Sjukob
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2015
- Messages
- 2,063
Drago's topic has spurred me to create my own, to share my thoughts about something that has been bothering me for a long time. I don't really have a cohesive thought, so it's probably going to be a mess, but please stick with me.
I think that making protagonist a human is extremely overused and the abyss of unused opportunities to make him/her something different has already evolved to a black hole. The point is that it has become boring and stale, especially when you consider how many various species and races, and universes have been created. It would be interesting to observe alien cultures and life not from the point we used to (regular, familiar human) but instead as a member of said culture and may be even get some interesting alternative perspective on our own (human) society.
To me it really holds a lot of flavor and excellent ideas. I believe, I thought about it for the first time when I was playing xenomorph in AvP: "Why do we get to control non humans in games so rarely?". How about playing aliens in X-com and conquering the Earth instead or a diablo-like game where you control demons and bring destruction wherever you go ? Remember that savage lizard/orc/whatever archetype from fantasy worlds ? Let's make them protagonists so we can wage tribal wars, praise spirits and eat unfortunate human travelers. Or even better bring Cthulhu in our world, let's be cultists or monsters from the depths of the oceans, let's breed tentacles and transform people into fish abominations. But usually we get nothing and even if choice of race is purely cosmetic we still only recieve elves, dwarfs and orcs, almost never you are able to play something more exotic like reptiles, fish, plants, bugs and others.
Reasons why it doesn't get implemented are well understood I guess: big companies are not going for anything truly creative (it's not safe), casuals won't get the idea and indie developers lack time/money/skill. There is however one thing that I believe is not so obvious - the fucking object design. Do you know why a lot of alien species in games are of humanoid shape and those who are not don't get a lot of attention ? It's because creating stuff for non-anthropomorphic races and making it look adequate is an insane fucking work. For thousands of years humans have been developing various things to better suit their needs and it actually takes skill, hence why we have professionals in different fields. Creating a new non-humanoid race and creating tools, clothes, vehicles etc for them is just mindblowing. I do think it's possible but very difficult.
For some reason it's not true for platformers where various animals often take on main role. I guess it's to set more humorous mood. I just don't understand why aren't there more opportunities to play a non human character in serious games. And even if the task of creating a new race with unique culture and stuff is too difficult, it is possible to set for something more humble, like being a dragon. Very often we get to interact with them, but games where you can play one can counted on fingers.
Still, I hope situation changes and we will at least see some non standart appearances like fantasy lizards/plants paladins in full metal armor or fps from perspective of the slug-like creature that can only crawl.
And what do you think ?
I think that making protagonist a human is extremely overused and the abyss of unused opportunities to make him/her something different has already evolved to a black hole. The point is that it has become boring and stale, especially when you consider how many various species and races, and universes have been created. It would be interesting to observe alien cultures and life not from the point we used to (regular, familiar human) but instead as a member of said culture and may be even get some interesting alternative perspective on our own (human) society.
To me it really holds a lot of flavor and excellent ideas. I believe, I thought about it for the first time when I was playing xenomorph in AvP: "Why do we get to control non humans in games so rarely?". How about playing aliens in X-com and conquering the Earth instead or a diablo-like game where you control demons and bring destruction wherever you go ? Remember that savage lizard/orc/whatever archetype from fantasy worlds ? Let's make them protagonists so we can wage tribal wars, praise spirits and eat unfortunate human travelers. Or even better bring Cthulhu in our world, let's be cultists or monsters from the depths of the oceans, let's breed tentacles and transform people into fish abominations. But usually we get nothing and even if choice of race is purely cosmetic we still only recieve elves, dwarfs and orcs, almost never you are able to play something more exotic like reptiles, fish, plants, bugs and others.
Reasons why it doesn't get implemented are well understood I guess: big companies are not going for anything truly creative (it's not safe), casuals won't get the idea and indie developers lack time/money/skill. There is however one thing that I believe is not so obvious - the fucking object design. Do you know why a lot of alien species in games are of humanoid shape and those who are not don't get a lot of attention ? It's because creating stuff for non-anthropomorphic races and making it look adequate is an insane fucking work. For thousands of years humans have been developing various things to better suit their needs and it actually takes skill, hence why we have professionals in different fields. Creating a new non-humanoid race and creating tools, clothes, vehicles etc for them is just mindblowing. I do think it's possible but very difficult.
For some reason it's not true for platformers where various animals often take on main role. I guess it's to set more humorous mood. I just don't understand why aren't there more opportunities to play a non human character in serious games. And even if the task of creating a new race with unique culture and stuff is too difficult, it is possible to set for something more humble, like being a dragon. Very often we get to interact with them, but games where you can play one can counted on fingers.
Still, I hope situation changes and we will at least see some non standart appearances like fantasy lizards/plants paladins in full metal armor or fps from perspective of the slug-like creature that can only crawl.
And what do you think ?
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