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First Person Shooters (Games) PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Half-Life 2 Writer On Plotting Freeman 36

Posted by simoniker from the i-am-not-a-number dept.
Thanks to Planet Half-Life for their interview with Marc Laidlaw, writer on both the Half-Life games, who answers questions about Gordon Freeman's (and other less cipher-like NPCs') genesis, suggesting "...some of the character creation process is very analytical... but a large part of it remains intuitive", and goes on to point an admonitory finger at Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces: "I have great respect for Campbell, who never intended to create a boilerplate for insecure storytellers, but the mythological hero has been done to death." Above all, Laidlaw hopes you have a good time come Half-Life 2's September 29th appearance, saying: "I think the only sector of the audience likely to feel any disappointment are those fans who adored long-jumping between bits of floating rock on Xen."
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Half-Life 2 Writer On Plotting Freeman More

Half-Life 2 Writer On Plotting Freeman

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  • Freeman isn't a character (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PeteyG ( 203921 ) on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @04:52PM (#6925444) Homepage Journal
    Freeman isn't a character. He never says anything. He never interacts with anyone. You only see him on the game box.

    All the scientists and stuff talk to YOU (yes, they call you Gordon. But that doesn't make him a character). Half-Life is about immersion, and they made Freeman a non-character to help draw you in.

    It pissed me off when Gamespot or IGN or someone named Gordon Freeman the coolest game character ever or something. Because he's not an actual character!
    • "
      It pissed me off when Gamespot or IGN or someone named Gordon Freeman the coolest game character ever or something. Because he's not an actual character!"

      The way halflife ends out forces him to be a cool character. You cant just go around killing scientists and win the game (well, some are expendable, but realisticly..)
      You cant hide in a corner until it all ends. You must get to the surface, you must save the scientists, you must save humanity.

    • Re:Freeman isn't a character (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Iscariot_ ( 166362 ) on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @09:19PM (#6927232)
      Freeman isn't a character. He never says anything.

      By that logic, neither is Link, most Final Fantasy main characters (Cloud, Squall, etc.), Crono, the list goes on.

      Just something to think about.
    • Freeman isn't a character.

      Interesting viewpoint. Of course Marc Laidlaw disagrees with you. Here is what he says.

      I think of these as Gordon's finest qualities (not speaking). They set him apart from any number of other game protagonists. Being Gordon is a very particular kind of experience; it's part of the essence of Half-Life.

      I think the player is meant to appreciate Gordon as a character by how people react to him. And there is always the concept that without the character Gordon there is no story or

    • Only the thing here is that you as a gamer are expected to fill in the blanks yourself. Whereas the game author creates a framework where the character lives, and provides "personality hints" such as in the reactions of the other characters, clues in the game etc, YOU take the last step in forming the character.

      Compared to traditional role-playing for instance, your freedom in forming the character of Freeman is indeed rather limited, but nevertheless I think the comparison is relevant.

      In a way, I suppose

  • Inreasing the immmersion factor of Half-Life (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kenshiro70 ( 610599 ) <Kenshiro70@NOSPAm.hotmail.com> on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @04:52PM (#6925447)
    One of the most interesting aspects of the original Half-Life is that Gordon Freeman never spoke - all of the lines written by Laidlaw were generic enough that you could imagine yourself asking the question or making the comment which provoked the line. It drew you into the story even further by making you project your own dialog into it. It's strange that very few other games have tried this technique, as it seems to have worked very well.

    • Here's one... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jvmatthe ( 116058 ) on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @05:09PM (#6925610) Homepage
      GTA3. That the main character has no name (even less information than Freeman!) and never speaks was a brilliant choice. There are other reasons to think so (many of which I've written here [curmudgeongamer.com] in my review) but that quality of the protagonist in GTA3 is one of the most important distinctions that makes GTA: Vice City much less of an interesting game. Tommy Vercetti might very well be a classic bad-ass, but he doesn't have the every-man quality that the character in GTA3 has.

      Back on topic, I'm not sure I ever thought that there needed to be that much writing to go with Gordon Freeman himself. The writing was mostly in what Cigarette Smoking Man said and what all the people around him said.

      And I'll go ahead and say it now: if Gordon speaks in HL2, then it will ruin the very quality that the parent comment to this one spoke about.

    • IIRC, every Zelda game going back to Link to the Past does the same thing.

      Actually, the more I think about it, most games put out by Nintendo that involve dialog use the same technique.
    • It's strange that very few other games have tried this technique, as it seems to have worked very well.

      It's not a game, but the Matrix did this. Neo only speaks a few dozen lines, all of them insubstantial (except for his final monologue).
      • It's strange that very few other games have tried this technique, as it seems to have worked very well.

        It's not a game, but the Matrix did this. Neo only speaks a few dozen lines, all of them insubstantial (except for his final monologue).

        As did Johnny Mnemonic, Speed and almost every other film where Keanu Reeves plays the central character... hey waitasec!
        • As did Johnny Mnemonic, Speed and almost every other film where Keanu Reeves plays the central character... hey waitasec!

          I would say that in those movies he either spoke too much or there was not another actor/actress in the movie that could offset his amazing ability to deliver memorable lines that completely destroy the mood of a scene. The 'Bill & Ted' movies were very good at tapping into his dialogue skills, or maybe they just had good casting.
    • Mario does this, Link does this, Deus Ex, GTA3, KOTR, all have bland main characters. This is an old technique and I think I could keep naming characters indefinately that follow it.

      I think this is explored in the book Game Over. They have a lot of great examples that are nintendo-focused on character development (or lack thereof).
    • It drew you into the story even further by making you project your own dialog into it.

      Oh, you mean like when I'd say "no witnesses" or "you did this to me!" before gunning down those nerdy scientists.

  • Contradictions (Score:2, Informative)

    by Etone ( 627948 )
    "But there will always be those who believe the story was born in a single gush from the spigot in Valve's forehead on September 29th" Didn't PlanetHalfLife just post an editorial about how they were 99% positive HL2 would not be delivered in September? -etone
    • i think anyone with any sense should be 99% positive it wont be out in september. i dont doubt the game will rock, but ever since they said "this year" ive doubted it would be on time

      look at the last game we wanted from them, i have yet to see tf2 kids and it has been YEARS. im thinking maybe easter....or the 4th of july

  • Xen could have been Zen (Score:3, Funny)

    by fbjon ( 692006 ) on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @05:26PM (#6925760) Homepage Journal
    "I think the only sector of the audience likely to feel any disappointment are those fans who adored long-jumping between bits of floating rock on Xen."

    It was kind of hard to do, but still somehow neat, I think. The one letdown was that I didn't have 3d-glasses.
  • Is it really coming out September cause good ole ebgames.com is saying sometime in November...
    Any word on a demo?
    link:http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/235 059.asp [ebgames.com]

    • Re:September or Nov? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      eb is confusing it with the XBOX version which ships 11/19. the pc version ships 9/30, and will be in stores 10/1
      • The Xbox version won't be out until 2004. EB has a tendency to literally make release dates up out of thin air (they've given numerous dates for Duke Nukem Forever, for example) but in this case they seem to be basing the date on this [www.vg.no] old article. For those who don't read Norwegian the article states that Vivendi's Norwegian branch announced that the release date was pushed back to mid-November, and presumably EB just guessed "mid-November" meant the 19th. Valve almost immediately denied that the game was d
        • You mean Team Fortress 2 won't be out November 14th 2004? Damnit...

          When Valve announces a date, I tend to half believe them until it goes gold or slips. I stopped looking at the release dates anyone else posts, especially for their games, when the credit card I used for the TF2 pre-order (in 1999) expired. (The above date of 11/14/04 I pulled off of EBGames.com shortly before hitting the 'Reply to This' link, knowing quite well they would have a date for it, and it would be roughly a year away, and withou

  • jumping on xen (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Baikala ( 564096 ) on Wednesday September 10, 2003 @05:46PM (#6925920) Journal

    Long jumping from a flying rock to a flying manta-thing was extremely frustrating. It was the only part in the original game where I ever considered giving up on beating the game (you don't beat a game if you cheat). The final fight was to damned hard and frustrating with all that jumping and the teletransportation portals the boss shot to you every god damned second. I only finished when I learn read that you can shoot the flying portals and make them teletransport your bullets instead of you

    I'm glad they are ditching that 'gameplay' out.

    • Yeah, I spent ages trying to kill the final boss. My room mate did it in no time at all - he figured out there was a rock up the top you could hide behind where you couldn't be hurt by the boss.
      • FYI, Killing the boss is easy with one simple trick: the alien "bee" gun shoots little bees which are actually considered monsters, and get teleported by the teleportation shots, neutralizing them. The rest of his attacks are a cakewalk.
    • I loved Xen. The levels were beautiful, bizarre, and abstract. I never knew it was so hated until I read about it online.
      • I liked the Xen levels in general too, the chase sequence with the big guy is one of my favorites, it was jumping from rock to rock what I did't like.
      • I didn't know it was so hated as well, but then when I started to think about it, I could see why. The jumping is one of the most annoying parts of the game, and there was a bog loss in the cool factor when you get the Xen. However, I think Xen was a really, really great idea, and I think a lot of the problems with it stem from the engine limitations... the Quake 2 engine cold make industrial shit look semi-realistic, but trying to make organic rooms and whatnot was kind of near-sighted on the designers
  • After being attacked by japanese hentai tentacle aliens and having his ass hunted down by the army, it's no wonder he's so silent. He's one tough mother, with the developers being so cruel killing all his temporary barney friends, even if they do all look the same... I'm suprised he doesen't cry everytime he makes a new friend who looks so much like his deceased allies...

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