What is /v/'s opinion on silent protagonists? As someone

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DON'T write silent protagonists - they're an outdated concept from an era of RPGs where you didn't have dialogue choices

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>>388944448
Unless your characters/plot aren't that involved and more abstract or unimportant to the bigger picture, then silent protagonists are fine.

>>388944271
Could still be well done, but was mostly due to limitations, or due to no foresight.

I like how they acknowledged it in GTA3, and again later in GTASA

>>388944271
You don't. You either do what you said in OP, you have the player character only "talk" when the player selects dialogue options or you write around their inability to speak basically ignoring it and treating the PC like a plank of wood. I don't think there are any other options.

>>388944271
They're the best protags.

>>388944770
I cut GTA3 some slack because they were still in a GTA2 style writing mode where they're asking the player (you) to do shit.

>>388944585
If you're asking how to write one then you are struggling to make it work. It's clear it doesn't work for your game.

>>388944882
This is why video games aren't respected, because the main characters can't be deeper than a puddle of water or else meme players can't "relate"

>>388944271
I prefer them over faggots who need to be sarcastic or cheeky all day but then suddenly go super sirius and crybabies, like Sonic or Tidus.

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>>388944271
>What is /v/'s opinion on silent protagonists?

Always bad if there is character interaction.
It breaks immersion because the conversation won't be natural. At best it only means that someone has to speak for you.

>>388945001
Well good thing they're called video games, not video stories.

>>388945001

Giving the protag a personality and will creates a massive disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay while simultaneously distancing the player from it emotionally.

Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

>>388944271
They're pretty lazy protag imo. But they can work.

Gordon is really the only true silent protag there as npcs constantly comment on his no talking and just power through any part that would actually allow him to say something.

All the others talk with user selected messages and 'silent talk' where they communicate to NPCs but it's glossed over. There's plenty of times npcs respond to information protag had to have verbally communicated.

Silent protagonists are perfect for crpgs, but outside of that genre they become a hindrance for a good storytelling of almost every type.

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>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

???

>>388945381
This is the dumbest opinion I've ever read.

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>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

????

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>>388944271
Depends on the game. Machinarium has a great silent protagonist; the game uses animations in speech bubbles to drive the narrative forward without any of the characters having to speak.

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>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

??

>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.
GTA San Andreas

>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

Last of Us
Witcher 3
Mass Effect 2
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 4
Thief
Grim Fandango
Deus Ex
etc

rather have a silent protagonist than a poor, hamfisted script - leave it to your imagination ffs

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>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

?

Silent protagonists are fine as long as you give them a little bit of personality, like the Persona games, Wind Waker, and most RPGs.

silent protagonists are fine as long as their personality is conveyed properly and their inability to speak doesn't make them feel out of place.

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>>388944271
I like ACTUAL silent protagonists. Ones that blatantly don't talk, nor have any speech choices or the likes. Bonus points if they even have some semblance of personality shown through the actions they do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSRwSp4dKKA

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>>388945381
>Virtually any and every highly appraised game utilizes a silent protagonist.

Nah

>>388946004
>S T I L L no MCC on PC because they don't want to admit the game's still fucked on Xbone

I know that people like to ask for PC ports and never get them, but I could personally guarantee Microsoft at LEAST two million units of MCC sold on PC (even if they use their shitty Windows Store). What is taking them so long?

I fucking hate text and speaking in games thats why i like Dark Souls and Bloodborne

KEEP IT FUCKING SIMPLE I DON'T FUCKING CARE FOR YOUR SHITTY STORY

>>388944271
>Crono
>silent

>>388944271
If it's a game with a lot of dialogue and interaction, I naturally prefer voiced protagonists. Simple as that. If it's a game with mostly just gameplay, it's either you make the protagonist have something interesting to say or have them say nothing at all. Adding voices in Dishonored 2 did nothing for me because Corvo/Emily were very boring people. Though you could go for a compromise where the character only has a voice in cutscenes.

>>388944271
They're okay I guess. I'd rather have a bland character over an obnoxious character.

>>388944271
mario speaks all the time wtf

>>388947297
>AH A SPAGHETTI - AH A MARINARA SAUCE

What did Mario mean by this

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>>388944271
>Speech the Rapist

>>388947297
>>388947392
>Mario speaks random gibberish in the Mario and Luigi games
Now this is how you do a silent protagonist!

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>>388946004
>those speech bubble annotations

>>388945001
Why would you want to relate to a video game character? Do you cry over a game of Monopoly too? Do you connect with and sympathize with the seventh snake in Snakes & Ladders?

>>388944271
I liked Drakengard's take
>guy gets muted
>still an independent character and not a player puppet
>thoughts and feelings still expressed in cutscenes through other character's reactions plus his own actions
And you knew he was a nutty sonofabitch

>>388944271
Link and Crono don't have a personality, they're just avatars for the players, but Mario is a well-defined character, I have no idea why he doesn't speak a little more apart from things like "I did it" or "mamma mia".

I haven't played Half-Life.

>>388944271
easiest way I found of writing dialog for characters is to ACTUALLY act it out. Not just say the lines, but have a friend be the protag and act like your the NPC and work on it until it sounds natural

>>388944271

Only acceptable way of immersing the player in the game they are playing.

Also, less dialogue = less voice actors hired = more money to use for actual gameplay development.

AND less chance of 'le shit voice acting' meme.

>>388948101
I think the GBA Mario RPG was the best way to do Mario as a character, just make him speak in random italian-sounding gibberish

>>388945779

>List of Trash: the post

>>388944882
pretty much. they always sound like huge faggots when they're given a voice. i'd rather not hear it.

>>388944271
helps with immersion a ton if you can pull it off

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Sam Fisher, Agent 47, Garrett from Thief

Stealth games are great for introspective characters

The new Doom did a really good job of it. No response was ever needed from the main character, their actions spoke way louder than words ever would.

>>388944996
I haven't even started writing. I hardly know how to write characters to begin with so pointers would help.

>>388945779
bunch of garbage
the only games it works for are point-and-click adventures

>>388948650
They're quiet, not silent.

>>388948101
Paper Mario is mostly silent aside from reactions

>>388945001
>meme players
what did he mean by this?

>>388944448
This. Also don't make dialogue choices just write a proper fucking character.

>>388948901
WHAAAAAAAT'S UP YOUTUBE IT'S YA BOI xX00MEMESTREAM00Xx AND TODAY WE'RE PLAYING MORE OF TUMBLRTALES GOTY EDITION

>>388949041
Still not seeing what you're getting at. Doesn't that describe most LPers?

>>388949019
Fuck that shit. There's value in letting the player decide who the protagonist is. If you want to be on rails through someone else's novel, you should just watch a movie.

>>388949629
what if the choices presented are retarded and not what the player wants?

>>388945001
Hardcore inferiority complexes towards this is why games are becoming "Cinematic" piles of shit.

Movies are limited to telling you a premade story, while games can let you actually immerse into something. Saying there's no room for that is just plain retarded.

>>388944271
I loved the silent protagonist in "Edna & Harvey - Harvey's new eyes".
Especially at the end where she snapped and told everyone in the room to go fuck themselves, including the narrator who constantly spoke for her.

>>388949825
Designers should stop including fake choices

>>388949825
Means the writer could have done better. Still, some choice over it is infinitely better than none.

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>>388950005
Not really - fake choices frustrate the fuck out of me. It just means the developers had no sense of what they were doing.

>>388944271
the way they handled Link in BOTW was pretty good
he doesn't speak, even though there is voice acting now, but Zelda speaks of things he said in her diary and talks about how he needs to come off as strong by being quiet and not voicing his worries or fears
also Ness in Earthbound has a few pretty cool things done with that

>>388944271
Whatever you do don't make them a leader. Shit drives me up the wall when the leader of a group doesn't say anything.

>>388950131
Then you're free to autistically spazz out the second you see one. Fake choices don't null the valid character building ones, no more than a bug in a game voids its entire gameplay

Also, to be sure, define fake choice..

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Did well in this game. Put the player on the same level as the character in that you don't know why you're locked up, why everyone hates you etc. Lets another character do the narrating and guide you through what's happened.

>>388944271
They're ok. Not all games need the protagonist to talk.

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>>388950412
>B-BUT HER BREAKFAST CHOICE REALLY MATTERS IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS AND TO HER CHARACTER!!!1
-you, the king autist

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>>388950481
>Lets another character do the narrating and guide you through what's happened.

You mean the laziest, shittiest way to story tell in a game? (Besides Left 4 Dead's writing on the walls so they wouldn't have to animate new character models)

>>388950131
That was my biggest problem with Beyond two souls, so many choices changed the ending of Heavy Rain, while there was no choices that mattered in Beyond.

>>388944271
>As someone trying to make games, how do you write for one without NPCs going something like "What's that? XYZ? Oh sure I'll tell you!"
Give them a non-silent companion to speak for them.

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>>388949019
>>388949825
>>388950002
>>388950131
>>388950734
>>388950502
>its okay when the japanese does it

>>388950502
>he didn't order the waffle
Maybe that's why you hated the game

>>388950734
David Cage saw the Telltale model and realised he didn't have to try anymore when idiots praised The Walking Dead, Tales from Retardlands, Wolf of Wall Street, etc.

>>388950786
Lazy, hacky, garbage

>>388950502
I don't give a chance if it matters, but good try bud.

I'm saying between a bunch of shit that doesn't matter that you chose, and a bunch of shit that doesn't matter that the author wrote, there's no merit in being railroaded to one option.

Well written choices that add flavor are better than retarded options that affect the game drastically.

I miss the time when no games had voice acting.

>>388948397
>>388948689
>b-but those dont count: the post

>>388950996
So the Atari 2600?

Because Dragon's Lair was in arcades by 1983 and it had voice acting (amazing game)

>>388945001
>le video game r art
shut the fuck up and just play video games instead

>>388950805
>Games where the entirety of the gameplay revolves around making "choices"
>Game where choices are just one aspect and are added as a fun extra thing for players to do

I haven't played any of the games in question

>>388944271
The best Silent Protagonist is Adol from the early Ys games (none of that new vita/PS4 shit).

Adol talks all the time, you just can't hear it. And the game says stuff like "Adol introduced himself." "Adol explained this and that." They use this technique to actually inject personality into a silent protagonist, and it works out great.

>>388945381
>Giving the protag a personality and will creates a massive disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay while simultaneously distancing the player from it emotionally.

If you honestly think a character's personality can't be expressed during gameplay you are an idiot.

>>388944271
>how do you write for one without NPCs going something like "What's that? XYZ? Oh sure I'll tell you!"

Have the NPCs acknowledge your MC's muteness and make a joke out of it, as well as observe how the Zelda series does it.

>>388951323
>and make a joke out of it

aka poorly written trash like Half Life 2

>>388945001
Video games aren't respected because their new. They're already better than the best films anyway due to being interactive.

>>388945838
The guy in The Darkness talked.

T. Someone who played the game

Would you rather have the Italian gibberish or the "What's that, Mario? Oh, go left?" with gestures and reactions? I like the way Paper Mario TTYD did it personally, give Mario tons of reactions but give him a slight voice like with his grunts or the "Oh yeah", "Hmm.." etc.

>>388951797
That's why I posted it

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>>388950616
>he would rather shoehorned flashbacks, "gee golly willikers i remember who i am and what i did now!" and 'regained memories' as random exposition
Yeah? No.
also
>left 4 dead
>story
>writing on the walls being anything more than a nice detail to add a bit of context to characters you'll never meet

>>388952157
>shoehorned flashbacks

I hate flashback storytelling with few exceptions - but Bioshock and Half Life have terrible storytelling.

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>>388945838
>tfw no pc port ever

I just want to play through it again.

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>>388950616
>You mean the laziest, shittiest way to story tell in a game?
There are exceptions.

>>388945687
what kind of cat is this?

>>388950805
it is though.

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Until the end of the game I really loved how they handled the silent protag in Furi.

I didn't hate him at the end I just thought it was too much of a change in attitude.

>>388949190
Holy shit you're dense, he obviously meant meme as in a joke, joke players as in casuals or by having unrefined taste

>>388953140
P much. Thanks