Character Development - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 131

Specific and Nonspecific Avatars
In games in which the player does not get to design or choose an avatar but must
use one supplied by the game, the relationship between the player and the avatar
varies depending on how completely you, the designer, specified the avatar's
appearance and other qualities.
The earliest adventure games, which were text-based, were written as if the player
himself inhabited the game world. However, because the game didn't know anything
about the player, it couldn't depict him or say much about him. Such avatars were
nonspecific —that is, the designer didn't specify anything about them. Myst is an
early example of a graphical game with a nonspecific avatar.
The nonspecific avatar does not belong entirely to the past, however. Gordon
Freeman, the hero of Half-Life , does not speak and is never even seen in the game
(although he does appear on the box). The designers did this deliberately; Half-Life ,
a first-person shooter in a world with no mirrors, offers Gordon as an empty shell
for the player to inhabit.
However, game designers soon began to find this model too limiting. They wanted
to develop games in which the avatar had a personality of his own and was some-
one who belonged in the game world rather than just being a visitor there. It's
awkward to write a story around a character whose personality the designer knows
nothing about. Besides, designers often want to show the avatar on the screen. As
soon as you depict a person visually, he begins to exhibit some individuality.
Modern games with strong storylines use detailed characters who have histories
and personalities of their own. Max Payne, the lead character in the series of the
same name, comes equipped with a past and a number of personal relationships
that affect his life. Nancy Drew from the many Nancy Drew games (and of course
all the topics that preceded them) is another good example. These are specific ava-
tars, and the player's relationship with them is more complex than it is with a
nonspecific avatar. The player is not the avatar—clearly the player is not Nancy
Drew—yet the player controls the avatar, so in what sense is the avatar still Nancy
Drew? With a specific avatar, the player's relationship to her is more like that of the
reader's relationship to the hero of a novel. The reader is not the hero, but the
reader does identify with her: The reader wants to know what will happen to the
hero, hopes that things will turn out well for her, and so on. The difference is that
in a game, the player can help and guide the hero rather than just read about her.
But—at least in some games—the specific avatar is also free to reject the player's
guidance. If the player asks April Ryan (from The Longest Journey ) to do something
dangerous, she refuses with comments such as, “That doesn't seem like a good
idea.” Specific avatars sometimes have minds of their own.
Between the two extremes of nonspecific and specific avatars lies a middle ground in
which the avatar is only partially characterized—specified to a certain degree but not
fully detailed. For many games, especially those without strong stories, it's better to
create the avatar as a sort of cartoonish figure (even if he's depicted realistically). Many