My take on gray matter so far...

Having played thru all of chapters 1 and 2 of gray matter, i think these experiments that david styles is doing is, he's practicing on people what he wants to accomplish - he wants to use what he learns from using these college students as practice material to artificially re-create present-day sensations of having his wife back with him, living and well. Styles is really another one of these mad scientists, just like dr. Frankenstein who wanted to re-create life in the form of a man (yes, I have both the Frankenstein DVD movie and the game, thru the eyes of Frankenstein).

Also, I think styles doesn't want to have to face the truth that his wife is gone, by using artificial memories, this is how he wants to live in a fantasy world.

Having said this, I'm even more interested in playing gray matter and seeing this mad doctor and learning what happens to him as a result of these artificial memories of having his wife with him in the (his day, really) present-day.

Are these spoilers by chance for those that haven't played? I have not played so if they are can you please put in spoiler tags.

Not really.

For the first time in a long time, I found Gray Matter to be a new game that my computer would play. Except..I hated it! Why must a female lead character in a story walk and speak like a floozie? There seem to be more and more unlikable, overly-curvaceous, females taking charge of Adventure Games. Kate Walker was an educated adult and those two games were pretty well received. Could we have a few more grownup, educated, and personable women please! (FYI, I'm a 65 year man with no political axe to grind.)

Thank you!

I know Sam wasn't particularly likeable to start with but I wouldn't have described her as a floozy! There were a few hints in the game as to her background & she came across as a young women leaving her past behind to pursue an opportunity who became embroiled in events in the present. IMO the story was brilliant but I suspect not realised to the extent JJ envisaged. A very good reason why I would dearly have loved Gray Matter 2 to have been the 1st game to be made after her kickstarter campaign. GM2 would have been a great opportunity to give more substance to the characters & build on the story in her own way rather than from the interpretations of it from an independant development/publisher company which is what seemed to have happened with GM1!

But that's the only way she 'can' walk in those tight pants.

Why do some players think Sam acts like a Floozie?

I looked floozie up on Google's free dictionary and it says "young woman with loose morals," "a disreputable young woman," but I'm not sure if Sam has any loose morals or not, or if she is disreputable, but I do know that, if Sam were a real person and if she were one of my local friends I sure wouldn't trust her around my computer stuff or around our house.

she acts sort of "slick", or Street-wise, IMO, b/c she fools people by sleight-of hand tricks - the Magic Entertainer's trademark.

I recall from my late teenage years at Trashnoma, I was going with a girl who acted a bit like Sam (although she never did any magic tricks) who I thought was a true friend, but this girl turned out to be a false friend who was slick, street-wise, and she'd often give me the slip by directing my attention elsewhere and then hurrying away while my back was turned, this so-called "friend" was actually a mean, verbally abusive person of my Trashnoma (private day school for emotionally disturbed teenagers) school days, but anyway this girl from my old teenage school days would take things from me sort of the same way that Sam does in GM when she "does her tricks" - both Sam and this girl from Trashnoma are real pretenders rather than honest folks, IMMHO.

Well I actually liked the game. I liked everything about it (with the exception of that horrendous maze).

I liked Sam and thought she was a good character. So she was somewhat of a con artist or huxter or whatever you want to consider her. That's the way she was able to solve the mystery and get on with the game. Had she been a Pollyanna type the story wouldn't have been half as interesting.

Isn't that true of almost any protagonist in an adventure game? They're always picking up stuff that doesn't belong to them and absconding with it.

Gee, I never really noticed this, actually - since I was so deeply involved in the gameplay during my AG playing sessions. But I guess this is what makes these games sell so well.

Also, I gather (as of this very moment) that the AG-world is a totally different world (with different rules) than is the Real Life - world that we gamers live in during our "off of the computer" life - I reckon that this is what is meant by the video game term, "virtual reality"?

Games are not reality. Yes, they are a different world entirely, which is one of their attractions.

Yep, Becky, I feel myself *maturing* regarding the way I was even 6 months - a year (or more) ago when it comes to wanting to pretend my off the computer Real Life operated much in the same way as the AG world does - now I realize that AG's are meant for relaxation following a honest day's worth of working at whatever job the game's owner(s) happen to have - OK with me.

I don't want to beat this for too long, but I think my biggest complaint about the character is, oddly, that she isn't a floozie. If that's the case, and I agree that it probably is, why does she have to be scripted and drawn as if she is one. If she is a fairly decent person in context of an adventure game, do we need the super-tight jeans; the undulating walk; and the rather crass voice patterns?

I can fully understand when characters are evil or vile or whatever bad type they need to be. That's a reasonable part of any story line. I guess I am simply really weary of nastiness and crassness for its own sake. If nobody else sees her that way, I suppose I'll have to face the fact that I simply lack perception. I'll also have to recognize that is really is "Only a game."

Be glad they're done the way they are. I remeber a while back where you could download and apply files to a game and the main female characters would walk around the whole game totally nude (Ren - Dark Legacy, and Lara Croft to name a few).

The way she looks can be explained by her magic ambitions, plus haven't you been out recently? That's the way the young dress - if super tight jeans means you're a floozy the entire young female population are floozies.

I would agree that she did sound (not so nice) at times but her character wasn't a (not so nice person) (for some reason that word is censored), which was probably the fault of the voice acting more than anything else. If that's what you're getting at I would agree with you on that point.

Yep WINCEY, I think you have helped to identify a large part of my problem. I taught high school seniors for 35 years. I assure you that I know how 'the young' dress. Maybe that's at least part of my dislike for the character. At any rate, thanks for the comments and thoughts. I think I'll end my comments on this and go play SYBERIA II again. Kate looked, acted, and sounded fine while wearing winter sweaters and a jacket.

My biggest problem with grey matter is that they don't really go anywhere with Styles character. Once it's established that he's a sad scientist keeping in the dark it doesn't really evolve from there. Instead the story focuses on Sammy and her quest to become a great magician. It's a shame really, seeing how I could genuine feel for Styles. Sammy on the other hand just comes off as pretentious and self-centered.

Compare this to say Syberia which pretty much has the same getup (Worldly independent person coming in contact with grieving elderly) but handles it completely differently.

Needless to say Syberia is unforgettable. Grey Matter made me feel like I've just played as Bella from Twilight.

Hm, I liked Gray Matter even better than Syberia, but then I'm partial to Jane Jensen's writing. (Don't get me wrong, I loved Syberia, too. ) I wouldn't expect Samantha to act anything like Kate Walker, as she'd had far different life experiences. Kate was a professional lawyer and therefore conducted herself in a manner one would expect from someone in that position. Samantha on the other hand, grew up on the streets and had no family to speak of. Therefore, she learned to get by on her own at a very young age, and it makes sense that she behaved in many of the ways she did. No judgement either way, I just feel both characters acted as I would have expected them to.

Skandis, I don't believe Dr. Styles was elderly. He was supposed to be in his thirties as far as I know.

And I had no problem whatsoever with the way Sam was dressed. I actually liked her outfit and felt it suited her character.

You all piqued my curiousity on Sam and I looked up screenshots to see her. I have no idea how she was portrayed in the game, but I have to say I love her outfit and thinks she looks great in it. I was expecting a trampy outfit but I thought she just looked smokin hot.

Ana

Ana, I'm with you.

As for the way a character walks in an adventure game, I do really think it is a tech problem, at least in part. As I remember from playing the demo, Sam walked stiffly ?

Or maybe I remember this wrong?

Undulating means this:
"To give a wavelike appearance or form to."
Source:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/undulating

As I see it, this wavelike walking is the way most women walk due to the way nature has built them. Women sway when they walk not because they are conscious about this but because most women's bodies are built this way.

As for tight jeans etc. maybe this is a tech issue, too? It costs money to make mesh? or texture model of say jeans. And only having one jeans mesh or texture model saves money...

I think Sam was a rebel. She was an orphan who had (apparently) fallen through the cracks in the American foster care system. She had more than enough smarts to go to college, but she chose to go to Europe and wander around performing as a street magician instead. And where does she end up? Oxford.

Sam is an unconventional "free spirit" and to express that, the developers had to figure out a "free spirit" wardrobe. Since the developers are in France, I suspect that Sam looks like young male Europeans think a rebellious American girl ought to look. And walk.

David Styles had gone the "conventional" route all his life until his wife's death, which sent him seriously off the rails. What's interesting is what happens when these opposite personalities are thrown together during an incident that's mysterious and increasingly horrific.

There may be spoilers in this, I am not sure at which point it becomes a spoiler. I am not sure how to activate those warnings. I have however kept it to a minimum. You might wish to look away.

It tells us a lot about the deepness of these two adventures that we could have such an intellectual conversation about their main characters and discuss them as if they were not virtual at all.

Samantha Everett in Gray Matter, Kate Walker in Syberia and let’s add for comparison April Ryan from the Longest Journey, Zoë Castillo from Dreamfall, Nancy Drew, Nina Kalenkov in Secret Files, Cathryn Hope in 15 Days and Grace Nakamura from the Gabriel Knight series.

I think I read many times it was custom in any game that the main characters should be males, to be more attractive to the young men who were the target market of these publishers. Certainly in the case of Nancy Drew the young girl character was designed to appeal to women, especially young girls. I never understood that logic of theirs, I think they have it wrong on that level. I personally like any character that is deep and believable in any interesting story.

I never found Nancy Drew to be that deep as a character, but I only play Nancy Drew when I really am too tired to concentrate on anything too complicated (which is why I always play them with a walkthrough). And on that level it works well, the voice acting is great and it does what it says on the box. True, the main characters in Nancy Drew do bring up and worry about what you would expect young girls to talk about and be interested in, and that too I find refreshing. They are on target rather often on that point and it is unique to Nancy Drew.

The other adventures however are more serious, they are like dramatic films you could watch on TV except they are much more immersive. People who just watch TV and laugh at me for spending so much time playing these adventure games just don’t get it and are missing something much more entertaining than TV.

When we hear in Syberia that

The same in Gray Matter when David Styles calls in America to investigate Sam, and realises she has a whole background which connects with his, close relations died in similar circumstances. When he is angry that the social services woman told him all that on the phone, and her supervisor calls him back saying he left her in tears, this is really poignant. These added dimensions to the characters are well worth it, it makes a big difference.

April Ryan and Zoë Castillo are both students. April has a background of child abuse and we get close to it near the end when her father appears to her, I really felt for her then. Zoë seems to have not much history and not much care in the world, I suppose it is okay sometimes to have main characters that are not completely sinking in psychological issues, like Nancy Drew.

Do we know anything about the past of Nina Kalenkov in Secret Files? Perhaps we know more about the past of her father and his experiments in Tunguska (Siberia), but not much, nothing that tragic or remarkable. Nothing that would add some deepness to her or a psychological and social profile, and yet that series is also popular.

We need all types of games, all sorts of characters. I was quite shocked by what the characters were doing in 15 Days, being criminals at heart but for a good cause. I thought it was pretty good. Cathryn Hope is the main character and she has a background with her father and what he represents, it defines her today.

Generally I think though that they put much more emphasis on emotions and background for female characters than males. Men always seem so one dimensional in games, without any past or worry. They are often portrayed as mindless. But there is no reason why we could not have them fleshed out and have them show weaknesses too, like David Styles in Gray Matter, Peter Wright in the Moment of Silence and David McNamara in Overclocked.

Grace Nakamura is much more a real person than Gabriel Knight ever was in that series, she has feelings and emotions, it is a perfect example. In Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned,

I remember years ago a teacher at the University I was studying fought hard to offer a whole course about TinTin and failed to have it accepted. It would certainly have been the most interesting course I could have taken. There is a whole history behind Hergé and TinTin, many interesting books were written about it. But I guess it was not serious enough for the department just because it was a cartoon.

Many departments and PhD students in many universities spend years over analysing books and films, I think no one is doing the same for games. Perhaps it is because it is rare there is enough story and characterisation to do so. But with such adventure games as mentioned above, certainly we can see this is lacking and should be remedied.

It is part of our culture as much as any film or book, and in my view certainly much more important and entertaining than anything else out there. Cherish those reviews, this might be all that will remain of many of these games in 20 years.

Rmt -- very thoughtful stuff! I am going to put spoiler tags in a few places, especially because the spoilers are for games other than Gray Matter.

I agree that we know less about Nina at the end of the first game than we do about April and Sam. Is there considerably less dialog in Tunguska than in The Longest Journey and Gray Matter? That might partly be why.

Does the revelation of character have a lot to do with how much the character is challenged, taken out of his/her comfort zone? April has the challenge of a wholly different world to contend with. I think the contrast between Stark and Arcadia gave lots of opportunity for us to get to know more about her.

Is it easier to reveal character if the story covers a lot of "territory" -- from city to city, for instance, rather than staying pretty much in one place for the entirety of the game (as the Nancy Drew games do).

Thanks Becky.

I just thought I would add that World Union Peace Officer Phoenix Wallis, her best friend Sandra and her boss Chief Morssen in Culpa Innata, really contribute a great deal in changing the traditonal view of women in the world.

Phoenix is also extremely well thougt of and a well developed character, perhaps the most believable of all the previous ones mentioned.

She is undergoing as well a fundamental change as we progress, thinking she is living in the best world there is until she gets to understand that perhaps it is not all so perfect.

I really look forward to witnessing that further transformation in her in Culpa Innata 2. That universe is haunting.

I'm finding this thread interesting because I, too, am just finishing Chapter 3. The obsessed doctor with his self-absorption (which he feels gives him carte blanche to experiment on others even when the experiments turn deadly!) is troubling, at least as far as I have gotten. Still, protagonists in these games seldom fall short in the hubris department. heh Hopefully, he will redeem himself as the game progresses.

In these Adventure games we play, you get used to playing main characters who only seem to advance by having to con others, break into offices and buildings, rob graves, sneak around where they shouldn't, hack into computers, and routinely commit outright theft. Seldom are they your Average Joe or Josephine. It usually doesn't bother me, but I have to say, I agree with those who would like to see a more "normal" person as a lead character from time to time. At my age, it is difficult to identify with a teenage biker Goth chick.

@Rmt, excellent post! I agree with you on most every character except for Zoe and Gabriel. I do think Gabriel has a lot of character depth, more than most adventure game characters. He's not someone who gives many people around him access to his private thoughts and feelings, but I think we get to know him pretty well throughout the games. If you make him confess in the church in GK1, you hear about his guilt for many of the things that he does. In GK3, if you look at Grace after their night together, he says something like, "Mosely's right. She is a babe. I have to figure out what I want to do." In my opinion, he was struggling with denial and feelings for Grace he was afraid of because it would change his life around if he acted on them. He probably showed the most depth in GK2 because of the particular struggles he was going through with his duel nature.

And Zoe was going through some kind of depression, I feel, which is a very different trait to give to a lead character. She felt like she was on autopilot and had no motivation to go on with what she'd been pursuing before, which to me is a clear sign of depression. We never do find out what's causing it, but I wonder if it had something to do with what was going on with the Undreaming.

I agree that Nina doesn't have a lot of depth, and neither does Max, which is why I don't rate the Secret Files games as "best of the best" as some others do. I do love the games, though, they're a lot of fun. I wonder if the fact that professional writers are working on the third game means that the characters will be fleshed out. That would be nice.

Love your comments on Sam, April, Kate, Grace and of course, Phoenix. I do hope we see Culpa Innata 2 someday, but right now, it isn't looking good.

@Reenie, I don't think Sam was a teenager. Wasn't she supposed to be in her twenties? And I found David Styles to be a very interesting and complex character. I understand and appreciate what you're saying, of course. Personally, though, I don't have to identify with the character I'm playing. I like playing a variety of characters in a variety of situations. Maybe it's the actress in me, but I think playing someone exactly like myself would be boring. The closest character I've ever identified with is April, and that's only because she was artistic. Other that that, we didn't have a lot in common, and of course she's a lot younger than me, so her struggles were different. I remember going through some similar things when I was her age, though, so I can sympathize with her.

Yes, you're right about many of the things adventure game characters do. It always bothered me that Nina made that poor guy think he'd won the lottery. Brian Basco is pretty bad with this, too. I'm replaying Runaway 2 now, and sometimes I wonder why he's making up these ridiculous and obvious lies, when telling the truth would make things so much easier for him. I like Brian, but I do want to shake some sense into him sometimes.