I was thinking idly earlier tonight about little things that could be added to protagonist dialogue to give the protagonists their own personalities. While a lot of people prefer the bland semi-blank slate (Shepard and the Warden and Hawke all DID have some degree of personality out of necessity, but they tended to be rather bland), I think it would be interesting to make the protagonist him/herself be one of the most interesting characters.
The purpose of the "blank slate," or the mostly uncharacterized character, is so that the player can inhabit that character, whether he or she exists in a game, novel, movie, etc. The writer wants you to identify, wants you to be able to fantasize about being in that protagonist's role. The downside is that you, as the audience, usually come away with the odd feeling that you liked the supporting cast better than the protagonist. The protagonist may have a distinct look and distinct abilities, but would still be infinitely more memorable with a distinct personality and lines that define him or her.
You could, in fact, still mostly keep the "blank slate," and flesh out the protagonist with some quirks. Such as, for instance, having an Inquisitor who has a tendency to accidentally say the wrong thing at the wrong time, whether it's a double entendre or an unintended insult. It would be a flaw, but an endearing flaw.
It might be interesting to encounter a past love interest. Do events cause you to split apart, and seek affection elsewhere, or does your character remain loyal? Or, if you didn't want to be so daring, perhaps the protagonist made a promise to bring a gift back to their little sibling, and you can choose whether or not to do so once the game begins. Something like this hints at the character having a life before the game, unlike, for instance, the Elder Scrolls, where you very well could have just been plopped down into a prison situation by the gods themselves, for all you know about your character.
There's so much that could be done, if developers would take the risk. But instead, there's a lot of worrying about whether people will be able to put themselves in the shoes of such a character, or that they might not want to be in the shoes of a character whose relationship might be about to fall apart. Even with DA:O, which did a great job at establishing characters for the players' sake, you still don't get much hint of what the character's life was like prior to the major events of the story. Not that I'd expect something to that degree, but it's a matter of showing versus telling--I for one would like it if more characters in the beginning of the story reacted to mine in a way that suggests a known, and set, past history.
I guess what I'm saying is that maybe instead of worrying about people not having precisely the protagonist they'd want to be, having a protagonist who already has a fleshed out personality and life. Having odd quirks doesn't prevent one from having leadership skills as well.
DA2 tried to do this, sort of, but I think it ended up falling more into the territory of telling rather than showing. I didn't want to HEAR about Aveline's wedding, I would have enjoyed seeing it, since I worked so hard to get that set up for her. And something felt off to me about other characters making assumptions about Hawke's relationships with them. If time has jumped forward seven years, Hawke has been through a lot since then and might not even look at these people the same way. No, I'm talking strictly about the characters who would know the protagonist the best, prior to the game's start. I am not a fan of skipping around into the future and letting the game tell me, rather than show me,my relationship with characters I am interacting with as a player in the present. Rather, show me relationships with characters I haven't had the chance to interact with through the game, and let my interactions, rather than off-screen circumstances, dictate the reactions of the other characters. If that makes sense to anyone besides me... Work's been rough lately and I'm tired and have no idea if anything I'm saying is making any sense whatsoever.
Edited to add: I know that Hawke, for instance, also had a mother and siblings and that their relationships wiere somewhat hinted at. However, the relationships weren't set and were based on what you said to them, which was... limiting. You couldn't get any stories out of them about "remember that time when you..." Which is a shame, even while it's nice you can decide how to react to them. Either a set past, or some references to set events in the protagonist's past that could then be explained or reacted to via player choice, might be nice. Just... more depth to the player character, I guess? Having trouble explaining what exactly I felt was lacking, other than that the Warden and Hawke (and Shepard) could have done with a bit extra personality added, while still enabling the player to make choices and play the games.
Anyone have thoughts on this? Am I the only one who'd like to see this?
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You know, I actually have a lot more fun with my (completely blank) characters in Skyrim than in a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Alpha Protocol where you play a fleshed out character but you can shape their personality/actions to a degree.
