Interesting Protagonist vs A protagonist you can project on?

[Geigi]

I like both, but let's be honest. The majority of people who write, they either describe themselves or they write about imaginary character.

 

[balitz Method]

The blank eyes thing has always bothered me. I'd always much rather have at least some semblance of a real character, but even if it's a generic protagonist don't draw him like a background NPC. I can never tell if that's something people actually like or if it's just a convention that became so ingrained that devs were afraid to question it.

At the very least you should give them enough of a baseline character to where they can have conversations with other characters; it's always very limiting for the writer and weird as an audience member to see the real characters fall for someone who never gives them anything back. Enough chemistry to where I believe the relationship is the bare minimum.

 

[balitz Method]

It's a game, and therefore a fantasy. There's nothing preventing you to identify to the MC, whatever how deep his personality can be. I mean, don't tell me that you (plural) never ever self identified, consciously or not, with the Hero when watching an action movie.

Yeah, those John Everyman type main characters have a distinct personality type yet they're also clearly supposed to be somewhat of a self-insert fantasy. Them having eyes and a basic set of traits doesn't prevent that.

 

[obibobi]

People project on to characters with interesting or fully developed personalities all the time, its a thing people naturally do, people naturally project there feelings on to in-animate objects, never mind point of view characters.

For a sex game the simple obvious tool to success is just make them do things and be in situations that audience don't hate. You can have a weak MC lacking in confidence if you show signs they will improve because then the audience will be drawn to the journey but they hate permanent doormat MC's.

 

[Steuan]

If your story is well written and engaging then it doesn't matter whether your main character's interesting or can be projected on.

 

[KiraJames]

I mean I play quite a few male protagonist games, even though I can never relate to them I still find it interesting, it's like reading books to me.

 

[Volta]

I don't self insert on characters, ever, no idea why. I don't mind NTR in the service of a good story or hot scenes, i also don't find NTR hot in it's own right, so games like Netoria tactics that are mainly NTR based but have good content and has good gameplay pretty much do it for me but wouldn't be a worse game without the NTR in my mind.

 

[Tadpol]

No preference for one or the other as a player.

But it does matter, depending on the story being told and how it's told. If, in the story, the player has to decide whether the MC is going to be good or evil, it has to fit in with the MC's personality (if he has one).

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

I wanted to ask if you guys like a protagonist with an actual personality or a protagonist that is just basically you?

This can be considered an insult, if you actually think just a bit. This strongly implies that your audience is a bunch of losers with no personality. I get it, you didn't mean it that way, but I bring it up because it illustrates that the question is ill-formed.

Now, the standard answer to your question is often "just write a good story." Ultimately, on the very top level, I agree. Also, while you're at it, just git gud and draw:


There's a catch. You're way more likely to write a good story if you give your MC a personality and an arc. Sure, you can avoid doing that, but you'd need to compensate elsewhere pretty hard. Why make your job harder? But what about readers projecting onto MC, you might ask. Isn't that a good tradeoff for extra writing effort?

I don't know about you, but I can not project onto a MC without any interesting character traits. Now, that doesn't mean you character can't come from a simple, mundane background of a regular student or regular worker. It means your MC has to have some clearly defined inner strengths AND weaknesses. I don't like abusing forum formatting but that AND is so important that I'm really compelled to do it in this case. Anyway, if that list of strengths and weaknesses is compex and coherent, the probability of me relating at least to SOME parts of that character will be extremely high.

 

[Kuviragames]

I'll go further, who said that players can only project themselves on blank MC?

It's a game, and therefore a fantasy. There's nothing preventing you to identify to the MC, whatever how deep his personality can be. I mean, don't tell me that you (plural) never ever self identified, consciously or not, with the Hero when watching an action movie.

Two people in the comments of my game.

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[MarshmallowCasserole]

Two people in the comments of my game.

It's so over the top ridiculous, I can't think how it is not sarcastic. In that logic, the only real way for an avatar is to have the player control 100% of actions, AKA set up a chat with an LLM. Otherwise you're always putting words into player's mouth (REEEEEEEEEEEEE~!) any time MC says just anything.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Two people in the comments of my game.

Poor peoples.

And I'm not sarcastic, nor even trying to be harsh with them, just sincere. Like there's, by example, people who hear their thoughts and people who don't, there's people who, to over simplify it, can't at all dissociate from who they are. And it's a pity, because because they miss a lot of entertainment in their life.

 

[Zeboon]

This can be considered an insult, if you actually think just a bit. This strongly implies that your audience is a bunch of losers with no personality. I get it, you didn't mean it that way, but I bring it up because it illustrates that the question is ill-formed.

Now, the standard answer to your question is often "just write a good story." Ultimately, on the very top level, I agree. Also, while you're at it, just git gud and draw:
View attachment 4472657

There's a catch. You're way more likely to write a good story if you give your MC a personality and an arc. Sure, you can avoid doing that, but you'd need to compensate elsewhere pretty hard. Why make your job harder? But what about readers projecting onto MC, you might ask. Isn't that a good tradeoff for extra writing effort?

I don't know about you, but I can not project onto a MC without any interesting character traits. Now, that doesn't mean you character can't come from a simple, mundane background of a regular student or regular worker. It means your MC has to have some clearly defined inner strengths AND weaknesses. I don't like abusing forum formatting but that AND is so important that I'm really compelled to do it in this case. Anyway, if that list of strengths and weaknesses is compex and coherent, the probability of me relating at least to SOME parts of that character will be extremely high.

I do not mean this with disrespect, I honestly and genuinly want to know what the audience wants. I ask this because.
Alot of MC's from popular games, don't really have much interesting traits. They're incredibly reactive and make choices based on...well you. Summertime Saga, Sex Note, Milfy City, Love Sex and Second base. these protags have hints of personalities but really they're almost like link, just given extra dialogue.

 

[Zeboon]

Two people in the comments of my game.

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Exactly, the thing is, with porn games this feels like what is popular vs what is the developer yearns for. The only time I've liked an MC's choices in these games is honestly Power Vacuum and New Life. Power Vacuum shows hints of a really good character, and even then his choices are still dictated by the player. My theory is that when it comes to male protags and another person said this, whether consciously or subconsciously. The player doesn't want an individual but rather a vehicle to drive, they are the protagonist, they are the person banging the chicks in this. I ask this to really understand the base. I think from these replies alot of developers want to create interesting unique protagonists, but the player wants a vehicle that they can drive. This is not to go "THEYRE TRASH" For wanting to someone to project upon, no this just gives me a deeper understanding of why players play.

 

[Zeboon]

It's so over the top ridiculous, I can't think how it is not sarcastic. In that logic, the only real way for an avatar is to have the player control 100% of actions, AKA set up a chat with an LLM. Otherwise you're always putting words into player's mouth (REEEEEEEEEEEEE~!) any time MC says just anything.

Lol this is why I think I should experiment with a fully link protagonist, give the player the choice no him talking. Just to see what happens.

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

Lol this is why I think I should experiment with a fully link protagonist, give the player the choice no him talking. Just to see what happens.

Sure, there are tons of games with a silent protag, especially mechanics rich SFW games. However it means writing a story for such a game is harder, and these games typically focus more on combat mechanics than on true rpg aspects, or they have just brilliant secondary character writing.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Sure, there are tons of games with a silent protag, especially mechanics rich SFW games. However it means writing a story for such a game is harder, and these games typically focus more on combat mechanics than on true rpg aspects, or they have just brilliant secondary character writing.

Even with brilliant secondary character writing you can't go far with a purely silent MC, because players will lack information, mostly, but not limited to, about his motive. He would feel like an useless character who follow other in their journey just for the pleasure to stalk them.
In top of that, outside of pure femdom, it's hard to justify the sex scene if at no time the MC is doing something to initiate them, nor even to seduce the girls/guys/whatever; "oh, MC, it's been a month now that you silently follow me like a creepy pervert, it turn me on so much, let's have sex!"

What doesn't mean that MC have to do all the talk. Having more than one secondary character and limiting the number of face to face scene can be a good way to balance this. You let a secondary character lead the discussion, and with a 4 characters discussion MC will have less than 25% of the speaking time. Something that can easily be reduced to 10% without feeling weird.
But in the same time, he'll have to compensate during the face to face scenes, because there's that imperative in adult game: The girls need to want to have sex with him without looking like sluts in heat who would jump on the first dick they see.

 

[Zeboon]

Even with brilliant secondary character writing you can't go far with a purely silent MC, because players will lack information, mostly, but not limited to, about his motive. He would feel like an useless character who follow other in their journey just for the pleasure to stalk them.
In top of that, outside of pure femdom, it's hard to justify the sex scene if at no time the MC is doing something to initiate them, nor even to seduce the girls/guys/whatever; "oh, MC, it's been a month now that you silently follow me like a creepy pervert, it turn me on so much, let's have sex!"

What doesn't mean that MC have to do all the talk. Having more than one secondary character and limiting the number of face to face scene can be a good way to balance this. You let a secondary character lead the discussion, and with a 4 characters discussion MC will have less than 25% of the speaking time. Something that can easily be reduced to 10% without feeling weird.
But in the same time, he'll have to compensate during the face to face scenes, because there's that imperative in adult game: The girls need to want to have sex with him without looking like sluts in heat who would jump on the first dick they see.

I'm dying of laughter at this statement man. But I can't tell you how many games the MC does nothing of note to earn sex and still get it. "Oh you did this mundane choir that literally everyone does. Take my pussy!"

 

[desmosome]

Exactly, the thing is, with porn games this feels like what is popular vs what is the developer yearns for. The only time I've liked an MC's choices in these games is honestly Power Vacuum and New Life. Power Vacuum shows hints of a really good character, and even then his choices are still dictated by the player. My theory is that when it comes to male protags and another person said this, whether consciously or subconsciously. The player doesn't want an individual but rather a vehicle to drive, they are the protagonist, they are the person banging the chicks in this. I ask this to really understand the base. I think from these replies alot of developers want to create interesting unique protagonists, but the player wants a vehicle that they can drive. This is not to go "THEYRE TRASH" For wanting to someone to project upon, no this just gives me a deeper understanding of why players play.

Only hardcore self-inserters cannot get out of this mindset. You could argue that in some intrinsic way, it's natural for many people to empathize with the MC and try to get into his shoes a bit. But that is very different form what you are describing. Roleplaying vs self-inserting. Roleplaying means you become the character, with his backstory, motivations, and thought processes. That's why tabletop people can roleplay as an evil ogre or whatever. Self-inserting means the character becomes you. That's how you get people that are completely self-absorbed getting mad that the MC didn't act exactly as they would or that some girls are not fawning over their 3D horsecock.

 

[nulnil]

My theory is that when it comes to male protags and another person said this, whether consciously or subconsciously. The player doesn't want an individual but rather a vehicle to drive, they are the protagonist, they are the person banging the chicks in this.

This nails why I don't even give most male protagonist (porn) games a shot.