Ok, so the other way is making it so that the player is controlling the character. With the tools currently available, I think this is best way to go if you want to make evoke emotional responses in the player. Basically how this works (in my mind) is that the player is telling some character what to do, usually they do it, but sometimes (like in story critical points) they do their own thing. I don''t think that this has to lead to things like, "Oh, my unit just did something stupid, why did they do that?" because if you do it right, the character should only be doing things consistent with their personality. If you move the burden of making important story descisions to the the character it could be said that it leads to less replayability even though the one time through it might have a more detailed plot (like a novel). I think that can be true, if you make it so that the descisions that the player''s character makes are crucial to the plot. I think that what you should do instead, is bring the world around your characters more to the fore. The player''s character always makes consistent descions, but the variables in the situation that they''re basing the descision on change each time your playing the game. Or it could just be that you explore more and find more things that the player can react consistently too. Hmm, I''ve been talking about consistent descisions a lot.. I suppose I think that consistency in characters leads to more immersion in a plot, because it adds to the realism. It''s like in a game that''s "less linear", often what they do is give the player important descisions like "Help the mysterious girl who drops in my lap or don''t help her." I see stuff like this and go, well, of course I''m gonna help the girl because that''s how my character would react, I''m the hero! The very choice leads to less suspension of belief, because it''s hard for me to beleive that my character would do anything else. Even if I DID do something else, usually the same thing ends up happening anyway, I still end up being the hero of the story, I just end up having a little inconsistency in my characters personality. On an aside note, I think it''s possible that you could create a game where the player would think that not doing the heroic thing is the right thing to do, but to do that, you''d probably wouldn''t want the player to be a hero, and I don''t think that''s ever really been done in a game (that I know of).
Another sort of advantage to having the player control the player as opposed to be the player is that you can show the player what their character is thinking. The girl the character loves walks past him and a little thought bubble could appear over him saying, "Ah, Christy..." or whatever, a little heart over him and a slight swoon would probably suffice. One advantage to the player knowing what their character is thinking, is that it takes away some of the ambiguity of npcs telling the character what they''re like. Take for example, Lufia 2 for SNES. I was playing it the other day, and in it there was a girl who was obviously in love with my character. So, I know that she''s in love with me, but what does my character think? I don''t know, my character might be indifferent to her, or he might be totally in love with her, I had no idea. If I had known what my character was thinking, and he had been thinking, "Man, I''m in love with this girl" I would have actively been trying to do things for her, stay faithful, whatever, because my character was in love with her. If she had died, there would have been emotion, because my character was in love with that girl. If my character had been indifferent to her, and I could see that he was thinking about the next place he was going to hunt monsters or how he was going to pay the bills while she was telling him how muscular and handsome he was, it would have been a different story. I wouldn''t have really worried about staying faithful to her because my character doesn''t even know that she loves him, and, if she had died, I still would have felt bad, but it wouldn''t have been like, "Oh, the love of my life is dead." This is all because I would be staying consistent with my character.
Now you might be saying, "But what if I wanted the player to totally fall for her even though he was indifferent at first?" Well, this leads to another advantage in my mind to having the player control the character: it doesn''t feel really wierd if you switch the character the player is controlling. Take the above scenario where there was a girl who''s in love with my character, who''s pretty indifferent. What if after the part where I find out my character is indifferent to the girl, I go off with my character to hunt monsters or whatever. Now it switches, and I''m controlling the girl. What would I do as the girl? Well, since I know she''s in love with my character, I''d probably start doing things to make my character fall in love with me (not with ME, the girl. Really). Now suppose I invited my character to dinner, and I spent time talking to him, whatever, we had a great time. Then I see a little thought bubble over my character, saying something like "I never noticed what beautiful eyes she had." Now I know my character just fell in love with her, which wouldn''t have made sense while I was controlling him because it would have been inconsistent. After the dinner it switches back to my character and now I know my character fell in love with her so I''ll act appropriately.
Hmm, I don''t know how coherent that was... Oh well, I''m not a writer
Anyway, thanks for standing for that, um, whatever it was. I''ll shut up now.
