I hope I can get to craft a really ugly bastard in the character creator, that's all I want, a face to make your own mother puke and children run screaming. Like my own gentle mush.
Blothulfur said:I hope I can get to craft a really ugly bastard in the character creator, that's all I want, a face to make your own mother puke and children run screaming. Like my own gentle mush.
KapitanPadzierz said:Crazy theories aside , I’m excited about the second question (Will choosing your class affect the story? If so, how much?). I loved it in VTM: Bloodlines (whatever clan you choose ,at least one malkavian play through is a must!) and loved it in Fallout series (Your super complicated science thingy is broken and requires someone with science knowledge to fix it? Small world…). So if we will see at least one of this approaches in Cyberpunk ,I’ll be really happy.
Well this is where it definitely comes down to personal preferences. I felt far more connected to the characters that I created for most of the Infinity Engine games, Fallout series, DAO, ME1 and even Saints Row the third than I ever felt towards Geralt. Geralt never felt like me and at times he distinctly annoyed me. Given the choice, in say a pnp game for example, he wouldn't be the type of character I would create. I enjoyed the Witcher as a whole but I felt like a passenger with Geralt.slimgrin said:The differences required in writing a set or blank slate protagonist - be it gender or otherwise - are subtler than some people are realizing. My experience in games like Mass Effect, FO3, and Oblivion show that there's a disconnect with the blank slate approach. There's something generic about it compared to The Witcher, where I am Geralt. In those other games I'm just somebody.
I can deal with both approaches, but since CDPR did so well with Geralt, I'm inclined to say they should do another very specific set protagonist.
Yes, that would be how roleplaying works.slimgrin said:Feel free to imagine whatever bits in between that.
KIrving said:Yes, that would be how roleplaying works.
KnightofPhoenix said:I used to be in that school of thought, before coming to the conclusion that this is just an excuse for devs to be lazy in story telling.
Blank slate can work well in an open world game like Elder Scroll or Fallout, as the game was never really about story, but rather being immersed in a setting that gives you a lot of freedom.
But honestly, despite how much I loved the game (in large part because of the work I did in my head), it was meh in games like DA:O, KOTOR or Jade Empire. Everything I imagined, while great and fun, is irrelevant as the game doesn't react to it and with Bioware specifically, I realized that it was an excuse for their crappy writing. That plus no matter how much I RP, the Warden / Revan / Spirit Monk had to be idiots on several occasions (Shepard, while not a blank slate but an awkward hybrid, was an imbecile most of the time. And don't get me started on Hawke).
I have come to vastly prefer a set protagonist, one which the game, story and characters react to.
For Cyberpunk, I would prefer the Michael Thorton from Alpha Protocol formula except with gender choice. Thorton was kind of a hybrid, but it was executed well because the game, story and characters actually reacted to your choices and background (even your freakin armor! Just dialogue but it was a nice touch). But I admit, I am worried about this as they could end up with a Shepard or worse Hawke, both of whom I could not identify with or care about, nor could I enjoy playing as them.
I can accept silent PC if I do not get the impression that they are being lazy and expecting us to write most of the story in our heads for them.
WhatATwist said:The Witcher games are based on series of novels, and you play the famous protagonist of a somewhat linear story with some interesting branching choices along the way that affect the details of the ending.
Cyberpunk, on the other hand is based on a big open world pen and paper RPG with a huge sandbox, I mean the sandbox is the size of the Earth. In CP2020, there are many different kinds of characters you can create and it's all about role playing, thinking about your character's point of view, choosing to do whatever you think your character would want to do, go where your character would want to go, interact with whichever NPC faction, etc.
There is a very detailed backstory about the game world setting, but the actual narrative of each adventure develops more organically out of the players choosing to do what they think their character would do, and the GM playing the part of the NPCs in the world, often improvising to accommodate unexpected player choices and interests.
I think we all anticipate that Cyberpunk will have a narrative structure somewhat similar to Witcher, but we know from the Q&A responses at least that CDProjekt hopes to keep the CP2020 role system, which means very different kinds of character classes and backgrounds. The central narrative of the game is going to have to play out somewhat differently if your character is a cop, journalist, wealthy corporate executive or a rockstar musician, etc., because you are going to have a different perspective on the world, different social status and probably different relationships with NPC factions, etc.
Wildly different branching dialogue options in a brilliant game like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines are probably only possible with a silent protagonist, as it would probably be prohibitively expensive to record so many different protagonist voices and so many variations on every line, not to mention the problem of not being able to edit or improve upon the dialogue once it has been recorded. Personally, I would be looking forward to replaying the game several times, playing a very different sort of character each time. If the protagonist is voiced, either it's going to be ridiculously expensive or they would probably have to ditch most of the class options, greatly reducing the replay value.
bbk4114 said:While the arguments for set protagonist are compelling, I still like playing a female character better than male. I just relate better. I'm sure the reverse is true for many guys.
I liked playing as Geralt, but he was always Geralt, never me. When I mishandled the game controls, I'd frequently berate Geralt for being such a dumb f___, lol.
I think in games it is rather refreshing to play as a female that can not have to worry about all that crap we deal with in everyday life. That people are just people no matter what they've got in between their legs. Nice dream, huh?
There are stats that show the number of females in gaming is on a sharp rise, so the developers that embrace that are going to be the winners in the long run, unless of course they like the number of sales, etc., their company currently has.
Just my opinion, you don't have to go spreadin' it around or anything.