The concept of allowing or not allowing the renaming of the MC, either works for me, but if you are going to allow the MC to be renamed then work the renaming into the story itself. Have it be a small event where the MC verifies who they are. That can be fully part of the character creation process as well. Visual novels to me I would just recommend avoiding going that path for most developers, but with sandbox/open world/RPG types it is more than fine. On the other hand with the RPG's that are translated having a default in a foreign alphabet can be very distracting, especially if we don't have the option to create a name that works for the player, or if the spacing gets messed up by trying to change the names.
Do people actually like renamable MCs?
- Thread starter chucklefuckarbys
- Start date
- Apr 5, 2020
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- 187
There's nothing stopping the player can use a name appropriate with the setting tho because it's not like the player walk into the game totally blind. If it's a fantasy game then pick a fantasy name. For me I have some names I use for every setting and if I get bored of them I use name generators to generate a new group of names. If the game is silly and not to be taken seriously (like Prince of Suburbia) then I use silly names to match the comedy.
But I agree that some settings the player struggle to find a name (for example an Arabian fantasy setting and the player doesn't know any middle eastern names). So I agree the best situation is the dev has a default name (that the dev picked carefully, so an orc should named be named Urghor instead of Steve), that players can change if they want.
I lke games that let me rename the MC because I use the same arbitrary name for every game and I like to imagine it's always the same guy. What a life this guy leads.
I ran into a game the other day though where it got *really* confusing because another significant character had the *same name*. I tried to soldier through it but it just wasn't working, too many dialogs where it looked like I was talking to myself somehow. And even if I had broken down and changed the MCs name to something else, seeing *my* name on some other character would have been just as confusing and immersion-breaking. Had to just delete the damn thing and move on to the next.
I ran into a game the other day though where it got *really* confusing because another significant character had the *same name*. I tried to soldier through it but it just wasn't working, too many dialogs where it looked like I was talking to myself somehow. And even if I had broken down and changed the MCs name to something else, seeing *my* name on some other character would have been just as confusing and immersion-breaking. Had to just delete the damn thing and move on to the next.
- Jun 7, 2018
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- 1,474
As someone who usually hates name prompts in games, I'm gonna disagree. Bad writers are gonna bad write, and MC names aren't gonna change this fundamental fact.
None of the problems you listed are actually intractable, it's just most writers are lazy and fail to put an hour worth of effort to make a name prompt non-disruptive. I don't like name prompts because they are badly done, not because I hate name prompts on principle.
- Agarojimix in a world of Mary's and Bob's?
- Give a sensible default name, a lot of players will go along.
- Better yet, give several sensible default choices.
- Give a player a sense of the setting before the name prompt, so they can pick something appropriate.
- Respect the choice of an unappropriate name. A Hank at the court of Arthur Penndragon is a choice, you know. Any inconsistency is the player's fault, and their responsibility.
- Lack of meaningful pet names?
- Who's preventing you from prompting several name forms? Name: Richard; Family name: Smith; honorific: Dr; Endearing diminutive form: Rich; Alienating diminutive form: Dick; and so on, and so forth. Some people spend hours in character creation screens, you can safely let them type a few words. As long as you provide a default, letting players like me just hit "OK", there's no harm in making a name prompt a little more complex.
- Conflicting names?
- Validate inputs, duh.
- Changeable MC name affects the story?
- Don't let it. Write the story with the default name in mind, that's what a lot of writers actually do, they write their first drafts with generic names, leaving worldbuilding fluff for later. And remember, any altrerations made by the player are the sole responsibility of the player. Don't worry how silly your story will sound if MC is called xXxBigDickPussySlayerxXx; if anyone actually chooses such a name, they care way less about the story than you. Let them ruin their experience if they so desire.
Strangely enough, Anon as a default prompt works for me. But that's because Anon the Anonymous isn't a blank slate in my mind. For starters, he's green and is highly corrupted by the Internet, magically transported into another world.
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- Mar 9, 2018
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I'm with you. I especially hate it when I'm forced to provide a nickname, name every character, and my relationships to them like a game of mad libs. (I understand why they do it, doesn't make it any less frustrating.) To me this really lessens the impact of the characters and story. Is there a story to experience here or will I have to write my own? I know the input of the player is important but I find this whole process and its result too superficial. A defined MC name allows the writer to be more flexible with the writing and give the MC's identity more weight. Personalization is not necessary, I'm still able to use the MC as a proxy and experience the story in their point of view just the same. Providing default names is a good compromise though.
I always found it stupid. Why is a VN different than a book or a movie? When I launched my game the MC's name was hardcoded as Karder and people cried to high heaven at the blasphemy, so eventually I gave the option to rename: this is not the hill I intended to die on. Having said that, in all my posts and discussions I will always refer to him as Karder, not "the MC".
- Jun 7, 2018
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- 1,474
Well, a game is an interactive medium.
But, in a way, they are not different: with enough determination a book is an interactive medium too. All you need is correction tape. So it's not a hill you can die on. There's no way for an author to prevent a truly determined reader from erasing every instance of MC's name from a book and writing in whatever they want. Or writing something extra on the margins. Or defacing it in any other imaginable way. Or, for convenience sake, obtaining a DRM-free e-book, and doing all the edits on a PC in a fraction of the time, then printing and binding a single copy of the "improved" version.
