different types of silent protagonists exist. there's the established, defined character who simply doesn't speak and there's the often nameless character customized to the player's liking. they serve different storytelling functions. the best way i can put it is like this: one character allows you to FEEL like the hero and the other allows you to BE the hero.
Dragon Age: Inquisition (Plot Details in Spoilers!)
- Thread starter Eonan
- Start date
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 12,650
- 877
It allows you to "be the hero" while constantly being pulled out of the cinematic experience - besides, even in something like DA:O - there's the uncontrollable cutscene parts where your character goes on autopilot and forced to act in X/Y/Z fashion regardless - so the "be the hero" theorem until that "problem" is tackled is going to continue to be inherently flawed.
not every game has cinematic qualities. there are countless games in which variations of the silent hero are effective. there's half life, fallout 3, and the elder scrolls series to name a few.
the silent hero route would work in mass effect if it were in first-person and lacked cutscenes
the silent hero route would work in mass effect if it were in first-person and lacked cutscenes
They worked in the past, but they're outdated for RPG experiences. The Mass Effect model is better in every single way. The narrative structure in newer Fallout games and the Elder Scrolls titles is also absolutely awful.
character perspective is simply used to influence the way a player relates to the character. you can take shephard and stick her in fallout 3 without changing anything else.
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
- 5,862
- 294
Better in every single way ? Try better for developers that can write a good story with huge budget.
Totally personal preference. Shepard is Shepard regardless of your choices. Whereas my khajit thief is vastly different from a storytelling standpoint and the actions they carry out when set against the play through of my Imperial pacifist priest. Sometimes I enjoy the more cinematic experience of a shepard style RPG and sometimes I enjoy crafting my own story from the available content that elder scrolls style games provide. Neither is bad at storytelling. They are simply different.
Bethseda main story lines being weak or not isn't the point. The silent protagonist in an open world like that allow you to create a story experience not allowed in a Mass effect type game. If your inability to enjoy it hampers that style, then fine that is preference. However I find that style just as engaging.
This point will have gone over most of the posters head since so many drank the bethseda koolaid. I still posit The Witcher series as a good example of having one very strong protagonist to drive the narrative. Just compare it to a recent game like Dishonored that had a silent protagonist? Anyone remeber the main characters name in Dishonored? Bueller, anyone?....
bethesda's storytelling is very solid. you extract bits and pieces of the story from the game's characters. it's not shoved in your face through cut scenes.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 12,650
- 877
The fact that you can make an almost complete summation of each game's primary storyline in about 3 paragraphs is a tad flawed. Don't get me wrong I love the BethSoft games, but they're about freedom to explore as Sean already gave them credit for - not for a deep cinematic experience where you connect with the individual you're at the helm of.
And what you're talking about above touch isn't relative to a STORYLINE really - that's like saying your real life with all of its minutia included is a storyline, a storyline requires narrative flow and the such - something that BethSoft games do not. They do make good "semi-reality" sims where you can literally spend 25 hours literally getting nothing done just screwing around with pointless stuff (I tried making a pyramid out of cabbages once myself - couldn't get past 3 rows stacked right though on PC) - but that's not storyline, one could say it's diametrically opposed to storyline IMO.
Bethseda's storytelling is very solid? Man, you chugged that koolaid. They are the worst story tellers in the industry. Their games are good to fuck around in and run about exploring shit, not for experiencing a narrative or story in any way.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 12,650
- 877
"Here's a world, find stuff" wasn't really Storytelling to most of we gamers with titles like Myst either - his and my definition isn't narrow, it just exempts things like Myst where there's no story other than what you find. Investigation isn't required when one watches a movie, or a play, or any other normal storytelling experience - investigation being a requirement to find storyline by any wide definition doesn't make sense to be considered standard storytelling.
Enjoy it for what it is, but storytelling it is not. Your variant of the definition is like calling a blank canvas with a set of paints next to it art.
PS - Sean, I think Desert Bus technically would have worse storytelling than them... slightly...
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
- 5,862
- 294
Sometimes you just watch what the developers created for you, but for some games the real story is, what you go through in the sandbox that was put there for you and some plotline is just a background. In the first case, I am talking about how I felt about the story put there for me and in the second, I'm talking about the ability of the game to create stories on the fly. Minecraft, Skyrim, every decent MMO - those games can create great stories based on how you as a player interact with them. My Dragonborn was too busy stealing clothes of every person in Whiterun, no sane writer would writethatinto a story when making a game. Yes, the first type can produce endless gushing about Deus Ex, Portal and Dishonored, but everyone went through what you are writing about. Only Mass Effect could blur those lines somewhat and it took 3 games and like 6 years to get to that point with fully scripted and voice acted characters and I'd guess that most of our Shephards were very similar if not the same because we just did minmaxed playthroughs to get ready for ME3.