Roleplaying: Blank Slate or Something More
Roleplaying as a concept has had a checkered and meandering history. We can all picture the basement nerd stereotype in the seventies. They’ve got their twenty-sided di, a night’s supply of Pepsi, and Led Zeppelin is playing on the Hi-Fi. This proto-gamer is trying to decide if he needs to put more points into strength or intelligence – brawn or brain?
Its 2017 now. We don’t have hover boards or a three seashell hygiene routine, and when I sat down a few days ago to play Fallout 4’s Nuka World expansion I was still trying to figure out if I should put another skill point into strength or intelligence. So one could conclude that not all that much has changed.
Yet in reality the details in the way we play RPGs is constantly shifting, and one can easily see mechanics of RPGs slipping into first person shooters like Call of Duty and Destiny, or open world action titles like the Assassin’s Creed franchise. One of the foundational aspects of RPGs without a doubt is crafting your own character. And most RPGs can be summed up as offering two types of characters: player-created or player-inhabited.
Bethesda’s swords-and-spells smash hit Skyrim is an example of an almost purely player-centered role paying. Gamers are given almost no exposition explaining the world or their character’s role in it. A ‘head canon’ is how most players decide their motives, with occasional conversation branches that can help flesh out one’s background. There are no significant scripted moments within the game that dictate who you are.
On the opposite end of the spectrum sits another undisputed success: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, perhaps the greatest thing to come out of Poland since Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa. This grand fantasy game sets you in the shoes of stoic monster-slayer Geralt of Rivia. Although the player can determine Geralt’s hair style, his skill set focus, and the decisions he makes through this overwhelmingly massive title, the player is not creating Geralt as they go so much as refining him. Geralt debuted in the 1980’s from Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher’s adventures span many books, short stories, television and film, and two games prior to Wild Hunt, one of which has been suspiciously not played by President Obama.
The Witcher, and games of its type, offers gamers the opportunity to shape a distinct personality more akin to a choose-your-own-adventure. Games like Skyrim give players a blank slate to write on. I personally have several Skyrim head canons depending on which race I’m playing that determines my skills and what quest lines I choose to pursue. Both of these styles offer similar but dissenting experiences, and have their drawbacks.
Blank slate character creators offer an unparalleled sense of ownership over the narrative. Fallout: New Vegas, while a terrible mess of bugs at launch has risen to the top of my RPG gaming experiences over the years. Some of this latent appreciation is due to its incredibly structured DLC content, but it’s also due to how I remember the game. I remember being in awe meeting the Burned Man. I remember the thrill of taking down Caesar with Boone at my side. I remember the fear of being trapped in the Sierra Madre Casino with no way out. It was very personal because on my blank slate of “the Courier,” I wrote myself.
That’s not to say I don’t have equally fond memories of characters I’ve inhabited as a gamer. But when I think of the trials and tribulations of Commander Shepard, original hero of Bioware’s recently revived Mass Effect series, it’s less intimate. I remember Shepard head-butting Krogan warriors and seducing blue aliens. The ownership of the narrative is still present in these kinds of RPG’s, but it’s more akin to an unusually immersive movie or television show. While I was involved, it wasn’t entirely me.
Speaking of (in guttural Krogan voice) Shepard, can you picture him/her? Shepard’s default appearance, whether soldierly male Shepard or redheaded “femShep,” is instantly recognizable. Bioware’s protagonist of Dragon Age II, Hawke, is similarly recognizable and Geralt of Rivia, with his cat-eyes and white hair is incredibly iconic as well. These inhabited characters offer an immediate shared imagery for the gaming community that’s not nearly as present for blank slate characters like Oblivion’s Hero of Kvatch or Dragon Age: Inquisition’s titular lead.
Some gamers may notice a few discrepancies in some of the examples I’ve given. Increasingly games offer a hybrid of blank slate and pre-determined characters to help connect audiences to their worlds. Fallout 4 met with controversy over its fully voiced protagonist and simplified conversation wheel. Bioware has offered some sort of origin for its protagonist at least as far back as Knights of the Old Republic with its wonderful and stunning third act reveal. With both Bioware and Bethesda working quietly on new projects, it’ll be interesting to see where these two pillars of AAA roleplaying take the genre.
Games that offer deep and immersive role playing have always topped my list of favorite games, with very few exceptions. They offer a deep ownership of the story for gamers that can overlap into a tight knit community of fans. The mechanics of RPGs seep into more and more titles and popular series continue to see huge financial success. It’s safe to say that while the genre may change and adapt, it isn’t fading away any time soon.
But we want to know what you think. Do you prefer games that give you a blank slate or do you like stepping into the shoes of a fleshed out character? What are some of your favorite RPGs I didn’t mention and are they Japanese? Let Handsome Phantom know your thoughts and you may get a shout out on the next episode!
