Player character

Overview

A player character may sometimes be based on a real person, especially in sports games that use the names and likenesses of real athletes. Historical figures and leaders may appear as characters in strategy or empire building games such as in Sid Meier's Civilization series. Such a player character is more properly an avatar as the player character's name and image typically have little bearing on the game itself. Avatars are also commonly seen in casino game simulations.

In many video games, especially first-person shooters, the player character is a blank slate without notable characteristics or backstory. Examples include Pac-Man, Crono from Chrono Trigger, Link from The Legend of Zelda, Chell from Portal, and Claude from Grand Theft Auto III. These characters are generally silent protagonists. Some games never show or name the player character at all, common in first-person games like Myst and in strategy games such as Dune 2000, Emperor: Battle for Dune, and the Command & Conquer series.

In such games, the only indication of a player character is from cutscenes where the player is addressed as general, commander, or another military rank. In gaming culture, such a character was called Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person, abbreviated as AFGNCAAP, a term originating in Zork: Grand Inquisitor where it is used satirically. Character action games, also called character-driven games, are a broad category of action games driven by the physical actions of player characters.

The term dates back to the golden age of arcade video games in the early 1980s, when action games and character games distinguished a new genre from the space shoot 'em ups of the late 1970s. Classic examples include maze games like Pac-Man, platformers like Donkey Kong, and Frogger.