Next on the list of faithful (or not so faithful) companions -- mentors. Six casual games reveal the various experiences of protagonists who rely on an advisor or guide.

Casual Companions: Mentors

THanks for another great read Becky!

Ana

Becky, have you thought about linking your articles together?

Gil.

Gil, they are all together on the home page in the Editorial section.

Ana

Oops! Mea culpa. I never go there. Duh.

Gil.

Thanks yet again Becky !!

Becky

Well done!

Thank you Becky for yet another very interesting editorial & 'recommnendations' I thought for particularly good games. I totally agree with being able to save aside of the autosave - the times I've been interupted just at the point of a cut scene or dialogue when the phone has rung!

It was also an interesting point about the protagonists - the games are 1st person so it doesn't seem necessary to have a lovely young woman or man leading & thought that other characters outside of that could be a potential for different experiences & storylines?

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Chrissie -- an intriguing thought. The youthfulness of the protagonists, even in first person perspective games, is an issue in cut scenes, where you often do watch/view them. It also is an influence on the character in terms of their background and in watching other characters interact with them. A young protagonist is more of a blank slate (if he or she suffers from memory loss -- which happens occasionally to adventure and casual game protagonists -- he or she is even more of a blank slate ).

I suppose that younger people are more adventurous than older people in general? So that, for a game that involves a quest, it seems more realistic to send a younger person halfway across the world, up mountains, into caverns, etc. and expect them to survive?

Maybe youth makes a protagonist seem more vulnerable, which makes it easier to empathize with them as characters. Maybe older protagonists would be too experienced to believe the letter in the parcel that sends them to the haunted house?

I personally find protagonists more interesting if they have some life experiences that have shaped them. That may not be the norm, however.

I dunno, Jessica Fletcher, Miss Marple and Poirot are all well known characters who are easy to empathize with and adventurous if you don't expect them to go spelunking, though casual game makers haven't really done much with them beyond some HOGs.

I doubt any of them would go out to meet someone alone in the garden at midnight and "burn this letter" beforehand, though. The developers would just have to be a little more creative to get them in trouble.

Gil.

Maybe casual games don't want to dwell on a protagonist's past, and instead choose to watch the character grow through the course of the game.

In the case of a protagonist/mentor relationship, it makes sense for the protagonist to be younger, so as to benefit from the mentor's wisdom.

Even a young person should know better to do that. Someone like Jessica Fletcher might still investigate if she thought it would help solve a case, but she'd probably arrange for backup.

Lol! They should know better but it's amazing how often in a casual game a young person will walk up to a really creepy house that screams "Don't!" and do her best to get in.

Gil.

That type of storyline reminds me of those "trying to be scary" films where some silly woman who is alone in the house and often actually expecting trouble, gets up to investigate noises in the dead of night.

She is always armed with nothing more than a torch or candle and always wearing nothing more than a flimsy nightgown ....

As If !!

Mad -- I feel your pain -- I mean, your disbelief.

Maybe the women in those films have decided that it's finally time to confront their fears? Maybe they think that whatever is making the noise will be afraid of the light of a torch or candle? Maybe they're over-confident because they're wearing armor under their nightgowns?

Maybe, in terms of casual games, the idea isn't to fully develop a character after all, but to create a familiar situational "hook" and then focus more on the gameplay than on the story.

I've been pondering your reply for days now Becky! I don't disagree with anything you have said about the reason for using younger protagonists in the context of the scenarios you have mentioned. My thought is that Casual games have the ability to tell different types of stories & have the potential to go deeper with that whilst incorporating the puzzle elements, HO scenes etc. I had to have a think about in what ways you may use an older, more experienced protagonist interestingly. A few scenarios I thought of included older people who want to seek out their past as they have become estranged from family & friends earlier in life through just falling out, disappearing, being kidnapped (such as children & young women - it happens), coma & imprisonment (especially in a foreign jail). There is also a lot of potential there, to keep in context with this & the previous thread, to use sidekicks & mentors who could be younger & more knowledgeable than the older protagonist. Just some thoughts!

EDIT: Just seen the posts above! Becky, for me the stories have got to get more interesting as the gameplay gets repetitivie. Mad, I think candles & flimsy nightgowns is a definite no no for older protagonists!

A foreign jail! Now that you mention it, I have been in a foreign jail in casual games. I've been behind bars in Royal Trouble, Escape from Thunder Island, and Robin's Quest. (And those are the ones I happen to remember after thinking about it for a couple of minutes -- there are undoubtedly others.)

I just broke out of jail at the beginning in Revenge of the Spirit: Rite of Resurrection. I'm clearly a highly suspicious character. And I don't believe I was much over age 20 in any of these games, though I haven't learned much about myself yet in Revenge of the Spirit, so that game might be an exception.

I like the idea of a young person mentoring an older one in a foreign land.

Does Nejo count?

Gil.

I was in jail somewhere in Africa with the Jolly Gang, now that you mention it. Was that in Nejo?

Wasn't Nejo the young syrian on the junk stall in Broken Sword 1?

Aha! Does Nejo count as a young mentor of an older person? (Rather than counting as a place to be in jail in a foreign country.) Well, Nejo certainly was the smartest person in the market (including George).

Does he count? Why ever not?

BTW, I'm pretty sure I've been in jail as a grandmotherly Miss Marple type of detective in The Blue Toad Murder Files. Apparently the Brits are the only ones who would toss me in jail once my hair becomes silvery.

It would be fun to have established characters 'of a certain age', maybe Lady Piermont, the man-hungry aristocratic Brit, and Pearl, the down-to-Earth American team up. With the assistance of Nejo, of course. (Duane's off hunting spies somewhere.) I don't know if the casual market is ready for Lady P's sense of humor though.

Gil.

One for the record books! I can just imagine the game description on the portals.