Talk:Character development

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[edit] Renaming This Article

What this article is starting to describe isn't character development, it's character growth in regards to gameplay. I plan on creating an article regarding character development in video games, the actual process of developing characters for use in an interactive game setting.

This article should be renamed Character_growth(video_game_gameplay), and this article should be turned into a disambiguation page that also points to the new article location.

Severence 08:38, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Seconded, I was quite shocked when this generally name article talked about a rather specific part of character development --202.180.83.6 09:44, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] yaeh

thanks for letting me cheat on my essay

[edit] Character development vs. Characterization

According to this article, character development is “a part of characterization”. Neither the article about characterization nor this one make clear what the other parts would be. This Outline on Literary Elements from the University of South Florida's web site implies that character development means rounding out a character, i.e., giving a detailed characterization. The page further implies that the characters are static or dynamic, not their description (be it development or characterization). (This page on the Malaspina University-College web site seems to also imply that character development is a gradual process, similar to getting to know someone in real life.) (See also: this lecture (ENG200-II, Lecture2: Fiction) from the Western Kentucky University and the accompanying PowerPoint presentation — “Character(s)”, “Character(s)—Round or Flat”, and “Character(s)—Dynamic or Static”.) Google for dynamic static "character development" to get more references.

Basically there appear to be two uses. Character development is used to refer to:

1. Developing a character—characterizing him in detail. This is the meaning the more basic, theory-oriented texts seem to prefer. It should IMHO be discussed in the characterization article.
2. A devloping character—a dynamic character, a character who changes over the course of a narrative. This is already described in Fictional character#Dynamic vs. static.

Both senses are also used in gaming, specifically in role-playing games and computer role-playing games. While the issues involved with no. 1 in the context of gaming are similar to those in literature or acting, the second sense has some game-specifig issues that are currently covered in experience point (which is a bit too specific) and in character creation (where it is a bit off-topic). The logical consequence would be for me to use disambiguation links to point the read to characterization and Fictional character#Dynamic vs. static, and cover the gaming specific issues either in this article or in (e.g.) Character development (gaming). Character creation should then only concern itself with the design aspect of character creation.

See also my comments on talk:character creation. — TowerDragon 10:02, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me, though I've a slight preference for using Character advancement (which is a redirect ATM) rather than Character development (gaming), since character development has more than one meaning within gaming. Percy Snoodle 10:46, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

But then, character advancement would sound too specific, suggesting that characters can only improve but never be set back. Dynamic characters (in the literature sense) not only (in gaming parlance) increase their stats and/or gain advantages, but also lower stats, gain disadvantages, trade one trait for another (of equal game-related value). They might also change some properties outside the scope of the game rules, but that is another story. I would take Character development (gaming) to be concerned with the gaming-specific issues, leaving the general meaning to be covered elsewhere. Of course it should state that the other meanings are used in the context of gaming as well. — TowerDragon 11:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

That's a good point, but I think decrease in stats in games is sufficiently uncommon that it could be covered by a section of character advancement. I also think that while the advancement of characters in games is a good idea for an article, and article on change in general of characters would be too broad in scope, and tend to duplicate most of the content of the player character and non-player character articles. Percy Snoodle 18:39, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It’s not only decrease in stats but also gaining disadvantages or changing advantages/disadvantages (relatively common in GURPS, for example, because it has so many of them so that many aspects of a character are game-relevant). Nevertheless, I’ll try to put something together at User:TowerDragon/Draft: Character change. (That is not my inteded title for the actual article, I just didn't want to commit to one title or the other.) When I am done (more or less) we can still decide about the title of the page. — TowerDragon 07:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I worry that an article listing all the ways a character can change will have to list every possible aspect of a character, and in that sense duplicate the article(s) on characters. Perhaps that would be a good thing - to merge those two articles into a Character (games) article? Percy Snoodle 15:50, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Or - perhaps better - this could be a section in Statistic (role-playing games)? Percy Snoodle 15:51, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Merging NPC and PC to Character (games) doesn't seem to be necessary as they don't overlap very much. Putting the Charactar Change stuff into the Stats article might be OK if it doesn't get too long. But as the redirect of Character advancement to Experience point implies, much of this is already discussed in Experience point, because rules for stat increases almost always rely on XP in some way or another. (“Training” would then mean earning “dedicated” XP that can only be used to increase a single stat.) But not everything is about XP, namely equipment, so the XP article is narrower in scope. Thus, merging Experience point into Character development (gaming) would seem more appropriate.

Furhtermore, the Character Change article is not inteded to list every (game rules-relevant) aspect of a character that can be changed — just referring to Statistic (role-playing games) and equipment is enough. It is to be about when and under what rules these changes happen or are at least allowed, analogous to the Character creation article.

— TowerDragon 23:02, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and both Computer role-playing game#Character development and Console role-playing game#Character development refer to it as character development, not character advancement. — TowerDragon 07:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I know - CRPGs don't tend to make a distinction between stat development and story development, so there's no clash there. Percy Snoodle 15:50, 6 February 2007 (UTC)