TIGSource Forums

I did mention this before, but briefly, in the topic about how writing in games is so terrible. One game journalist wrote a very interesting article, which criticizes character customization in games by saying that it makes gamers relate to a game's main character more, but ends up hindering the narrative experience. It makes a person care that much less about the main character and actually has him/her look like someone who isn't real.

Here are some interesting points that the journalist has made about character customization:




If anyone would like to read the whole article, the link can be found below:

http://www.slowdown.vg/2009/10/16/avataritis/

Do you think that character customization is an issue in games? Why or why not?

Good points, but I always thought they were sort of implied when you had character customization.

If you agree with the explicitly stated premise of the article: "For the purpose of this article, we will consider avatar customization a convenient narrative cop-out", then yes, avatar customization is a bad thing that hurts the narrative.


On an entirely different topic, I've come up with this rather clever proof.  Folks might be interested in it, as it kind of turns accepted mathematics onto its head:

Proof that 1 = 2:

For the purpose of this proof, we shall consider that 1 = 2 (Axiom 1)

Step 1.  1 = 2 (By axiom 1)
Step 2.  2 = 3 (Add 1 to both sides)
Step 3.  3 = 4 (Add 1 to both sides)
Step 4.  1 = 2 (Subtract 2 from both sides)
QED

Behold, unassailable proof that 1 equals 2!  I have rigorously proven my conjecture!   :gentleman:

I beg to differ. It's a big difference whether you're just being the "puppeteer" for some other, fictional character, or whether the game makes you feel like it's actually "you" experiencing the events of a game story. Character customization, but also "empty vessel" main characters like Gordon Freeman are an effective way of increasing the oft-cited player immersion into a game's world.

I think that even a trite, cliché story and setting can be made interesting and memorable by putting the player inside the action instead of reducing him/her to the role of an outside manipulator, as developers like Bioware have shown numerous times.

I think your brain is on fire or something. :monoclepop:

     I actually believe that character customization is interesting however there should be alot of thought placed into the story so that the choices are varied and the player can actually adapt their feelings into the game. There are few games that actually have enough selections to make it personal enough. The character's mindset is already in stone. And if there is a variance, it is either one or the other, no mix of both.

This sounds like a straw man to me. The article assumes that character customisation is only used for the purpose of identifying the player with the character, which to me is ridiculous. When creating a custom character, I've never attempted to make a copy of myself. I've just created a character who I thought would be fun to play. Does anybody seriously look at a screen giving them a choice between Mage, Fighter and Thief, and think to themselves "Hmm, which class suits my personality the most?"

Perhaps not intentionally, but I suppose there could be some truth in the idea that one chooses a character class based on their own tastes. For instance, I love being a Medic in TF2 because I like being a support class- everybody needs me around, so I feel extremely useful.

(I also tend to make avatars look like me in Rock Band 2.)

I didn't read the entire article, but just to answer your question, I don't really think that character customization is a problem.  I think it is just something cool to do.

I don't think it's a cop out in any story either.  It's just a choice...

I agree. Characters that the player can imprint him/herself upon are one of the greatest opportunities afforded by the video game medium. It is even a potentially literary aspect, though not always used this way.

Another thing about "empty vessel" characters: They can be an interesting way of making the player interpret the events of a game in his/her own way, instead of being told how to feel about certain things via the main character. I read an interview with Cactus a while ago where he said that what he liked most about Half-Life was its "lack of attitude". I couldn't agree more.

My brain hurts.

Are they the only alternative, though?  Can't we have main characters who we are not expected to agree with all the time, whose emotions may run contrary to our own?  Personally I get tired of the implied second person narrative that's always going on in games.  Just because I control a character, do I always have to be him, or him me?  Why can't I experience a person's story without getting immersed in his head?

The main reason I like to customize my avatar in games is because it makes me feel that the avatar is my unique creation. If I can make a female avatar, I will, because I'd rather look at a girl than a guy. Some people seem to think that if you pick a female avatar then you actually want to be or relate to your avatar, or maybe they just want to crack the "lolgay you play as a girl" joke. For me that joke works the other way around of course ('lolgay you want to stare at man-butt all day'), because I view games third person.

I don't believe that I have ever related to (as in pretending to be or feeling extreme kinship with) a character in a video game, or book. If it's a book then I always know that I can't change a thing, so I tend to view them in third person. Video games which try to tell stories forcibly often aren't interactive on a level which is satisfying to me.

I play video games and read books to see or imagine interesting and exotic things happening, not to go on some kind of immersive soul search. Often I play games to let the brain have fun, putting myself and my troubles aside. Perhaps there is some game out there which allows me to immersively explore myself and come to new insights about my psychological composition, but I really don't care.

Immersive is not a word, is it?

Sure. It's not like this option is gone just because some developers choose to use "empty vessel" characters.

It's not like comedies no longer exist or are valid just because a lot of people start writing tragedies.