Building Character... - The Bear and Badger

dynamiteReady

Was recently thinking about how we associate most of the games we play, with the characters we assume within them.

With the overwhelming popularity of the FPS genre and the herald of proper mass market AR and VR devices, we now see (and will see) the main character a lot less than we once did in the 16 bit era. And as Edge magazine once noted, game characters are becoming more and more realistic in terms of both visceral appeal, and their back stories... Is this desirable?

Also touching on a subject closely related to issues discussed in the 'gender/misogyny' thread, how are we expected to identify with the characters we are supposedly inhabiting? Sure, I don't mind shooting people in games, but do I have to be a soldier? Again?

Why aren't comprehensive character customization options more prevalent? Is that purely a technical issue? And where games like San Andreas (or GTA generally) allow you to mold your character through play, is it not frustrating to find that you still have no choice (or, as in GTA 6, a limited choice) over who you play as?

And while the industry is now more popular than ever, how have characters that in some cases had been established more than 20 years ago, managed to retain such a high profile?

Could you imagine a Zelda game without Link?

I mean who in the fuck actually bothered with Luigi's Mansion? And what was the point of adding Remy to Third Strike?

IanHamlett

I would play a Zelda game without Link. It's the structure I'm there for. He's not even a character and the story is the russian fairy tale template.

Character customisation can fuck off unless it happens within the fiction of the game (like getting a haircut in GTA).

beano

Amazing.

I like awkward characters. I like badass characters. I like happy characters. But I think it's all part of the immersion (a dense-character) and the fantasy. I'd say it's certainly desirable given the context, i.e. being an SAS badass or being Link.

Leading on to the question of identity, I don't think it's a question of identifying with a character, more so a role. If I don't like the character, I don't want to be done with the game as I'll probably mull over what I would've done in that situation.

I hate a lack of character customisation, even though 9 times out 10, I pick a default.

Popular veteran characters are brands, and ergo marketing will fuel their profile, parents will talk to their kids about them, kids will talk to kids about them...

What do you mean, without Link? Do you mean, without a hero...I guess not. Well yeah I can, it's not very good as I am shit at character design.

Reg. Reg.

Diluted Dante

Luigi has far more character than Mario.

[Deleted User]

Depends on the game for me and how well it is presented.
Master Chief is a bad ass and I want to play as him.
Whereas the hugely open world of Skyrim lends itself to a hugely open character in terms of looks and personality, half the fun for me in these types of games is inventing a character of my own and playing the game as if I was them. I don't play Skyrim thinking what decision I would make but rather what decision the character I have invented would make.

Sunset Overdrive customisation was great fun too.

mistercrayon

Saints Row has an excellent Customer Creation tool. - Choose irridescent blue skin if you want.

davyK

Couldn't care less about characters in games. At the tittle tattle, button mashing and costume selection just gets in the way. But then I'm not one for narrative in games.

Mario's grunts and hollers in M64 convey a character inasmuch as he comes across as a up for a scrap, but that's enough for me.

Diluted Dante

But what's his motivation Davy?

Kow

Mushrooms, he's into mushrooms.

Skerret

I'm not entirely in board with your assertion that characters are becoming more realistic with a backstory to match. In mainstream games yes, homogeneity is obvious, but there are loads of interesting little games whose protagonist is a lump of meat, a wee white blob in a fez or a cube, all visible and imbued with memorable characteristics.

There have always been generic soulless avatars for the player to inhabit, it's just that in the last decade or so tech has made that route much more effective (re: FPS and VR, though there's still loads of 3rd person games like Dark Souls in which your avatar is purely for projection). There are still plenty of characters that have, um, character, and a voice of their own.

Kow

Games are varied, shocker!

adkm1979

I started a thread about this kind of thing back when we were actually an Edge forum.

Back then, given the choice I would style characters to look something like me, because in all games I end up projecting myself onto the character. When describing games I'll say, "I did this, I did that," as opposed to, "I made Lara do this, I made Nathan do that," which, I suppose, would be a more accurate description.

These days I don't design characters to look like me, even though I still project myself onto them. This is nothing to do with escapism or vicarious adventure, but mostly because making them look anything like me makes them look shit.

I'm only an occasional FPS fan, and Occulus can go and die for all I care (and it will, btw) but really, I don't care if character generation dies. I'm fed up of unlocking rainbow afro clown wigs.

Kow

Kudos to Demons Souls for allowing you to make only hideous characters then giving you no backstory or personality at all anyway. "Spend time making a character, we don't fucking care"

Skerret

Kow wrote:

Games are varied, shocker!

Yes'm.

Outlaw

I love character personality and storylines in games. I don't mind characters looking overly stylised if it's part of the style and fits the context of the game. And also if it doesn't come to dominate all games - some games need to be realistic, some need to be cartoony, some need to be very stylised.

I would absolutely love to see more female leads, obviously, but I am also dying to see more non-white leads.

davyK

Diluted Dante wrote:

But what's his motivation Davy?

(smiles)

Actually the kids had a good laugh when I created myself in Tiger Woods Golf, belly and all.

Blue Swirl

dynamiteReady wrote:

And what was the point of adding Remy to Third Strike?

I actually quite like the bat shit insane character roster in Third Strike. I hope some of the more mental ones like Twelve and Q come back for Street Fighter V.

Though I fully understand why SF III was ignored at the time - mental characters and 2D sprites when 3D the flavour of the month, and as has been mentioned, familiar characters definitely help a game sell.

IanHamlett

What's more important to me is that the story and mechanics work together. I enjoyed Uncharted but this happy go lucky adventurer / mass murderer was a problem.

Brooks

I like cool action figure object puppet things.

cosmicjellybean

I tend to create protagonists I don't usually find in other games/media when I can customise. In Skyrim I was a female redguard, in the souls games I sort of went through a 'family tree' where in each I made a japanese girl sort of similar to the last game. kinda like generations in Rogue legacy or link in zelda now I think about it.

Yeah I love making my own characters, but I also like great characters that you control. I don't play many fps' or action games anymore as I got kinda tired of the faceless soldier man. I didn't hate new dante but the fact he was 'new and shocking' is probably saying something...

Also I love link, but more the idea of link, with each generation picking up the mantle. I was really excited when I heard that next zelda might have a female link.

cosmicjellybean

Also every game should just have you play as Chie.

dynamiteReady

Blue Swirl wrote:

And what was the point of adding Remy to Third Strike?

I actually quite like the bat shit insane character roster in Third Strike. I hope some of the more mental ones like Twelve and Q come back for Street Fighter V. Though I fully understand why SF III was ignored at the time - mental characters and 2D sprites when 3D the flavour of the month, and as has been mentioned, familiar characters definitely help a game sell.

Alpha did pretty well though, and I wonder if the addition of the Final Fight characters had a big part in that. And staying on the subject of fighting games, the Marvel Comic book crossovers spawned close to 7 games...

I occasionally think, deep down, Capcom played a huge part in the Marvel Comics revival of the late 90's, and the successive Hollywood/Marvel love in. Those games are a good analogue to this thread. People were drawn to those games, because of the whole "leap tall buildings in a single bound!" thing.

So Capcom took that essential character trait, and made a great collection of games from it.

Those games would not have worked without the Marvel license I think, though the Guilty Gear revival appears to be going quite well (a similarly wacky game, with a strong reliance on it character/characters)... But that's another story though, and I was never too deep into that game.

Funny related side story this... A mate of mine once got so into the Guilty Gear games, that he started listening to Metal, and taught himself the guitar...

Sure, that's not a phenomenon that's isolated to games, but it does appear to be more keenly observed in videogame culture...

dynamiteReady

cosmicjellybean wrote:

Also every game should just have you play as Chie.

Heh! She was an awesome character.

Bollockoff

TF2 has provided some of the most memorable characters in gaming for me this gen just gone. Because they have just enough character to supplement the lunacy of the setting. These two vids of a series are fairly short yet get everything across about the classes that they need to. Later ones were several minutes long and were just shit. Same with the comics Valve started getting out. Just weren't needed.

Bollockoff

Plus they make great tatty action figures.

Brooks

I think the character creation suites are the only good thing about current AAA titles. And Saints Row has the best of those.

Bollockoff

I can't say I remember characters for having "depth" either. More for being cunts. Like Yurt and Patches in Demon's.

IanHamlett

Master Chief was an odd one. No face as if I was supposed to project myself onto him, but he wasn't a flat character. He was dull and had virtually no backstory but his actions were not the actions of average joe an extraordinary situation.

Blue Swirl

Bollockoff wrote:

TF2 has provided some of the most memorable characters in gaming for me this gen just gone.

'Meet the Sniper' is a gorram classic and should have it's own permanent display at The Louvre.

IanHamlett wrote:

Master Chief was an odd one.

Master Chief is the very embodiment of the 'strong and silent' character type. Up there with Gordon Freeman on the 'awesome characters that have no right to be this awesome' list. You never see his face but he still gives a better performance than any of the indentikit grizzled veterans from the plethora of CoD games.

dynamiteReady

Blue Swirl wrote:

Bollockoff wrote:

TF2 has provided some of the most memorable characters in gaming for me this gen just gone.

'Meet the Sniper' is a gorram classic and should have it's own permanent display at The Louvre.

IanHamlett wrote:

Master Chief was an odd one.

Master Chief is the very embodiment of the 'strong and silent' character type. Up there with Gordon Freeman on the 'awesome characters that have no right to be this awesome' list. You never see his face but he still gives a better performance than any of the indentikit grizzled veterans from the plethora of CoD games.

You get to see Master Chief in the game though, don't you?
I don't think Freeman appears on anything but the box art.

Blue Swirl

dynamiteReady wrote:

You get to see Master Chief in the game though, don't you? I don't think Freeman appears on anything but the box art.

It's true. Everything you learn about Freeman is via how the other characters react to you. Chief manages to display a range of emotions without ever taking his helmet off. The plot of the Halo games is bat shit insane at the best of times, but that's a massive achievement for 343/Bungie.

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