Here is no why (Part 1)

I have been trying to get a good rant going on character development in games going all day, but things are just not working out. Part of the problem lies in the different role a consumer plays in experiencing a game rather than traditional character driven media. This is just an a bit of my notes from today that should be the first in a series of smaller thoughts on characters in games.

One of the key elements of any worthwhile story is character development. In some form or another every story will have a protagonist and the growth they experience during the course of the narrative forms the value in the story. I may be showing my ignorance of plot construction here, but it seems to me this is the case for most traditional media. If a book or a movie leaves the consumer with a feeling of “going nowhere” at the end they will be dissatisfied. (Watch Marie Antoinette and you will understand.) On the other hand, most gamers do not expect character growth within games and so would not be disappointed by a game where the main characters are essentially static. What I am interested in is why we have these differing expectations and if they should be changed.

One issue games run into is simple general lack of character. Gordon Freeman has been through at lot, I have personally seen him fight through research labs overrun with monsters, alien home world and a dystopia, but no matter what challenge thrown at him he remains silent. Even as Alyx reaches out to him with obvious affection he does not respond. This total lack of character would be fatal in any other setting but in the context of Half-Life it is considered a brilliant design decision. By removing all character from Gordon we are allowed to fill his place, investing ourselves within the world. So perhaps one of the reasons we see such weak main characters in games is because they distract from the player immersion in the game world. As you might surmise from my little illustration above, I feel there are some issues with this approach.

This isn't enough to convince me we should expect as little as we do from gaming narratives. Next time I will look at some games with strong main characters that were still capable of immersing me.