish the No Russian mission and then the guy shoots you, I just felt like 'So what? I never even learned this guys name. For all I know, this guy might just be the soldier nobody likes and who sits in the corner alone eating glue'

Agree. Honestly, I couldn't give a damn when

Spoiler

Roach died. I was more upset about Ghost. As far as I know, Roach could have been a floating camera with arms.

I hate when a character shares a story with you and the protagonist just stares at him. It kills the immersion. I can't root and care for a chunk of rock. I don't pretend it's me. When I play a game, I like to think that the character is my protege. This is his/her story, not mine.

Let's take Dead Space. It's a story-driven game. Isaac Clarke has a name, a face and a backstory. Why the hell didn't they give him a voice? It's just so mind-numbingly dumb.

Dragon Age would have been a good game if the player character had a voice. There's nothing worse than picking "You bastard! You murdered my family! I'll kill you" in the dialogue menu then seeing your character stand there with a blank face like he's waiting for the bus.

Exactly. IMO, that was the only problem of the game. It's one of the reasons I didn't like The Warden as much as I like Shepard.

 

[Christopher Waldron]

I know what you mean about caring more about Ghost, me and a friend were talking about how we fealt exactly the same a few days ago.

 

[Christopher Waldron]

Just played GOW2, jeez I wish Dom was a mute...blah blah wife blah blah wife etc.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

It gives more immersion, and it's good to think the thoughts and expressions your character could be doing are matching yours now.

But it can be annoying, under some circumstances.

 

[DrEmo]

I think they should get the Jak treatment. Jak was silent throughout Jak and Daxter but in Jak 2 he spoke. His first words were "IM GONNA KILL PRAXIS"
So, yeah.

Gordon Freeman should stop being such a postmodernist hipster and vocalize for once.
Freeman: "IM GONNA KILL PRAXIS... I mean... I'M GONNA KILL THOSE ALIENS"

I prefer the faceless hero, such as Master Chief, The Rookie (ODST) and some others I can't remember now. It gives them an air of undeserved mystery and they're easier for photoshopping other people's heads onto their bodies.