Curious main character poll.

[Adam Ferrell]

So I am curious what everyone likes for their main character out of these options so go ahead and comment about it so I can get some ideas. My main character right now is a gnome and I think it adds a lot of fun to the mix because he can fit places others can't and he isn't going to win every fight with his strength. 

 

[kerbonklin]

Other - Demons. There's always plenty of stuff story-wise to write about them. They could even be tough or sweet.

 

[negative_headed]

Depends entirely on setting.

Generally speaking Human is the "correct" answer in all cases only solely due to a player's ability to relate to the character tending to be a primary focus of most main characters.

 

[Dalph]

The secret for a good main character is not really his\her race, but his\her temper and story, as long as a character is well developed the race isn't really important.

Speaking about preferences now...I'm maybe old school, but I still prefer humans, because we can identify in them more easily, even admire their actions (if they are are heroes).

 

[Probotector 200X]

More robot main characters please.

Sometimes I try to make the main character something unexpected, but, sometimes it doesn't work. Like a centaur hero! I think it's a cool idea, but whenever I try to design a centaur hero, it just doesn't work out. It's partially because I must be bad at drawing centaurs. More than most things, I guess I need the main character to have...2 legs. I like lamias, arachne, centaurs, mermaids, and other fantasy races that don't have 2 legs, but when it comes to the MAIN character, it just feels off.

Then again, I'm extremely picky about the main character regardless. I guess all those destined teenage sword wielding human males from RPGs past ruined me.

*screams silently*

 

[Matseb2611]

I've voted for something new and unheard of, but that's simply because I like new ideas and stuff that hasn't been done before (or done very rarely). Generally I'd agree with what some people above said, that humans are the most relatable to us and hence are probably the easiest type of main protagonists to pull off well. Of course it depends on what type of hero is suitable for your game. For example a human hero is a good tool to explore other races/species if your universe has lots of them. If we play as a member of another race and start off in their unusual culture right away, it might confuse the player, but if we start as a human and slowly ease into the cultures of new races, it creates a nice story flow. But other species would make good main protagonists if we really want to show the story from their point of view, and maybe the inner feelings of a hero who is different, or maybe even to make it from the point of view of a villain, because most times we don't know as much about them as we do about the heroes.  

 

[CWells]

I don't care too much about the race of the main character. I just want to care about whether or not I can care for the character.

Tales of Vesperia made me love its characters, for example.

 

[Erynn]

TLR they all work as long as they are written with the player in mind.

LONG VERSION : Gotta say, human is certainly the one I would go with most often. The purpose isn't really to create an interesting character so much as an interesting story. Having the protagonist one easily identified with helps create the emotional investment that makes for good emersion. That is most easily as heroes by the classic unsuspecting individual much like you thrust in to adventure line up. Other line ups do work, but the emotional investment needs to be created in other ways and one has to be careful not to write a character that is too 'other' to identify with. This character is our perspective and we need to be able to either see ourselves as the or root for them. So I vote human, but really it doesn't matter, what matters is that they are written with awareness of what they represent to the player and their place in the story. A gnomb can easily represent our own desire to overcome in a world so much greater than we are - or our desire to demonstrate brains really do overcome brawn! Most of these character types and more have great stories to tell about us. Werewolves tell a story about the struggle with our more aggressive selves in our highly civilised world. Elves about our love of beauty and how we sometimes feel detached, perhaps. Even the simplest story carries undercurrents about what is creator was thinking. The beauty of games is they can put you in to the body and mind of another person. Make you think differently. As long as it doesn't start Too different.

 

[Gilsev]

People, in a western society, play a game to relate to the hero or protagonist. The closer you can get this to a 'super powered' everyman/woman the better. They kinda need to have some grounding point within the game, that connects them to the world or it can become difficult to retain the disbelief that is needed in order to have them enjoy the game fully. This is why nearly all games have a human (or semi human) main character, unless it has a specific reason for having something else.

If the player can't relate to your character, the story will have troubles being relatable... and ultimately your game.

 

[Adam Ferrell]

Thanks for all the votes and opinions! My original plan was to make a human, but I was fascinated with games like Unwritten Tales where you play an elf, gnome, and human at different points in time so I decided to make a poll.


Thanks again for all the votes!

 

[Cr0wx7]

I went with other, Angels and Demons have TONS of story lines you could make up for them. It almost seems endless~ I just so happen to be working on an RPG where the main character is an Angel. Or more per-say a fallen(degenerated whichever you prefer) angel!

 

[SOC]

If it's not a human, it often automatically makes me un-interested. It's sad, but just how it is for me.

 

[Solo]

I went with other, Angels and Demons have TONS of story lines you could make up for them.

Hey, humans too! The only limit is your imagination.