How drawn into character portrayals do you get with video game RPGs?

[Aidan of the tavern]

Ok, I'm not ashamed to say it, I'm one of those people who when playing Elder Scrolls, or Fallout, etc, goes into a lengthy character building process. Not just with appearence, but I work out what their personality will be, their background, to the point where they make different decisions than I would. I actually find it good inspiration for character creation in writing, to the point where I've ended up giving myself great ideas just by playing around with character development.

Then I act all surprised when I see those gamers who are so detatched they skip the story in a brand new game just to get to the action. Is it a writer's thing? How do your typical RPGs go?

 

[Ankari]

Then I act all surprised when I see those gamers who are so detatched they skip the story in a brand new game just to get to the action. Is it a writer's thing? How do your typical RPGs go?

This is a big problem with MMOs. A majority of the player base wants to hit end-game as fast as possible to they can claim the hallow achievement of "First to..."

I always thought this was stupid. There are some gems of a storyline in these games. I try to slow down and read everything, even secondary information that adds additional lore to the quest.

The problem is that game companies are yielding to the pressure from these gamers because they are so vocal and disruptive. I like and appreciate the older MMOs where not everyone got to participate in a quest. I hate instant spawn cycles of monsters. Actually, I hate the fact that quests and the world in games are so static. Like everyone is living their own version of the world, you're just able to interact with them.

I'm going on a rant here. I have a vision for how an MMO should be done. I have a vision to NOT include everyone (free-to-play) and make customers pay for what they want (high quality, dynamic world). It's a dream, but it starts with the universe I'm hashing out with my novels.

Why did you open up this can of worms?

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

This is a big problem with MMOs. A majority of the player base wants to hit end-game as fast as possible to they can claim the hallow achievement of "First to..."

I always thought this was stupid. There are some gems of a storyline in these games. I try to slow down and read everything, even secondary information that adds additional lore to the quest.

The problem is that game companies are yielding to the pressure from these gamers because they are so vocal and disruptive. I like and appreciate the older MMOs where not everyone got to participate in a quest. I hate instant spawn cycles of monsters. Actually, I hate the fact that quests and the world in games are so static. Like everyone is living their own version of the world, you're just able to interact with them.

I'm going on a rant here. I have a vision for how an MMO should be done. I have a vision to NOT include everyone (free-to-play) and make customers pay for what they want (high quality, dynamic world). It's a dream, but it starts with the universe I'm hashing out with my novels.

Why did you open up this can of worms?

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Story in a game is important for me, maybe that's why I play less 1st person shooters and more Assassin's Creed.

 

[Anders Ämting]

I'm not so much into character development as I am into character design. When playing RPG video games, I don't bother giving my characters detailed personalities or lifestyles because the game is for the most part not designed to accommodate that well enough. Rather, I try to achieve a certain look and style, often making decisions that isn't to my character's benefit - I will for example often rely on inferior weapons and armor, because the better stuff simply doesn't mesh with my design.

 

[Steerpike]

I will for example often rely on inferior weapons and armor, because the better stuff simply doesn't mesh with my design.

One nice thing about GW2 is that you can use a special item to modify any weapon or armor. When you do so, you get to choose the properties of each that you want the new item to have, including appearance. So when I get new, better armor, I just use it to make my new armor look like the old armor I liked better.

 

[Zireael]

Take Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate series - your companions really seemed to have their own personalities, so I created a history and a personality for my character too.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

Take Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate series - your companions really seemed to have their own personalities, so I created a history and a personality for my character too.

Baldur's Gate, there's a blast from the past. Sadly those games were mostly before my gaming days, but I replayed many times the two Dark Alliance games. Ah, the times I spent hopping over barrels and and laughing at the barbarian's dialogue lines.

 

[Sparkie]

When creating a character for a game, I find myself asking why. Why would he do this? Why would she do that? I tend to come up with some kind of sketchy back story and play the character accordingly.

Yes, I am a nerd.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

When creating a character for a game, I find myself asking why. Why would he do this? Why would she do that? I tend to come up with some kind of sketchy back story and play the character accordingly.

Yes, I am a nerd.

Me too. Lets just say we are artists. We are using the tools and context to harness our creativity. Or something like that.

 

[shangrila]

In regards to MMO, it's because it gets fairly repetitive after a while, especially with a lack of choices. I was a big WOW player for a year or so and, honestly, there was just never the urge to give a new guy a personality when he's just going to do the same things as all your others.

Normally I don't do this kind of thing, to be honest. Usually my first character reflects how I like to play (I like to be the nice guy) and everyone after that is themed (a mage, a thief, a douchebag, etc). That said, I did end up writing some fanfic for Dark Souls of all things. I just really dig that entire franchise. The art, the universe, the (small amount of) storytelling, everything just has an epic feel to it.

 

[Alexandra]

My Skyrim character is me, in Skyrim. Therefore I must play her well, in order that I do not die.

 

[The Writer's Realms]

When games do allow an in-depth character designer, I get way into it. It makes it more challenging to have a character that adheres to a personality and makes the video game atmosphere more immersive when the character is someone you can relate to.

 

[Cinninamon]

I personally haven't created major backgrounds for any of my game characters as I usually end up giving any of my characters backgrounds AFTER I've created them which also usually means I have to alter their current state to match their backgrounds. And if a game is supposed to have story, then I will read the dialogue and watch the cutscenes for it because I think they help with giving the gameplay something more solid, like there's an actual reason for why you're doing the things being done in the game. The first MMO I ever played was Runescape, but I got bored with that after a while because it's so repetitive, but Diablo II I thoroughly enjoyed it, mostly because of the cutscenes for the story. They helped with giving the main antagonists more substance and make them appear to be looming threats constantly out of reach till the end instead of just one time bosses that appear only once at the end of their segments.

 

[Being Darbo]

I suffer from serial restarter syndrome on games, as if I decide I don't like how my character looks, etc, I have to restart. Worst for this was the original Dragon Age, where every time I got through the Harrowing, I realised my mage looked like Barry Chuckle. Dark times...

 

[WyrdMystic]

Not very to be honest - I like to grow my own character but beyond that the stories and characters don't draw me in too much. I like the puzzle but I find with most games, due to their nature, there is a pattern and once you figure out the pattern the game becomes easy and you're just going through the motions repeating the same combat steps over and over again.

 

[Nihal]

I don't dive too deep into single player worlds. I really like to read the lore and explore, I like to create a character according to the lore but I just can't bring myself to roleplay there.

MMOs are a different story. The MMO I've played for the longest lenght of time was Lineage II. I've played it when it was still rather new and it was hard, man... The tale of Lineage II vs Aion is really cool, they're games of the same company but they're really different. Aion is rather an awful game, however it's really good to study gamers profiles and how some concepts can backfire.

The thing is that Lineage II, for being hard, forced people to help each other. Also, I've participated of RP servers and it was amazing. The world's dynamic and depth are things you just don't see in games nowadays. The alliances, the plots, the ambushes, it was a delicate game of thrones, haha.