Saying that authors aren’t allowed to describe NPCs only because it ruins the imagination aspect is like saying they’re not allowed to describe the appearance of the setting. I disagree that full descriptions “ruin the immersion”- would doing so ruin the immersion in a regular book?
I acknowledge that there are plenty of reasons to dislike full descriptions, but the idea that a world can’t be immersive unless you can contribute features to people seems bizarre.
Of course they’re allowed to describe it, they have to, they’re the ones writing it. I’m not against them having their own vision and ideas but enforcing their perspectives instead of letting players interpret things themselves is definitely questionable. I mean, for instance, I enjoyed HR but Zachary’s obsession about players adhering to his vision for the story almost ruined the game experience, especially present in the THP spin-off.
The mention of books are irrelevant, comparing IFs to books would be similar to comparing a linear game to one with a massive open world. They have similarities but any comparison drawn is a hopeful extrapolation at best.
Why would that seem bizarre? I can’t quite remember the name of the WIP but I recently played a demo where a character was introduced as having soft red hair and I was completely under the impression that the NPC was ginger. The immersion was lost when a few choices later and the narrative says the NPC has auburn hair. It’s an intricacy but discrepancies between how players and how authors might interpret something are more prevalent than you think
If we’re talking “Oh, Black Magic looks like [Insert random celebrity the player has a crush on here]”, then I’d like to say that that should never be used again. Ever. Incredibly lazy and it took me out of my immersion whenever it was brought up.
Dude like, I don’t know enough celebrities as it is, I don’t need that popping up every time I date the bastard.
I disagree that an author describing an NPC’s appearance hurts immersion in any way. Whether it’s a book or a piece of interactive fiction, we’re still reading a story and as such, I’d find it more immersion-breaking to have an NPC be a blank slate appearance-wise.
Then again, having a little thing I thought to be true about an NPC (like hair colour) be contradicted by the story won’t change the image of them in my head if I already had one. Same when it happens in a regular book. (So long as the story doesn’t contradict itself.)
YMMV, of course.
I don’t really mind having my expectations of a NPC broken, since they are characters of the story, unlike the MC, qhi is very personal to the reader.
I’d say that HP’s problem was railroading of a storyline rather than an obsession with appearance itself. And the way he treated Black Magic’s appearance feels like part of the obsession (since Zachary was trying very hard to force you to be attracted to them). They’re comparable, but it’s not a 1:1 of character appearance obsession vs PC storyline+growth obsession.
Making a story open world and interactive doesn’t remove the need for an author to paint a picture of the universe they’re creating.
That sounds more like a matter of word choice on the author’s part than anything else. Auburn and red are two different hair colors.
I think it’s safe to say that was a very unpopular aspect of the game 
I can remember only one released CoG title (Curse of the Black Cat) and one WIP (can’t recall the name) where PC’s appearance (of a “pick an option” variety) had any bearing on gameplay (or was at least acknowledged by npc’s), and I actually liked how it was handled. Mostly because I also liked the options given and the benefits that the option I had picked provided. And the fact that it wasn’t the typical “choose your eye colour” kind, but “what sort of impression your appearance leaves” kind. It was good, and I’d love to see more titles with this kind of customisation.
As for NPC’s, I don’t much care how well they are described unless they also serve as RO. It which case having some noteable features is usually enough. Having a detailed description may backfire - I can be turned off by one minor detail, and that would be it for the poor character)) Better having blanks to fill in and several key features to build your own portrait on.
Well, since a lot of people mentions that they prefer the “noteworthy features of NPC”, I’m curious what kind of features you guys generally find… noteworthy.
Of course, if you don’t mind, @leo •◡•
I’d say everything that shows some kind of deeper aspect to the character at hand. For example, Haze’s hair style and colour in Tally Ho. Usually if a character is mentioned as having an unusual shade of dyed hair I tend to get Mary-Sue fanfiction flashbacks, but for Haze it made sense and showed their disregard of societal norms and expectations.
So the author didn’t just throw it in for the sake of it, but it was a noteworthy feature showing what the character is like.
I’ll echo that I don’t like a long solid paragraph of description for an NPC. But I do like to get at least some ‘noteworthy’ tidbits up front. Later, during a conversation, I can notice the birthmark behind their ear.
It’s kind of funny that in a story I’m very ‘into’ right now, the only thing I know about the first potential RO is his specific height and weight. After a long story, if I were to find out in a second installment that he’s an Australian Aborigine with face tatoos and dyed-green hair, that would be rather jarring. So, I see the merit in letting readers imagine what a character looks like, this instance taught me that I really want, at the least, a framework in which to add my own details.
Noteworthy? I want ‘My Immortal’ style descriptions for each and every singly character for each and every singly day that takes place in the game.
Of course I’m kidding. I’d be happy with general build phrases and maybe eye/hair color.
Come to think of it, “noteworthy” part is secondary. Not everyone has something peculiar to be mentioned about their appearance, after all.
First of all, we need the basics. Race. Age. Height. Eye colour|hair colour|skintone. Maybe hairstyle and attire too, but not necessarily. Everything else can be left to the reader’s imagination.
Personally, I’m ambivalent to any of the options, since I always immediately have a picture of a character in my head, and that’s not going to change, even if it’s totally wrong.
Also, I don’t mind how much description is given, but rather how it’s given. Like, I don’t want just a paragraph telling me what the character looks like. I find that boring, and I tend to skip over it. My favourite way in my own stories is to describe appearence in relation to others, so comparing similarities and differences.
It’s nice to know how characters look like but some things don’t really matter much.
It wouldn’t matter if a character had dark brown or amber eyes (it’s up to your imagination) but it would be worth mentioning if they had some unique eye color like red.
Care to mention what “everything else” is? Because you’ve literally listed all of the possible appearance traits for a character
Sure, let’s leave “everything else” to the readers’ imagination, if “everything else” was a synonym for nothing
There isn’t a particular list of things that I’d say would work for every character. Maybe it’s just how you would immediately describe the character to another person to help jog their memory about them.
Ex:
“You know Sigi?”
“Who?”
“The police officer? Wears a uniform, kind of on the tall side?”
“Don’t know who you mean.”
“She’s got the really curly black hair and walks around with her chest puffed out?”
Good golly gosh, neighbor. That be some strong phrasing you’re using there. It appears as though you are especially bothered by that previous comment. Do you want to share why their inclusion of more descriptors than you found appropriate was so frustrating to you?
Edit bc I got reported for saying poop soup
I suggest you re-read your post. Maybe then you’ll see how little sense it makes.
Hahah, maybe they meant deeper traits, like describing how a character speaks, how they walk and carry themselves, etc.
That said, they did nail every other physical feature.