10 Incredibly Dumb Things Video Game Heroes Need To STOP DOING
Relentlessly pursuing revenge no matter the personal cost? Seems legit.
Video games can give players an experience that they simply can't get anywhere else, but it's also fair to say that where writing and characterisation are concerned, games generally still trail other forms of entertainment media by quite a distance.
This is due to one simple fact: games are designed around gameplay more than anything, because of course they are.
The problem is that this often means the story, molded around the existing gameplay systems, might see the hero doing something that seemingly defies logic.
And though video games are more diverse and creative now than they've ever been, and not every game forces players to become an all-out murder machine, the vast majority of games - especially those in the AAA sphere - routinely force their protagonist down the stupid path for the gamer's benefit.
As fun as the gameplay might be, you may find yourself practically screaming at the TV that your beloved hero is falling for the most obvious trick in the book, or doing the very thing you yourself never would in real life...
10. Failing To Question ANYTHING
Perhaps the most basic, all-encompassing element of video games is that they set players a series of tasks which they must duly complete in order to reach the end.
And while for the most part that's the only way to finish a game, it sure would be nice to see protagonists employing a little more critical thought considering some of the more eyebrow-raising instructions they tend to be given.
Take Shadow of the Colossus, whose protagonist Wander agrees to slaughter sixteen innocent Colossi without much discussion at all, all for the sake of reviving his love Mono. Shockingly enough, it turns out that he also awakened an ancient evil force in the process.
Doing what the game tells you is such an endemic part of game design, but a few titles have managed to play with this expectation in clever ways.
Spec-Ops: The Line paralleled video game objectives with "just following orders" in the Army to stirring effect, while BioShock similarly mocked players' tendency to comply blindly with anything an A.I. companion asked of them.
Games generally aren't nuanced enough for players to nope out of a questionable scenario while still reaching the end of the experience, but from a pure storytelling perspective, our protagonists really should think a little harder before just doing what they're told.