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"I BASED THE MAIN CHARACTER ON MYSELF."
Posts
SnowOwl
5188
SnowOwl
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Closeauthor=Max McGeeBut let's be honest here, most people don't live interesting enough lives or have interesting enough personalities that other people would actually read (or play) their life stories.This is a really coarse oversimplification of what's actually a really complex topic. So I guess here's another one?
Actually, broadly speaking, most PEOPLE are infinitely fascinating. But almost the entire apparatus of authorial technique lies in teasing that out onto the page, the screen, or whathaveyou.
I guess this is a matter of personal opinion but the vast majority of people are not special snowflakes. They don't act like people in books do. They don't actively seek out adventure or start big succesful buisnesses. They have some variation of maybe a hundred very common personalities with maybe a few small things that makes them unique.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
Some people are fascinating in the sense that they lead sort of depressing, grotesque lives (I watch a lot of daytime/late night tv).
If Bobo (Finding Bigfoot) for some unfathomable reason made an rpg maker game about his unending search for the 'squatch, I would totally play the pants off of it.
If Bobo (Finding Bigfoot) for some unfathomable reason made an rpg maker game about his unending search for the 'squatch, I would totally play the pants off of it.
author=SnowOwl
But let's be honest here, most people don't live interesting enough lives or have interesting enough personalities that other people would actually read (or play) their life stories.
You might be surprised.
In one of my writing classes in college there was a young lady who was monumentally talented who could create these really amazing and evocative scenes just by describing what would seem like mundane details in the hands of a less-skilled writer.
A good writer can make anything interesting. Don't underestimate how interesting the details of a character's life or job or hobby can be to a reader.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
Well, yeah. Adaptation was mentioned earlier, and I think that is a good example of what you're talking about.
author=Solitayreauthor=SnowOwlYou might be surprised.
But let's be honest here, most people don't live interesting enough lives or have interesting enough personalities that other people would actually read (or play) their life stories.
In one of my writing classes in college there was a young lady who was monumentally talented who could create these really amazing and evocative scenes just by describing what would seem like mundane details in the hands of a less-skilled writer.
A good writer can make anything interesting. Don't underestimate how interesting the details of a character's life or job or hobby can be to a reader.
Often people have adventurous personalities but they're just too scared to do what they really want to do.
author=suzy_cheesedreams
On topic: I am using my own traumatic experiences for my game, kind of in a therapeutic sense. I don't want to make some whiny, morose story starring *me*, I have actually thought critically and at length about the characters, setting, themes, etc.
The experience I'm using for my game I wouldn't necessarily call "traumatic". More like, "This is a thing that I have regretted for an insane amount of time." Though, using the game as a vehicle for therapy is certainly a thing it attempts to do. How well it does so, er, I guess we'll see!
author=SnowOwl
I guess this is a matter of personal opinion but the vast majority of people are not special snowflakes. They don't act like people in books do. They don't actively seek out adventure or start big succesful buisnesses. They have some variation of maybe a hundred very common personalities with maybe a few small things that makes them unique.
No offense intended, but I'd think the only reason you'd draw a conclusion like that is because most people don't actually open up their full story to everyone unless they are comfortable around you.
Also, define "adventure." It's not necessarily about braving some forbidden tomb to discover the magical whatchmacallit, it's about going through and dealing with challenges that drastically affect the lives of the subject.
Life is FULL of conflicts and challenges, and just because some of these conflicts happen to other people doesn't necessarily mean it's uninteresting. For example: raising a kid from a child to an adult, and guiding that kid towards a successful path with the addition of balancing out your finances and well-being brings out a challenge that has to be endured for a lengthy period of times, and it brings in many different variables such as the child's condition or personality, or even the attitudes of the parent, and so much other stuff.
With that regard I actually think the reason people prefer "interesting" stories is because they CAPTURE the spontaneity of life, not because life is boring.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
author=Marrendauthor=suzy_cheesedreamsThe experience I'm using for my game I wouldn't necessarily call "traumatic". More like, "This is a thing that I have regretted for an insane amount of time." Though, using the game as a vehicle for therapy is certainly a thing it attempts to do. How well it does so, er, I guess we'll see!
On topic: I am using my own traumatic experiences for my game, kind of in a therapeutic sense. I don't want to make some whiny, morose story starring *me*, I have actually thought critically and at length about the characters, setting, themes, etc.
Well, yeah. I'm not recreating actual events in the story, that would feel pretty conceited...
And guilt and remorse come into it for me also; basically I'm exploring all the different dimensions of growing up the way I did to better understand it, myself and my family, and perhaps to encourage more empathy in myself for them, or... something.
author=suzy_cheesedreams
Well, yeah. I'm not recreating actual events in the story, that would feel pretty conceited...
Crap, that was, like, half the plan! Sorta. I guess it'd be a "based on actual events" thingy.
author=Marrendauthor=suzy_cheesedreamsCrap, that was, like, half the plan! Sorta. I guess it'd be a "based on actual events" thingy.
Well, yeah. I'm not recreating actual events in the story, that would feel pretty conceited...
Well book authors write memoirs all the time so I don't see an issue in recreating real life events in a game. I mean if it doesn't feel comfortable don't do it but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
Yeah, I don't think there is anything wrong with anyone doing it, but for me it would feel really uncomfortable, so... that's all I meant by that.
SnowOwl
5188
author=Ratty524
Life is FULL of conflicts and challenges, and just because some of these conflicts happen to other people doesn't necessarily mean it's uninteresting. For example: raising a kid from a child to an adult, and guiding that kid towards a successful path with the addition of balancing out your finances and well-being brings out a challenge that has to be endured for a lengthy period of times, and it brings in many different variables such as the child's condition or personality, or even the attitudes of the parent, and so much other stuff.
So, The Sims?
Realistically though, normal peoples lives are, if you look at the big picture, not that exciting to put in a game. I'm sure you COULD make a game about some normal guy doing normal stuff and somehow make it less than boring. But you could make it even better by making the normal guy not normal.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=SnowOwl
Realistically though, normal peoples lives are, if you look at the big picture, not that exciting to put in a game. I'm sure you COULD make a game about some normal guy doing normal stuff and somehow make it less than boring. But you could make it even better by making the normal guy not normal.
It's really all in how skilled the creator is: good writing and gameplay can make any story interesting; terrible writing and gameplay can take Superman or ET and make them boring as shit.
I mean, shit dude, you like Silent Hill and that series has mostly boring-ass people as protags. Harry Mason is a horror writer with an adopted kid. James Sunderland is a retail worker.
I'm not terribly familiar with the variety of games out today, but there's no reason one can't find a compelling story or interesting gameplay in the mundane. To assume that it's impossible ignores huge swathes of art that's already happened- or assumes that games as a medium somehow can't also express things well.
SnowOwl
5188
author=Sooz
It's really all in how skilled the creator is: good writing and gameplay can make any story interesting; terrible writing and gameplay can take Superman or ET and make them boring as shit.
I mean, shit dude, you like Silent Hill and that series has mostly boring-ass people as protags. Harry Mason is a horror writer with an adopted kid. James Sunderland is a retail worker.
I'm not terribly familiar with the variety of games out today, but there's no reason one can't find a compelling story or interesting gameplay in the mundane. To assume that it's impossible ignores huge swathes of art that's already happened- or assumes that games as a medium somehow can't also express things well.
I both agree and disagree. Sure, you could make interesting characters uninteresting with boring writing, but it also takes a skilled writer to make someone mundane interesting.
It's not impossible, but personally I wouldn't really enjoy the story of some factory workers normal life. Put him into a extraordinary situation and rattle his mind a bit and we may have something.
Also, while the Silent Hill protagonists initially all seem boring, they have hidden layers to them that get revealed as you play. It probably also helps that they get put into a situation that is far from normal.
TheNecromancer
3160
When did this turn into a discussion about translating our daily lives into a game? Just because a person leads a boring life doesn't mean that when they decide to put themselves in a game they will recreate word for word, action for action the scenes of their daily lives.
I live a boring life but I've had several very interesting and exciting things happen. When you make a game you create a fantasy world, not the real world. You end up putting "yourself" in that fantasy world. How boring your overall life is has nothing to do with it.
I live a boring life but I've had several very interesting and exciting things happen. When you make a game you create a fantasy world, not the real world. You end up putting "yourself" in that fantasy world. How boring your overall life is has nothing to do with it.
suzy_cheesedreams
1480
I'd would say that was a deliberate choice to make the protagonists of Silent Hill seem plain & mundane. Harry sort of IS, and then with James they subverted the player's expectations from the first game by making him a frustrated, sex-starved, self-loathing murderer. Also yeah, as you say SnowOwl, it would serve to juxtapose the weirdness well if the protagonists are just regular shmoes.
edit: yeah, sorry, this is off-topic.
edit: yeah, sorry, this is off-topic.
There's really nothing wrong with basing a character, even the main character of a story, on yourself. No, even good writers do it - it's just less obvious because they mix parts of themselves and others together to create someone who seems a lot different.
The thing is, society teaches us that we shouldn't big note ourselves and making yourself the hero in an epic adventure is seen as bad because that is making yourself to be bigger and more important than you really are. Fuck that. Fuck society. If you want to write yourself the hero, do it! It's not bad at fucking all.
Nope.
What is bad is coupling it with bad writing practices. Don't do that. Practice on writing dialogue and scenes that flow well. Get your writing done well and then add yourself all you want. Make a game with only clones of yourself as all the characters. Make yourself the hero of your own journey. Be a Gary or Mary Sue if you wish - Batman is and doesn't get hate for that shit. Go forth and make yourself bigger and better than you already are!
And no, I'm not joking here. Hating on this kinda shit is pretty stupid when there are tons of other things to focus on instead, like bad gameplay, story or horrendous graphics/mapping. As long as the core concepts of a game work, I don't see why you and your plucky friends can't sally forth and defeat the great evil of an imaginary world.
'Self-insertion is a literary device in which an author character who is the real author of a work of fiction appears as a character within that fiction, either overtly or in disguise.
Famous examples of self-insertion include Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy, Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, Paul Auster's appearance in his New York Trilogy, Robert A. Heinlein in his The Number of the Beast, Victor Hugo in his Les Misérables, John Fowles in his The French Lieutenant's Woman, Kurt Vonnegut in his Breakfast of Champions and Slaughter House Five, and Stephen King's rendition of himself in the Dark Tower novels.- From Wikipedia.Org
If it was good enough for them...
The thing is, society teaches us that we shouldn't big note ourselves and making yourself the hero in an epic adventure is seen as bad because that is making yourself to be bigger and more important than you really are. Fuck that. Fuck society. If you want to write yourself the hero, do it! It's not bad at fucking all.
Nope.
What is bad is coupling it with bad writing practices. Don't do that. Practice on writing dialogue and scenes that flow well. Get your writing done well and then add yourself all you want. Make a game with only clones of yourself as all the characters. Make yourself the hero of your own journey. Be a Gary or Mary Sue if you wish - Batman is and doesn't get hate for that shit. Go forth and make yourself bigger and better than you already are!
And no, I'm not joking here. Hating on this kinda shit is pretty stupid when there are tons of other things to focus on instead, like bad gameplay, story or horrendous graphics/mapping. As long as the core concepts of a game work, I don't see why you and your plucky friends can't sally forth and defeat the great evil of an imaginary world.
'Self-insertion is a literary device in which an author character who is the real author of a work of fiction appears as a character within that fiction, either overtly or in disguise.
Famous examples of self-insertion include Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy, Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, Paul Auster's appearance in his New York Trilogy, Robert A. Heinlein in his The Number of the Beast, Victor Hugo in his Les Misérables, John Fowles in his The French Lieutenant's Woman, Kurt Vonnegut in his Breakfast of Champions and Slaughter House Five, and Stephen King's rendition of himself in the Dark Tower novels.- From Wikipedia.Org
If it was good enough for them...
emmych
817
author=Liberty
There's really nothing wrong with basing a character, even the main character of a story, on yourself. No, even good writers do it - it's just less obvious because they mix parts of themselves and others together to create someone who seems a lot different.
p much! I don't know if it's been talked about elsewhere in this thread, but I think a lot of people see self-insertion as creating a power-fantasy in which you are the protagonist who can do no wrong (which... actually I don't immediately take issue with, but i'll get into that later), rather than a fully formed character.
Something that I've found pops up a lot in my own writing are characters who have struggles or flaws that are super close to mine. I end up looking at characters who have traits that I hate in myself and work on it through them. It's therapeutic, in a way? Plus, you end up with a realistic person whose journey will be more relatable than the 15 year old kid who was CHOSEN BY GOD to PUNCH HIS DAD WHO IS ALSO GOD, because the ~struggle is real~
Honestly, I don't know if it's possible to write a fully rounded character and NOT have some aspect of yourself show up in them. Yeah, they can be super different than you in almost every way, but I have personally found myself going "#SoRelatable" about some of my scummiest characters from time to time. IT JUST... KINDA HAPPENS, MAN... *cries forever about relating so hard to the biggest scrubs*
BUT ANYWAY, to the topic unity actually brought up: the power fantasy character. I call this a power fantasy character, since this is essentially what they are: the creator plays pretend in a fantasy world where they can be BIG AND COOL and SMOOCH THE CUTIES and BE THE MONARCH and SLAY THE DRAGON and PUNCH THEIR DAD. Yeah, this is a story that will, in all likelihood, not be too interesting to anyone other than the creator. To that, I say so what? Unless the plot ends up involving the protagonist doing really awful things, then what's the harm? The worst that happens is your writer sense is offended, and ehhhh you can get over that. I say let people make their games for themselves. You don't have to interact with it if you don't like it and it's not affecting anyone.
(really the "does it affect anyone" is the MAJOR caveat, since yeah if someone's power fantasy involves raping and pillaging and what have you, nah that shit isn't gonna fly; keep it to yourself, dickbag)
Realistically though, normal peoples lives are, if you look at the big picture, not that exciting to put in a game. I'm sure you COULD make a game about some normal guy doing normal stuff and somehow make it less than boring. But you could make it even better by making the normal guy not normal.
man this depends on the definitions of so many nebulous variables like 'normal person' and 'game'...both of which can mean a lot of things.
if you're using 'normal' as a synonym for 'boring' then, well, you've kind of created a tautology
