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| Seriously... BO-RING! |
“Bowser took the Princess again!? Are you $^&@# kidding me? Ugh, fine, I’ll be right there.” Mario slams the phone on the hook, knocking empty beer bottles onto the floor. He stumbles out of his bed and opens his blinds to expose the haze of early afternoon, exposing himself to light for the first time in days. He takes a swig from his bottle of whiskey, looks at his disheveled overgrown mustache, and walks out the door. Once he finally can get his kart started, he swerves off to try and save the day once again.
Not exactly the Mario that you’re used to, is it? Gamers are used to classic characters like Mario and Link to be pillars of perfection, triumphing over evil without even breaking a sweat. However, a different kind of protagonist has risen to take prominence in the video game world, and that character is way closer to the Mario described above than the one that we’re used to. Not only has a more flawed protagonist become part of mainstream video games, but some people would rather play as a character with serious inner turmoil.
“I think having a flawed protagonist allows for a better gaming experience,” said Bill O’Connel, an avid gamer from Boston since the late nineties. He noted that the first time he ever experienced a character that wasn’t the typical golden boy was in Grand Theft Auto III, released in 2001 for the Playstation 2. Grand Theft Auto III literally changed the face of video game culture because of its shocking explicit content. You control Claude, a seemingly mute guy who gets screwed over by his now ex-girlfriend in the middle of a bank heist. You’re left with nothing, and have to shoot, beat, and drive your way back to the top and get revenge.
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| Now that's more like it |
Claude represented a character that people were not used to playing. You could take drugs, solicit prostitutes for extra health, steal cars, and use a whole wealth of guns to shoot literally everyone, including innocent pedestrians and police officers. While Claude was not the first character in the “anti-hero” category, but he was the first that made departing from the righteous path mainstream, and the flawed protagonist has only become more prominent.
It seems as though being good has become too boring for gamers, and they are consistently choosing to play characters with flaws for the extra depth that they provide to the story. O’Connell agrees, saying he would rather play the bad guy trying to do the right thing rather than the goody two shoes fighting evil. “Having main characters with these types of backgrounds opens the gamer up to more exciting storylines and a better experience. I'd rather play a game as a scumbag mobster with a heart of gold as opposed to a squeaky clean Mario type.”
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| Seriously, you wouldn't mess with him. |
Another reason why the anti-hero has risen to be a popular kind of character to play with is how human they feel, at times we can identify with their flaws. Evan Sigel, a gamer and film maker from Los Angeles thinks a flawed protagonist is essential in a person being truly immersed into a game’s plot. He says, “The ‘flawed protagonist’ is a pretty common motif. It's what makes heroes interesting and real. People are flawed, and in order to be immersed in a story, we need to empathize with the protagonist.” Sigel distinctly recalls his experience with another game produced by Rockstar: Red Dead Redemption. “He's the classic flawed protagonist, trying to right the wrongs of his past. He does the right thing, most of the time. And what's fun about a RPG like Red Dead Redemption of course is letting those character flaws guide your actions as a player sometimes: to save the stranded wagoners... or rob them blind?”
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| Apparently if you're mean, your eyes will glow red. |
Cooper Heinrichs, a gamer from Boulder, Colorado agrees with Sigel, “After so many classic hero stories, having a flawed protagonist adds to the content of games by providing a fresh perspective, and possibilities for an interesting story.” Heinrichs cites Mass Effect 2 as the first game where he truly appreciated the flawed protagonist because you had the choice to make your character good or evil. “Kicking people out of skyscraper windows, shooting precious art, and just generally telling everyone in
the galaxy to go to hell was just incredible.”
The characters featured in these games don’t necessarily get the girls, they don’t receive fame and glory for their actions, typically they aren’t even appreciated (or hated) for saving the day. They are beaten, bruised, and spit on by the rest of society for all of the things that they do for other people. And it seems as though gamers want to keep controlling them.
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