Dynamic Protagonist Personality?

[kirin]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on your beautiful forums for quite a while but this counts as the first time I'm getting directly involved. Be gentle, please. :]

Have you ever been completely turned off or, at the very least, exceedingly annoyed by a protagonist whose behavior or manner of speaking/thinking you couldn't stand? Too shy, too ignorant, too blunt, too passive maybe? I was writing a story and this thought randomly popped into my head. How would you feel about a dynamic protagonist who changes based on the choices you make? Choices that could be entirely separate from your branching route choices. Ones that establish how he or she is going to approach situations and deal with events in the future. I'm thinking of a simple system that tests the reader in the early stages of the novel to see what he responds to better and then sets a flag that can be checked for the rest of the story whenever needed to provide different approaches to the same topics.

I realize this adds a ton of extra work on the writers for a potentially trivial preference so my question boils down to this: is it worth the extra investment to make the reader more invested in the main character? If yes, how would you go about doing something like this (seeing how rewriting entire acts to accommodate it is just impractical)?

Thanks for taking the time to read/reply. :]

[Taleweaver]

Dynamic protagonists do exist, but they require great effort to pull off - think games like the Fallout series, or the Dragon Age series, where the decisions you make for your protagonist define his or her personality.

On a smaller scale, this can work in VNs. My game "The Thirteenth Year" is entirely about decisions shaping someone's personality, and what that means in the end.

If you ever want to go that path, consider me curious about the results.

[YonYonYon]

I always loved dynamic characters, because it was always interesting to me how the same characters would react to different personalities of the MC. That's always fun to imagine.

I'm trying to make a game with dynamic MC atm, and to reduce the workload I gave my MC a preset personality and traits so the changes won't be too drastic.

Also, RPGs can pull something like that thanks to more or less linear story, like, the quests are still the same so they don't need to write something entirely new. So, maybe you could be more strict with the story? Like, if you'll get entirely different paths for each personality traits, you'll never finish the game. Maybe I'm telling the obvious, but you could create one main story and conflicts but vary the ways to solve it based on MC's personalities.

[soraibi]

I love the idea of protagonists with dynamic personalities in games. However, when you're the one that's actually creating it...well, let's just say that it'll be a challenge. I've considered trying to make protagonists with dynamic personalities, but I sort of fear that it may get repetitive if I use this device for another game...But I still love it tho!

As for your question, in my opinion, the main character is very important. It represents what the readers/audience will feel about the story, because the main character serves as a sort of "voice of opinions" for about what is considered to be morally just in your game. If I end up playing as a character that's shy, timid and passive, and continues to be just that throughout the story, then it'll just be boring. I want to see development you know?? Well, That's just my opinon

[SundownKid]

I WOULD do this but personally I think that people will never realize the effort that would go into it since they only choose once at the beginning.

Therefore, I am more of a fan of having constant choices based on personality since then people feel like they are being more actively engaged in it even if they choose the same type of choice each time and don't jump around between alignments.

[gekiganwing]

How would you feel about a dynamic protagonist who changes based on the choices you make?

If this is one of your goals for your story, then go for it. Consider questions such as...

* How long will it take before the main character's personality is set in stone? Several scenes? Until the end of the common route?
* Once the MC's personality is determined, will the reader be able to select only a specific set of choices? Let's say that the reader's first few choices determine that the main character's personality is righteous. Therefore, will they be limited to choosing options such as "I will do what is just," and other options will not appear?
* Will the reader always have the opportunity to change the MC's personality?

... is it worth the extra investment to make the reader more invested in the main character?

That's a good question, and I'm not sure. It's up to you whether you include this feature.

A personal example that's off-topic: Recently, I have been reading Harvest November. The main character ended up in a love triangle because he doesn't want to commit to a relationship. While he is an ordinary individual, he seems stressed and troubled. I currently like this fictional character even though he's not especially eccentric, intelligent, badass, or noble.

[Miyuu]

I like the idea of having dynamic personality, but there will be extra efforts and challenge to pull it off. I've played RPG where personality changes based on our answer, like Growlanser, or Fable. I personally like personality building characters based on our choices, but now that I dabble in game making, I realize that it will take a while to actually finish the whole story if we're more concerned about personality. Well, unless the game's not about the story but character building.

But in the end, it's up to you. If you're going to make a game where personality is dynamic, I know I'll be looking out for that.

[kirin]

I haven't really considered adding this into my current story, maybe in a future one. It was a thought that popped into my head while writing a branching point where the character can only make a bad decision no matter his choice. Naturally, I wondered if this would increase the risk of alienating the reader up to the point where he would no longer want to continue or at the very least, not care about anything happening after that anymore (which is arguably worse).

I'm reminded of a couple of particular moments in the Human campaign from Warcraft 3. I'll attempt a brief recollection for those not familiar with it (spoilers if you haven't played it I guess).

You follow this prince in his quest to save his people from a plague for quite a while before he slowly descends into madness. You arrive at the capital city only to realize you're too late. Some are already infected and others are in the process of becoming infected. But the prince takes it one step further and your objective becomes "Preemptively kill your people, regardless of state of infection, to save them from a worse fate and stop the plague from spreading". That's the first red flag that doesn't sit right with you, the player. Shortly after, you get to a point where the prince is manipulated into sailing across an ocean, crossing a dangerous, frozen wasteland and retrieving an item that corrupts him further. This is where it gets tricky. You enlist the help of mercenaries who fight alongside you in order to help you achieve this goal only to get this immoral objective at the end of the sequence: "Good job. Now burn your ships, blame the mercenaries who helped you and kill them."

As I said, it's character development at its finest but it's not just part of the story at this point, it's something you (the player) have to do in order to continue. They got away with it because by this point, the story was extremely engaging and it kept being like that until the end which allowed them to take a risk. But what if, I thought, your story isn't that good and you get bombarded with behavior you don't agree with from the main character of the novel you're reading? It's certainly enough to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. So I thought what if you implement a system similar to an RPG class system, where you choose what kind of person your main character is in the first act and experience the branching stories through that point of view. But make the choice part of the story by giving your MC opportunities to prove what kind of person he is rather than adding a silly "Choose one: honorable / prankster / ignorant" choice at the beginning.

Thank you all for the replies. I'm happy to read different thoughts on this topic. ^^

[Steamgirl]

For the longest time I though that dynamic personality was the way forward for rpgs/visual novels. I often find protagonists annoying (especially in Japanese VNs as they tend to be too bland or passive for my tastes).

But recently I had a lengthy discussion with a scriptwriter (for films/TV series) on characters who are "blank slates" and basically been convinced of the idea that the more "distinct" the protagonist, ultimately the more we're able to relate to them, the more we like them. Yes, it does mean that there will be some people who will be put off by the protagonist, because - hey - we just don't get on with everyone. But for everybody else, this character will be more relate-able, more likable, more memorable.

I think a good example of this is The Walking Dead. Lee has a distinct manner about him, he always phrases things in a "Lee-like" way. His consistency makes him feel like a real person. But as the player you still get to make really interesting decisions, pick sides with different characters, have conflict or form friendships, in a "Lee-like" way. Because the important decisions (like whom you befriend) are left to me, I am not annoyed at the protagonist for behaving "like himself".

Also, often we like to know "why". Why is this person so serious? Why do they act like they have the answer to everything? Why do they get annoyed when someone else suggests a smarter idea? Were they picked on at school? Did they have parents who only cared about grades? Did they grow up in a community of cyber-implanted intelligence but never could afford an implant themselves so been desperately trying to hide their poverty? If the character's personality changes depending on the choices, does that mean their past also changes? Or is the character's past what you choose at the start of the novel and then go from there?

That said, I think anyone who can pull off dynamic personalities that are interesting, feel consistent, and are embedded in the character's past, would be doing something very cool and ambitious. And I'd certainly would love to give it a go myself if I ever end up making a decent living out of writing VNs. But until then, it's too time consuming for me to write and gets in the way of telling a story.

When I've attempted this in the past, I found that my plot "snags" because if a character is A she/he would never do X, but if a character is B, they would never do Y, so I'd have to go with a weaker Z option which pleases both but is less interesting. The alternative is to write both X and Y, but that's twice the work... and if you have 5 character traits... and want to have a branching story for each... you quickly end up going 5 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 40 strands. And that's with only 3 binary choices. Imagine if you wanted to give 3 options. 5 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 135!! I mean wow! It's a bit less work if you're going multi-linear but still!