Planescape: Torment. Got to say the Nameless One just grows on me every playthrough, I think like most of the best RPG's a pre-defined character is far more detailed, his choices carry far more weight and roleplaying him is just so much more intense and believable. Like the Avatar from Ultima, Geralt from the Witcher, Gorath, Owyn, James and Locklear from Betrayal at Krondor etcetera. Got to say that some of the best characters in my old pen and paper days were pre defined as well, with backstories in the world, contacts, personality and motivations that are actually reflected in the game.
Sure playing dress up and creating a character is nice, but all too often they're empty, hollow and aren't really recognised by the world at all. Sure you can play let's pretend and make up your story, but if the game doesn't recognise any of your decisions then there's no point playing the game, just play let's pretend without it.
Dragon Age's Origin stories were a good meeting point for merging the two, but after Ostagar the protagonist became fairly much an undefined and boring, featureless participant in the story. I remember Sten asking my Duster Dwarf about humans and magic, as if he'd know any more about this than the Qunari, just another example of the protagonist being an undefined, characterless placeholder really. Poor roleplaying really.
I think i'd like to see more pre-defined protagonists from now on, they seem a far more in depth, changeable and integrated part of the settings they inhabit. I prefer such characters in my roleplaying games, though the Sith Lords did some interesting things with defining the Exile.
