Presets/quick-builds for the protagonist work best for sequels and the like. IMO in first books/solo books, building MC (even if MC is more set than fluid) is half the fun. Unless the main character is a pre-existing and well-codified historical/mythological character (like Oedipus, in Jacic’s game), I don’t think MCs should be premade.
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That I’m fine with. I think it’s really hard to allow complete self-inserts in different worlds that are vastly different from our own, because their different social/political/etc environments wouldn’t affect us the way our world does, especially for fantasy worlds. This is very true for me when I create characters with large amounts of my personality and found out even though they’re heavily based on me they usually turn out to be very different from me due to their surrounding environments.
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Honestly, I’m not into the idea of a preset character😅
The main reason why I play IF games is because I can make a character that can look like me or be me. It makes me feel more connected to the story and it makes it more interesting to me because I can see how the world and characters react to my decisions.
Preset characters make me uncomfortable as I can’t really be myself or have representation of myself in the game. There are some games of a preset protagonist that I do like, but it’s only a few because I have a high standard for it😅.
In all honesty, I wish those games didn’t have a preset protagonist and instead was a character you could make.
That way, you can always replay the game and end up having different endings and different scenarios always happening.
Whoo, that was an info dump!
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Response to @Alena_Argonza
Preset characters make me uncomfortable as I can’t really be myself or have representation of myself in the game.
There are some games of a preset protagonist that I do like, but it’s only a few because I have a high standard for it😅.
I am curious though, is the problem preset appearance for you or personality? Or is it not being able to change both? Like, having the ability to select gender, sexuality, and appearance, but having a locked backstory or personality?
What do you think of MCs with some defined characteristics (perceptive, nihilistic, etc), while others are left for the player to decide?
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Preset characters are fine for me as long as I can change their name. (feels very weird when I typed it out but yeah.)
I can get over the fact that this character is already established and that’s great! now I don’t have to choose what happened to this character or what they are, but the moment I learn that I can’t really change the name of the MC is a hard no for me. (Is this just a me thing idk?)
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MCs with defined characteristics are the best MCs I have ever seen on this platform.
COG encourages authors to let player create their own personal MC (which can be great fun) but consequently, it makes writing clear, defined, interesting interaction between MC and side characters very hard
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