What do you care more about in a character?
I'd say it's 35% looks 65% story.
When I don't say that I don't mean they look ugly or anything, I just mean they have to look alright but the story/personality has to be good otherwise I'll not like it.
Though I think this question is kind of vague because what kind of character are we talking about?
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Anything that has a character that you can see or is described.
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Too vaguely - what game/genre? Which character (main/side/npc)?
But i'd agree that things have to look interesting FIRST, judging a book by the cover is just
common sense and filter mechanism too focus on what appears to be relevant/ of interest.
And having some kind of good context Next to keep it interesting.
(^ Easy to tell by checking most games available - regardless if indie or mainstream).
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Character's physical appearance, Tone of voice,dress code, ..... has big effect on viewers. Maybe that's a reason we see developers give gamers freedom of choice to change game main character(s) features.
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I'm only 24 yet I feel old to be fooled with shiny graphics - I started my RPG career with Arcanum, in a time when GTA Vice City /SA was the bee's knee's, so Arcanum's graphics was dated back then, but it was still extremely enjoyable. Since then while the game's graphics most definitely can catch my eye, the story and setting that will make me want to play and continue the game :)
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Ok, but I'm not talking about graphics, or even games specifically, I'm talking about the design of a character. A game can have crap graphics but still have nice designs.
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Valid point :)
IN that case - I try to scrap things from my memories and my favourite + most memorable characters... and considering what you've just said, it's not an easy answer. - Skyrim's Cicaro is a +1 for the character design, and Fallout 1's Master is a +2 (yes, 2) for both incredible design and backstory. I would say, as long as the two are not conflicting and each has a little depth (your fighter has amazing backstory but does nothing special in the game? Add some little temperament from south-US with guns, whiskey, hard-to-earn trust but she'll fight on your side until the end - and you'll end up with Rose Cassidy in Fallout New Vegas, and you immediately has a great companion)
I guess I rather like the character design but ONLY if it includes the personality/current behaviour (Simple physical appearance doesn't mean that much for me) - but I also welcome a great backstory with open arms, I'm a sucker for lore (Once I spent DAYS on Fallout wiki reading after everything and everybody :D )
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- Audio/Non-image stories - less importance of looks
- Stories with visuals - more importance of looks
On long run one can't be without the other if it supposed to make great impressions. What would be looks good for, if it would be only thing that is keeps you focused for few more moments when personality or story is boring. Even the looks itself is part of personality and can hint for some background story. And there are many well known characters that are at first just plain boring looking, they just have awesome personality or usually even more awesome story.
Rest can't be much discussed since we all have different opinions on what is boring/unappealing and what is riveting/interesting.
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I have no clue what you're talking about. Really needs to be more specific.
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Half Life had a boring-looking character. Could have been anybody's science or english teacher. Look at the success they had with him.
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Except he has no personality at all. The success came from the game itself and the other character, not from Freeman.
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On top of what SiminaCidy has said, he's also the first-person viewpoint of the player, and is thus rarely ever seen. The game's success has very little to do with his design, good or bad.
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Depends on the medium, to me; the way a character is presenting can be very important. A lot of times with visual media (including films, tv, live theatre and most video games) we don't know the character's background beforehand but learn by witnessing. That's less about the aesthetic of the character though, more about how they react to things and what they then say and do (presenting) informed by their background.
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I can prove that looks don't matter:
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Are we talking video games or real life?!
Sounds weird but in the internet you never know!
Oh, we're talking games! Story of course, if the game even has a decent story to wrap around the character. Otherwise just pewpew power rangers bang bang awesome looks.
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Personality. I have never turned off game/movie/book/real person right away because character didn't look interesting, but I did so if I wasn't hooked by the story/character in the next half an hour.
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What looks cool and hip and beautiful could look shitty nerdy or ugly to another person. You need to know your demographic in order to tailor the characters looks. It's never as simple as going that looks cool let me play that one.
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In my opinion, the way the character looks is more important because that's what will capture someone's attention at first sight. If there's a character that looks extremely boring, even if they have the most amazing personality and story, it won't get the attention it needs in order to find out about said personality and story. You can always add more stuff to your character's backstory later on, but once you make an extremely boring looking character, you can't make it look better unless you completely redesign it, which doesn't really count as the same character design anymore. So, when you make a character, make sure it looks good first, and then you can worry about story later.
Obviously, the ideal character is the one that looks cool and has a good backstory. But if you had to choose just one, which one would you choose?
EDIT: Since some people are saying this is too vague, I'm talking about literally ANY character. It can be from anything and have any role. It doesn't matter, it just has to be a character. It can be just someone's OC.
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