Now, I feel that I've come to a fuller realization about why playing Hawke left me a bit dissatisfied, and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts in order to hear about why other players have had different, or similar, experiences.
(Just to be clear, it's not my intention here to bash Hawke, or the writing in DA2 – because I did find Hawke entertaining, and even though I had mixed feelings about DA2, I still had fun playing it.)
As I've stated before, I love playing Dragon Age: Origins because it lets me step into the role of a character I've created to fit into the story. The fact that some things about my characters are pre-defined doesn't take away from that experience for me, because I see the personal backgrounds and the overall quest arc that the authored narrative provides for my characters as starting points for me to build on as I imagine characters with distinct and vivid personalities and outlooks.
When I play DA:O, defining my character feels like a collaborative effort between me and the writers, and the challenge of creating a character who fits into the game's authored narrative is a very satisfying and rewarding experience for me.
Playing Shepard in Mass Effect 1 is a different kind of experience, but it's one that I also find satisfying.
Obviously, Shepard is less of a blank slate than the Warden, which means that I take less of an active role in defining him or her as a character. Because I knew going into the game that Shepard is a voiced character who's more pre-defined than the Warden, I had expected that I would have to take more of an observing/directing role in playing Shepard, as opposed to a creating/acting role. But as I play through the game, I find myself pleasantly surprised by how easily I'm able to connect with Shepard, and to inhabit her mind.
Although I don't quite feel like a co-creator of Shepard the way I do with my Wardens, I still feel as though I'm stepping into the role of Shepard, and inhabiting that role the way an actor might. In Mass Effect, I feel as though I'm stepping into the role of a pre-defined character, rather than one I've co-created, but it's still a very personal and satisfying experience.
(I've heard that some people found the Mass Effect sequels less satisfying than the original from a role-playing point of view, but I can't comment on those games yet, since I haven't yet played them. I should also add that I haven't played a male Shepard yet, so I can't comment on the voice acting for a male Shepard.)
Which brings me, finally, to Hawke and Dragon Age 2. Although I found many of Hawke's dialogue lines to be well-written on their own, and although I found the voice acting entertaining, there was always something about Hawke that kept me at a distance, so that Hawke tended to feel like another NPC to me, rather than a character I was actively role-playing.
What it comes down to for me, I think, is this: When Shepard speaks, I don't hear an actor playing Shepard – I hear Shepard.
When Hawke speaks, whether I'm playing a male or female Hawke, and no matter what tone icons I choose, I don't hear Hawke – I hear an actor playing Hawke.
That doesn't mean that the voice acting for Hawke is badly done – far from it. It just means that when I hear the actors voicing Hawke, I'm always aware that they're acting. And that makes it much harder for me to connect with Hawke as a character, and to really step into the role of Hawke.
I think this may partly be because Hawke's dialogue – both in its writing and its delivery – tends to fall a bit toward the extreme end of each tone descriptor, which often makes Hawke's demeanour come across as affected and mannered, as opposed to naturalistic.
That's not necessarily a bad thing – portraying a character in a stylized way can be a perfectly respectable style choice. It's just not a style choice that worked for me, because it kept me from feeling that I truly knew Hawke – and that kept me from being able to fully inhabit the character.
So, I'm eager to hear other people's experiences of role-playing Hawke, Shepard, and the Warden: How did you approach each character in terms of role-playing, and what made the experience satisfying or unsatisfying for you?
Modifié par jillabender, 15 janvier 2013 - 01:41 .
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