Corvo is a better silent protagonist than Gordon Freeman, says Dishonored writer
By Jess Colwill on October 10, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Lead writer on Dishonored Austin Grossman has confessed to Kotaku that he thinks his character, Corvo, is better than other silent protagonists — namely Doctor Gordon Freeman himself! Remember, before you put on your Nasty Internet Comments hat, these are Grossman’s words, not ours:
“I hate what Valve does with the silent protagonist. I find it incredibly awkward and really creepy. I find Gordon Freeman creepy as hell,” he told Kotaku. “It’s people talking at him, about him and sometimes even for him. He just happens to be in the middle of this whole thing.”
“The difference between Dishonored and how it works in Half-Life 2 is that it’s a lot more personal. I think you get that involvement because the character has personal relationships with people from the beginning. And it’s very clear that people have [censored]ed with you in a very personal way. I’m biased, of course, but I think Dishonored grips you much more viscerally, more emotionally. And that’s on purpose. Corvo doesn’t talk and I think it works because everybody knows what Corvo would have to say.”
Mostly, ‘I’ma stab you good!’ I think.
Source: Kotaku
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Makes sense to me.
What happened to letting the quality of your game convince people. Why do they feel the need to do the whole “we’re better than so and so” thing these days?
More popular than Jesus!
“I don’t understand that, at this point (and ever since HL2), Freeman being a mute is basically a running joke within the games. Our character is totally better because he’s all grimdark and edgey and shit.”
I get the feeling that the devs are saying this since HL’s art style has been compared so often to their art style.
There again, you are comparing 2 completely different stories in different years of production in different time periods. The only similarity between the 2 is the art, FPS style and both have silent protagonists.
yeapal,
Generic “OUR GAME DIDN’T SELL FAST ENOUGH” publicity stuff.
We’ll see. I’m not going to argue which game executes the concept better until I’ve had a chance to play Dishonored. Having said that, I don’t think the way the player/Freeman is presented in Half-Life/2 is as problematic as Grossman suggests.
“I hate what Valve does with the silent protagonist. I find it incredibly awkward and really creepy. I find Gordon Freeman creepy as hell,”
I don’t
How dare someone with a personal and professional interest in a topic share his opinion!
I get what he’s saying in that generally you use silent protagonists when the player knows what they would say anyway. But I would argue that that is the case in the HL games anyway.
Gordon doesn’t know anything worth saying and everything he cares about, the player also cares about, so anything he’d say the player has already said (or thought.) Sounds like Dishonored will be similar.
I’ve never liked mute characters. It always feels way out of place, and awkward when your character is being spoken too and never says anything in return, yet the NPC’s somehow know what you want.
Oh please. The guy wants to bring attention to his game, so he’ll say something controversial as a means of doing so. He can share his opinion, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s motivated by a need for marketing rather than something you’d casually discuss. So cut the sarcastic bullshit, ok? Thanks.