What kind of MCs do you prefer?

Game Development
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  • Blank slate MC
  • MC with customizations
  • MC with preset backstory

0 voters

I’m curious which option you guys do like more.

For me the first one is definitely off. But I’ve seen games where the latter two where written so well that those games ended up as some of my favorites. I liked the character customization in Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven but I also liked how in Samurai of Hyuga the MC was more preset (book protagonist like) and I could still play it in a way that the preset backstory etc. didn’t bother me and I still feelt like I’m playing my own character and not someone elses.

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I like being able to customize, but I want some idea of the backstory before I do so. As you mentioned ZE:SH, it was pretty ‘open world’ in terms of who you could be with the options of careers and society breaking down. In other settings, I would want loose guidelines about who/what I could imagine my character to be.

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Depends on the game really. I do like being able to customize an MC, but then sometimes an MC is such a unique and interesting character that I prefer playing the game from their point of view. :grin:

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But surely you would still want some control over the MC right? Othervise what you are reading is called a book not a CYOA.

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But even the MC of a CYOA needs to operate within the plot setting. The level of freedom granted within a game is always a point of dispute.

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I do like a MC with customization but there are some exception like the SoH series. :smiley:

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Not really. I can’t really think of any CoG or HG examples, but games like Life is Strange and Telltales The Walking Dead are choice based games with specific MCs, and I think those games worked a lot better having a set, gender-locked main character with a specific backstory than they would’ve done if the player got to choose their character’s name/gender/appearance, ect.

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Probably either the second or third one, ideally.

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I never played these games myself. I just saw videos about Life is Strange on youtube. I admit I know even less about the Walking Dead game. But I must ask, is there any point where the gender is that important that it wouldn’t work with a protagonist of the opposite gender?

Edit: Actually nevermind. Those games just arent my cup of tea. The protagonist is too preset, if I watch a video about someone elses playtrough that’s almost the same as if I’d play them myself.

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Thing is with Telltale games is that its a different sort of role playing to something like COG because you’re playing a specific (and often established in canon) sort of character, though it depends on the game. If I play Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolf Among Us or one of the two Batman games I’m always thinking now what should Bruce Wayne, Bigby Wolf or Peter Quill do, whereas in Walking Dead and Minecraft Story Mode (where you can actually pick your ethnicity and gender to an extent) I have a bit more openness in my mind because I feel I can define who my Lee or Clem or Jessie is, even if some parts of their lives are established.

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Unless it is a plot point that forces the protagonist to be gender locked, I think gender has nothing to do with the success of a game. It generally depends on the game developer’s comfort level. For example, I read an article where Atlus was questioned as to why the persona 5 game did not have a female protagonist, to which the developer replied that it was difficult to code. Obviously that is BS. They are just not comfortable with a female protagonist. But if he had said that answer, there would have been great backlash

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It’s not so much the gender that’s important as the characters. Both games have a set MC with unique backgrounds, interests and personalities.

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I see that. That’s why i already edited my previous post.

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I was quite surprised when Altus answered it that way. They were able to do it with P3P so I am still hoping they would it in Persona 6.

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Hence why P3P is my favorite Persona game. I just had to say this.

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I dont think Persona 6 would be a female protagonist to be honest. Persona 5 is a smashing success. They probably wouldnt change the formula now. I would rather pin my hopes on Re:Fantasy (I hope I got the name right) that is being developed by Atlus to give more freedom of choice as far as gender is concerned.

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P3P is my favorite as well. XD

Perhaps if I wasn’t spoiled by P3P, I would have enjoyed Persona 4 and 5. Though I enjoyed the SMT 4 even though it has a male protagonist.

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I love Persona 3, 4 and 5. Persona 5 is probably my favourite among them. In 3, I loved the female MC more than the male MC. It can be added to one of the exceptions where I didnt care about gender.

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Minus the one they had in three. And I think some of their Shin Megami Tensei series, though I’m not so sure on that one.

Anyway, I typically either like a blank late or character in their own right kind of mc, half way is bad though.

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Eh, can’t say I like either of the options.

I can’t think of any CoG/HG game (to stay with those) where you’d have a complete blank slate.
Most MCs I can think of are a mix of customizable and set backstory (is that what you meant?) which might work best for this.
After all, there’s a reason our MC is in the story.
Complete set backstory with little-to-no customization of it, or cope-out customization (aka this choice is solely for your stats, it won’t matter down the line, even though it looks like it) are a no go for me, especially if the backstory makes no goddamn sense and the MC is generally bared from showing any form of autonomy/common sense. (though there’s only very few games written that badly)