Which was the first protagonist in some game to belong to some demographic you consider interesting and/or relevant? The example was first female protagonist (unsurprisingly), another that was mentioned (but not answered) was first black protagonist. One I’m interested in is an old protagonist (say, 60+). Old people are rare in games, and I can’t think of even one example of an old protagonist.
I’d like to add that an answer being given does not mean you should feel precluded from giving an example from a later game, especially if there is some noteable difference between the answers. To use the female example, you might feel that King’s Quest IV (1988) is a better example than the C64 Alice in Wonderland game from 1985 because Rosella is an original character while Alice is not. Or that KQ4 is a better example than Plundered Hearts (1987) because it’s a text adventure, and you were thinking more of characters you can see. Or you might disqualify Samus Aran (1986) because we don’t find out she’s female until we finish the game. Or Ms. Pac-Man (1981) because, come on, that’s Pac-Man in drag. Or whatever. The object of the thread is not to find some technically definitive answer, but to explore the appearance of concepts and character types in early games.
The first game I thought of when first [whatever] was mentioned was Phantasy Star. Alis is a surprisingly non-stereotypical female given that the game came out in 1987. Unlike most video game females, she wields a sword and a shield. She goes on a quest to kill an evil king for vengeance, not to fill the world with puppies and rainbows.
Along the way she also ends up rescuing a large, strong man. It’s a pretty nice subversion of the typical damsel in distress theme.
Alis isn’t entirely non-stereotypical though. She does end up learning some healing magic, but the cute animal sidekick (yes, there’s a cute animal sidekick) ends up being a better healer than her which keeps her out of the medic role.
I can think of one, but it’s recent: Bill, from Left 4 Dead, is a Vietnam veteran. He’s in his sixties and sports a grey beard. You can see him right up front in this poster.
Old might be a bit tricky to pin down under the spirit of the rules, since many games have nonhuman protagonists. A 200-year-old adolescent elf probably shouldn’t count. On the other hand, many martial arts games include an ancient kung-fu master as one of the characters, so it’s probably one of those (it seems to me that both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have one, but I’m not terribly familiar with either). On the gripping hand, though, fighting games like that typically don’t have any one main protagonist, but just a dozen or so more-or-less equal characters, so they might not count anyway.
Not the originals. The only old guy in the original Mortal Kombat games was Raiden, and he was supposed to be thousands of years old. The oldest guy in the early Street Fighter II games was Balrog (or Vega, outside the US) who was supposed to be in his 40s.
Fable II allows you to roll your own character more or less and sexual orientation is one of the options. So while the main character is not gay in the sense that a developer specifically created a gay protagonist, it’s possible to create one at least.
It’s often been rumored that Zangief, from Street Fighter, is gay, but I can’t remember if it’s been debunked or not. The evidence always seemed spurious, and either way, he wasn’t openly gay in the games, even he’s supposed to be.
In Knights of the Old Republic, female protagonists can get into a romantic relationship with a particular female character. IIRC this is true in the game Mass Effect as well. In Jade Empire, both male and female protagonists can get into same-sex relationships.
The Asari are essentially genderless, being able to (and preferring to) cross their DNA with many humanoid type species, and those species usually have genders. So while the Asari seem to resemble a female humanoid much more than a male one, the race itself has no gender, so their really can’t be any “gay” aspect to it, even if to Asari mate with each other.
I think at least one of the Fallout games allows same sex marriage.
Ultima IV is one of the first crpg games where the goal was not to go out and kill the main villain, but gave the protagonist something different to do(become virtuous).
Yeah in F2… you can marry Miria or Davin in Modoc regardless of your gender. If you end up having a gay wedding the dialogue during the ceremony is priceless.
Yep. And the amusing thing is, while you can talk your way out of the shotgun wedding if you slept with the opposite gender by claiming you’re a doctor and needed to perform a physical examination, if you sleep with the same gender as your PC, you have the wedding no matter what.
Well, you can always run away, but that turns everyone in Modoc hostile.
And if you talk your way out of the situation, you can continually have sex with the opposite gendered one and choose the doctor option each time.
You really don’t want either of Grisham’s children as an NPC. Even if you’re good karma, you’re probably better off selling the child into slavery just to get rid of it. Or hope some enemies kill it off.
Yeah, I know. They never level up and they’re useless in combat. I usually just pimp them out as fluffers/prostitutes in The Den and New Reno and then sell them off or use them as cannon fodder.
