Which Type of Protagonist Do You Prefer?

[Pumpkin]

I like silent if they give you lots of dialogue choices and not just have like a mute, or the more upbeat type.

[Karifean]

I like Anti-Heroes. Besides that I mainly care about if they're someone I can root for, which can apply to any of the poll choices. Development and growth help a lot, of course.

[Formalhaut]

My Sarcastic Hawke in Dragon Age 2 was my best protagonist, by far. The things my Hawke came out with made me genuinely hurt with laughter. Here's just a compilation of the best bits (may have ambiguous spoilers).

When there is no opportunity to direct dialogue or personality choices, I still prefer my protagonist to be a humorous, yet very kind protagonist. My Hawke was very witty but did all the 'right' choices.

[Fynn]

It really depends on the game for me. If they're well done, I don't care what the character says, if at all.

[Lawr]

Absolutely hate silent protagonists. I think it only works for games like Fallout 3 and even then it was kinda meh to me. All of the other choices have their place though. I think the best protagonist is one that grows as a person as you play through the game!

[Psychotic]

Absolutely hate silent protagonists. I think it only works for games like Fallout 3 and even then it was kinda meh to me. All of the other choices have their place though. I think the best protagonist is one that grows as a person as you play through the game!

You're not silent in Fallout 3 though, your character says a hell of a lot of thing and speech is even a skill you can learn!

[Lawr]

Absolutely hate silent protagonists. I think it only works for games like Fallout 3 and even then it was kinda meh to me. All of the other choices have their place though. I think the best protagonist is one that grows as a person as you play through the game!

You're not silent in Fallout 3 though, your character says a hell of a lot of thing and speech is even a skill you can learn!

Wait maybe I'm thinking of the wrong game. Is Fallout the game where you can level up your Charisma and like persuade people to give you stuff? And the one with the Church of Atom? If so then that game is okay and I'm a derp.

Basically I just hate having a character like Serge or Link or Pokemon Trainer where you're completely silent and everyone just replies to you like you're having a normal conversation.

[Vermachtnis]

I like upbeat, positive characters. The kind of character where it makes since that they have a party of twenty cause they keep attracting more people.

[Formalhaut]

I usually hate silent protagonists and it only works in very specific circumstances. It works with Zelda if anything, out of nostalgia and tradition and I've accepted that a Link that speaks just wouldn't sound... right.

But the Half-Life series though is just odd. Here's this scientist who helps repel an invasion and continually encounters people. Why wouldn't he speak? I get that you're meant to *be* the protagonist, but it actually breaks immersion. It is like trying to listen in on only one end of a telephone conversation.

[Fynn]

There's also a difference between a character who is completely silent and one who is implied to be actually speaking and the other characters can hear it. Compare Breath of Fire IV's Ryu to Chrono Trigger's Crono.

[Vermachtnis]

I like how the Stick of Truth did the whole silent protagonist thing.

[Ayen]

I've always been a fan of wit myself. Give me a game where I can play as Tyrion Lannister and I can die a happy man.

[Sephex]

I can go for any of the first four options on this poll if they are done right. Mainly the sulky one, though. If you lean on the angst button too much you risk making the character seem childish and spoiled. If you give them the correct amount it can bring a lot to the story and how the character can interact with a lot of other characters. So yeah, I guess I would go with the subtle approach, there.

Any other of the options I picked are fine and hard to screw up in my opinion. Maybe I should make a game with an unsilent protagonist that screams at all times. He would drown out the rest of the game's audio. If I put enough pixel art in the game I can pass it off as the latest indie hit and my kickstarter will make billions!

Then I'll release an alpha build only through Steam Greenlight and laugh as I sit in my 1% mansion, but not before selling the merchandising rights to Hot Topic.

[Laddy]

Give me The Nameless One.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I can enjoy any of the options.

Probably my favorite would be the positive upbeat one, or the dark, troubled one if they have a convincingly believable reason and they aren't a miserable whiner about it.