- Jan 29, 2005
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At the moment, well, not as I type this obviously but lately I've been playing Mass Effect (since the past week or so, when I can that is), and I'm about 35 hours of game-play into that magnificent game, if it can be called that way. Indeed, in my book at least Mass Effect is more of an interactive book than a mere mean of digital entertainment. I'm completely immersed in it, but it's not the first RPG in which I've spent (or rather invested) lots of time. I can think of KOTOR and the Elder Scrolls series for example, or even the Baldur's Gate series. But what I want to discuss about here isn't just Mass Effect, but in fact about any character(s) that you've created in such games like Mass Effect where it is possible to create "your" character (I notice often people referring to those game characters as "theirs", and not just "a" character, as if there was some sort of... how can I say, some sort of a ownership feeling with those virtual entities). You know, in Role-Playing games, we, at least usually, try to play the role of that (or those) character(s). If you create a Barbarian and give him a birth-sign that makes him superstitious you may end up slaying your foes only during night time at a very specific hours, that is if you do play your character's "role" (or invented behavior) seriously.
But how serious do you want to be with a character that you've created in such games exactly? Do you take those characters with a grain of salt and don't attach yourself to him/her/them at all? Would you ever think that being honestly attached to a virtual character be feasible for you? Try not to think for others, but for yourself here. When I think about Mass Effect and its "controversial" romantic scene, I honestly don't see what's wrong with it. What's better or worse than as an author trying to describe a similar romantic moment in a book between two characters that don't exist, or as a producer animating your mangas in sometimes even more "explicit" ways between, again, two or more characters that in the end are still virtual in a sense. That's why I said that, personally, I consider Mass Effect as a book in which instead of turning pages we click on a mouse and see things happening instead of trying hard (or not) to imagine the locales and figures.
With all that said, I'm still not focused on the main subject of this thread, sorry. What I'd be very curious to know about is on what do you base your characters on? Do you choose to create a female character, to start with, because you're a male? Do you choose to create a male character because you're a female? Or is it just out of curiosity? What do you base their physical appearance/allure on? Do you make him/her (or even "it") tall or short because you like it that way in real life? Or because you, yourself, would like to be taller in real life or even shorter so you make your character in such a way that you'd imagine yourself be? And why would it be so? In a game like Oblivion, or Morrowind, for example, when "your" character is having a discussion with an NPC, and that NPC for example asks you to do something "bad", do you consider that task very lightly and just go on because it's a "mission in the game to accomplish" and do it objectively? Or do you actually go much deeper than the game wants it to be and think a moment "hey, you're wrong man, I wouldn't do that in real life, screw your quest" and walk away from that NPC because in the end your character is pretty much... yourself, as seen in a fantasy world or sci-fi world thanks to your visions of how much you'd desire to be "like that" rather than you currently are?
Or, maybe, it's a little of everything? Do you create your characters based on mere fun and just go on and make an Orc instead of a Human and just exaggerate most of his/her/its physical traits because "you can" or because it's simply fun? Or because in your views an Orc "should be like that" without ever thinking that in the concerned game's own world you wouldn't ever want to actually "be" an Orc "like that" and permit yourself to do whatever you think should be "logic" for him or her in terms of appearance and skills or abilities? Sometimes when creating a character I noticed that the traits we "give" them thanks to what the game allows us to adjust in such terms are based on objective (more or less maybe) references of what the character should be given the context of the game, but then during the very creation process itself things get more subjective over time. One example I can give is when I first showed Oblivion to a friend (I also did that, but explaining it from his point of view is better for this subject here I think).
At first, when I saw him create his character, a male Breton, I remember I asked him: "why do you make him having this neutral, cold look in his face", he replied, if I recall correctly: "well, don't know man, maybe because his main skills will be a conjurer and being a necromancer most of your life doesn't give much space to being a comedian nor a mercenary". So he probably envisioned that in his book a necromancer would probably never laugh, but would never look like a killer ready to chop the first bypasser's head off either, so making him look neutral did the trick. Then I came back some time later (I was playing my XBOX while he created his character) and I noticed that he gave a more "happier" look to him and made his face generally more physically "gaunt". I asked him why he did that in the end, and he looked at me in a strange way, amused maybe, and he said: "heh, well, don't know, maybe because people at my job tell me I don't smile enough". And what he didn't tell me but what I immediately assumed (probably I was wrong, but I never told him anyway) is that in real life he's also... let's say, round enough, so I thought, you know, that he made his character looking more gaunt, more physically let's say... "proficient" and more healthier looking exactly because her last girlfriend supposedly left him because of his "declining" physical condition, and that left a big mark on him that still reflects to this very day but back then reflected in a character creation for a PC game, I would say unconsciously.
I just think that it's a fascinating subject, trying to honestly point at what we think of when we create our characters.
What about you?
But how serious do you want to be with a character that you've created in such games exactly? Do you take those characters with a grain of salt and don't attach yourself to him/her/them at all? Would you ever think that being honestly attached to a virtual character be feasible for you? Try not to think for others, but for yourself here. When I think about Mass Effect and its "controversial" romantic scene, I honestly don't see what's wrong with it. What's better or worse than as an author trying to describe a similar romantic moment in a book between two characters that don't exist, or as a producer animating your mangas in sometimes even more "explicit" ways between, again, two or more characters that in the end are still virtual in a sense. That's why I said that, personally, I consider Mass Effect as a book in which instead of turning pages we click on a mouse and see things happening instead of trying hard (or not) to imagine the locales and figures.
With all that said, I'm still not focused on the main subject of this thread, sorry. What I'd be very curious to know about is on what do you base your characters on? Do you choose to create a female character, to start with, because you're a male? Do you choose to create a male character because you're a female? Or is it just out of curiosity? What do you base their physical appearance/allure on? Do you make him/her (or even "it") tall or short because you like it that way in real life? Or because you, yourself, would like to be taller in real life or even shorter so you make your character in such a way that you'd imagine yourself be? And why would it be so? In a game like Oblivion, or Morrowind, for example, when "your" character is having a discussion with an NPC, and that NPC for example asks you to do something "bad", do you consider that task very lightly and just go on because it's a "mission in the game to accomplish" and do it objectively? Or do you actually go much deeper than the game wants it to be and think a moment "hey, you're wrong man, I wouldn't do that in real life, screw your quest" and walk away from that NPC because in the end your character is pretty much... yourself, as seen in a fantasy world or sci-fi world thanks to your visions of how much you'd desire to be "like that" rather than you currently are?
Or, maybe, it's a little of everything? Do you create your characters based on mere fun and just go on and make an Orc instead of a Human and just exaggerate most of his/her/its physical traits because "you can" or because it's simply fun? Or because in your views an Orc "should be like that" without ever thinking that in the concerned game's own world you wouldn't ever want to actually "be" an Orc "like that" and permit yourself to do whatever you think should be "logic" for him or her in terms of appearance and skills or abilities? Sometimes when creating a character I noticed that the traits we "give" them thanks to what the game allows us to adjust in such terms are based on objective (more or less maybe) references of what the character should be given the context of the game, but then during the very creation process itself things get more subjective over time. One example I can give is when I first showed Oblivion to a friend (I also did that, but explaining it from his point of view is better for this subject here I think).
At first, when I saw him create his character, a male Breton, I remember I asked him: "why do you make him having this neutral, cold look in his face", he replied, if I recall correctly: "well, don't know man, maybe because his main skills will be a conjurer and being a necromancer most of your life doesn't give much space to being a comedian nor a mercenary". So he probably envisioned that in his book a necromancer would probably never laugh, but would never look like a killer ready to chop the first bypasser's head off either, so making him look neutral did the trick. Then I came back some time later (I was playing my XBOX while he created his character) and I noticed that he gave a more "happier" look to him and made his face generally more physically "gaunt". I asked him why he did that in the end, and he looked at me in a strange way, amused maybe, and he said: "heh, well, don't know, maybe because people at my job tell me I don't smile enough". And what he didn't tell me but what I immediately assumed (probably I was wrong, but I never told him anyway) is that in real life he's also... let's say, round enough, so I thought, you know, that he made his character looking more gaunt, more physically let's say... "proficient" and more healthier looking exactly because her last girlfriend supposedly left him because of his "declining" physical condition, and that left a big mark on him that still reflects to this very day but back then reflected in a character creation for a PC game, I would say unconsciously.
I just think that it's a fascinating subject, trying to honestly point at what we think of when we create our characters.
What about you?
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