gyhldeptis:

prokopetz:

thatfreecracker:

saltysugaryfreshwater:

prokopetz:

On top of everything else, what gets me about the whole “stubbly, brown-haired, thirtysomething white dude with anger management problems” thing is that I’m not convinced it even serves its ostensible purpose.

Game creators are all like: “Well, we have to do that so that players can identify with the protagonist!”

Like, I am a stubbly, brown-haired, thirtysomething white dude, and I can’t identify with those guys at all. That caricatured hypermasculinity they’re trying to pass off as a personality is just totally alien to me.

Seriously, I can identify with fucking Waluigi more readily than I can identify with whoever is biting on Nathan Drake’s shtick this week – at least Waluigi has an emotional range that extends beyond dull surprise and generic rage.

What’s wrong with masculinity?

I want you to explain what you think the words “caricatured” and “hyper” mean

“Caricatured” and “hyper” as in “exaggerated to a cartoonish degree”. I realise y’all are probably just trolling, but let’s try a little exercise:

• He’s a stubbly, brown-haired, thirtysomething white guy
• He has anger management problems, typically stemming from ambivalence toward an absent or neglectful father figure
• He wants to protect women, but he’s really overbearing and paternalistic about it, and may often lie to them “for their own good”
• He uses stony silence or bitter sarcasm as a defense mechanism against even the faintest hint of emotional engagement

• Beyond these traits, his personality is defined largely oppositionally; we know much about what he hates, but little about what he likes; much about what makes him angry, but little about what makes him happy
• If it’s a modern or future setting, he can operate any weapon or vehicle he encounters with instant and breathtaking proficiency, but is otherwise comically baffled by anything more complicated than a screwdriver

I’m sure we can all agree that that’s a pretty darn specific description. Now, riddle me this: which video game protagonist am I talking about?

Take your time.

D) All of the above.

Reading this, I’m realizing how much Dean Winchester has evolved as a character. But damn. Yeah. Almost every video protagonist fits into this mold.