Mute protagonists. Good or bad?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

Rainbird said:

max power said:

Rainbird said:

max power said:
Mute protagonists are neither good nor bad. There are excellent games both with and without. It's just one method for video game storytelling.

I feel the OP's dislike of HL2 has nothing to do with the mute protagonist. The game would have added little by having a chatty main character.

My dislike of HL2 has a lot to do with Gordon Freeman being mute, because I don't like the storytelling, and the storytelling is shaped by him being mute. One specific example is not really worth noticing though, as it is the general principle I am opposed to.

Yeah... I don't buy it.  Gordon Freeman spent 95+% of the game alone... who did you want him to talk to, himself?

For the mute-bit to work, he would have to have spent 100% of the game alone and he didn't. Everytime there was a character who talked to him, immersion was broken for me.

And whether you believe it or not, that's the truth. Take it or leave it.

As I said in my post above, there's some people who feel like they need voices in every game.  But for some people its the opposite.  Voices bring a sense of apathy or even annoyance.  And some people even don't want to play a game when there's so much dialogue and forced voice acting.

So while you keep claiming you NEED the voice acting for immersion, realize there's people on the flip side who feel like when the characters their controlling start talking, they'd rather play something else.  Not everyone enjoys the current trend of games today to have hours of dialogue.  Some of us enjoy more gameplay and direct cutscenes.  And that's (usually) what silent protagonists provide (unless you play something like a Bioware game).

This is the exact reason developers such as Nintendo keeps using it for Mario, Metroid and Zelda, many JRPGs such as Dragon Quest or Suikoden stick with the formula and yes, Half-Life went with it too.  And franlkly, I see little point in having Gordon having a deep intimate 30 minute discussion with some NPC, when they're just going to turn around and get eaten 10 seconds after the conversation ends.  Better to just get the information quickly and move on.