Thinking of creating a multiple-iteration videogame franchise? Here's a quick and easy tip to keep your baby afloat between releases - make one of your characters a complete and utter mystery. If the original game's a hit, fans will infallibly chew over said walking, talking enigma while they wait for sequels, feeding you a nice, steady diet of low-level publicity in the form of conspiracy theory articles and forum debates.
If you want to be cruel, you can post blurred-out portraits of your Auntie to your official Facebook page, along with weird phrases like "the Eagles are aligned - revert to the pole and thrash". If you want to be crueller, you can reveal that it's all a massive ruse shortly before you retire - thus plunging thousands of people into depression as they realise they've spent years of their regrettable, pathetic lives chasing a wild goose in dark glasses.
Not thinking of creating a multiple-iteration videogame franchise? Here's a list of dramatis personae who may, in fact, be wild geese in dark glasses. Do not believe their lies. TRUST IN NOBODY.
5 comments so far...
Plamsa wing on 10 Jul '12 said:
It's actually possible that the Mysterious Stranger is the father of The Lonesome Drifter from Fallout: New Vegas.
There are some rather subtle hints in his dialogue that points towards it. Also the pistol!
Yea I'm a bit of a Fallout nut job.
paulbrown23 on 10 Jul '12 said:
Good list. Every story is better with a character we know virtually nothing about. Might I also suggest the Strange Man from Red Dead Redemption?
Alaric14 on 10 Jul '12 said:
I want to know who the Mysterious Stranger from Fallout is, too, but then again I think I like not knowing.
Another mysterious character? Theresa from Fable II and Fable III. Supposedly immortal, sister to the man who destroyed Jack of Blades, she sits at the heart of the Tattered Spire amongst the threads of untold heroes' destinies. Fates are made and destroyed before her, and she sits and watches. And she is always there.
I'd really like to know what her agenda is. She was on your side, sure, but there was something about the lady that just made me think twice about whether or not she'd give a shit if the world burned.
Hurrah! Forum Level 27...Whatever that means.
Bezza89 on 10 Jul '12 said:
Possibly the greatest mystery of all...
I think it's to do with traffic, as mine goes up everytime I visit and don't comment, and I always pop on rather than leave the browser on the page. Mines twice as big as yours
Also Theresa is a woman/girl.
My hat thrown in would say Azreal from Batman Arkham City - he's alluding to much more than DLC I think, and his bio isn't as fleshed out with comic goodness as the other characters - perhaps RS using creative licensing with him for the next game?
CunningSmile on 11 Jul '12 said:
Azrael (the new one in Arkham City, not the old one who replaced Bruce after the Bane/Knee drop incident) has played a fairly major part in some recent comic plots.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Batman-Gotham-Shall-Be-Judged/dp/1781160856/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341994556&sr=8-1
To say he is a mentally unbalanced religious fanatic is like saying the Joker could do with some stronger medication. The guys fruit loops. My money is on the third game featuring him heavily, possibly in the apocalypse on Gotham that was hinted at.
I remember reading somewhere that M'aiq the Liar isn't so much a mysterious NPC as he is an Easter Egg. In his first appearance in Morrowind his dialogue was almost entirely about stuff Bethesda wanted to put in but couldn't due to time or programming limitations, and he's now become a tradition for them to vent about things fans complained about or things they wish they could do. Worth paying attention to though since a lot of the things he talked about in Morrowind and Oblivion cropped up in Skyrim, especially the dragons.
And the Mysterious Stranger in Red Dead? Was he God, was he Marston's soul? I need answers!!!