Go me! Shameless Self-promotion is here!

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Destructoid - The Future: The silent protagonist will win



My little victory for week. I got published front page on Destructoid today.

I was wondering where the hell that entry went earlier today, I was going to post another entry and then it was just gone. Then around 8pm EST, there it was on the frontpage.

I've actually been using that blog as a means of taking writing seriously again and also seeing where I need to improve. I also saw proof of a copy editor's touch which, in my history, always means they'll make one error. It was in my second lead paragraph the incomplete "needed." bit, but I'll live. At the very least, it means my work is still presentable.

My attempt last month didn't get accepted, so a getting it on the second try felt good. Probably helps my topic was also more unique. Last month I chose to talk about FFVIII as a Love/Hate topic theme and Final Fantasy already had two turns.

[Feba]

Re: Go me! Shameless Self-promotion is here!

Not bad, and I would like to see a resurgence in silent protagonists, but I think there's room for all kinds.

We will always need the Solid Snakes-- the characters that follow [roughly] the same story every time, that have set dialogues. This is how we will get the cinematic experiences, the finely crafted legends.

We will also need Lucas Kanes-- characters that have some set routines, but allow us to explore with freedom, large or small. Still their own character, but with influence from the player.

One character type I don't think you mentioned is the non-silent protagonist where you are the voice. This is most common, of course, in online games, but there is at least one offline game where you provide the voice of the character you play as-- Life Line. Basically, you provide command via voice control, but you're also talking to the lead character (which is a rather obedient and stupid NPC). As AI becomes better and better, this will be more common-- not just the "I talk to the game instead of selecting from premade buttons" type, where you can have infinite conversations with NPCs, but also the general idea of "the game responds to how you act within it, allowing you to form your own story". Again, this already happens in online games (EVE again comes to mind), where it's not nearly so much the game reacting as other players; which makes the process very automatic and easy to pull off well. After all, what better to provide political drama than players making their own attacks and proclamations? I think Left4Dead did this, or was supposed to, but I never had much interest in it, and never played it, so I'm not really sure.

The silent protagonist can fill pretty much any of these roles-- in a cinematic game (Metroid did this, particularly MP3), in a more free choice based game, or in one which is completely open without any premade endings or plotlines; but not necessarily better or worse than the other options.

[Empedocles]

Re: Go me! Shameless Self-promotion is here!

Very nice.

I do like a silent protagonist, if it's part of the character's profile. Such as in GTA3, the reason why the guy didn't have any dialogue was because he got shot in the throat, iirc. If they are a person of few words, I'd expect there to be some lines in there. It's hard to accept a character who doesn't speak at all throughout an entire game, with no reason given as to why.

With games nowadays having characters that are more and more fleshed-out, it's hard to present the game and cause the player to believe they are that person. I don't believe voice acting changes this.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Go me! Shameless Self-promotion is here!

There's certainly room for all kinds, but I enjoy slipping fully into the main character if the game allows me to. I haven't played Metroid Prime Corruption yet, but I was aware it had some kind of Halo-ish intro and tutorial, along with one of the MPH bounty hunters making an appearance.

If they voiced Samus and she sounded like Motoko Kusanagi, strong but feminine, I think that is what I'd want to hear. Whether or not that's what Nintendo eventually goes with is anyone's guess, though.

Also, you know you did a good job when you get livid, angry responses taking one element completely out of context.