What pre-set video game character have you played the longest?

[StaceyPowers]

The other day, I realized I have probably logged more hours playing Shepard in Mass Effect than I have any other video game character pre-set/written for a game (as opposed to invented by me). Which pre-set video game character have you played longest?

[The Blackangel]

Link. I don’t know how much time I have logged on the array of Zelda games I have played.

But recently, I would give that award to Arthur in RDR2.

[killamch89]

This is a tough one - I'd say Mario throughout many games like Mario 64, Original Mario for NES, Mario Sunshine and others. As a matter of fact, Mario is one of my favorite Smash characters to use in addition to one of my favorite characters in Mario Kart.

[m76]

Shepard is not a preset character, you can have all kinds of Shepards. As I did have dozens, all with their own personality and characteristics.

I don't really like pre-set characters because it's a hit or miss. The only one that comes to mind is Lara Croft who I played as in multiple games.

[StaceyPowers]

On 3/17/2021 at 12:47 PM, m76 said:

Shepard is not a preset character, you can have all kinds of Shepards. As I did have dozens, all with their own personality and characteristics.

I don't really like pre-set characters because it's a hit or miss. The only one that comes to mind is Lara Croft who I played as in multiple games.

I mean a character that is essentially written with their own identity. There are variations on Shepard, but all are Shepard.

Contrast, with, say, a blank slate type character like you would create for Skyrim or for an MMO that has zero pre-set personality.

[m76]

2 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I mean a character that is essentially written with their own identity. There are variations on Shepard, but all are Shepard.

Contrast, with, say, a blank slate type character like you would create for Skyrim or for an MMO that has zero pre-set personality.

The Story might be defined, but the personality isn't. You can choose Shepard's prior experience, training, and lifepath, and can choose different answers in conversations, that defines his or her personality. To me no two Shepards were the same, they were all distinct characters, that got into different relationships, or none at all sometimes.

[StaceyPowers]

1 hour ago, m76 said:

The Story might be defined, but the personality isn't. You can choose Shepard's prior experience, training, and lifepath, and can choose different answers in conversations, that defines his or her personality. To me no two Shepards were the same, they were all distinct characters, that got into different relationships, or none at all sometimes.

Honestly even Paragon and Renegade responses seem like variations on a theme to me. But I have a very minimalist concept of identity--like I only define myself by a few core traits, and the rest is just variable expressions. Like, identity = blocks in a kaleidoscope, and the patterns are just expressions. So that probably is why I see it differently.