The Write Way: Tips & Advice for Writers

This May Be... Problematic

How Great Writing Can Create Awesome Characters

On my blog, I posted another writer's post about how relationship aspects of NPC characters in a role-playing game can blindside you. How it can make you think long and hard about your own relationships while playing through the Mass Effect video game. Character matters - a lot. When a short dialogue interaction generates a strong emotional response, you know you're witnessing something rare and exceptional.

I have played the entire trilogy several times, but each experience reveals new and never-before heard conversations and dialogue options. Currently I am haunted by a silly fetch-quest I missed. I completed it every time I played this title before and yet this time I missed it. I seriously contemplated "restarting" a mission just to clear it from my mission list. Why would I do such a thing?

Because I care. I care about the story and the characters and what happens as a result of my actions while playing this game. I have no idea how long it took for the developers of this series to create a world where side characters matter - it impacts your experience and that of the world you play in as Shepard, the main character.

Many NPC's (non-playable characters), show up later as a result of past choices and the game does not tell you how your choices will impact the story. Some characters welcome you back with open arms, others curse the ground you walk on. Caring what happens to a main character and the people they interact with is not something easily achieved. Writers who can do this are very good at what they do. Creating characters that come alive on the page or screen, evoking emotional reactions from readers and players alike, make their work popular for their skill at creating characters that take on a life of their own.

I'm pretty sure the quest I missed won't impact the rest of the story. It's just a random salarian NPC who needs a family pedigree file that without it, marriage contracts will be impossible. If you find it and bring it to him, he is very grateful for your help. It's less emotional that the feeling you get when you deliver a lost locket to an asari widow, the only memento her daughter has of her father who died while she was still too young, but still I feel bad I missed it.

There are many quests like this throughout the series. They matter because the writers made each interaction emotionally compelling. Without that attention to character development I doubt anyone would bother completing these quests. Emotional connections, even in the format of a role-playing game is important. It's what makes characters in successful rpg's stand out - attention to detail and the ability to portray the belief that these are real people and not stereotypes.

An example of great, believable dialogue follows.  A colony you saved in the past needs your help and you are tasked with speaking with an asari who blames aliens for the loss of her partner and children. She is forcing unnecessary tests on the survivors out of spite and anger over her losses. In a very brief conversation, you are brought to tears (unless you're an unfeeling jackass), as the dialogue leads you to emotionally connect with someone you've just met.

Erinya: I saw you talking with the asari human. You need not bother. The contract is legal and binding and the tests will continue.

Shepard: Why do this?

Erinya: The aliens will never be my allies. The best they can do is give me useful medical data.

Shepard:[Charm] Why was your bondmate on the Quarian homeworld?

Erinya: She was studying the Quarians. Not their technology, but their music. She loved all their art. Said they had old souls. I think that's where my daughters got it from. Both of them loved talking to people, exploring new cultures.

Shepard: They sound like wonderful people. The Galaxy is lesser for their loss.

Erinya:[crying] Yes, it is.

Shepard: Do you think they'd want you to do this?

Erinya: [breaks down] I'm not... I didn't... Oh... [Slumps to the ground; Shepard helps her back up] I'm sending an amended contract. No more tests. No fees. There's enough grief in this galaxy, I don't need to add to it.

This is just a VERY small example of how Mass Effect can instantly create emotional connections with characters you are likely to never see or hear from again. My point, is that if you can master the ability to create powerful dialogue with brief backgrounds of your characters and why they are interacting with others, your readers will always come back for more.

Until then, "Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations."