Hogan muses about gaming dialouge

By Pat Hogan
Collegian Editor
April 12, 2006

He can handle a sword with the skill of someone twice his age, and his shield blocks almost all attacks. He’s an amazing archer, and can take down targets many yards away. Octoroks, stalfos and even the mighty Ganon himself: they all fall before the strength of his blade.

Just don’t try to have a conversation with him.

Any long-time fan of Nintendo video-games already knows that I’m referring to the protagonist of the Zelda game series, Link. Link is a hero’s hero, fighting for the valor of his kingdom like no other hero can; it’s just that like most Japanese male protagonists in role-playing games, he is effectively mute.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, the problem is that, well, there is something wrong with this. Link runs around having interactions with everyone under the sun, and they don’t even react to fact that this young healthy man who is constantly saving their kingdom’s princess can’t talk.

It’s not just limited to Zelda games either. Tons of games have male protagonists whom never talk. Chrono Trigger, Half-Life, and Breath of Fire are all games where you’re put in the shoes of a person who never utters a word once.

I think one reason this is the case is because the people who design video games are traditionally not writers. Being able to have one less character in the game who speaks is an easy way out from having a game where the dialogue is absolutely ridiculous (Final Fantasy, I’m looking at you).

As much as I’d like to think that this is because of the poor writing of computer science majors, I think the actual reason has more to do with gameplay than anything else. Why give the main character a personality when there’s a chance that the person playing might hate that personality, and then toss the game back in the $10 bargain bin?

When you make the main character mute, you’re inviting the player to become the character. There is no single Link, but there are thousands of people who have played as Link, and have interposed their personality into his body. It’s the ultimate Mary-Sue.

Then, of course, there’s the opposite end of the spectrum: video games where the main character is given an extremely exaggerated personality. You tend to see this more often in cartoony video games, where the main character is more a caricature used for comedic effect.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a classic example of this, even back before his games had any dialogue in them (he would tap his foot impatiently if you waited too long to make up your mind). Another would be the self-titled character of Duke Nukem from the game Duke Nukem 3D, a hyper-masculine guy who swears, gives money to strippers and pees out fires. Again, not a really balanced character, just more of a caricature filled with humorous one-liners.

This probably results from the same reasons that mute characters exist. Either programmers aren’t able to create a well-balanced character, or they want to make sure that the gamer isn’t isolated by the character’s behavior. For the latter, they make the behavior of the character so outrageous that it’s impossible to take him or her seriously.

As a result, there are very few well-balanced characters that represent the average person. But then again, if you wanted to spend time as an average person going through the mundane activities of everyday life, you wouldn’t be engaging in an escapist activity like playing video games, would you?

hoganp1@lasalle.edu