569 réponses à ce sujet

[SolNebula]

A double cover would do the trick on one featuring the male protagonist, on the other side the female one. Then it's up to the player to choose which cover suits them best.

[CrazyCatDude]

I think you're being unfair by calling them generic. I'm not even white (well, I'm half white), so don't get me wrong. I'm not defensive or anything. It's just that I recognize all of these characters as different. MaleShep is not the guy from Bioshock. Nor are either of them Nathan Drake. They're unique characters in their own right.

 

I'm really not.  BroShep is kind of an exception, because you get to define him.  You can chose his appearance, his background, his reputation, and through game play his personality.  On the other hand, I think Yatzee's review of Mass Effect 1 was where I first heard "Grizzled, generically handsome short brown haired guy".  

 

You've got a hand full of back stories to chose from.  "I'm so angsty because I was sold out by someone I trusted,"  or "I'm so angsty because someone I cared about died" or "I'm so angsty because I realized slaughtering people and using their ribs as tooth picks is wrong, and now feel guilty, and am out of tooth picks", or the ever popular, "I'm so angsty because I'm generally a disgusting example of humanity, which is no one's fault but my own, but you should feel sorry for me anyway".  Booker is kind of a mishmash of the 'toothpicks' and 'disgusting example of humanity' flavors.  

 

I've never played Uncharted, so I really can't speak to Nathan Drake in particular, but the pictures of the character certainly fit the trope.

 

It's tiresome.  It really is.

The thing is, I wouldn't even care if they did put a guy on the cover on ME:N, if, say, they got Idris Elba, or John Boyega, or Chadwick Boseman, or Senndhil Ramamurthy, or Rey Gallegos as the default face model.

[CrazyCatDude]

How about this guy?

Spoiler

Source  

Spoiler

 

  

Not bad, but I'd rather have Bob Morley.

[ZoliCs]

Well, it's not tiresome to me. I'll take it -- along with other types of characters. You can see my avatar.. I'm not a white guy (half-Asian), and maybe I should be pissed off more.. But for some reason, I'm not. I'm having fun. Hell, I could say most of the Japanese gaming industry uses half-Asian looking characters, so maybe that's why I'm not feeling left out.

 

I'm a tall, white guy with brown hair, and I'm totally tired of this trope 

 

TL;DR -- Brown haired white guys are individuals too. 

 

I don't think anyone actually has a beef with that type of guys (or at least I hope not  ), but the over representation of them. If we were to get our way and every protagonist from now on would be a blonde chick instead we would get tired of that too eventually.

[CrazyCatDude]

Well, it's not tiresome to me. I'll take it -- along with other types of characters. You can see my avatar.. I'm not a white guy (half-Asian), and maybe I should be pissed off more.. But for some reason, I'm not. I'm having fun. Hell, I could say most of the Japanese gaming industry uses half-Asian looking characters, so maybe that's why I'm not feeling left out.

 

Nathan Drake is a snarky Indiana Jones type.. and it's more in the spirit of Tomb Raider than anything. Awesome games btw.

 

I don't think Sheploo is THAT handsome. The face is from a model, but he's still not traditionally handsome imo. He's kind of unique looking to me. Maybe when he was younger he was, but I think he's got a distinctive jowl/mouth area that isn't "generic" exactly.

 

 

TL;DR -- Brown haired white guys are individuals too.

 

 

---

 

Oh, on the origin story note, I've surprisingly got a lot of flexibility out of them. They worked better for me than DAI's origins at least. Little stories flow out of my head for each one. Not the greatest stories, but it's better than what you're giving it credit for. You sound pretty cynical.

 

It's great that it's not tiresome to you, but there are huge numbers of people out there who are really unhappy with the state of the industry, when it comes to how similar the protagonists are.

 

Honest, I'm frustrated, and the frustration is slowly making me cynical.  I used to love to read, but I've gotten to the point where most of the books in my preferred genres are just retreads of the same tired tropes and characters.  I love video games, but I'm having the same sort of problem there.  The same thing, recycled ad naseum.

 

Surprisingly enough, TV is actually where I'm getting a lot of my entertainment these days, because there's a lot of really neat stuff going on.  The 100, Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black, Daredevil, Once Upon a Time, Agent Carter, The Legend of Korra, The Clone Wars and Rebels.  Looking forward to Jessica Jones and Supergirl a lot.

 

With video games, I've got Life Is Strange queued up.  Just need a chunk of time when I can sit down and play it.
 

When it comes to games, Bioware is a huge breath of fresh air, because you can customize your character, and there is meaningful story telling within the game.  I just wish the marketing reflected more of that.  I've turned on a lot of women to the game by just telling them you can play as a female.  It makes a huge difference.  I honestly don't understand why this isn't an option in *every* game.  I've had the conversation before, for example.  Would it have made any difference at all if Master Chief had been Jane117 instead of John117?  Why not give players that choice?  Honestly, I think the only game I've played in recent memory where a female protagonist wouldn't work within the context of the story was "Spec Ops: The Line".

[CrazyCatDude]

I almost was gonna correct you with Roots Rock Reggae.

 

But you didn't misspell. I recognize him from that stupid CW show.

 

Okay, calling "The 100" stupid is fighting words.

[Majestic Jazz]

I also feel compelled to defend white people at times. I remember growing up and people laughing at my dad.. a lot of kids I knew were more ethnic looking like me, but my dad was this pale, auburn haired guy. So I got in fights with them over this. No one deserves to be singled out for this. A lot of "social justice" stuff makes a lot of jokes at the expense of "white males" and I don't like it. It's not coming from a good place... no matter how valid their concerns may be on oversaturation. There's gotta better way of conveying this point.

I agree with this. There is a right way to do something and there is a wrong way. I am a black male and I hate to see the majority of protagonist being white including females. I hated how when Bioware allowed gamers to vote for the look of female Shepard, the non-white looking ones never stood a chance.

I am all for diversity but that does not mean we can trash the heterosexual white male demographic. I hate how in democratic politics (I a democrat btw) being a white male is suddenly "bad". I also noticed that among many feminist, many do not just want to be equal to men, but actually superior to men and they want the courts to favor this. Sometimes I think that women do not want 100% equality, just equality that favors them in certain situations while wanting to maintain traditional status quo in situations that benifits them as well but this is a topic for another time.

Either way, I hate seeing white males dominate videogame characters, but that does not mean we can bash or disgrace then either. They should be respected to.

[BraveVesperia]

Both! It's a game where you (can) create you own character, shape their interactions, choices, personality. Bioware should be making it blantantly obvious to potential new customers that customisation is part of their game.

 

Honestly, when I first saw ME1 advertised, I thought we played as Sheploo. Forget playing as a female character, I didn't even know you could customise the male one until I saw my brother playing the game.

[BraveVesperia]

I see the point.. I know it's oversaturated. But I think there are unique characters that fall within this trope too.

 

Gordon Freeman is another one.

 

And Solid Snake. 

 

But these guys are not generic. They're not the same.

 

I also feel compelled to defend white people at times. I remember growing up and people laughing at my dad.. a lot of kids I knew were more ethnic looking like me, but my dad was this pale, auburn haired guy. So I got in fights with them over this. No one deserves to be singled out for this. A lot of "social justice" stuff makes a lot of jokes at the expense of "white males" and I don't like it. It's not coming from a good place... no matter how valid their concerns may be on oversaturation. There's gotta better way of conveying this point.

I don't think it's about their personalities. I've played a lot of games, watched shows etc with white male heroes, and I've come to love many of them. But the visual design isn't something that catches my eye when I'm browsing posters, covers, trailers etc. They're very samey.

For example:

Spoiler

I'm sure most of them have interesting, well thought out personalities and stories, but none of them stand out. It's an over-used visual design. Even a white male character who looks different to this set would be fresher (a red-headed male, they aren't that common heroes). I personally just feel that having more variety is always good. Even if it's just aesthetic, though sometimes it could come down to story or personality too. Though if ME: Next has a default protag for marketing (like Sheploo), I think they should be some variety of mixed race (since many people in the ME world are supposed to be mixed). Default femShep was a little 'lolwut' to me in that respect, considering how rare green-eyed red-heads are irl.

 

As for the people who make nasty comments about white guys, imo they're the same as any other bigot: their opinions shouldn't reflect these decisions one way or another. I definitely don't think it's a question that should be ignored just because some of these 'SJW' people act like childish d*cks.

[Absafraginlootly]

I don't think anyones suggesting that there is anything wrong with white male short haired brunette protagonists, or that are not individuals.

 

But so is everyone else, so it would be nice if you could look at video game protagonists and see a variety of genders, races and sexualities. Instead of just the one combination however well written. 

 

That has to start somewhere, why not with mass effect?

[Kroitz]

Leave out humans alltogether, most quarrels solved.

 

Put a Krogan on the cover, no one knows which gender they represent until they talk.

 

 

That´s one fine lad(y).

[Kroitz]

And then have Krogan romances. 

 

If you insist.

 

[pdusen]

I'm all for more gender and ethnic diversity in games. Bring it all on.

 

That having been said, I think boiling some really interesting and different protagonists down to "generic angsty white guy" is more of a problem with your state of mind than with the characters.

[Sanunes]

It really depends on what you are thinking of when you are talking marketing for me.  If you talking about box art I hope they go way from having the protagonist on it at all similar to Dragon Age: Origins or the collector editions of Mass Effect 2 and 3.  I also hope they go more the route of Dragon Age: Inquisition when they show off different characters during the later demonstration of the game.

[Altair_ShepardN7]

What if they just put a character on a heavy armor or something? You wont know if it is a male or female, its skin color, race, etc. It would be your character. 

[ZoliCs]

What if they just put a character on a heavy armor or something? You wont know if it is a male or female, its skin color, race, etc. It would be your character. 

 

What's the point of a cheap cop out? They either commit themselves fully for better ethnic/gender representation or they don't. An ambiguous, hidden character won't do it.