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[hmm]

There are plenty of games where you aren't the world saving hero or god-like being. But there's always a sense of importance. Regardless of the plot, you have a goal in the game and that gives you importance. Plot has nothing to do with the perceived importance of the player, its all about interaction and impact. Hence a sense of importance in the most abstract of games, e.g. pacman.

If you were to be aimless as a player with no way to impact meaningfully on the game world then you would be unimportant, but it would be a profoundly tedious experience, even if it did have some artistic merit for making you utterly worthless.

[Zenorf]

There are some games where you have no real purpose or goal and just make them up for yourself mind you.
This is also quite a common scenario in sandbox style games after you've done the main story. You just have to invent stuff for yourself to do or stop playing.

[gimymblert]

Maybe if the gameplay is not about a hero... but on the story itself?

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/2008/09/15/storyteller/ something along these line

That sounds intriguing, but you're going to have to explain a bit more.

[Chaoseed]

Maybe if the gameplay is not about a hero... but on the story itself?

That sounds intriguing, but you're going to have to explain a bit more.

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/2008/09/15/storyteller/ something along these line

So, the idea is to create some sort of story, and all the characters are only important because they have roles in the story.

In this case, the player doesn't really have a presence in the story.  It's more like you are exploring a "story space" and seeing all the stuff that can happen.

Am I close?

[spitball]

Maybe if the gameplay is not about a hero... but on the story itself?

That sounds intriguing, but you're going to have to explain a bit more.

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/2008/09/15/storyteller/ something along these line

So, the idea is to create some sort of story, and all the characters are only important because they have roles in the story.

In this case, the player doesn't really have a presence in the story.  It's more like you are exploring a "story space" and seeing all the stuff that can happen.

Am I close?

You mean like a movie?

[Cokho]

I think he means more like a movie, but you are actually one of those background actors, and you are just observing how the story is going.

[AndroidScholar1]

Final Fantasy XII did something similar, just noone realized it - it was told from the perspective of Vaan, a kid that wants to become a sky pirate. He isn't a noble, and he isn't important, but he meets Balthier, Fran, Ashe, and a bunch of other people who have a running storyline between them.

For all intents and purposes, Vaan is an unimportant character. That's why you'll here the common complaint of Vaan being annoying and [insert vulgar term here], but that's because many people didn't realize he was a secondary character.

Needless to say, I think their main problem was they didn't tell anyone this, they were sort of expected to find out by themself. I didn't notice it at first until I thought about it for a bit, and then once I played the game with that perspective in mind it began to feel like a much greater experience.

[Chaoseed]

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/2008/09/15/storyteller/ something along these line

So, the idea is to create some sort of story, and all the characters are only important because they have roles in the story.

In this case, the player doesn't really have a presence in the story.  It's more like you are exploring a "story space" and seeing all the stuff that can happen.

Am I close?

You mean like a movie?

No, a movie only has one path, from start to finish.  I said "story space", meaning a kind of space with many different paths running through it.

[Mogget]

Final Fantasy XII did something similar, just noone realized it - it was told from the perspective of Vaan, a kid that wants to become a sky pirate. He isn't a noble, and he isn't important, but he meets Balthier, Fran, Ashe, and a bunch of other people who have a running storyline between them.

For all intents and purposes, Vaan is an unimportant character. That's why you'll here the common complaint of Vaan being annoying and [insert vulgar term here], but that's because many people didn't realize he was a secondary character.

Needless to say, I think their main problem was they didn't tell anyone this, they were sort of expected to find out by themself. I didn't notice it at first until I thought about it for a bit, and then once I played the game with that perspective in mind it began to feel like a much greater experience.

I heard somewhere that Basch was supposed to be the main character, but they added Vaan and Penelo in late in development because it wouldn't have been as marketable or something. Gotta have a bishie main character.

[TwilightVulpine]

I am not important?  

I think this is kind of relevant to the thread, and even stated in-game. Wasn't it brought up already?

GLaDOS:"You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not a doctor. You're not even a full-time employee. Where did your life go so wrong?"

In Portal, we know little about Chell, but based in the informations from Valve's ARG she is probably an orphan and/or homeless, someone nobody cared about. She was used as a lab rat during half of the game and attempted to escape during the other half. Apparently she failed. GLaDOS will be back in Portal 2(if Valve is to be believed), so everything she did was useless. She still doesn't know much, except that GLaDOS is mad and dangerous. Even with all she did, she only affected the interior of an abandoned laboratory, and even then, only temporaily. When you think about it, it seems kind of unimportant. It is still important for Chell, of course.

I heard somewhere that Basch was supposed to be the main character, but they added Vaan and Penelo in late in development because it wouldn't have been as marketable or something. Gotta have a bishie main character.

Maybe they thought it would make more sense if the player started with a character with little knowledge of the political intrigues... and amnesia was getting far-fetched.

[Kalebo]

Nothing is more discouraging than finish a game only to discover that the efforts of the one you are impersonating were useless

Proyect Zero 2, first ending: priceless
after all the trouble finishing it, the End maked me feel like shit.


Sorry, but i prefer to be important, dont mess around with that...

PS. i think there is a better ending if you end the game twice but thats masochism.

[Ego_Shiner]

someone should make an rpg where you are the protagonist's rival and you have to lose each encounter (unless its for story convenience of course) or you get sent back in time and have a rematch

[TwilightVulpine]

It wouldn't be very challenging, unless the "protagonist" was a wimp. Kind of remembers me of Sam & Max 106: Bright Side of the Moon, where you have to lose a tic-tac-toe match against an enemy so incompetent it seemed to try to lose on purpose.

[AndroidScholar1]

I heard somewhere that Basch was supposed to be the main character, but they added Vaan and Penelo in late in development because it wouldn't have been as marketable or something. Gotta have a bishie main character.

Probably. Still, the point remains that you don't play as an important character.

[Miko Galvez]

someone should make an rpg where you are the protagonist's rival and you have to lose each encounter (unless its for story convenience of course) or you get sent back in time and have a rematch

I was actually thinking of an rpg-like where you're a weak warrior while the real protagonist is a strong warrior and he's always 1 step ahead of you, stronger, always killing the monsters before you do, stuff like that.

[Chaoseed]

GLaDOS:"You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not a doctor. You're not even a full-time employee. Where did your life go so wrong?"

In Portal, we know little about Chell, but based in the informations from Valve's ARG she is probably an orphan and/or homeless, someone nobody cared about. She was used as a lab rat during half of the game and attempted to escape during the other half. Apparently she failed. GLaDOS will be back in Portal 2(if Valve is to be believed), so everything she did was useless. She still doesn't know almost much, except that GLaDOS is mad and dangerous. Even with all she did, she only affected the interior of an abandoned laboratory, and even then, only temporaily. When you think about it, it seems kind of unimportant. It is still important for Chell, of course.

She learned more about manipulating portals than anyone else in the entire world! That seems important.

[AndroidScholar1]

She learned more about manipulating portals than anyone else in the entire world! That seems important.

How? She was a test subject for a piece of technology, going through pre-made tests that they knew could be finished, so they already knew about how the Portal gun could be used. After the tests, you don't use anything you haven't already used.

And the ending is no invalid as an example of her being "important" (loose usage of the term), as she gets knocked out at the end, and now it's been revealed that GLaDOS returns and Chell is once again a test subject.

[Seth]

well every person will be important to himself, you will never get away from that.  Even to a person who is self destructive, it may be important to them that they kill themselves by the end of the day.  I don't think you can ever create a truly unimportant protagonist (and have the game still be interesting, at least), just the central conflict will probably be focused on something much less "high stakes" than saving the world.

[William Broom]

Ratchet: Deadlocked was a bit like this. At the start of the game you get captured and fitted with a good ol' exploding collar so that you can't escape. Then you spend the rest of the game competing in gladiatorial combat, against other enemies who were presumably forced into it just like you. Admittedly, you escape at the end of the game and kill all the bad dudes, but that's only in the very last level. Everything you do up to that point is basically crawling on your belly to stay alive.

If you were to be aimless as a player with no way to impact meaningfully on the game world then you would be unimportant, but it would be a profoundly tedious experience, even if it did have some artistic merit for making you utterly worthless.

Hmm, I like the idea of a game which doesn't let you have any influence on the world at all. But rather than just rejecting your influence, it allows you to change things temporarily before reverting them back when you're not looking. Bushes regrow, enemies regenerate, items disappear from your inventory... no matter how hard you struggle, everything will eventually return to its original state. Perhaps some things take longer to revert than others, so that you don't realise at first just how completely futile your efforts are.

[Barefists]

I found that feeling where I least expected - Final Fantasy XII. 
I bought it thinking I'll be the hero to save the world again, just like all the FFs before it.  But no, I wasn't even the main character - everything revolved around Ashe.  I soon realized I was playing in the supporting cast and promptly chucked the game in the closet.