The bad boy protagonist is ruining everything

It all goes together, modern decline and the pissed off, mildly amoral, overly rough bad boy protagonist.

It used to be simple: it was either a youth coming of age, a muscular Schwarzenegger clone, or a paladin type.

But if you pay attention you will notice that there has been a gradual shift somewhere in the PS2 generation, when it suddenly became possible to use realistic graphics and intensive voice acting. Lots of franchises suddenly went that change : Jak and Daxter vs. Jak 2, Prince of Persia 1 vs. 2, etc... and it became a lot more pronounced with the gen after. Game after game that I played went from having a more relatable protagonist to the exact same carbon copy :

Condemned had a middle aged police officer who was just seemingly an ordinary man, whereas Condemned 2 featured a Sam Fisher carbon copy who swore and had an over the top gruff voice and a pissed off attitude.

Same thing for Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell.

Shepard in Mass Effect also went through a big change, although elements of it where already there: remember how many conversations in Mass Effect 2 were basically solved by a anti-hero "edgy" bad boy option?

And many new franchises simply adopted that kind of archetype right from the start.


Now where does it come from? You could say that most of it is due to culture. Nowadays, this is the ideal man for young men and especially women (thus having men intrinsically seeking to emulate it and live as it through a power fantasy). To AAA publishers this is simply business, as in, catering to the lowest common denominator (and thus to that stereotype).

Nowadays when I see a anti-hero bad boy protagonist I almost always refuse to play the game.

And it looks like it's only going to get worse, if you look at Crytek's roman gladiator game now there is gratuitous graphic brutality as well.

 

I love playing, as you call it, "bad boys" and I enjoy not-all-good characters because I'm an atheist and therefore a spawn of the Satan.

 

I agree, I'm very much tired of this stock protagonist. For some reason it's been decided that gamers relate to male characters who are edgy, brooding, chaotic good and of course, dark and attractive. That's not to say this is a new archetype or anything but frankly I don't find the idea of enjoying a power fantasy to be all that compelling anymore. If I'm going to "role play" as a character in a game I'd much rather that character either be one of my own creation or, barring that, someone with an interesting life, occupation, personality etc. which I get to explore first-hand.

My assumption is that this kind of character is quite popular across a wide demographic (especially the thirty-something male protagonist), not necessarily for wish fulfillment but perhaps more because it's someone who's perceived as being "cool" and thus someone the audience wants to follow. But that, to me, isn't drama and doesn't have much room for interesting character study.

I think "bad boys" have their place, but if anything they should be supporting characters (not enough depth or subtlety to sustain a full game, too predictable), villains (if they're made tragic), etc.

 

I found it hilarious that the TV show "Hell on Wheels" is pretty much "Red Dead Redemption" with a plot, and the proh-taghonist is audiovisually indistinguishable from "bad boy" John Marston.

 

Is this discussion limited to protagonists you don't influence? e.g. would it be fair to say that The Avatar from The Black Gate doesn't fit with the discussion because he (or she) is too much of a reflection of you?

 

The problem with these repulsive and blunt stereotypes being portrayed in games today mostly stems from the mentality of the very blunt stereotypes that also make these games.

Look at the creations of somehwat older game designers versus the trash being created by the 20s generation today. You know something is very wrong when you're 30 and you feel already alienated by shitheads in their 20s.

It's like that thing Ray Kurzweil is talking about. Exponential change is a bitch.

 

I like it sometimes. The renegade moments in Mass Effect are some of the best shit in that entire series.

It is way too common now-a-days, though.

 

Pervasive popular culture clichés are pervasive.

Thing with the "brooding dark anti-hero that is almost like a normal person but IS THE CHOSEN ONE" is a pretty simple power fantasy though, much more efficient than the abovementioned "paladin/Schwarzenegger" types, because the whole formula presupposes the protagonist to passively receive their plot powers. They don't actually, you know, BECOME something, either professional/burnt out cop/veteran, a-la Martin Riggs (which, by the way, is a "bad boy" stereotype done relatively right - it's not an emo teenager that suddenly received super powers), nor do they go through a life-altering experience that makes them more a machine than a man a-la Alex Murphey; they're not supposed to continuously make selfless moral choices like the many paladin stereotypes would; and obviously they don't need to dedicate their whole life to bodybuilding to be what Arnold is.

The attraction value of the new type of hero is that they're zero-effort teenage wankers - that is, the modern audience.

 

lol look at these retards who think they are playing "bad boy protagonists" anywhere in modern games.

All those bad boy protagonists saving the kingdom/world/galaxy! But hey they use the word "fuck" that means they're not just some do-gooder cliche, they are twisted bad boys!

Flat as fuck do-gooder shepard character goes renegade for no consistent reason other than player pressing a different button while still saving the galaxy - man that's so dark n gritty

 

You just don't get it, MetalCraze.

 

Lol, gaijin gonna gaijin.

 

I was just going to write this is only one "bad boy" I can stomach. But then I was not sure if he even qualify. Shouldn't he be edgy, brooding, dark, angsty etc?

 

The only thing weaboo fags can stomach is hot dripping semen.

 

Those qualities are strictly for the beta bad boys who can't stand up to the alpha dogs.

 

Not necessarily. For example, I'd say someone like Nathan Drake fits this trope to a T, even though he's more of a wisecracking ladies man than angsty. He's still a "bad boy" whose entire character is "just a normal guy who also happens to be amazing at everything."

 

Basically, except he listens to hard rock and wears black trench coats. I'm not sure simple cosmetics like that are enough to call Nathan Drake a different character archetype.

 

Are we talking about actual bad boys here or Han Solo-esque slightly illegal but heart-of-gold types?

The former is literally irredeemable and if anything is a less likely protagonist than Mary Sue characters (realistically having no friends, no skills, and starting fights constantly makes you a dead man walking). Or, to put it another way, having a bad boy protagonist makes them more of a Mary Sue than an actual blank slate with the words "Mary Sue" stamped on them.

The latter is alright, though certainly overused at this point.

 

wasn't it all better when protagonists had no set personality or dialogs at all but rather, was YOU ?

 

Ironically Jak 2 and PoP2 had a justification about why their main characters become "bad boys" (Jak is put into some sort of futuristic gulag and is tortured for years while the Prince has been on the run from an eldritch immortal abomination that will stop at nothing to kill him), but even then these two do get better as the game progresses (Jak is even called out once or twice and loses all of his rage in Jak 3, same with the Prince). Unfortunately it's not the same case with recent examples, who tend to be antisocial psychopaths for no other reason than GRIMDARK.

 

Those 20 somethings who work in the studios are little more than walking extensions of the will of the boomers in management.

 

I blame Square and their emo doubchebag main protagonists in the ps1 era. The consoletards all latched onto their new cutscene sex icons and can't get over them. Hopefully the next generation will have healthier tastes.

 

You can have a snarky protaganist, but you have to be careful not to make them douchbag.

The two good examples off the top of my head are Parin from Gurumin (who makes jabs at the eccentricities of the people around her, but is ultimately their friend who helps them) and the Custom Robo GCN protagonist (I'm actually surprised Custom Robo is the only game I've played where the main protagonist is a snarky NEET who can't get out of bed on his own. He's probably the only character I love the "character" of that doesn't have an official name.)

 

I think you're combining a couple things to into 1 thing and then claiming everything is that 1 thing because it's actually several things.

Nathan Drake isn't really "bad" in any way (unless you're Roguey and want to point out his woman objectifying manor). He's also entirely too smug and sure of himself to fit brooding or emo. I don't think he's an anti-hero at all.