When discussions arise of impending nuptials, it can be hard not to jump to conclusions.
Over at the excellent Gamers With Jobs blog there’s an article on non-vocal protagonists which resonates very strongly with my opinions on the matter. Back in the mists of time when characters were mere splodges of pixels, it didn’t particularly matter that your protagonist said nothing; they were defined by their actions, and their actions were determined by you, the player. Moreover, I feel no less connected to my time spent playing Elite because my interactions were entirely on a non-verbal level.
But as technology developed and games began telling us stories, giving us characters with backstories and personality, the enforced silence of a character in the misguided attempt to make us feel more attuned to them began to encounter unforeseen side-effects. The suspension of disbelief that developers attempt to maintain by refusing to put voice to our avatar – at the risk of them saying something we would disagree with – then becomes strained by the perpetual silence.
I appreciate that some gamers enjoy this, but for me it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to a silent protagonist. The other characters are forced either to perform semantic backflips to imply that which has been said, or just reply as though the character has indeed spoken leaving regular gaping holes in the conversation.
It’s telling that from the ensemble cast of Chrono Trigger, the character I care least about is Crono himself. Sure, he’s got a mean moveset, and the game attempts to jury-rig some emotion regarding his death and eventual resurrection, but when it comes down to it he has no backstory, no feelings, no motivations; by the end of the game we know more about Crono’s mother and her cat than our heroic protagonist. Rather than proactively saving the world, it feels like he’s going along for the ride.
I experienced much the same displacement with the 3D Zeldas. Ocarina of Time provided a double-gutpunch by not only leaving Link a blank-faced, scary-eyed creepy doll of a Hylian with no opinion on anything, but then saddling him with short, repetitive soundbites to accompany his every action. If the idea was to make me relate to this silent protagonist, how about not saddling him with a non-verbal voice both alien and irritating? Somehow, thanks to the beauty of the cel-shading, Wind Waker’s Link overcame much of this initial discomfort by providing enough personality through animation and clear character motivations.
Still, I won’t argue about the dangers of crossing that line between player and protagonist, of breaking the bonds of trust and forcing the protagonist to do something utterly incomprehensible in the name of plot that the player would never have allowed. The recent Prince of Persia is the main culprit that comes to mind. Please, just let me make that choice, to walk out of the valley with the knowledge of what I’ve lost, rather than force me into a stupid action which neither I nor the character I now fully relate to would reasonably take.
Even Mass Effect isn’t perfect; the distance between dialogue-wheel summary and Shepard’s actual dialogue is spectacularly close for most conversations, but occasionally one slips through, where the text does not translate into my intended meaning, and I find myself at odds with my ugly-ass avatar.
It’s testament to Bioware’s skill with character that I still care, and that Commander Bryn Rhys Shepard is still out there, spreading his cultural heritage to the stars. Lesser developers beware!