(Some spoilers about Killzone 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock (only the first one) and Dragon Age: Origins. I tried to limit the examples to only these four.)

Let's face it, there are tons of games out that leave you with the impression that their story was written in about five minutes. Sometimes, you get the feeling that the developers would have dispensed with the story and just let you walk around and blow stuff up in new, interesting ways, all the time, if they could get away with it. I'm not going to point fingers here (yes, I might, a little bit), but I'm going to tell you about one aspect that sets these hurriedly patched together stories apart from the ones that stick out in our mind, and we play in awe of the world and the story we see unveiling in front of us.

One of the things (it's not everything, mind, just one thing) that carries a story is characterization. In other words, the people in the story.

In games, they have just as much potential as they do in novels or movies, perhaps more, since you can interact with them. We admire them, we hate them, we laugh at them, but only if they are really characters and not just pixels running around on the screen and doing things. And what marks the difference between the great characters and the wannabe pieces of cardboard?

They have a personality, a life, motives and drives.

Seems obvious, right? But stop, think carefully. How many characters in games you played havereally had personalities? Compare two good guys, our heroes, the people we kick ass with. Let's take Ezio, from Assassin's Creed 2 and Sev, from Killzone 2.

What comes to mind when you think of Ezio? He's a ladies' man, charming, funny, yet deadly serious in his mission. He's a born troublemaker, and despite being an assassin, you know that he is a good guy. You feel sorry for him when bad things happen to him, you laugh at his antics, you admire his courage and his daring, his dependability and his determination. You know where he comes from, and why he does what he does.

Now think of Sev, if you played have played Killzone 2. Don't worry, if you haven't, you'll probably be having the same exact as those who have played it. It's the guy in the mohawk right there. That's exactly what I'm thinking. I have not played the first Killzone, so there might have been a bit of backstory there, but if there was, there are absolutely no references to it Killzone 2. I came out of the game knowing almost nothing about the characters. I can count the things I remember on one hand: their names, the fact that Sev was friends with one of them because he was pissed when he died, and that Rico is a dumbass. That's it.

Let's take another pair, bad guys, this time. How about General Shepherd, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Frank Fontaine, from Bioshock? You don't really hang around much with Fontaine. Communication takes place with radio, and information you get about him comes from audiodiares scattered among the levels. But through those alone, you know he's a slick bastard who would do anything, anything, for money and power. He's opportunistic, he's a liar, a man who has no problem with putting you in a bag and dropping you into a pond. He's also a coward when he needs to be. He's willing to negotiate because it's easier. He has no honour, no semblance of a morality. And you know why. Because the only person he cares about in the whole world is himself. Everyone else fall into the category of 'people to be exploited for personal gain'. And you know how he made it happen, starting from a little fishing company who found a diamond in the through, called ADAM.

General Shepherd does something similar to what Fontaine does. He pretends to be an ally of the player for a certain period of the game, and then finally shows his true colours. But, do you know anything about General Shepherd? Not really. Do you know why he betrayed the good guys? Do you even care? I guarantee that if you skip through the cutscenes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you'd probably end up with the same amount of information as someone who hasn't.

Real characters make you care about them. Even if they're villains, you still want to know what happened them, where they came from and where they're going. You become interested in their fictional lives.

How many people haven't crawled through the levels of Bioshock and Bioshock 2, eyes peeled, trying to find one more snippet of information about Andrew Ryan? Who doesn't feel saddened by the good ending of Bioshock, when Jack finally dies?

The question is, why do you feel these things for certain characters and not for others? The answer is simple.

They have qualities that hook you. Andrew Ryan, against all odds, has built a city underwater so that people could live freely. You stand in awe of such a man. How could he have done such a thing? Why has he done it? Even though he became tyrannical, you still admire him for his sheer willpower. You actually feel sorry that the city has spiralled out of his control, because it is impossible not to sympathize with him, despite his mistakes, because we too make mistakes, and know what's it like to suffer their consequences.

Villains, the antagonists, like Fontaine, make us care a different way. They are mesmerizing in their power, in their ruthlessness. We can't help but follow them, wondering what they will do next, and why they're doing it. Again, we'll take Genera Shepherd as an example, since I've already mentioned him several times. He's not a villain. He's a prop for a story. He just shoots some of the good-guys and continues being the cardboard character he is.

But that is not all. Good characters have quirks, attitudes and other small things that either endear them or alienate them to the player. Andrew Ryan has a knack for quothe-worthy speeches. It's grand, we like it. Remember Morrigan, from Dragon Age: Origins? She hates your dog, and this creates a few comic scenes that endear her to the player. We laugh at her frustration and disgust and like her more.

And finally, they have relationships. They have friends (or not, depending on their personality). They have enemies. Think of Dragon Age: Origins. All the party members had opinions of each others, different ways of talking to each other. Morrigan was mean to Alistair, annoyed by Sten, hated your dog. Alistair, on the other hand, was annoyed by Morrigan and kept trying to get a one-up on on her during their banter. You get the impresson that he's confident, but when he confides in you, you realize that he really doesn't believe in himself very much.

Having relationships that don't depend at all on the player's role in the game makes characters far more realistic. And yet, some developers still screw that up by not actually giving these characters reasons why they're friends or why they hate each other. They just make cardboard characters have cardboard sex with each other.

That just doesn't happen.

Real characters have a history, a personality, relationships, different attitudes for different people, opinions about everything. They should act, in other words, like real people. Like you and me. I hope that after reading this, you'll feel a little more enlightened the next time you're playing a game, asking, "Who the hell is that guy?"