I’ve been playing The Witcher on Steam. (I know, I just gave away my copy of The Witcher 2 and I used to rant about how stupid PC gaming is. I’m weird.) It’s a fine game, and it’s got me thinking about playing characters whose backstories are pre-ordained.
My favorite RPGs are Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3 + NV, and of course Skyrim. In all of these, the player can determine her/his character’s backstory. (We can do this a bit with Mass Effect, but the constraints are pretty limited.) It’s a blank slate, so we can be whatever we want to be.
We also get to choose — in those games and many others — what our character looks like. This may seem like a minor aesthetic detail, but it’s actually quite significant. When we project a life into a body and select that body’s physical manifestation, the corporeal elements reflect vividly the life s/he has lived.
You Have My Permission To Exist
Therefore it’s a bit odd to play a character like Geralt of Rivia who — amnesia and minor early-game options notwithstanding — has a prepackaged life history to which the player must adapt. We have to enter into another person’s life and take on all of her/his memories, experiences, and perspectives.
This is not unheard of, naturally. When we watch a movie or read a novel, we experience the story through a character’s eyes, usually learning about her/his backstory along the way. (Lightning birthmark, moisture farmer, chillin’ in the Shire, what have you.) We’re willing to go along for the ride, so long as the protagonist is an everyman or everywoman, taking us into an accessible vessel.
But this is one of those times when all the bleating about “But games are different because we are the main character” actually rings true. I am not a moisture farmer, and I have no desire to be. If I’m going to save the galaxy, I want to do it from the POV of a wise Jedi educator who is interrupted from his padawan-training duties to trek out across the cosmos. I want an origin that’s similar to my own. (Or at least I want some say in which twists and turns the person took to reach the starting line.)
How Do We Be Others?
Stepping into the shoes of a person who is handed off from someone/somewhere else is a daunting proposition. We’re uncomfortable at first: How should this person relate to the rest of the world? Is s/he mean or nice? And why?
Sometimes we’re given some urging — John Marston is trying to atone for his past and live right to save his family in Red Dead Redemption, so he’s trying to get onto the straight and narrow. Other times the person’s path has led to a momentous event that leaves the door totally open for either mischief or heroism (I’m thinking about Cole from Infamous).
My preference leans toward a blank-slate character like the ones I can sculpt in Bethesda’s recent titles. I like having total control over where my person comes from and why s/he is the way s/he is. At the same time, I’m intrigued by the necessary challenge of sublimating that impulse (and the standard set of individuals I tend to call forth when I have access to the fresh paper) and taking the reins of a horse I didn’t break.
What do you think? Which prescribed character did you most easily become? Or had the most fun playing as? And why?
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Well as everyone that knows me knows I’m a huge Legend of Zelda fan. So in everyone of the games I have always loved taking the role of that hylian boy/adult and throw myself into that savior of Hyrule position. I want to be become Link so that’s what I do. It goes the same way for most games I play, and I don’t try and think that they have a defined path I say that this is who I am to the point that I become lost in the protagonists story and pretend it’s my own. I am also the same as you with the roles you discussed, and I love making that character that I can make my own. Still I think the reason I don’t have a problem with any game I play is because I open myself with that concept and “become another person” (a little master of disguise for those who don’t know lol). This was a fantastic article and I really enjoyed it, thank you for the read!
John Marston-He was fighting his past to live for his future, I liked that story.
The Witcher-It was fun doing the jedi mind tricks as well as intimidating everyone, it made it more entertaining.
Either way, fresh slate or established character, I’m in it for a great story whether that be my own or a well written adventure. About time you played more than 5 minutes of a Witcher game Duke, about damn time.
It’s funny, because I’ve actually found myself wishing there were more context available to your character in the Elder Scrolls games. I love Djiisic my stealthy, axe-weilding Khajiit with a flame spell ever at the ready, but who is he? Oh, he’s an empty emotionless shell who happens to be Dragonborn and basically the most important person in the world… Ok, good talk. I’d like more. It doesn’t have to be all preordained. I like and even prefer the idea of a blank slate… I just want something substantive to fill it with.
As far as prescribed characters I enjoyed, I’ll echo you both on John Marston. Great character and a great game. Vito from Mafia II comes to mind. I really grew to like Ezio Auditore as I played through the Assassin’s Creed games. Especially in Brotherhood. A really grounded character at the height of his talents. Starkiller in the original Star Wars Force Unleashed was cool. And maybe Dante from Dante’s Inferno. There was a pretty cool vibe of a man who had gone wrong and knew it. He didn’t bemoan his misfortune or feel unfairly victimized, but he fought against it all the same.
It might sound funny to say it, but a series that finds a certain sweet spot (even more so than Mass Effect in some ways) is Saints Row. You get to create and personalize your character from head to toe. From their ethnicity to their gender to their physical makeup. Voice and mannerisms, clothing, cars, housing, friends… But then you take your creation and plop into a linear preordained narrative. It’s like casting an actor of your choice and watching it unfold.
Man, wish I could edit that. *wising=wishing, *mind=might (does it?
, *missing it, *in=it.
Your wish is my command!
I don’t think I’m as imaginative as Duke as I don’t /can’t create my own little back stories for game characters. Consequently I find Bethesda characters bland. As with Amras89, i find it easy to become a character if they are well defined, with the exception of any inherently evil characters. John Marsden waste perfect character for me because it gave me motivation, plus he was just damn cool.
Edit: not waste, was a!
I remember really disliking the playable character in F.E.A.R. as it annoyed me that when I was playing as him he was a baddass killing machine and then a little girl would show up and it would take control away from me so that he could wet his pants and run away. It can be very irritating when you create a character for the blank slate you are playing as and then the game overwrites your plotting later on in the game.
Francis York Morgan, how could I forget. The best video game character ever. Google that name if you aren’t familiar, pick up a retail copy and enjoy the best gamer ever.