Would you play a game with an elderly person as the protagonist?

Only if there is a random chance of the character dying at any point during the game.

@Scooper said:

Bill from Left 4 Dead was one of my favourite characters in the last few years.

It all depends on the age and ability of the person you're playing and what game or story they're in, obviously. It's a pretty broad and pointless question.

The reason I ask is because I hardly see any old folks in games. I don't see how it's a pointless question. It sounds like it's pointless to you yes as the answer is so obvious to you, but how am I to know what other people think if they don't let me know? Not everyone thinks the same. The question is not broad either, it is binary, one way or the other. Some might find the idea of playing an old person unthinkable.

I would however appreciate it if people would expand on their ideas of their choice one way or the other. Some people say we already have games where we play as an older person and leave it at that. That is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for discussion. Prove that those people are old, or better yet think on different ways that elderly people can be incorporated into game narratives as the driving character. Try to challenge the stock ideas of what a game needs to be. I hear "I don't want to play as a feeble old man or woman because that wouldn't be interesting or fun." Why not? In my mind games don't need to be about action and the physical capabilities of the character. I wonder if games can't be more of a psychological experience?

That'd be an awesome Zelda game. Instead of just kid Link and adult Link (Oot) imagine a Zelda with 3 ages, kid, adult, and an elderly Link. And they could do it like the finale of Star Trek: TNG ("... All Good Things"), where you have to time travel between 3 different periods to solve puzzles.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@upwarDBound said:

@FluxWaveZ:

Nier wasn't old. he was maybe 40.

After the time skip, I'd say Nier's pretty old and world weary, isn't he?

his daughter is still around 13-15. Not old.

WHO PUTS NO BEFORE YES!?

@FluxWaveZ said:

Metal Gear Solid 4?

was thinking the same.

I won't have trouble relating.

@Arker101 said:

@ThePhantomnaut said:

I already did.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Metal Gear Solid 4?

Nanomachines.

Nanomachines aren't responsible for Snake's accelerated ageing.

I've already said that Persona 5 should be set in a retirement home, and the main character is seeing those around him or her grow old and die. Better work on those social links quick; you'll miss those people when they're gone. I'm completely serious.

Oh, and I mean old. Not Solid Snake getting-up-there.

I would play Metal Gear Solid 4, yes.

You play as Ezio up until his 60's. Altair you play until his 90's. Solid Snake may be aging rapidly but that doesn't mean that he isn't old and that Konami didn't take a gamble by making one of their more recognizable characters so old. You couldn't crouch in that game without hurting Snake's back. This is cheating but Kratos is in his 50's.

I hit no... But I meant to hit yes.

No way dude, I only play games starring obnoxious and rebellious teenagers. Adults are such a drag.

Something that pissed me off about the Splinter Cell games is that with each iteration they made Sam Fisher look younger. In the first game he looked like he was in his late 40s early 50s. Graying hair, crows feet. He's been through things, he's the aging and experienced vet who knows how to get shit done. Immediately in Pandora Tomorrow they removed some of the wrinkles. Then in Chaos Theory and beyond they even removed his gray hair. Suddenly he acted and became like some mid-30s spy. Really stripped the character away for me.

It sounds like you want a much more specific thing than your poll indicated.

@nrh79 said:

I've already said that Persona 5 should be set in a retirement home, and the main character is seeing those around him or her grow old and die. Better work on those social links quick; you'll miss those people when they're gone. I'm completely serious.

Oh, and I mean old. Not Solid Snake getting-up-there.

He wasn't "getting up there old." His body aged so rapidly that the only thing keeping him together was his will alone. If you did anything to stressful in that game Snake would feel it. At the end of the game he was wearing an oxygen mask because his body is so fucked.

Lot's of posts involving Metal Gear Solid 4. That's the very first thing I thought of when I entered this thread. If done right, a story with an elderly person can be a pretty good game, as in MGS4.

up

If the gameplay is great then I really couldn't care less who/what I play as.

MGS4 is one of my favorite games. So yes.

Why not? As long as it's fun, sure. I'll leave one more example that others above have not mention, you can play as Adam Fenix in Gears of War 3 multiplayer. Now that's an agile old man!

Just about every character I create in an RPG is a bit on the old side, especially if I'm making a wizard--and, man, do I make a lot of wizards.

I love elderly characters in stories. I just love old folks in general. And you really can't beat them as a narrative element. They have decades of experiences, knowledge of how it was to live in all the time periods they lived in (which also brings in the nostalgia that is associated with one period or another), completely developed personality and vulnerability due to their health. There is almost nothing more inspiring than to see an old person who doesn't give up on life and to play as one should be just as thrilling. Overcome the limitations of your decaying body! Show the world that you spit in the eye of death and time! Save the day even if it's the last thing you do! MGS 4 had a neat grumpy old men theme to it with Ocelot and Snake rivaling each other but I would love something about a real old dude, Snake was still like a 40 year old with really bad health.

Already have multiple times. Not against doing it again.

I'd play a game where you are an elderly gentleman who's trying to escape from a retirement home but, you have alzheimer's so unless you reach a certain point in your route to your escape you forget your plan and have to start again.

@nrh79 said:

I've already said that Persona 5 should be set in a retirement home, and the main character is seeing those around him or her grow old and die. Better work on those social links quick; you'll miss those people when they're gone. I'm completely serious.

Oh, and I mean old. Not Solid Snake getting-up-there.

That sounds awesome. Hell, anything to get Persona games out of the school setting. It's getting old, no pun intended.

But seriously, one of those "Go into an alternate world and fight monsters to save your world while trying to balance your life" type RPGs would be amazing if your protagonist, say, had already lived a full life and suddenly has to adapt to all this change, or possibly could be trying to save the world before his body gives out on him.

@FLStyle said:

@Arker101 said:

@ThePhantomnaut said:

I already did.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Metal Gear Solid 4?

Nanomachines.

Nanomachines aren't responsible for Snake's accelerated ageing.

The patriots want you to think that.

If you've played MGS4, you already have.

Stay awhile and listen.

Altiar was pretty damn old in revelations too.

I've been wanting to play a game where the protagonist isn't some in shape beefcake or sexy heroine. Give me fat, disfigured, old anything that isn't the depiction of ideal body type and looks etc in society.

So hells to the yeah.

@Brendan said:

It sounds like you want a much more specific thing than your poll indicated.

Yes you're right. I couldn't come up with something succinct enough to phrase it into a question that would fit. I've also found that people respond better to polls than standard forum posts. I still disagree that any of the characters that have been listed are truly old. I guess it was my assumption that elderly means 60+ that has made the question seem silly.

The question was also somewhat of a challenge to the makers of games who predominately feature youthful protagonists in their creations.

Are you saying that you want a character that's limited by their age as opposed to them still having youthful abilities at an old age? As already stated, Old Snake and Old Ezio both let you do all the normal stuff. Sounds to me like you want a game with the protagonist having a zimmer frame or a walking stick or something.

I've always wanted to play a modern war game from the General's or Colonel's perspective, and they can run to late 50's/early 60's easy.

With age comes authority, and to me that's pretty interesting. Why run through towns with a rifle when instead you could command entire battalions to do it.

@upwarDBound said:

@Scooper said:

Bill from Left 4 Dead was one of my favourite characters in the last few years.

It all depends on the age and ability of the person you're playing and what game or story they're in, obviously. It's a pretty broad and pointless question.

The reason I ask is because I hardly see any old folks in games. I don't see how it's a pointless question. It sounds like it's pointless to you yes as the answer is so obvious to you, but how am I to know what other people think if they don't let me know? Not everyone thinks the same. The question is not broad either, it is binary, one way or the other. Some might find the idea of playing an old person unthinkable.

I would however appreciate it if people would expand on their ideas of their choice one way or the other. Some people say we already have games where we play as an older person and leave it at that. That is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for discussion. Prove that those people are old, or better yet think on different ways that elderly people can be incorporated into game narratives as the driving character. Try to challenge the stock ideas of what a game needs to be. I hear "I don't want to play as a feeble old man or woman because that wouldn't be interesting or fun." Why not? In my mind games don't need to be about action and the physical capabilities of the character. I wonder if games can't be more of a psychological experience?

The question is absolutely broad and not at all "binary". There's a like 60 years of 'old'. If we're putting the starting point of "old" at around 40 with a bit of a gut and someone who is 100 that can't even reconise their kids anymore. That is not binary. That is a biiiiiig and broad range of different states older people can be in. It's not good enough to say "would you play as an elderly protagonist". That's a dumb question and you can't be annoyed that people have given such quick answers.

Saying "it is binary, one way or the other. Some might find the idea of playing an old person unthinkable." isn't even a good statement because there's no context. If the next Call of Duty you are a 94 year old bed-ridden old woman being helicoptered into the battle and you can't move. That's just bad game design, because the protagonist doesn't fit the game. The character's age is decided by what story they want to tell and what game they're making. I doubt you'll find anyone who will say "I will not play any games where I play as anyone over 50, regardless of genre or setting because I don't want to play as someone with a bad back or a bus pass". The reason you don't see a lot of old people in games is because the big console market and blockbuster titles cost millions and millions of dollars and there are whole departments of game companies that figure out what the market buys most, and they've figured out that what sells the most copies on average in the western world is 30 year old short-haired men that shoot guns at other 30 year old men which are preferably bald. There's plenty of smaller games that have older or less recognized parts of the population as protagonists and even some bigger games, especially if they've got less restricted game designers (people point out Metal Gear Sold or Left 4 Dead as examples). There are loads of other types of people that are even less portrayed in games. When was the last time you played a Sikh in a game?

For the record I'd love to play more psychological experience about an 85 year old widow or whatever but I'd ALSO like to play a point & click adventure set in Bangladesh about a Muslim mother who takes it upon herself to investigate a string of child abductions in the slums. There's just not enough developers out there to make all these kinds of games and people have also got to earn a living, so that's why there aren't more games like that, I wish there was.

Sam Fisher's gotta be claiming AARP membership by now.

Sure why not? I enjoyed playing as Old Snake, his back pain was a nice touch.

Let's make a game where you play as an Elderly black woman and see how well it sells.

Breaking Bad: The Videogame.

In A New Beginning you play a large part of the game as an older guy and that was fun. More generally speaking, the whole fantasy RPG genre would be a perfect fit for it. There are lots of fantasy settings where you have old and powerful magicians all over the world, but you never actually get to play as them, you just fight them or become their apprentice.

Metal Gear Solid 4

@Soulblitz:

First I'm not familiar with the term zimmer frame. In the United States we call them walkers. Learned something new though.

Second, no not exactly. I bring up a frail person simply as a possibility to buck conventional gameplay trends. We could just as easily see a younger protagonist in the same situation. Seeing a supposed old person performing heroic feats of agility and strength though really belies their age. It's like putting an old skin on a young body.

I guess what I'm really looking for is a game to address the psychology of an elderly person. How would they behave in certain situations? What worldviews would they have that differ from that of a younger person? Would they be more cynical? More resigned? Maybe still stubbornly hopeful?

@SaFt said:

Sure why not? I enjoyed playing as Old Snake, his back pain was a nice touch.

Let's make a game where you play as an Elderly black woman and see how well it sells.

As somebody who played an old black woman in a performance, I am for this.

@Arker101 said:

@FLStyle said:

@Arker101 said:

@ThePhantomnaut said:

I already did.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Metal Gear Solid 4?

Nanomachines.

Nanomachines aren't responsible for Snake's accelerated ageing.

The patriots want you to think that.

It's his natural lifespan, programmed as such a long with removing the ability to reproduce. The same with Solidus, except more extreme, he was a year younger than Solid and Liquid yet he looked to be in his 50s by MGS2.

@Scooper:

You're right about the binary thing. I was working under the assumption that elderly means 60+ years of age. I've personally never heard of anyone being referred to as elderly under that age except in a joking manner. About me providing context how am I supposed to do that when I am given very few characters to phrase my question? Even taking the question at face value the question is not dumb. Some people wouldn't play as an elderly person just as some wouldn't play as a female no matter the context. Unfortunately the way it is phrased did not exactly convey my meaning the way I intended it to.

I really agree with you wanting to see games from a different cultural approach. I'm tired of only seeing western games and Japanese games with a few outliers contributing in minor ways.

@believer258 said:

Plus, you can make your characters in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Saints Row, etc. look pretty old.

Why would anyone want to spend hours looking at some elderly person when you could look at a sexy woman?, or sexy man if that's what you like.

I mean, its up to the player, nothing else in the experience about those games is going to change, you don't get more "experience" as an "old soldier" or anything like that. Feels rather pointless.

Just my point of view.

About the OP, in games I want to be a warlock or a soldier with nanotechnology, or a dragon, in general something I cannot be in real life and something that is cool, preferably. I hope to get to be old at some point IRL, thus I'll spend my precious time in my "virtual life" being something more enticing. In short, an elderly warlock may be ok, but not because he is elderly but because he is a warlock, and that's cool. An elderly regular person?, no thanks.

Ron Paul: The Video Game

@Trylks said:

@believer258 said:

Plus, you can make your characters in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Saints Row, etc. look pretty old.

Why would anyone want to spend hours looking at some elderly person

Role-playing. Maybe someone wants to role-play as an older badass? Maybe someone is old and wants to do that? I don't know. If an older person manages to retain their strength and speed, then they could be a very formidable opponent. Imagine fighting someone who has the physical abilities of a twenty four year old but the experience and knowledge of someone who's been kicking ass for forty years. You'd respect some of those wrinkles then, wouldn't you?

when you could look at a sexy woman?, or sexy man if that's what you like.

The attitude that some people have where, in character creators, they'll only play as what they think is a beautiful woman solely for the sake of playing as a beautiful woman irks me a bit. I mean, I get the idea, and I've played as female characters before, but I lean toward male characters because role-playing.

You mean apart from MGS4, Assassin's Creed Revelations, Left4Dead and any RPG with a character creator that includes an age slider?

:D