I did find some of the criticism of Cal/Cameron Monaghan in Fallen Order on here/the internet at large edged on personal attacks of the actor, in this case - not so much - the thread pretty specifically refers to his design/styling/model and I don't think anyone's said anything about Duhamel personally
Is Jacob from The Castillo Protocol the most generic looking protag for a semi-major game in the last five years?
- Thread starter ItWasMeantToBe19
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It's the implication that it won't be long until we reach some reasonable amount of parity in representation. I'm probably going to die before that actually happens.
Yeeeeeeeah you don't get to use Forspoken to support the argument that people should just shut up and not criticize the status quo. Does it annoy you to have people call out the overrepresentation of white characters? Because Joel is a GOAT (after Arthur Morgan)? Why do games like Forspoken even exist? Because people are pushing for more diversity in gaming. If you think we're ANYWHERE close to equal representation then I really, really don't know what to tell you.
Also, just fyi, ain't no one "screaming" at this character. Don't come in here with that bullshit as if folks aren't engaging in actual intellectual conversations.
Reminded me of this
Shepherd is based on a real person, therefore he can't be generic!
All I could think of when I saw cal kestis was the joker from Gotham. Kept waiting for his boring ass to become interesting and he never did 🤣
Yeah, while alot of those characters do have similar features, Alan Wake, Sheppard and the Painkiller dude are nothing alike. If upgraded from a technological standpoint alone, most of these designs would be more diverse than the meme gives them credit for.
I think he looks ok. Don't know if i would call the look generic. But i don't think i can point to any look that i find generic.
I am listening to the Callisto Protocol podcast/radio drama... It really just made me want Gwendoline Christy as a main character.
Reminded me of this
I love that Francis York Morgan and Alan Wake of all characters some how made the list of gruff white dudes lol
Oke as a person of color, we should quit calling every white character generic. Dont act stupid like there isnt any differences in white characters there facial features.
And its pretty insulting to say someone looks generic when its an actually persons face. Imagine saying these things about black of asian characters.
And its pretty insulting to say someone looks generic when its an actually persons face. Imagine saying these things about black of asian characters.
I think him looking generic is fine in the context of the game, based on what I've played so far at least. He's supposed to be a regular delivery man who's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's also shaved in prison precisely to make him more or less indistinguishable from other prisoners.
Bro, I wish that was the case.
I mean the handsome white dude actor who is probably called Chris is a meme at this point.
We are grown ass adults here and many have seen this flavor way to fucking mush.
Back in the day i agree, but the tech now in pretty advanced with mocap. If i see characters now they look really different even in the same race.
If we are talking about the 360/ps3 era and even a few years ps4/xbox one, yeah most white characters look the same. It started with the gears of war buff white marine dude. And every fucking game copied this look back then.
As far as representation goes there's two factors people need to take into account, first, most devs in the West are white and male and second, there's definitely a believe that most hardcore gamers (i.e. people who buy more than just CoD or FIFA) are also white and male, so, consciously or subconsciously this is the group pubs and devs are trying to cater to because they think it makes more sense from the business perspective. And that's not going to change anytime soon. This is why it's a bit sad to read that someone like Rami Ismail, a prominent POC, Muslim dev, doesn't think that it's his job to make a protagonist representing his culture. Like, he's not wrong, but at this point it means nobody is going to do it.
Im already at the point where I'm bored of AAA games hiring movie and TV actors for mocapping and making big announcements about it like all the shit Kojima does.
The gaming industry had years to add more diverse characters to gaming and they mostly blew it, and now we are just going to get a bunch of famous white people
(And we won't be allowed to comment on it because they are real people)
The gaming industry had years to add more diverse characters to gaming and they mostly blew it, and now we are just going to get a bunch of famous white people
(And we won't be allowed to comment on it because they are real people)
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I remember the threads when the main character of Red Dead 2 was revealed,probably the biggest turnaround the internet had on a character.
RDR2's writing saved what might've been one of the most generic looking characters of all time.
Calling a character based on a real actor generic is not an insult on the actor's looks. We've been through this a few times in this thread.
We've got certain physical traits that we consider generic, in this case a gruff middle-aged white male with a shaven head, but somehow we're only allowed to call that particular look generic when the character is completely fictional? That line of reasoning makes no sense whatsoever.
Much of his appearance is up to the player though. You can have him be a crazy looking mountain man if you want.I remember the threads when the main character of Red Dead 2 was revealed,probably the biggest turnaround the internet had on a character.
RDR2's writing saved what might've been one of the most generic looking characters of all time.
Sounds fitting in this context to me.
I don't know how much of it is people being dense, people not taking the time to actually read the OP or how much of it is just straight-up disingenuous trolling.
Games having known actors in them really does nothing for me tbh
For 5 secs I'm like "Oh, that's the guy from Transformers" and then carry on with the game.
Unless having licensed characters is a vital part of the game's appeal (annual sports games, movie tie ins, etc) I'd prefer if they hired some starving actor/actress for a fraction of the cost and spent the money elsewhere.
On the kinda funny podcast they said Callisto doesn't have anything besides the campaign, not even NG+ atm.
Maybe that Duhamel money would have been better spent on a coop horde mode or sth, would make the game more appealing to me as a consumer than having Duhamel in it.
*I obvioulsy don't know shit about how any of this works, this is just my POV
Changing the ethnicity of the main character would be good for diversity in representation, but it doesn't make a character inherently more interesting.
Is that an in game screenshot? 😮
I feel like we've had a massive improvement in terms of more diverse lead characters over the past five years so I now don't mind the odd rugged white male in the lead role of an action game but I don't want to see it become even 25% of leads again.
I feel like we've had a massive improvement in terms of more diverse lead characters over the past five years so I now don't mind the odd rugged white male in the lead role of an action game but I don't want to see it become even 25% of leads again.
BD-1 makes blandguy macjedi almost look interesting in that shot.
I feel like people are misconstruing the term Generic to mean they are ugly or plain and that it's insulting to the actor.
Its more about the casting decision to cast the same general archetype of gruff white male protagonists that we have seen so many times.
Its more about the casting decision to cast the same general archetype of gruff white male protagonists that we have seen so many times.
I certainly think he looks generic, but if he is the most generic I cant say for sure. I also havent played the game yet, so I cant really comment on this characters depth. I will say that I think it sucks that we in general dont get more fleshed out and interesting characters. Why is it more often than not some male soldier looking type in these survival games. Part of what made Alien Isolation great was that you were not some person with military training and that made it more relatable, even if it obviously is a science fiction game set in space. If you look at for example the first Watch Dogs game, one of my biggest caveats in that game was the bland protag. Granted the gameplay was nothing to write home about, but it would have been much better if the protag wasnt "just some guy". Looks are less important for me, but at least make the characters more interesting.
Do you even understand what the word generic means in this context?
specially considering that we're talking about fictional media.... yeah?
am i taking crazy pills here
there's nothing wrong with bob from accounting but if bob was the protagonist of lord of the rings, he would be generic. thats not really a hard concept to grasp
Just beat the game yesterday and I realized I'm struggling to think of any POC in the game at all outside of the warden + your two side characters that help you throughout the game. Am I misremembering or are all of the inmates (and subsequently the mutated enemies we face in game) made up entirely of white people?
Being a real actor doesn't change the fact he is what I picture in my head when thinking about WhiteActionMovieActor.jpeg
Yeah, I really don't get that. The actor have an unsymmetrical face and is a red head. This is far from being generic
Imo his look is pretty consistent with the realistic, immersive nature what CP is going for. The thread makes it like he doesn't fit the role because he looks like a "generic" dude in this role. Most, if not all would look generic in such a role with such a premise.
Remember Kingdom Come Deliverance? The protagonist looked like a normal dude in the context of a real timeframe in european history, but he did get a lot of flak because reasons? Some people didn't like the look of him in this specific role, but that is a matter of tastes and no reason to get offensive.
To call someone to look generic in a role, even if the casting is not at someone tastes, is a bit offensive in my eyes.
I found Cal in Jedi Fallen Order pretty cool too. It's a matter of tastes if someone looks appropriate or "good" in a role or not.
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I think this is interesting.
We here on ERA tend to be older, with more gaming experience than the mainstream and most of us would love to see more diversity in our hobby. But that isn't true for the vast majority out there playing games. They tend to be younger, have played less games overall and diversity is on the rise but still a coin toss. The majority of the western market is still white.
So the audience isn't nearly as fed up as we are with gruff mc'beardybaldy. And tbh the times have changed a bit for the better since the 360 days of character designs. This whole dilemma together with an industry that is very risk averse to not tank their own livelihoods won't stop with this less than creative casting.
I think that's the point of both Dead Space and Callisto Protocol. Dead Space's protagonist is Isaac from Engineering and Callisto's is Jacob from shipping.
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If its the point to be generic then why are people in this thread pushing back about it being called generic?
Because people misunderstand generic as an insult when it just means the protagonist looks like your average guy, bit more handsome though.
