03-01-2014, 07:51 AM
Characterization in general is a tough thing for many people to master, it requires someone to step out of their own personal experiences in order to create someone from scratch. Unfortunately, for a lot of content creators, they either lack the amount of skill, dedication, or budget to fully explore and develop what is, in-essence, supposed to be a living, breathing personality. Although it's not entirely necessary to catalogue every single event in a character's life, or even diagnose them with a particular set of personality traits or mental issues, I feel it's important to be able to see your characters as though they were a real human being.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing "doesn't sell" in the eyes of money-oriented people, and a lot of writers usually aren't paid to delve too deeply into character-development, especially in video games.
One thing that I think that the latest Tomb Raider did that was really well-done was they gave Lara fears and doubts. Now, none of this was explicitly said in narration or dialogue, we are shown based on her actions and reactions to the events unfolding around her. I feel that the most effective thing that can happen with characterization is when you forget that the person on the screen isn't real. You legitimately empathize with them and don't want to see them suffer, but sometimes, even when you're holding the controller, you can't control everything, you and the character have to fight through the opposition. One reason why I found the death scenes in TR so horrific was because I was so immersed in the experience, seeing another human being die like that was hard to handle, it was instinctual for me to be borderline traumatized after seeing someone maimed. There's a lot of empathy that simply isn't incorporated into a game because it's almost disadvantageous to the gameplay, or even story, to include it.
Unfortunately, there's the problem of shallow attachments that I've seen people form towards, quite frankly, poorly written characters. A lot of people often like to gloss over the fact that their woobie is basically a reskin of a tired cliché. They just form their connection because they "think the character's hot" (which I find kind of weird and off-putting because usually it's a 2D character that would look VERY freaky if that's how they looked in reality) I mean, although I do find the new Lara to be physically attractive, I was more concerned for her safety than "oh, she's hot, I would totally do her, hurr hurr hurr" I wanted to see her survive, and I guess in a sense, I'm proud that she did in the events of the game. I have respect for Lara, not in a "oh, she's a strong, independant woman who don't need no man" kind of way, but in a sort of "Despite daunting odds and tragic events, she still pushes on to survive" kind of way; She shows that it's important to have the will to continue even in the face of pessimism.
Despite spending a bunch of time playing the game, I still don't feel like I personally "know" Lara, but I feel like I've grown to respect her. I know that she's purely fictitious, but the fact that they focused on her characterization as a believable human being is a HUGE reason why I love that game.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing "doesn't sell" in the eyes of money-oriented people, and a lot of writers usually aren't paid to delve too deeply into character-development, especially in video games.
One thing that I think that the latest Tomb Raider did that was really well-done was they gave Lara fears and doubts. Now, none of this was explicitly said in narration or dialogue, we are shown based on her actions and reactions to the events unfolding around her. I feel that the most effective thing that can happen with characterization is when you forget that the person on the screen isn't real. You legitimately empathize with them and don't want to see them suffer, but sometimes, even when you're holding the controller, you can't control everything, you and the character have to fight through the opposition. One reason why I found the death scenes in TR so horrific was because I was so immersed in the experience, seeing another human being die like that was hard to handle, it was instinctual for me to be borderline traumatized after seeing someone maimed. There's a lot of empathy that simply isn't incorporated into a game because it's almost disadvantageous to the gameplay, or even story, to include it.
Unfortunately, there's the problem of shallow attachments that I've seen people form towards, quite frankly, poorly written characters. A lot of people often like to gloss over the fact that their woobie is basically a reskin of a tired cliché. They just form their connection because they "think the character's hot" (which I find kind of weird and off-putting because usually it's a 2D character that would look VERY freaky if that's how they looked in reality) I mean, although I do find the new Lara to be physically attractive, I was more concerned for her safety than "oh, she's hot, I would totally do her, hurr hurr hurr" I wanted to see her survive, and I guess in a sense, I'm proud that she did in the events of the game. I have respect for Lara, not in a "oh, she's a strong, independant woman who don't need no man" kind of way, but in a sort of "Despite daunting odds and tragic events, she still pushes on to survive" kind of way; She shows that it's important to have the will to continue even in the face of pessimism.
Despite spending a bunch of time playing the game, I still don't feel like I personally "know" Lara, but I feel like I've grown to respect her. I know that she's purely fictitious, but the fact that they focused on her characterization as a believable human being is a HUGE reason why I love that game.
![[Image: shrine.gif]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/344477/shrine.gif)