Why Hate the Everyman?

just keep it balanced? I guess people just want to be special,wheiter that's in real life or in characters on the screen, as long as developers keep it original it's ok i guess

aren't silent hill protagonists 'everyman'? Ethan Mars of heavy rain?

FEAR too!!

wow she's hot ?!?!? this journalist!!!!!

Why don't I see her often on Gamespot?

All powerful super human. The powers that they have make the games fun.

If I want to play an EveryMan, I would not need a game. I play games to enjoy being something I cannot be in reality. It's an escape or vacation from reality. Why would I choose to play a Protagonist that is the same as or less than what I am already irl?

I don't really care as long as the games are good. If all games converted to some kind of hello kitty deal. Then I would still play games as long as they were good.

TRAVIS TOUCHDOWN was a real averageman. Normal nerd,gamer and broke looser that one day decided to buy a lightsaber and go out killing people. So there you go

BaD i DoNt HaTe !!!!

people want to play heroes because we are the "everyman" just another gamespot hate campaing against a game. stupid video

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she is cute

I really wouldn't say that Left 4 Dead or Half Life are "everyman" protagonists, I mean they pick up a gun and start slaughtering everything in sight like a boss which would take a lot of getting used to for the "everyman" but at least they do act s***less in Left 4 Dead which adds a bit to the authenticity.

@Letho3334 What is discussed here is not choosing a game that has an Average Joe or Norris Joe protagonists. It's whether they should put Norris Joe in games like GTA, or put Average Joe in Prototype 2? I still think this whole thing is meaningless; Protagonists depend on games' story & setting.

@realguitarhero5 You completely misunderstood my point. You were saying that because my brother has special playing he isn't normal. An electrical engineer has to go through a much larger amount of training, so by your logic would also not be an everyman when in fact he is. Also, I don't know of a game that has electrical engineering in it, but considering electrical engineering is involved in the use, design, and construction of every video game product in existence, I don't think I really need to.

It's easy to make a good God of War or Prototype compared to a good game like Half-Life.

link I would say is move of a every man he just has good stuff but no super power as in skyward sword he can not just hang on forever he just in a word that is just tuff

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Gordam Freeman was an everyman, one of my favorite characters he doesn't even need to talk

I hate the overpowered protagonist in street cleaning simulator

@slayadude Wait are you responding to the video? Because that's the opposite of everything that was just said...

So basically the awesome games have superhuman protagonists and the mediocre games have everyman protagonists? And please, ME2 does not have an everyman protagonist.

Alan Wake is probly the best example of an everydayman

Did anyone else find when she said "the **** hit the fan" attractive?

I prefer the average Joe most of the time. The problem with heroic type protagonist is that something out where the enemy is always better. If they made the antagonist just as weak as the protagonist then the story would be much better, but would not make for a good game.

gordon freeman has high intelligence and a powered suit. he's a less powerful and less cocky iron man. are you saying that's the everyman? this article has flawed logic. how powerful a person is is totally relative. batman is far less powerful than superman, being that he only has his wits and gadgets. does that make batman the everyman? in my personal opinion, the every man is the guy who goes to work for 8 hours, picks the kids up from school, and goes home to relax in front of the tv and maybe play video games to escape from reality for a little while. the every man wants to escape. he knows that his life is relatively dull and so do gamers. we can't all be world-saving heroes but we want to be and that's why video games exist.

@Sgthombre Show me an electrical engineering video game

what is the point of this argument if i want to play a average joe i would pick games like GTA,if i want to play as a Norris Joe i just need to pick games like Prototype.

I honestly think this whole argument is pointless. It's fun to play both. Furthermore, the type of protagonist depends on the story of the game. The story of the world the protagonist lives in interweaves with their own background story. You don't see a story where the hero is made up & then the game story written based on their abilities - And if such stories exist, they will suck. I don't want to play Arkham City as a cop while Batman is flying around having all the fun. However, if I play it as a criminal who wants to kill Batman, it may make sense to make the protagonist ordinary, because such man actually killing Batman feels much more satisfying and empowering then killing him by playing that guy from Prototype 2.

There has to be a mix. Otherwise supermen, are by definition no longer super. I for one would like to see a game where you play the role of a talented but not otherwise special side-kick to some revolutionary leader in an uprising. It can be a pretty bad ass feeling to be part of something bigger than yourself without necessarily being the head of it.

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Aren't both L4D's feature completely normal people (Well aside from versus mode)

I'd rather make a customized character from scratch than play a 'real' character

If I wanted to play as an Everyman I'd leave my house and go to work.

Yeah!!...lets hear it for the for the ordinary guy...I'm gettin a tad bored of playing characters that look as if they've O.Ded on steroids!

Dead Space and Dead Space 2, two of my favorite games, feature a completely normal protagonist.

James Sunderland is the best everyman ever.

Also, the Silent Hill games love using the everyman.

Yeah, we need more people like that guy from Postal 2.

the last everyman game i played was heavy rain and that was soooooooo boring.

you can see more of the everyman in movies, less in games. I Am Alive - is one of them

I liked the realism in "Im Alive" game...

ok, pick on Deus Ex and Uncharted... I get that there is a theme that's getting tiring but they're painting too broad a stroke. If a game is good it's good.

It's why Half Life is one of the best series :)

The guy from Half-Life is a bad example of "the Everyman". He's a physicist...how many physicists do you actually know? How common are they amongst the general population? The title alone implies that you have...wait for it...above AVERAGE intelligence. So like with many other games, you have put someone with extraordinary abilities (in this case mental) as the central character in the game.

Who DOESN'T want to be superhuman? If I wanted to be an Everyman, I'd stop playing video games and go back to my day job. I'm in favor of the Everyman getting glory, but that usually bumps him/her into the Hero, if at least Not-So-Average-Joe category.

After having played the first episode of The Walking Dead, i have to say playing as an everyday man is really amazing.

Definitely favor the every man of Half Life 3. Any special abilities are from aquire tech and link to the item so choices have to be made. Also one off potions would be an option. Actually make folks think and plan rather than just running around building uber characters which is really boring

There's nothing more compelling than seeing an everyman become a badass hero. It's that sense of progression that makes many games so darn satisfying. infamous did a much better job at this than prototype, in that the character doesn't become all-powerful all at once. In the max payne games, max could only take as many bullets as his enemies before dying. he was very much a vulnerable everyman, but with the advantage of bullet time.