We made the protagonist silent so that players can relate to them and use the character as a self-insert for themselves

>We made the protagonist silent so that players can relate to them and use the character as a self-insert for themselves

Does anyone actually fucking picture themselves being Link or Crono cutting down goblins and shit?

or is this just an excuse for not wanting to have to give the protagonist a "voice" or any character at all?

It's as dumb as the whole,

>we made the protag a boring, brown haired-everyman human so people could relate to them

It doesn't work too well in fps games without lots of cutscenes. A voice coming out of seemingly nowhere seems jarring.

For third person games I have no idea, the self insert thing never really appealed to me.

...this is actually a fair point

Now that I think about it, maybe it works (at least for me) with first person games.
Is it like that for anybody else?

To be honest, I really liked Corvo being silent especially with how we saw him being portrayed in the DLC's.
I'm not sure about giving him a voice actor and a bunch of lines. I think it's gonna feel off on him.

>or is this just an excuse for not wanting to have to give the protagonist a "voice" or any character at all?
Probably.

>A voice coming out of seemingly nowhere seems jarring.
Not really. It worked fine in Bioshock Infinite and I've never heard anyone have that problem with BI.
Before anyone chimes in with "Bioshock Infinite is shit", whether the game itself is good or not is irrelevant to my point.

No. The autism required to self insert isn't something I can fathom.

I feel more intimately bonded to the character when he remains silent.

It's just an easy way to make the player feel involved in the game, so it doesn't feel like you're playing a movie.
There are all kinds of people that play video games, and it can be jarring when the character you control acts in a way that is inconsistent with the way you play or the way you think.
Even when the player character does have a voice and a personality, it is usually very bland, so that whatever you do in the game won't feel out of character.

What's silly is when the NPCs make reference to the fact the PC is silent. It defeats the point of the silent protagonist.

Yeah I feel like it somewhat ironically builds more character.

>What's silly is when the NPCs make reference to the fact the PC is silent. It defeats the point of the silent protagonist.

I thought Rockstar having a guy call the player characters in GTAO "a bunch of creepy mutes" in a heist was pretty funny

I don't like when movies or games try to manipulate my feels, or try to give me prepackaged feels. I want to feel my own feels.

It's like those operatic silent films. The feels are real.

Would you rather have the fallout 4 mc
Or
Any other of the mc from the main fallout games

Personally I prefer silent characters a lot of the time, I don't care if it's "lazy" it gives me the freedom to imagine the character how I want.

They're not really supposed to be self-inserts like the ones you see in fanfiction but rather a character or role for the player to use that makes sense within the game's context.

I can't imagine Crono or Gordon Freeman having their own personality.

>didnt realize claude never spoke until the end credits
>didnt even realize jak never spoke to jak 1 until i played jak 2

i guess i just dont notice it

I love when they say something about the silent MC.

Personally I'm generally not a fan of silent protagonists. If the game has dialog options like Fallout or Persona then I'm fine with it as it at least implies that the character is interacting with others while still giving you that freedom. But a lot of (mostly FPS) games just have other characters talking at the MC without the MC ever acknowledging or responding to them in any way, which seems cheap and cheesy IMO.

It works in some cases like the first Half-Life where they're no cut scenes and you could more or less do whatever you want with the NPC's but if it's something like Dishonored or Half-Life 2 where it's very plot heavy it falls flat in its face.

Games walk a pretty fine line when they present their stories to you. In Bioshock 1, I didn't feel like Jack or whatever his name is. In Bioshock 2, I was really able to connect with Subject Delta because I felt for him and his lost daughter, and knew in that big iron casing there was a tiny little heart that was hurting. Both games had silent protagonists, but I actually felt sad at the end of Bioshock 2 compared to Bioshock 1.

I don't know what makes me feel this way, but very few games make me feel like "This character is me" besides games that I really resonate with, like New Vegas

LOL

shut up you racist!

No
Self inserting ins dumb and the whole silent protag thing is stupid
>all of the Links have a destingt personality but no voice
>Morgan Free man has a whole catalog of backstory but no voice
>Corvo has relations to not only the qeen and his daughter but clearly hates the oversere as stated by the queen
>no voice

It's stupid.
Videogames is a media just like a book or a movie, if there is no main character in book/movie you can relate too and instead have to come up with what you would have done in X situation the narrative falls apart.
Take the movie Hardcore Henry, in that movie the protagonist is silent but he expreses his personality by other means like when he is in a fight he would rather beat someone with a stapler then picking up the gun next to him.
Or be a a checky cunt by just turning around when someone is in the middle of talking to him because he couldn't be bothered to stay and listen.
That is silent protag done right.

The only games where it really works are things like Dark souls and the Elder scrolls series where the protage IS a literal who, with no backstory so it might as be you or whatever other persona you make up as you play

I've always put my role into Link since I also have Blonde hair and blue eyes and white skin.

I even use to grow it out long just to look like him

Depends on the game really.

yea Its so neck beards can play self-insert to their fantasy worlds.
>Welcome recruit, what is your name? ah the strong silent type, I like that in a man
literally mfw

No.

I've never felt like I was in that game. I've always felt like the observer of this heroes journey... just this time, this hero doesn't say shit.

Who is autistic enough to to get so immersed, they become Link, Corvo or gordon freeman? Kek!

You're misunderstanding the meaning of the statement. The purpose of a silent protagonist is to allow the player to self-insert - their motivations, their emotions - in place of a protagonist, rather than AS the silent protagonist.
For example, you don't think:
>My Link (me) is trying to get to this treasure chest
You think:
>I am trying to get to this treasure chest
Where the "Link" is implicit as a character, yet still informs the game through his presence. (Instead of negatively impacting the player's immersion, as some strongly characterized protagonists do, by making you ask, "Well, why do I care about this shit?")

tl;dr no one fucking self-inserts the way you're describing

When I play Link or Mario, I kinda feel like it's me. The lack of voice helps with immersion.

Also, it really depends of the game and how the player interact with other people. If the character is bland, generic, like Link, then I can self insert much more easily than a character like brotag from P4, where everyone wants to suck his D.

Writers are just too lazy or incompetent to write a developed character so they just cop out and use the self-insert card.

Corvo has a voice lel

It's not about self-inserting yourself, it's about inserting personality to the character. If I want to believe that Gordon Freeman is a rude asshole, I can. If I want to believe that Gordon Freeman is the kindest person on earth, I can. The only limits are the game's objectives and the character's actions. the rest is up to the player.

Giving a voice to a once mute character is the worst fucking thing. The only time I saw it work well was in Jak and Daxter.

Claude Speed is an actual mute.