What are your guys' opinions on silent protagonists? There seems to be advantages and disadvantages to both. My thinking is this: Silent protagonists usually makes it feel like you are the protagonist. Games like Chrono Trigger and Half Life 2 have grand storylines, and you feel really immersed in the whole situation. I didn't feel that same connection in other games with talking protagonists, like FFX. The disadvantage is that it is harder to advance the plot with a silent protagonist. The plot ends up being more linear with one, because people have to put words in your mouth. However, good writing can overcome this.

I think it depends on the genre. For RPG games, I'd prefer a silent protagonist with lots of good dialog options. KOTOR is a good example of this.

For action games, a talking protagonist is fine, since you just have to identify with the protagonist - you don't have to role play them.

Quote: Original post by Swarmer
The disadvantage is that it is harder to advance the plot with a silent protagonist. The plot ends up being more linear with one, because people have to put words in your mouth. However, good writing can overcome this.

I don't think a silent protagonist makes the story more linear. Its just that theirs always going to be a trade off between story value and more player freedom since its hard enough to write one good story from start to finish let alone 500 different branches and ending.

A silent protagonist makes it easier to feel your in the role of the protagonist in a story driven game becouse the alternative would be the player character doing something the player has no control over.

Quote: Original post by Swarmer
My thinking is this:
Silent protagonists usually makes it feel like you are the protagonist. Games like Chrono Trigger and Half Life 2 have grand storylines, and you feel really immersed in the whole situation. I didn't feel that same connection in other games with talking protagonists, like FFX.

Just my own personal opinion, I'm a coder, not a game designer, but I've always thought this was a bad argument, especially when applied to the way Half-Life uses this.

Nothing shatters the illusion of reality more than NPC conversations that go like this:

"Hey there (name of character), how are you doing today?"
*silence*
"Hey, you completely ignored me, which was really rude, but I'm going to completely ignore that, and continue having a friendly coversation with you anyway, despite the fact that you're being a total dick!"
*silence*
"You didn't happen to talk to (name of other character) while you were in (the previous level) did you?"
*silence*

For me, it's right up there with NPCs that say things like:

"Press your use key to get onto the bicycle"
"That's great! Now press your pedal key to move the bicycle forward!"

That one is a bit more understandable, as I imagine there's a good chunk of the demographic that is too stupid to be able to read "Press (X) to get on the bicycle!".

A game being linear is not a disadvantage, it's a stylistic choice. A silent narrator can work as a compromise between the way a linear story requires a precreated main character and the way the player wants the main character to express their (the player's) personality. On the other hand a silent narrator can work in a non-linear story because it allows the player to choose a general dialogue choice rather than one where they might find the specific wording to be not quite what they meant, or having a different attitude than they intended. In both cases players who dislike reading dialogue may be pleased by their being less to read.

On the other hand in a linear story with a precreated main character (or multiple precreated characters with no main one) their dialogue is a great opportunity to evoke emotion in the player as well as the best opportunity to show their personality to the player. In a non-linear story where you want the player to put themself into a blank avatar, dialogue choices (and internal monologue choices) are the simplest way for the game to ask the player how they feel and what they want to do, allowing the player to express their personality through the avatar's speech and actions.

The silent protagonist is a great boon for the videogame industry. The fact that no other industry can utilize such a protagonist (and thus there is very little information or guidelines) means that there is tons of room for experimentation. While we've seen the silent protagonist several times in games (Link, Gordon Freeman, etc.), that shouldn't suggest that the mold surrounding one is nailed down. Granted, there are obvious reasons for going with either a vocal or silent protagonist, but still, there is much regarding this new type of hero that has yet to be explored. In closing, it's a very exciting attribute unique to the industry and as such, should be taken advantage of (when necessary, of course).

Quote: Original post by Simian Man
I think it depends on the genre. For RPG games, I'd prefer a silent protagonist with lots of good dialog options. KOTOR is a good example of this.

Actually, I thought KoTOR blew this one. Part of the benefit of the Silent Protagonist is that the player can project his or her own view into the character; who they are, where they are from, how they act, etc.

Most of the RPGs that have entire sentence responses don't really use the Silent Protagonist trope, at least from my opinion, as you've got their manners of speech encoded there in the choice of sentences. The games that do use Silent Protagonists tend to have dialog choices that correspond to one word replies ("yes","no" usually), allowing the player to fill in the gaps on what they said.

The other thing KoTOR blew from the Silent Protagonist perspective is that the protagonist does have a voice in KoTOR; they call out responses in the combat. In a rather thick American accent, by the way [wink]. It didn't help my view of how the protagonist should be when she's sassing with "Now that's gotta hurt!" every five seconds in combat.

Quote: Original post by Stab-o-tron
Just my own personal opinion, I'm a coder, not a game designer, but I've always thought this was a bad argument, especially when applied to the way Half-Life uses this.

Nothing shatters the illusion of reality more than NPC conversations that go like this:

"Hey there (name of character), how are you doing today?"
*silence*
"Hey, you completely ignored me, which was really rude, but I'm going to completely ignore that, and continue having a friendly coversation with you anyway, despite the fact that you're being a total dick!"
*silence*
"You didn't happen to talk to (name of other character) while you were in (the previous level) did you?"
*silence*

That's where it comes down to the whole 'Good writing' part.

When it comes to writing a silent character, the first rule is don't ask questions, as that'll break the illusion if you can't respond. Like any good rule, it has a few exceptions, such as rhetorical ("Oh man, how are we gonna get out of here?") or unfinished questions ("So hey, do you wanna grab a beer after .... HOLY GOD WHAT'S THAT AAAAAAH"), but as a general rule never give the player something to respond to.

Good: *NPC runs up to the player, panicked* "Please help me, my father's trapped under a pile of rubble at the old mill! You've got to hurry!"
Bad: "Can you help me rescue my father from the old mill?"

I like talkative protagonists, but its an added plus, I really enjoy Carl Johnson's one liners in GTA:SA ("You hit me punk!"), but that doesn't keep me from enjoying GTA III with a silent Claude Speed.

Carl is definitely a LOT more memorable than Claude of course.

I'm wondering why games with silent protagonists (specifically shooters) don't give the player more ways to communicate non verbally. For instances, shaking the view left and right to say "no" in imitation of shaking their heads, or giving them a "use" button that extends the avatar's hand when there's nothing else to do, which can then be used to give gestures.

I have no idea how well it'd work (I'll have to add that to my great big list of things-I-would-like-to-prototype) but it's something to think about. Just because the character can't speak doesn't mean they can't communicate using mute, gun-toting avatar style sign language.