(09-25-2013, 01:42 AM)X Wrote: There's a lot of interesting discussion going on here.
Though for my own two cents, I believe the vast majority of people play younger characters because of the associations with adventure and wanderlust falling on the shoulders of youth. How many Final Fantasy protagonists are older than early twenties? And how many of those that are play a prominent role in the action? A few come to mind, and they're all great examples of how to play the part, but most people would rather be Cloud or Balthier than Barett or Auron. And even then, these character are barely scraping mid-thirties.
I opted to play a younger character out of convenience more than disdain for the elderly. I am new to the scene, new to the lore, and all in all going into a new experience. It seems beneficial to myself to have 'ignorant youth' as an IC excuse for OC behavior that might be nonsensical or uncouth. Which is to say, a parting difference from my usual older, seasoned veteran characters, which I personally find more interesting in the long run (it tends to be more about the story and less 'who's on who's jock').
The problem is selling the angle that older characters are not just brooding grandpas who remember what it was once like to hold a sword... not that there's anything wrong with playing that character either. A sweeping majority of your player base simply can't make the connection that age isn't a bad thing. And that's why this will always be an unfavorable character-type, regardless of whether or not it is favorable in lore.
Or at least, that's my opinion. I'd personally welcome a main character that isn't Gackt.
I can see this side of it, but I do wish more people opted to play the older characters. I'm not saying there should be a ton of AARP members running around fighting monsters, and no one should be young. I just think it's a very cool character type that isn't used as much. Not everyone should be 50+, but I think we need to throw in more 30s-40s characters. Maybe it's a Western thing. I don't have much interest in manga or anime, so correct me if I'm wrong but they all seem to be much younger than characters like say Batman or Aragorn or most Western fiction heroes. I'm always a fan of the seasoned badasses. And for the record, I would definitely rather play Auron than Cloud. I suppose it's all preference in the end though.
