Main Characters and the Blank Slate theory

On this blog, I've never really delved into the plot of Dead Gear, but today I figured I should at least tell you who it's about!

The player controls a girl named Illyia. Her direct description from the game design document is as follows:

A curious-minded 15-year old Aetherian girl named Illyia. She has an unusually strong gift in Crystalmancy, the ability to evoke magic from crystals and stones; a trait common in her Aetherian heritage. Raised by wealthy foster parents in Central City, she braved an adventure to find her real parents in the midst of the Centralian-Aetherian war, forging friendships with unlikely people. After crash-landing on Dead Gear, she will stop at nothing to find her friends in the Daedalus crew. She prefers dressing simply, wearing only a purple tunic and a necklace. Her refusal to wear shoes is a source of humor and fascination among those she meets.

 As the description says, Illyia's main skill is in Crystalmancy, her ability to use magic from the stones and gems she collects during the game. She's an intelligent, sharp-tongued girl, and her dialogue in the game reflects that.

This reminds me of a technique used in a lot of games, and you're probably familiar with it. You can call it the blank slate theory, the tabula rasa theory; but basically, it's a silent protagonist. A main character that never speaks, but may convey emotion through facial expressions, actions, etc.

If you're any kind of gamer, you'll recognize this type. Mario, Link, Gordon Freeman, Samus Aran, Master Chief, Chell; all of these characters belong to this trope. Some people in the game industry have gone on record saying that they hate the silent protagonist, that it's lazy storytelling. They prefer a fully developed character, or at least one that you can mold to your own liking, like Commander Shepard in Mass Effect.

And yet, games such as Wind Waker and the Paper Mario series excel at telling a fairly complex story with nothing more than pure expressiveness, and even some tongue-in-cheek lampshading of the trope itself. Even Jack from Bioshock is completely mute, and it only seems to intensify the narrative. Why is it so effective?
When a person plays Zelda or Half Life, the silent protagonist technique allows me to play a blank slate and put my own personality into the character. They depend on other characters and situations to do the talking for them, and I can personally respond to these characters and situations in my head, without having thinking about what Link would ACTUALLY say. It endears the characters to the people playing, because effectively, they are playing as themselves.

 Of course, the silent protagonist technique doesn't work for all games. Would Metal Gear Solid have worked if Snake hadn't spoken? Probably not very well, even if all he did were annoyed grunts. It all really depends on the game and the plot. If the plot is character-driven, then the silent protagonist usually doesn't have enough strength to stand on its own; unless the side characters are so compelling that the story really becomes about them (such as Bioshock). 

 All in all, people who dislike the silent protagonist are often missing the big picture. They feel like they need a pre-established character in order to create a compelling narrative, and that simply isn't true. Some people simply cannot seem to immerse themselves into a blank slate character, and that's kind of a shame, since many of the silent protagonist games are the most well-written! 




With my respect for the silent protagonist, you might think that I would adopt that plot mechanic for Dead Gear, especially since it's a common device in Metroidvania-style games. But I ultimately decided to give Illyia a voice of her own, rather than the player giving her one. She's a developed character with a past of her own and a story to tell, so I thought that it would be the best course of action.

-Alex