Generated Character of the Generation: FINALS

So two player avatars who have no personality or character whatsoever, one due to being an emotional puppet, the other due to being a silent protagonist. Nice choices, y'all!

Might as well call your main WoW character the best of all time!

Sorry, you are just incorrect on your definition of character. You are pretending characters that are designed to be simply a conduit for player agency in the world are not characters, but, I hate to break it to you, you are not Crono. For all I know you rock that same bitching haircut, but still you are not that character. That character exists, maybe only as your avatar, but it still exists.

If you change the definition of words to suit your argument all you do is create a problem of language, and hit a brick wall in a conversation. Please don't do that.

That comparison may make sense between the WoW character and the Chosen Undead but it's totally off-base between a WoW character and Shephard. Because unlike the other two, Shephard has character, personality and history. Also I have to wonder what you expected with "Generated Character of the Generation".

@mariachimacabre: Not getting mad about anything here. Also, the chosen undead is intact a character. Just because Darksouls doesn't have a linear story doesn't make it any less of a story or the characters in that world less of characters.

@hermes said:

But who's to say avatars can't be characters? In the context of the game's story, the events played out by the player aren't done by an empty outline. And characteristics can and usually do get fleshed out as the game progresses and NPC interaction changes depending on your choices.

Commander Shepard, because they're an actual character. Your Undead is just...a thing that's there. You don't even see their face ever again after you get a helmet.

On the one hand, Mark Meer's Shepard is super flat. On the other hand, Jennifer Hale's Shepard is good enough to make up the difference. On the third hand, I've never played Dark Souls. Mass Effect wins.

I would argue that until the third game Shepard isn't much of a character either, just a cipher for the player. One of the many things that makes Mass Effect 3 my favorite in the series.

That seems to be a pretty suspect guideline by which to determine whether someone is a character or not.

The face makes the character. That's why Andross is my all-time favorite video game character. Tied with Olmec, from Legends of the Hidden Temples for all-time favorite character, period.

I want to hear how 34% of people here could possibly justify voting for the Dark Souls guy. He's not a character. And "I don't like Mass Effect" isn't an acceptable answer.

To justify my vote, I based it on the character generation process, not on their personality. I totally accept that The Chosen Undead isn't really much compared to Shepard in the ways of personality, but that's not what "Generated Character of the Generation" means to me. But, hey, everybody has different interpretations, right? If I was basing my vote on personality, I would've chosen The Boss, whom I did vote for until they got eliminated.

@video_game_king: Correction: The face or lack thereof makes the character, haha

CU is a figure in the world that has an effect on that world and the people (s)he meets within it. That the character doesn't have proper dialogue doesn't mean that (s)he's any less of a character than Shepard, who's personality tends to vacillate between two moral extremes.

I think putting shepard in the generated character category is unfair. He/she's much more of defined character than the chosen undead or the skyrim MC. There is very little ''generated'' about him/her. This should have been a category for non characters like the dragon age MC (not dragon age 2), the chosen undead and the skyrim MC.

Shepard's gender, appearance, traits, abilities, and dialogue are chosen by the player. As much as the staff might argue, there is no one "true" Shepard. There is arguably less defined about Shepard than there is about the Boss from Saints Row, who is, at the very least, consistently psychopathic.

Hey, I stopped carring after a majority of the Giantbomb community chose Fallout 3 over New Vegas. You just have to accept that there is just a bunch of insane people on the internet.

YOU DEFEATED

Well, yeah, obviously they have an effect on the world but he/she has no characterization or personality. They're just a blank slate.

@deadpancakes:

@video_game_king: Alright, alright, you win. I can't keep up the stupid joke anymore, haha

The CU is about as much a character as someone's D&D campaign character is an actual character. That is to say, its as much one as you want him/her to be. You can leave the CU as a blank slate or you can role play his or her journey through the land of Lordran however you wish.

Opportunities for characterization are merely not laid out as front and center as it is in games like ME.

Does it? Your character in Dark Souls is nothing, nobody, not even the name is worth mentioning. It has no lines, no way to voice any kind of emotion, let alone have any emotion. It's just a mindless automaton that does what people tell it to do, with no motivation of its own.

Commander Shepard is an actual character. They have weight in the story, literally changing the outcome of it based on what they say. The other characters care about them and talk to them, threaten them, fall for them. And even though you choose how they say something, they still make it their own. They have actual development throughout a single game, let alone the entire series. The Undead? Not so much.

Honestly, the only reason I can see people picking the Undead is because they don't want Mass Effect to win.

The Warden is the true answer.

You're right, the CU isn't a character with motivations, emotions, and personalities given by the game. The game merely gives you the tools to shape him into whatever type of character you want to. Much like old school role playing games, you get out of the character what you're willing to put into him. To claim that he isn't one when your actions as the CU also have weight in the story, and affect the outcome of it based on your actions, and also have characters that care about them, talk to them, threaten them, and fall for them (ok maybe not fall for them) is kinda dumb.

Shepard is still a better character though, as I've already stated earlier. Though I've also stated I totally voted for the CU because I don't want ME to win.

(Also lets not pretend your choices as Shepard have any actual meaningful effect on the game world within any of the 3 games. That's been a hollow promise on Bioware's part since the first game.)

@hailinel said:

So, that puts him on the same level as the avatars of The Sims, right?

Great choice for finalist of character of the generation, guys... Carry on.

I think these are both terrible choices for a variety of reasons, but off the top of my head I can't think of a generated character that's any better.

edit: wait, actually, I think the dude from Alpha Protocol was better, although he looked realllly stupid.

The Dark Souls character had no personality... how is this even a contest?

@turambar said:

In that case, let me rephrase the question. Even if we, for the moment, agree to call it a character; Is the CU among the best characters of this generation?

If you told me the best character of a book is a blank D&D character sheet or the best character of a movie is the guy behind the camera, I would have laugh at the absurdity. Why is it then that a character that has no defined characteristic of its own; who can be as deep or as flat as the player (and only the player) can care to make him/her; doesn't even have a name, a backstory, an origin, a personality, a voice or a reason to be there and fight those creatures other than to enable the game to move forward, is considered one of the best characters of the generation?

@hermes: I think I've already said twice now that ME is better in this department. It would probably be a good idea to actually read the posts. There's only 2 pages still.

@turambar: Leaving it up to the player to make a character does not make a good character. Also, about Shepard's "meaningless" choices -- You might want to play through the series again. They do have weight to them. But that's another topic for another day.

1. Yes, I agree, to a point.

2. Show me any meaningful choice in ME and I'll explain how it's not.

You guys realize that these are BOTH generated characters, right?

Also, will the winners in each category duke it out for Overall Character of the Generation?

This poll is over! Commander Shepard is voted Generated Character of the Generation!

I've been through some real shit with both my Dark Souls and Mass Effect character, but I have to go with Shephard in the end.

I'm bummed that The Boss didn't make it to the finals and unfortunately I haven't played enough Dark Souls to really see where The Chosen Undead really pops as character. That said, I'm glad to vote for Shepard. Haven't played ME3, but I really enjoyed making him, playing as him, how he fit in the world and touches of personality they gave him (and the fact I had trouble trying to make gender neutral pronouns means, well a lot of things, but to me it means my Shepard felt like THE Shepard).