The Central (Diverse!) Character, a Necessity and an Opportunity
Email thisToday we have a Special Edition post, brought on by the good people at GuildMag who have put out the battle call for their third Blog Carnival, on Character Diversity. GuildMag is, essentially, a bunch of epic people who write about the epic world of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.
If you’re anyone who’s anyone, you’ve heard about the upcoming next generation MMO, Guild Wars 2. And hey, if you’re no one who’s nobody, that changes now! Guild Wars 2 is a game that is innovating the MMORPG genre, and (among many many wonderful things) offers limitless potential for players to create unique and diverse characters. This player made diversity is incredible in its own right (and something we will discuss on its own in the future!), because it allows Guild Wars 2 the power to tell limitless, infinite, unique stories. That’s freaking epic.
/serious face
However, there remains one single issue I have with Guild Wars 2; the lack of a well developed, diverse, central character (or characters for that matter). At least from what we have seen so far.
First, before I explain my claim, let’s talk about what a central character is, and why these characters NEED to be diverse. A central character is a character players can rally around, empathize with, and fight for. Games, especially MMORPGs, NEED powerful, central characters. They extend the game’s impact on the player by giving us more than just fun gameplay; they provide emotional depth. This emotional depth, this ability for a game to provide more than entertainment, relies on a game’s ability to present characters that make us actively reflect when we encounter them.
Again, not playable characters, but the characters that players encounter. The characters that have entire, complex, inspiring, and heartbreaking stories unto themselves. Through their stories, players are moved to act, perhaps even in real life, because of the convictions of these fictional people we meet. What’s more, they make the game feel immersive, they provide empathy, and they allow players to help or hinder their cause, rather than just witness it.
It is vital that these characters be diverse and unique, and absolutely not just a bad-ass mage chick and gruff blood-lovin’ warrior type stock characters. Hell, even these characters can become some of the very most engaging central characters to a game, all they need is depth and development.
Now buckle up any Guild Wars 2 fanboys out there, and buckle tight, because the one issue I have with Guild Wars 2, is also the one aspect World of Warcraft outshines it: the depth and development of its central characters.
Why does WoW upstage Guild Wars 2 in this regard? Quantity and Quality. Simple as that. WoW has a plethora of incredibly well developed characters, ranging from your bad-ass mage chick, all the way to your psychopathic undead-elf queen. All characters that, when looked at individually, have incredible depth invested in them, and tell stories that have emotional meaning. Take Thrall, who is essentially Blizzard’s poster child for central character epicness. His story involves slavery under humanity; it shows human kind’s darker nature, and it shows compassion in the face of it. What’s more, his story continues to be developed throughout the entire freaking game (as all the powerful central characters in WoW do I might add, even the gruff blood-lovin’ warrior types! *cough* Varian *cough*). Thrall is a warrior for peace, even when it is humans who don’t want that peace. This is what makes WoW great in my book, because let’s face it, the game is old; outdated even. But the characters in its story are complex, diverse, and invite players to want to know more, to understand and think.
Now, Guild Wars 2 will be more epic than WoW in telling the player’s story, but to really involve players, to make powerful statements about right, wrong, and everything in between, there needs to be a story full of rich, memorable, and compelling central characters. Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released, so I’m not condemning the game. We have, however, seen the release of two Guild Wars 2 novels already, and neither provided much more than a setting of the GW2 stage.
Of course, this lapse in GW2 character lore is also a grand opportunity. An opportunity I sincerely hope ArenaNet takes full advantage of. Remember that whole thing about “absolutely not just a bad-ass mage chick and gruff blood-lovin’ warrior type stock characters, Hell, even these characters can become some of the very most engaging central characters to a game, all they need is depth and development” thing? Guild Wars 2 could totally pull that off. Let’s look at the two GW2 books, Edge of Destiny and Ghosts of Ascalon. Unfortunately, both books basically felt like long quests where characters got only an occasional pause to note their history and emotions before returning to the action, a lot like how the game itself might play, but leaving a lot to be desired in characters to empathize with. The opportunity here, however, is that the characters from these books can be developed properly, and perhaps even make meaningful statements while they are at it.
Between the books Ghosts and Edge, we have a fair number of characters to work with, some even have a bit of foundation to work from. They just were not realized in full because the main story got in the way of individual character development.
Take Dougal Keane, a forlorn Indiana Jones-like character, and possibly the best developed of the lot (So ArenaNet had better not let him fall to the wayside!). He is white, straight, and male, but his diversity has to be drawn from his familiarity with the death of those around him. Well, a man like that would want to start saving people, no matter what. He could become a very compelling central character if players have to stop him from saving people’s lives, because it threatens some greater plan, and he is vilinized for doing something good, and YOU stopped him.
Better yet, Caith, a sylvari thief who was in love with another female sylvari. A few weeks back I talked about sexuality in games, and this is EXACTLY the sort of opportunity to normalize it, and make a statement through a powerful central character. ArenaNet should explore this character, and her love, in depth. Her ex-lover is also a member of The Nightmare Court, as dark a group as you might expect, yet the story just brushed over all this! This is compelling stuff! Let the player help her find her love, try to redeem her, and fail horribly. Let the player be the one who has to deliver the final blow, even, because Caith’s love is too strong; fully legitimate and heartbreaking love I might add.
The characters in these books need to feel less like a band of adventures that stop to tell their stories around a bonfire every once in a while, and more like unique individuals each fleshed out in their own right. WoW does this excellently with their unending books and characters that develop as the world around them develops in the game.
TL-DR: Games need diverse central characters that have deep meaning and strong conviction. WoW does it really well, GW2 has an opportunity to, but hasn’t developed these characters, not meaningfully.
Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.
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I’d be really excited to see how gw2 does with developing large/important characters in their story. They already seem to be diverse in a lot of ways, but adding the depth the breadth they already have could make it so much richer (lore wise).
Very nice read. A quick comment, though Caithe was a thief, not a necromancer. The sylvari necromancer was Killeen, from Ghost of Ascalon, and if you’ve read it you know she won’t be in the game. However, everything you wrote still applies, and since suposedly a big part of the game story is about reuniting Edge of Destiny, hopefully we’ll get much more of them.
Thanks for the heads up! I just confused the two while I was writing I think.
I really hope we get more too, but I also hope ArenaNet doesn’t just reunite the team and leave the story focused on them killing things together like the book. I really hope they invest in each character individually, and not just a little, but a LOT. I want pages of lore for each, not just a brief paragraph, I want to know who these characters are, what they stand for, their strengths, weaknesses, and emotions all developed over time. Why we should love them or hate them or both.
Its about making a world we, the players, can relate to, not just about making a cool fantasy story.
On a side note, I am disappointed with the Mists WoW expansion, from what we have seen so far, they are moving away from what makes WoW so powerful story wise; the continuity and scale of their character development. There were so many aspect of WoW that have been foreshadowed, so many stories to explore like Magatha Grimtotem or Maiev Shadowsong or so many others, but Blizz went with a story based off what was really started as a running joke, rather than continue the other unfinished stories and characters. It just doesn’t lend its self to strong story development. Its like, “Hey, we have this epic huge universe with some really deep complex stories in it, but guys, pandas!” And it’s not even that they chose pandas, its that there were so many more legitimate thoughtful options. My hats off to them if they can make this Azerothian tale really feel meaningful, I doubt it.
Erik,
Thanks for the kind words about our site. Much appreciated!
Did you want me to add this post to the Blog Carnival? If you’ve already sent it to our community address, my apologies (I haven’t checked there today … too busy doing the weekly TWIGW2 roundup).
@erik I have to agree about the Pandas. I know they’ve been in the WC universe for a long time (kind of in the background), but there hasn’t really been any established lore for them. They had so many other races they could have chosen from that already had lore associated with them.
Hey Raphia, yes we would definitely love to have this post be a part of the carnival, the link was sent to the community address this morning so no worries
@Jacob, so many options! Ethereals, dryads, centaurs, Arakkoa, Satyr, even Tuskar or Ogres!
I have really only played GW1 on this extensive a scale. No WoW experience here. I am all for epic character diversity as you describe, but I must say I’m less familiar with it. Most of the games I’ve played have had the player character (read: you) in that role. This was the case in GW1, which was weird given 5+ million players and we all (every single one of us) slayed a lich, vanquished an assassin, and murdered a god…or two.
There is definitely room for this and ANet sets the stage with Destiny’s Edge. These are 5 characters whose backgrounds are explained in the book. They play a role in our personal stories and are arguably the characters that will most fit the bill of this discussion.
But there is absolutely an opportunity here for further NPC character development. ANet is pushing the group gaming experience without the group and encouraging people to play together. Destiny’s Edge is their version of that and by allowing for a solo personal story experience, they echo the “you’re the hero” emphasis of the original. What is missing are epic NPCs for us to love and hate. I encountered this “problem” in the first game with my own fan fiction projects and decided to invent stories and personalities for NPCs. Master Necromancer betrays student and kidnaps villagers for evil experiments? Yup. Verata fit the bill for my fan fiction villain. It would be nice to see more NPC character depth in GW2, but to be honest, we’ve only glimpsed the personal stories (which are works in progress anyway) through betas, so who is to say we won’t see some compelling characters when the game releases?
Thanks for the comment! I don’t have a ton of original GW experience myself, so that perspective is really awesome!
I realllllly hope Anet fleshes out their NPC characters, as much as I love the world they have created, nothing has yet drawn me in in any compelling emotional way, even the elder dragons which are the primary antagonists of the entire game have just been summed up as “giant evil destroyers” which is sorta… well lame honestly, I sincerely hope there is more to the elder dragons than just leaving them as big bad destroying forces we, the “heros” have to go kill. I have a good amount of faith in ArenaNet’s lore building skills, but this game is all about breaking away from overused conventions of the genre,. Things like the Sylvari they have done a good job with that, let’s hope they extend it toTyria’s overarching story as well.
In WoW, there were some awesome moments, like with Sylvanas where you helped her confront the Lich King, it was possibly one of my favorite moments in the game since Sylvanas is a really well developed and compelling character, regardless of if you love her or hate her. And Arthas, the lich king himself was a lot more than just a big bad dude, he had a very heartbreaking story behind him, as well as a load of lore holding up the Lich King role in general that tied into lore from other parts of the game. Even Sylvanas isnt really a clear cut “hero”, she’s pretty freaking evil sometimes, but players still end up working with her. = compelling story.
I’m all for fleshing out characters on our own like you did with Verata, especially in RP situations, but the other side of that is that we need already fleshed out characters to feel like there is a compelling part of a character to rally round of fight against.
Its a valid point to raise that in an mmo, the world shouldn’t just be about the player, it can almost lead to the feeling that because everyone is special, no one is. Player characters need to intertwine with compelling non character stories so players feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves as well. Personal stories should augment that feeling, not replace it I think, with the feeling that it’s all about you the player.
As for the books, they did present some potentially awesome characters, it’s really up to ArenaNet how to use them from here in a compelling epic way!