Okay, I'm going to be all black, white and sweeping here, because I can only access this computer for another 20 minutes before I begin the long and commuter filled journey home from London, EC-bloody-1.
So anyway, I was thinking about character development, and your involvement in the story. If you had to pick one, who would you prefer to be the more realised character, the Hero who you play, or your Diabolical Nemesis whom you will invariably face and defeat, provided you have enough credits?
The closest analogy I'm willing to run right now is Star Wars. Darth Vader. For me, he -is- Star Wars. Without a character of such presense, and fear induction capacity, I feel the films would be no better than the latest, SFX laden attempts.
No Vader = No Starwars.
For me, this is further exacerbated by video games. I really don't like to be told how my character is feelingg, because if the game was doing it's job, I'd have been given all the hooks to elicit my own emotional response to a situation.
The Villain, however, is something outside of my control. Nothing drives me harder in a video game than to have a well rounded, characterised villain to defeat. And I'm talking morally ambiguous evil, nor Mum-Ra from Thundercats Eeeeeeeeeevil?, because lets face it, who can take Mum-Ra seriously.
What did he do with his life before the Thundercats arrived? Stayed at home? Watch TV? Occasionally go out and terrify the Burbles... I can't imagine that's too satisfying. I always got the feeling that he was Eeeeeeeevil? (as opposed to Evil) because he had nothing in his life before he had some good guys to crush, and he's just trying too hard.
But I digress.
Any opinions on the subject? Heroes or villains? Who needs the most care and attention? OF course, I do acknowledge that not all games are going to need this kind of distinction. Games such as fighting games where all the characters are often presented on an even keel don't suffer from this as bad as other Genres.
- Corrupt Rose
So anyway, I was thinking about character development, and your involvement in the story. If you had to pick one, who would you prefer to be the more realised character, the Hero who you play, or your Diabolical Nemesis whom you will invariably face and defeat, provided you have enough credits?
The closest analogy I'm willing to run right now is Star Wars. Darth Vader. For me, he -is- Star Wars. Without a character of such presense, and fear induction capacity, I feel the films would be no better than the latest, SFX laden attempts.
No Vader = No Starwars.
For me, this is further exacerbated by video games. I really don't like to be told how my character is feelingg, because if the game was doing it's job, I'd have been given all the hooks to elicit my own emotional response to a situation.
The Villain, however, is something outside of my control. Nothing drives me harder in a video game than to have a well rounded, characterised villain to defeat. And I'm talking morally ambiguous evil, nor Mum-Ra from Thundercats Eeeeeeeeeevil?, because lets face it, who can take Mum-Ra seriously.
What did he do with his life before the Thundercats arrived? Stayed at home? Watch TV? Occasionally go out and terrify the Burbles... I can't imagine that's too satisfying. I always got the feeling that he was Eeeeeeeevil? (as opposed to Evil) because he had nothing in his life before he had some good guys to crush, and he's just trying too hard.
But I digress.
Any opinions on the subject? Heroes or villains? Who needs the most care and attention? OF course, I do acknowledge that not all games are going to need this kind of distinction. Games such as fighting games where all the characters are often presented on an even keel don't suffer from this as bad as other Genres.
- Corrupt Rose
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