   attacking main character stereotypes
  the main character differs somewhat from game to game, setting to setting, and genre to genre. however, there are a few roles of main characters that are almost always the same..1) The main character, if human, is almost always a boy, teenage, or young adult white male2) In the case of RPG's, more often then not the character is of lowly importance (i.e. orphan) or high level (i.e. prince)3) The main character's motivation in the game is to either rescue the girl, or save the world.4) In the case of RPG's, the main character is almost always the most powerful character too.Not to say that all games follow these rules, but a majority do. As perspective character designers, it is our ability to attack these stereotypes. If we succeed, the player will enjoy the break from status quo, and maybe look for other games without the stereotypes.I believe the first one i mentioned is both the easiest one to change, but the hardest one to accept. Since we ouselves are used to these stereotypes, we might attribute old stereotypes to the new character. for instance, here is an example for a new character.Grayson, Smith: Human black male, age 25.From just that information it is not difficult to already assign other stereotypes that apply to such a character description in games. for instance, if he was a character from a racing game, we assume that his car is "pimped out", covered with decals, and among his music selections is rap. i.e. he is from the ghetto and he is a gangsta. or if this were an RPG, he is assumed to be a fierce warrior from the indies, wielding a large scimitar...A successful breaking from a stereotype will not affect how the character interacts with other parts of the game. It would not matter in a horror story or scifi story whether or not said character was black. it would just be the way things were.an example of this is the old NES game metroid. first time players (myself included) who beat the game were surprised to discover that the person they had become, fighting against impossible odds, was actually a woman. it is arguably that reason that one of hundreds of NES games made it to the point of having a sequel, and eventually a whole series.That said, what are some other examples of stereotypes, and what are some other ways to break them?   
  Women are finally getting more representation in games, but they are usually so top-heavy we have to assume the physics engine is quite poor for not making them topple over!I'm not sure about your fourth point, in my limited experience with RPGs I've always started out as the least powerful character. The first stereotype exists because for a long time the majority of video game players were young white men. That statistic is changing so now there is, thankfully, some scope for a wider breadth of characters.   ;Quote:Original post by pan narransWomen are finally getting more representation in games, but they are usually so top-heavy we have to assume the physics engine is quite poor for not making them topple over!I'm not sure about your fourth point, in my limited experience with RPGs I've always started out as the least powerful character. The first stereotype exists because for a long time the majority of video game players were young white men. That statistic is changing so now there is, thankfully, some scope for a wider breadth of characters.agreed, at the beginning the main character is fairly flimsy.. i was referring to points later on, say, near the middle of the game. #4 isn't always a bad stereotype, tho. If the player is the strongest in his party, he/she's bound to get some ego over it..   ;  The most obvious way to "break" these stereotypes would be to offer the player a wide range of characters to choose from when starting the game.The "enemies" could be chosen at random.This is more common in a CRPG than an FPS, but there is no reason why it couldn't be applied to most genres.   ;  I both agree with you and disagree with you. Stereotypes are in place for MANY complicated reasons.#1: What you list here isn't always true, as I can think of fewer games on the market right now that adhere to this than games that do. Samonosuke from Onimusha and Ryu from Ninja Gaiden are both mature Japanese men. Mario is a middle aged balding Italian plumber, etc. In fact, if anime stylings weren't so racially inert, most heroes on the shelves today would be Japanese, not white.Nonetheless, I see where you're coming from. Let's try throwing this stereotype way out the window. The main character is... a middle-aged Hindu vegan woman who has high-paying job as a surgeon and is having an emotional crisis about becoming pregnant from an illicit affair.Yeah, as a young adult, white male, you've just totally lost me. I can sympathize with this character, but I definitely can't relate to her. I don't think any of the other gamers I know, who are probably 90% young adult males, could either. No doubt this would make for a fascinating story, but it would be incredibly difficult to transpose myself into that role.#2: One of the best ways to establish an emotional character arc: having to climb from nothing to greatness, or having to prove yourself against undeserved greatness. These two methods are also effective because they don't make criticisms about the player's character's integrity. In any artform, a good character we care about will naturally have some kind of hardship they have to overcome.Let's look at a movie:Forest Gump: Forest overcomes the fact that he's not that bright with his honest, good-natured intentions and really fast legs.I consider myself to have at least passable intelligence, so battling this flawwould be awkward and frusterating. I don't want my character to say stupid things when I know they shouldn't. However, being an orphan makes no commentary about my abilities or my flaws, it's a completely externalized challenge that anyone can be put into and feel comfortable fighting to overcome. There are other externalized challenges you can place players in, where the cause is centered around circumstances beyond their control, but the orphan plot is always a good place to start, even in film. (Look at Star Wars, or Naruto.)#3: Love and respect are the two most basic emotional needs people have. Rescue the girl or save the world are expedient ways to get vast amounts of either. A goal of making a million dollars, or murdering a certain person, or finding an artifact are far more difficult to make as satisfying emotionally.#4: This is almost never true. If so, there would be no room for character development. The main character has the most growth potential, but is almost always the weakest initially because more growth = more emotional investment in a character. Naturally we want to have the story focused around the person we feel most invested in, which is the person that makes it the furthest in his development, which, going back to Forest Gump, is why Forest Gump is about Forest Gump and not his girlfriend. Also, the most interesting events in the story happen around the main characters because interesting events are marked by rapid growth and are usually influenced the most by the most powerful people. Like the previous example, watching a James Bond movie wouldn't be nearly as interesting if the whole movie was focused on Penny doing her paperwork.Most importantly though, is that being helpless or weak is a very uncomfortable feeling for the player. We don't like it in real life and we don't like it in games. We want to feel like were useful and that people can rely on us, not that we have to rely on others. Making characters other than the player far and away more powerful will undoubtedly generate those feelings.Breaking any of these stereotypes can be an extremely refreshing experience, but it takes far more planning than "I want my game to be different."   ;  I've been playing La Pucelle Tactics recently, and that game's main character is a short chubby female. Anyways, as for the stereotypes, let me confront and support each point.1) Kill kill kill the white man.First, let me say that just calling the white man "White" is a broad overstatement of race. Almost all europeans are white in complexion, but have been scientifically proven to be of different races. Using "White" as the only way to describe the character is the least racial you can get. Perhaps if you had said WASP, I'd agree with you, but I know SquareEnix's RPGs are starting to make the Asian aspects more common. It could probably be argued that they always saw their characters as Asian from the start, and lacking some good hardware, white was an easy misinterpretation.2) Prince and Pauper.This is easy, both are at a point where they can command the most resources or retreat from their roles. Wait, the peasent can command resources? Yeah, other peasents which there seem to be a lot of. Consider the Shoemaker or Librarian. Tell me what adventures they'd get into.3) Save the World, Get the Girl.I'll agree here that that whole spiel is getting trite. The problem is that nobody wants to confront the alternative, which would be political or philosophical difference with the antagonist. With so many bad ways of thinking, all you have to do is pick out one and assault it.4) Level 99.As a matter of story, or character better damn well develop out of his typical anglo-saxon faults and become a blue-eyed blonde german. I'm being facetious to express the point that storymakers are too focused on ideals. Why else would the hero be a white prince the badguy have a little devil goatee and a laser that can blow up the moon? As for being "too powerful", fine tune your game mechanics some. Perhaps you can get away with a linear progression, rather than an exponential one.   ;  One way you could get away from the stereo-types of the main character is maybe to make a game where your are not the main character. I mean, it is not always the main character that must carray the heaviest burdens, though it is usually them that gets the most recognition.But what if there were a game where you played a supporting role in a story. For example, if you were to make a Lord of the Rings game, you could play the entire game as Samwise Gamgee, not Frodo.You could do this in a game that was not already themed by making another character the center of events. Rather than the PC being the one who is appointed to save the world, make it an NPC that you must help along the way. Or, rather than being the one to fight the fiersom dragon, you could be the one saving villagers from houses that get torched in the fight between another character and the dragon.These are just some random thoughts, and may not work well at all. But hopefully they'll at least spark some discussion on the topic.   ;  Star Control series I liked for this reason: the humans had the 2nd weakest ships in the 7-member Alliance of Free Stars.   ;  Read up on "the journey of the hero" by Joseph Campbell. Do not take it as the only way to write a character, but learn how many things most "heros" share and how each story is mostly a reinterpretation of the hero. In the thread with the exercize on character development, theres a link to the Star Wars Origins page ( http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/index.html ) which may give you some nice perspective.Take it with a grain of salt of course.On another note, sometimes changes in setting help with getting different stories. What I mean is the typical RPG being about some medieval english-like country following a Authurian mentality has become somewhat trite. Consider what a story would have to be like if the setting were some polar region, covered in snow and tundra. You certainly couldn't have the same massive-clevage female and metrosexual white male heros any more.;Quote:Original post by PxtlStar Control series I liked for this reason: the humans had the 2nd weakest ships in the 7-member Alliance of Free Stars.Surely you jest? The human Cruiser rocked! Long-ranged homing missiles, no need to get in close. Point defense, no reason to fear enemy missiles. Torpedoes away, Mr Sulu!   