Can we mix the two? Like, Im not exactlly into the whole gun thing, claymores for the win and all that, but the whole "Cry me a river" thing aint my scene.
Plus, for some reason seeing someone fight to the death with a huge hunk of steel seems way more badass than shooting from a distance.

Now your just taking what I was saying out of context. God, this is why this forums is a mess. You try to start some decent disscusion and you just get some fanboi misinterpreting it and getting all moody and defensive. Read it again moron, I didnt call you fanboi, I didnt say it was a bad genre than Im against (since I do play them) and I seriously dont give a flying fuck if you have all 3 consoles or not; the sooner people like 'you' learn that, the sooner normal people can stop reading about how apparantly everyone on an internet forum has every console out and just happens to be biased towards one of them.

I dont care for what you have to say now, you proved yourself unworthy of my time by ridiculously over-reacting and just turning into a general internet arsehole who is absolutely convinced his opinion is just right.
Just... just go home.

Sorry Tom, didn't mean to "quote" you out of context, what I meant to say is that it isn't necessarily system exclusive whether or not you like JRPG's.

Power armoured marine of course. For The Emperor!

wuhu first post (been browsing here for quite some while)
1. I am from Slovenia (hah who knows where that is?) so english isn't my first language, it isn't even my second one but the third one, so pardon for all the grammar mistakes

the one thing I will never really understand about some people is why does every game has to have a character with a long backstory, a story with a 100 twist and similar story related stuff. O.k. I undesrtand it in some games where it is nice and makes you love the game so much more (legacy of kain is the first thing comming to my mind when talking about a good story). But not every game needs it.

Gear of War is perfectly fine as it is, it's made of the things that made Universal Soldier, Predator, Terminator and similar movies great, they don't care about the story to much but cut right to the action, Predator tried with some story about the chinese thing and the black guy betraying arnold, but in the end it came down to "dude did you see arnorld kick the crap out of that alien?" And if that is gone in a great way (like imo in gears of war) the game/movie doesn't need some heavy and deep backstory and trying to solve the meaning of life but just some mindless brutal violence.

Just like I watch movies with a deep backstory about them, I also like to watch some mindless ass kicking done by men with a clear stereoid addiction it's just about balancing the two. Same with games, sometimes I want to imerse myself into a great story and interesting characters but sometimes I just want to kick some alien ass^^

obviosly everyone got his own preferences about the two, I personaly don't like JRPGs and anime (well I love Hellsing (the OMV) and like Vampire hunter D but thats about it).

oh and I agree with the "for the emperor" :D

shatnershaman:
Power armoured marine of course. For The Emperor!

I actually wrote a game premise once that involved a grizzled power armor clad officer in a fantasy universe who was fighting for an empire. He also had a gigantic sword.

EDIT: This was 10 years ago and I'd never heard of Warhammer, so I thought it was original at the time.

I dont really care. I dont like JRPGs because I hate turnbased battles and random encounters not because of the characters and I dont play a shooter for the plot, I play a shooter for the set pieces and the shooting.

If I want an interesting and unique character I'll play a point and click, simple as.

PedroSteckecilo:

shatnershaman:
Power armoured marine of course. For The Emperor!

I actually wrote a game premise once that involved a grizzled power armor clad officer in a fantasy universe who was fighting for an empire. He also had a gigantic sword.

I think Games workshop beat you though (1987)

EDIT: Ah I see.

Power armored marine, they're less likely to angst for 8 hours of gameplay. The marine tends to talk less too - less chatty means more shooty.

Marines, because space marines carry large blades that work like an chain saw ; D

On the one hand space marines have the personality of dirt. But, looking at some final fantasy characters i couldn't tell the gender.

Id find the developers and beat them with a creativity stick.

Eggo:
Even if there were ten times more characters like Auron and Barret, those characters aren't what JRPGs predicate their most salient design features upon.

Indeed, but I like to defend the defenseless. Short of Nazism and terrorists, I'll argue for something just for the sake of argueing even if I'm not that into what I'm defending.

Its the kinda guy I am!

windfish:

All in all, this whole topic screams "Fanboy bait"

Ball-sacks, he got me. Still there was some genuine desire to see which of the two worst gaming stereotypes has the most friends.

rossatdi:

Ball-sacks, he got me. Still there was some genuine desire to see which of the two worst gaming stereotypes has the most friends.

I don't know who has more friends but those friends live in the same areas (Girlish boy-Asia,Marine-NA and Europe)

Just a thought that popped into my head.
Under that helmet Masterchief could be wearing thick mascara and eyeliner, have a huge fringe and cries every time he fires his gun.

Also actually thinking about it, the main offender in one catergory shares a lot of traits with the other side.
Take good old Cloud Strife.
His hometown was burned down and most of his friends and family were killed in that.
He's been severely fucked around with by the military corporation; being genetically modified, memory is completely screwed and he suffers from strange attacks in which a voice speaks to him and he falls to the floor and almost completely loses it.
Theres probably more I can't think of off of the top of my head, but it's been a while since I played FFVII.

Last time I checked, Cloud had a pretty good reason to be angsty. Ya know. Becuase his life pretty much sucks.

khululy:

Hawgh:
your standard anime/jrpg character possesses roughly as much charisma and force of will, as an overcooked potato.
No matter how excellent the plot is I can't bloody stand a protagonists who doesn't have any motivation.

you my friend have not seen anime have you. Take ash from pokemon he wants to be the very best. Naruto constantly trying to improve himself to protect the people he loves. and so on and so on...

Pokeman and Naruto fail, even as anime.

If I had to choose, I would choose big-sworded girly-man, because I'm not really into FPSs.

Splitter:
Just a thought that popped into my head.
Under that helmet Masterchief could be wearing thick mascara and eyeliner, have a huge fringe and cries every time he fires his gun.

Unless of course you read the books/see the freeze frame in Halo 3 announcement.

shatnershaman:

Splitter:
Just a thought that popped into my head.
Under that helmet Masterchief could be wearing thick mascara and eyeliner, have a huge fringe and cries every time he fires his gun.

Unless of course you read the books/see the freeze frame in Halo 3 announcement.

oops my bad.
i've never played halo myself but all my friends that have have always insisted that you never find out what he looks like.
evidently I was mis-informed.

Edit: I didn't really think that, you know just in case, it was a joke.

z121231211:

khululy:

Hawgh:
your standard anime/jrpg character possesses roughly as much charisma and force of will, as an overcooked potato.
No matter how excellent the plot is I can't bloody stand a protagonists who doesn't have any motivation.

you my friend have not seen anime have you. Take ash from pokemon he wants to be the very best. Naruto constantly trying to improve himself to protect the people he loves. and so on and so on...

Pokeman and Naruto fail, even as anime.

If I had to choose, I would choose big-sworded girly-man, because I'm not really into FPSs.

ok ok just wanted to point out that not all anime characters have no motivation for what they do.

If we go into anime, Kenshiro would kill the locust with his bare hands

Enosh_:
wuhu first post (been browsing here for quite some while)
1. I am from Slovenia (hah who knows where that is?) so english isn't my first language, it isn't even my second one but the third one, so pardon for all the grammar mistakes

the one thing I will never really understand about some people is why does every game has to have a character with a long backstory, a story with a 100 twist and similar story related stuff. O.k. I undesrtand it in some games where it is nice and makes you love the game so much more (legacy of kain is the first thing comming to my mind when talking about a good story). But not every game needs it.

Gear of War is perfectly fine as it is, it's made of the things that made Universal Soldier, Predator, Terminator and similar movies great, they don't care about the story to much but cut right to the action, Predator tried with some story about the chinese thing and the black guy betraying arnold, but in the end it came down to "dude did you see arnorld kick the crap out of that alien?" And if that is gone in a great way (like imo in gears of war) the game/movie doesn't need some heavy and deep backstory and trying to solve the meaning of life but just some mindless brutal violence.

Just like I watch movies with a deep backstory about them, I also like to watch some mindless ass kicking done by men with a clear stereoid addiction it's just about balancing the two. Same with games, sometimes I want to imerse myself into a great story and interesting characters but sometimes I just want to kick some alien ass^^

obviosly everyone got his own preferences about the two, I personaly don't like JRPGs and anime (well I love Hellsing (the OMV) and like Vampire hunter D but thats about it).

oh and I agree with the "for the emperor" :D

if you want totally lack of background story... read the manual of gunstar future heroes :P

Donstheman:
Can we mix the two? Like, Im not exactlly into the whole gun thing, claymores for the win and all that, but the whole "Cry me a river" thing aint my scene.
Plus, for some reason seeing someone fight to the death with a huge hunk of steel seems way more badass than shooting from a distance.

That game alredy exist itīs Maken x and it was very good.

Ares Tyr:
Last time I checked, Cloud had a pretty good reason to be angsty. Ya know. Becuase his life pretty much sucks.

Indeed, just seems every time people seem to overlook everything about him and hence come the typical bashing.

Anyways i would rather be using a big sword instead of power armor and guns. I like guns and cool armor but I find swords a whole lot more fun to use, that and the Arnold type character rather bores me as I have seen too much of it in my life in different media facets. I would rather be a Cloud than a Fenix any day...unless I am just plain pissed off at everyone...then being a fenix with a lancer will do just fine.

Don't really care, though I'm more for the lithe character myself, simply because I find they are usually the more realistic choice. Though, as people have stated before, it's all about the game, not really the character.

What about a power armoured girlish boy with a big sword?

The Iron Ninja:
What about a power armoured girlish boy with a big sword?

But then the "marine" aspect is left out.

shatnershaman:

The Iron Ninja:
What about a power armoured girlish boy with a big sword?

But then the "marine" aspect is left out.

Fine. A power armoured girlish boy marine with a big sword.

Space/Non-Space Marines, all the time. Just love to be 3 metres tall and have a gun specifically designed for either an amazingly good butcher or some form of tank.

Wingy Little Japanese character"My life is bad, Why don't you love me?"

Space/Non-Space Marine "*Bang* (Insert hilarious catchphrase)"

Emotional depth can go to hell, i wanna blow stuff up!!

The Iron Ninja:

shatnershaman:

The Iron Ninja:
What about a power armoured girlish boy with a big sword?

But then the "marine" aspect is left out.

Fine. A power armoured girlish boy marine with a big sword.

Marines use guns not swords and the stereotype girlish boys do not use power armour or are in the marines.

M0rp43vs:
personally,
-A dog whose world is a canvas
-a psychic acrobat who goes to a psychic camp
-A gruff man with a beard, a cig and in a skin tight suit and a lot of character
-A bald headed motorcyle and battle cruiser driving marine in green
-A mutated female telepathic super soldier who is now evil and ruler of a giant alien swarm
-A humanoid mouthless alien with an awesom psychic blade and a wispy cloak that makes him invisible
(Cookie to the person who figure's em all out)

And of course there are some relatively normal protagonists in games and it is those games that I usually play(even if they have girly like long hair) and I try to steer away from games with either kinds of protagonists on the cover because it screams of unoriginal unless they were trying to be ironic

Raz, Snake, Raynor? he isn't bald though, Kerrigan, Zeretul

WHAT ABOUT TASSADAR!?

minoes:

Donstheman:
Can we mix the two? Like, Im not exactlly into the whole gun thing, claymores for the win and all that, but the whole "Cry me a river" thing aint my scene.
Plus, for some reason seeing someone fight to the death with a huge hunk of steel seems way more badass than shooting from a distance.

That game alredy exist itīs Maken x and it was very good.

Kei was awesome ^__^

Anyway both cliches are annoying. I absolutely hate the macho egotism I see in western, though that's mostly shooters. Western games also seem to feature leading characters who are entirely forgettable from their physical appearance, they all seem to be a guy with brown hair with some sort of gun. On the other end we have andro males with huge weapons and a dress code that borders on illegal. They usually always have an emotional breakdown at some point in the game, which gets grating at times.

For the most part these cliches are actually true, but the east and west seem to have an entirely different ethos in how they make games. The west seems to create games that are based in some sort of realistic world, while eastern games tend to be like plays where everything is exagerated and arguably more artistic.

People complain about western characters being too manly? Check out what we are fed through the military and what we see in local bars and pubs. People complain that eastern characters are too pretty and groomed? Check out Shibuya and the lifestyle surrounding their culture. People also have to keep in mind what sort of characters developers are trying to represent. A remorseless killing machine with a gun would (I imagine) look like a grizzled military veteran, while a tormented teen would be emotionally unstable.

But for all my explanations and reasoning, it is still up to the person to decide who they like or don't like. These type of debates are usually rather fruitless and spiral into name calling because people do have a bias. Still I see no reason for one person to call out someone else because he/she thinks their idea of a good leading character is stupid, it's childlish and just plain stupid to try and assume you can alter someone personal opinion because you think yours is superior. Hmmm I think I went off on a tangent there. Bottom line, like what you like.

shatnershaman:
Marines use guns not swords and the stereotype girlish boys do not use power armour or are in the marines.

hmmm?