Interesting Game Characters

[Dog Pants]

I was reading a PCG report about a presentation on representation in gaming (bear with me), included in which was the claim that lack of diversity is boring. I'm not really interested in getting on that soapbox again, but it did get me thinking about characters I have found interesting. I don't think any of them were the gruff marine type, apart from maybe Capt Price from the CoD series. Not many were minorities in any real sense either, but like I said I'm not really thinking about that here. Some off the top of my head then:

Gordon Freeman. Probably on many lists, he's notable for being a skinny scientist with glasses from a time where most protagonists really were the gruff marine types. And he managed to make such a big impression without saying a word. Alyx Vance later provided another coup for the strong female character, but personally I didn't find her particularly interesting.

Alistair from Dragon Age is a favourite of mine. He's a brilliant departure from the normal anti-hero. Rather than being all moody and emo, he's reluctant because he's terrified of the responsibility, that he's going to fuck it all up and let everyone down. I personally found him hugely likeable for that and so empathised with him a lot, not something many characters manage. Props also go to Sandal, the savant enchanter.

Erm, I might think of some more later. Anyone else have any standout characters in mind?

[Joose]

Alyx Vance later provided another coup for the strong female character, but personally I didn't find her particularly interesting.

See, that sentence makes no sense to me as I understand the term "strong female character" as far as people use it to describe what computer game ladies generally aren't. I think the "strong" part refers to a figurative strength, rather than a physical strength or even strength of will or something. Its more strong like a flavour could be described as strong. I would call Clementine from the Walking Dead a "strong female character" because she isn't a shallow girly cliché.

In fact, I would consider Clem a good answer to your actual question too.

As a slightly oddball answer: The Overlord, from Overlord. OK, so he might not have much in the way of backstory or character development or any of the other things people normally talk about when they are discussing good characters, but he does an excellent job of embodying the archetype in a way that I don't think has ever been done that well before: It really feels like you are a badass in charge of a horde of loyal underlings.

Sam Fisher. At least in the earlier Splinter Cell games. I loved the contrast between his personality/attitude (which always put me in mind of a jolly but professional workman, like a really good plumber or something) and his job (techno-ninja who hangs off pipes in order to twist terrorists heads off). Somehow it managed to seem perfectly plausible and natural whilst still being a strange mix. Despite the fact that what I mostly saw him doing was calmly and silently murderkilling I always thought he would be the kind of person I would happily go for a pint with and would trust to babysit my children (not that I have any). Very strange, but nice. Went a bit wrong with the later games though.

[Grimmie]

Ponder ponder.. What characters have I liked?

Quite a few of the Normandy's crew from Mass Effect 2 and 3, especially Joker, Tali and Moradin. Well rounded characters who you slowly get to learn about throughout both games, and come to deeply appreciate. The antagonists from Bioshock clearly deserve a mention too. The long-suffering, irate, impatient narrator from The Stanley Parable?

Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft and Brood War was an excellent rebel-come-megalomaniac dictator that I loved and then hated with a passion. Impressive when most of the storyline was performed via talking-head gifs in 5 minute pre-mission briefings. They kinda ruined him (and a few other characters, boo) in Starcraft II, sadly.

We're discussing lead characters here though, by the sounds of it. Player characters. Kinda tricky that one, usually you don't really find out a great deal about the character you're playing as, they're either mute and rely on other characters to give life to or often deliver poorly written lines. There's nothing I hate more than having a character I'm playing as spout out a terrible pun during a serious scene. It just breaks my immersion completely.

I suppose Chell from Portal (2)? Though you don't learn a great deal about her, the way that Glados and Wheatley play off against her silence gives her plenty of life. I do feel like a trapped guinea pig fighting for freedom and survival. Pretty impressive when I don't utter a single word for the entire game.

The Malkavian from Vampire: Bloodlines was also pretty good, I see plenty of people cite that clan as the most enjoyable to play as thanks to their insane insight. People are clearly disturbed by your detachment to events, and the way you word answers.

I'm also really enjoying playing as.. Uh, whats-his-face from Far Cry 3. The 20-something party animal with more money than sense dropped into a totally foreign, terrifying environment. I'm only half way through, but I honestly feel invested in my characters well-being and survival at this point. Hopefully it'll hold up.

[FatherJack]

Eleanor Lamb was pretty interesting, once I bothered to slog through and get to the last bits of Bioshock 2 - how she behaves depends on whether you saved all the little sisters.

HK-47 in KotOR was a fun guy, (who they kind of re-did with Shale in Dragon Age,) you think he's gonna be all C-3PO until he starts calling you a meatbag.

[fabyak]

A stand out one for me lately is Trevor from GTA V. A maniac with a deathwish that seems unable to get killed

[Dog Pants]

Strong female character for me just means interesting and significant for their own merits, rather than as a love interest or damsel in distress. Not that there isn't room for that too, but I think that kind of character is already pretty well represented.

Moradin is a good call. I love his logical approach to morality. Krogan are a threat? Virtually sterilise the race. Need them again? Okay, we can undo that. No problem, it's a means to an end.

[Grimmie]

. Krogan are a threat? Virtually sterilise the race. Need them again? Okay, we can undo that. No problem, it's a means to an end.

Read that in his voice, naturally.

[Joose]

Moradin is fucking awesome.

I've been thinking about this off and on all day now, and have some conclusions:

My favourite player characters from computer games are nearly all to some greater or lesser degree characters I made myself. My character from Fallout 2, my CoH characters, my own personal Commander Shepard, etc. Most characters that I didn't have a personal hand in shaping but are interesting, complex, fleshed out characters are NPCs, like Moradin, Clem and HK-47. Player characters in games that don't let me directly influence the actual character of the person I am playing tend to give me almost nothing about my character; they are empty spaces that I can mentally insert myself into. I know nothing of note about the character I am playing in the average CoD style game beyond "soldier person". I can relatively easily cast myself in that role (albeit a version of myself that does a lot more exercise).

I think that is an intentional design decision, and I'm not entirely sure it is a bad one.

The alternative would be to horse me to embody someone I might not like being. I thought most of the characters throughout the Mass Effect series were excellent, but that didn't mean I necessarily *liked* them all, in the sense of wanting to hang out with them if they were real people. Imagine a version of Mass Effect where all the dialogue options and Renegade/Paragon choices were made for you. Thats what it would be like to play a game that doesn't have RPG elements but does cast you as a strongly defined personality. Thats bloody hard to do well: see FarCry 3 for example. I quite enjoyed playing a character that I would despise if I met in real life, but I know that element of the game was a big turn off for a number of people (including some of you lot if I remember right).

In other words, I don't think the fact that a lot of games cast the central role as an almost entirely blank cut-out for you to stick your face into is a bad thing. The only potentially problematic bit is that the blando-human is usually a generic straight white dude. Fine for me, as I am also a generic straight white dude. Probably doesn't make it as easy to insert your personality in the hole if the character is a straight white guy and you are a faaabulous black lady, but that's another issue entirely.

[Dog Pants]

Good point. I wasn't specifying PCs, but you do tend to interact more with NPCs. That said, my CoH character was awesome too.



I'm with Grimmie on the dialogue thing. Especially as an old school tabletop type used to developing my own characters, being railroaded into a conversation option I don't want to take really distances me from the character.