I always think of the MC’s personality as a function of the choices that they make. I’m not a fan of choosing a personality stereotype for the MC, I’d rather choose how I react in each situation, and allow that to cumulatively be the MC’s personality. For example I might choose a different tone, depending on how I feel about who I’m talking to.
Making stats of personality traits is interesting though. I wouldn’t mind if a conversation action was less effective because you executed it poorly, as it went against a personality stat. I’d be in on that approach =].
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Exactly. I would prefer not choosing my personality, but creating it through my choices. It’s just awful when for some reason we must choose a stereotype and stick to it until the end. When that happens, it’s not a choice game anymore.
I’d go even further to say that I like customizing my backstory. I hate it when I must play a person that has three brothers and their father died and all of it, and I have no say in the matter. It’s so refreshing when I can choose if I had my parents, how many brothers or sisters, what happened in the past, all of it. I feel much more connected.
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This is why I enjoy the story-type books more than the game-type books.
I have a lot more fun customizing my character into someone fun to read about, than “beating” the book.
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I do enjoy games that allow me to show my character’s personality. However, I think that in some cases, it’s arguably better to have the reader play a character with personality of their own.
Many people have brought up the way personality manifests in Samurai of the Hyuga. Even amongst the different flavors of personality, that character has certain traits or driving features that are set. If you removed them, the narrative wouldn’t work as well, or it would at least work differently very differently, with certain elements of the plot not impacting the main character in the same way.
Another example of this would be the Fallen Hero series. That story doesn’t allow you to choose for your character to not to be a villain or not to be scarred from their past. Even if it does let you choose the degree of these things or how the character may see them, they narrative itself revolves around telling a story about a character with these particular struggles.
Meanwhile, in a game like ZE: Safe Haven, the plot is more open — it’s about a survivor working (or not) with others to secure themselves in the apocalypse. In this case, there’s more breathing room for the main character because of the broader narrative, and that’s reflected in the plethora of ways the player can shape the player character.
I know there are a lot who are behind concerned with the availability of choice one IF and stress the difference between IF and novels. However, I think we need to keep in mind that for something to be interactive, it need not cede full control of character to players.
I think the change to the narrative style is the most crucial part. If the author has a story with a particularly tight narrative, then there is less room to allow for the player to determine every aspect of the main character. This doesn’t mean the game isn’t interactive, just that it needs control by the author to tell its story well.
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