Bungie on developing the character of Master Chief

by Richard Mitchell on Feb 1st 2011 10:15PM

Speaking to IndustryGamers, Bungie's Joseph Staten shared some insight on the studio's character choices for Halo's enigmatic Master Chief. According to Staten, it was a conscious design choice to keep players in the dark about specific details from the Chief's life. It helped immerse players in the role, said Staten, adding, "The less players knew about the Chief, we believed, the more they would feel like the Chief."

Staten shared a few other details, notably that Cortana began solely as a "functional design requirement," namely a guide for the player; however, as she evolved, said Staten, she grew to highlight the Chief's humanity. Check out the full article for more on Bungie's design choices, including how the team introduced themes of loneliness and abandonment in order to help players "feel the weight of the Chief's heavy responsibilities" throughout the series.

Source: Industry Gamers

Tags: bungie, Halo-3, joseph-staten, master-chief, microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, xbox

Reader Comments (91)

I understand the appeal of the Chief as a cool looking character, but to me a main character with no personality is more of a lack of creativity rather than trying to make the player feel like the character.

Halo isn't a role playing game. I don't need to feel like Master Chief. Honestly, I liked the Arbiter better, at least he had somewhat of a personality.

I assume I was also supposed to care about Noble Team in Reach. They didn't do a good job of that either.

@Lerkero

There are plenty of game characters with no personality:

Link
Gordon Freeman
Samus (before Other M ruined things)
etc.

Don't single-out Master Chief.

@tendoboy1984
Oh, trust me. As much as I enjoy playing Half-Life, Zelda, and Metroid, I dislike that the characters do not actually interact in a way that gives them personality.

To be fair, Samus had dialog for a while, its just that she didn't have a voice. Samus is usually all alone and has nobody to interact with anyways, unless the creatures that attack her start talking.

@tendoboy1984 I feel like Gordon is actually done right. Master Chief has (sort of) a face and look to him, and actually talks. Everything about Gordon is you, not just what he's going through in the gameplay.

@tendoboy1984

Come off it, all those characters have more personality then Master Chief :D

Heck, even Duke Nukem has more personality, at least Duke has proven he is normal, he likes sex, drinking and playing games :D Master Chief likes.... Gordon likes science, he is a nerd, Master Chief likes.....Samus is a Bounty Hunter, she likes exploring foreign lands, Master Chief likes.....Link is in love, he likes to save beautiful princesses which proves he has a heart, Master Chief likes....what does Master Chief like doing other then killing aliens?

@Spunky Monkey 190906 Master Chief likes shooting sh!t, saving humanity, falling in love with a computer generated women and being the baddest dude in the universe. The books laid out most of his personality, if you read them if gave you insight into what made The Cheif tick. But did you really ever play halo for the story? Did you ever pick up a FPS with the intention of really getting into the story? If a FPS has a good story thats a definate plus but thats not really the strength of the genre. Halos strength was multiplayer. You cant justify Gordon Link or Samus being any better than Master Cheif based on character because there "character" is all based on inferences or some form of narative basically telling you whats up. In the end theyre generally the same alls samus did was run through space ships shooting things, Link killed some mosters and solved some puzzles to rescue the a chick he loves, gordon was saving humanity and freedom. Master Cheif did all of the above with the exception of the puzzles.

@Xero Theory

"Master Cheif did all of the above with the exception of the puzzles."

Why? Were they too difficult for him? "DAMN THIS SUDUKO!"

But I agree, the other characters aren't much different, but yet, they all seem to have more likabillity then Master Chief, maybe because the others seem more mysterious somehow and are usually alone. Master Chief is pretty boring in comparison, super soldier on the verge of extinction....becomes hero, yay!

@tendoboy1984
At least Link, Samus, etc can emote with facial expressions and look notably different to other people in the game world.

Masterchief is a dude in a suit with a helmet, amongst a bunch of other guys in suits and helmets. He doesn't even have a sweet racing stripe decal or anything going on for him.

@Xero Theory

Bungie had nothing to do with the books though. The books are incredible, but old Frankie of Bungie doesn't know how to write - he was just being lazy.

@Anticrawl
WRONG!

Bungie assisted with story development. You think they'd let anyone write a Halo novel without being consulted first?

When I hear that someone spent a long time developing a character, I expect to end up with something like Drake from Uncharted.

@Dirk Hardpeck
Great, I spent a whole 2 minutes typing up my comment and you summed it up in 3 words and a question mark.

@Dirk Hardpeck
That's not fair, they went through a lot of trouble to put a helmet and armor on the guy from Doom.

@Dirk Hardpeck
Took the words outta my mouth.

Green armor, manly voice, really strong.

Okay, we're good.

@Crimsic

I don't know if it's just me, but I never felt that Master Chief had a 'manly voice.'

He sounded a bit effiminate to me, or maybe that's just the voice actor.

Speaking of which, why does the Monitor of the Installation sound wussy too? I don't want the characters to sound like Duke Nukem, but still.

@andrewpoe

effeminate? seriously? even the manliest woman would have to smoke like 8 packs a day for 30 years to get a voice that rough.

so, not developing your character = developing a character

ok.....

I prefered Isaac Clarke when he wasn't talking, although it seems the internets disagree with me on that.

And I never quite understood why Valve chose to depict Gordon Freeman on the cover of the HL games. He would be better as a faceless hero than that computer engineer face he ended up with, imo.

@Pure Black World Tendency I have such a hard time with Gordon sometimes. Everything else about Half Life is so nearly perfect and handcrafted in regards to atmosphere, character, and immersion. But I just can never immerse myself fully into a character to the point that they're a surrogate me, and they make that even more difficult by giving him a face, a name, a past etc. Valve is soooo good at characters, I mean who didn't get upset when Eli died? Or laugh at Magnusson and Kleiner? I know Half Life doesn't do cutscenes, and they're all from the first person which works wonderfully, but they could at least have him say things, or even more, have legs and chest when you move the camera all the way down

Joseph Staten is, frankly, not a good writer. Halo 1's story was fine as far as it went, but as soon as it tried to get more complex and "serious" the think went down the crapper. He should stick to directing cinematics.

@Aerothorn

Did Staten even write any of the first Halo? Because, I thought everyone that helped write it left the studio soon after Halo went to retail.

@flashpointzero

IMDb credits him as the main writer, but there were three additional writers and who knows how much weight they pulled.

Translation: "We made a first-person shooter so we essentially made the most derivative, bland character that we could think of: Space Marine. Honestly, I can't believe you idiots thought we put any serious thought into this guy... whoops... I mean, we wanted to make him mysterious...".

I might be alone in this, particularly given the popular opinion of Half Life, but silent or even mostly silent protagonists just do not do it for me. I can never immerse myself into the game so much that I could think even for a second that I'm the Chief, and not developing the character just becomes disappointing, especially since the books do it so well, and Reach shows that they really had the ability and potential to further develop him.

@TheDarkWayne
What are the names of the books? I thought it was ring planet, but that doesn't sound right.

@TheDarkWayne I would say that there is only one Chief. But it turns out he is a Cylon... Also, "The Mind of Freeman" or whatever those youtube video things are have given our beloved Gordon his voice.

@MBMBaM fan If you're trolling me and making a Ringworld zinger, you should know that aside from the titular location, Halo and Ringworld have very little in common

@TheDarkWayne

I really despise the silent or mostly silent protagonist. For me, the non-interaction with other characters breaks the immersion, which is what developers claim they are going for.

Plus, I find it much easier to identify with a main character who has an identity himself. I would rather identify and understand the perspective of a main character than be left to try and fill in those blanks by impressing myself into that role, if that makes sense.

@Dirk Hardpeck

Huh. That was my first thought as well.

@Dirk Hardpeck LOL I was also going to say, "What character!?!" but then everyone here thought the same thing.

Let's be honest, there is so little character development in most games - even story-driven ones - that it's laughable. Master Chief, Kratos, Link, Bioshocks' Jack, anyone in CoD, anyone in Killzone, etc. There are the rare, amazing exceptions like Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2 or the cast of FFVI, but by and large games are extremely lacking in character pieces and it's really too bad.

@A Sandwich

"Kratos, Link"

way to fail...

@PR0F3TA So you're saying Kratos is a good, well developed character?

@PR0F3TA
Kratos's character: I'm pissed that my wife died! I NEED REVENGE!!! Let me have this threesome first. Link's character: ... (Not that they aren't good games)

@TheDarkWayne

Yes, he's angry :D Are you saying you don't get angry? Well then, thats development, because he was once not angry and now he is, then he gets angrier. See? Not angry > Angry > Angrier. If thats not great character development, I dunno what is :D

@A Sandwich

I'm not saying that I don't enjoy those games, either. But empathizing with a single-minded character is pretty tough.

@TheDarkWayne

Don't worry about Prof3ta, he's really just mad that a few PS3-exclusive characters made the list.

@A Sandwich

Actually, Killzone focuses more on the events surrounding the soldiers, I wouldn't say it's entirely down to what Sev is feeling because Sev IS just soldier #123, except, he has a part to play in the war, unlike Master Chief who is hailed as the hero of our time.

What I have to admit that Killzone does well is highlights fascism and genocide, because while you're killing off the Helghasts, its one of the few games I actually wanted to play as the helghasts, not because I'm tired of seeing humans and American's winning wars all the time, but because I actually want to understand what it is the Helghasts are going through. I hope they make a sequeul from their point of veiw.

But yeah, like I said, Killzone is a difficult one to put in that category as its more about the events around you rather than the character you are playing as, to which you have to say yes, there is development.

@A Sandwich If you want a game with really good characters I would recommend Enslaved. I'm playing through it now and been enjoying it greatly.

It's sad that it sold badly, this game deserved better...

@A Sandwich

Master Chief is nothing like the characters from CoD.

He was designed as a silent type from the get go, CoD they just decided to take on a single player at the end and couldn't be bothered to develop personality.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
I dunno, MW2 kinda throws that formula for a loop, they let you see what a bad-ass the player character Soap from CoD 4 became by making you his silent underling in the sequel.

@antv

Having a mohawk isn't always the same as character development.

@A Sandwich
I'd say going from FNG to BAMF counts as development of some sort, master chief doesn't even have a real face.

@Shadsy There will be...When The Duke gets his own darn vidya game!

@Dirk Hardpeck

I think what he meant is that because of the lack of character Chief had, allowed that to be his character. Think about it, how many protagonist have very little to say throughout their whole story (Disregarding old games that didn't have voice overs), there aren't that many. His lack of character was his character

If anything, the one character I most recently recalled really getting into and "becoming" was Commander Shepard. I didn't even change his looks in either game, yet the dialog system made me feel like I was actually speaking to the NPCs and such. I give BioWare extreme credit for that.

That's an RPG though. I'd say the only FPS and character I've played where I became the lead character definitely goes to GFree

@The Wicker Man

Have you played a Duke game? You haven't?

"What are you waiting for? Christmas?"

THE DUKE = JOHN WAYNE. Not Duke Nukem.....jesus christ grant them a facepalm!

@The Wicker Man Duke is anything but silent

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Halo 3

Bungie on developing the character of Master Chief

Reader Comments (91)

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:25PM Lerkero said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:32PM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:51PM Lerkero said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:56PM Ratfuzz18 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:58PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:48AM Xero Theory said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:57AM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 1:52AM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 6:07AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 8:32AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 9:33AM nandokun said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:26PM Lerkero said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:26PM War Machine said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:29PM adobe64 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:30PM Crimsic said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:59PM andrewpoe said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:15AM maveric101 said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:31PM A Burger said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:33PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:49PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:37PM Aerothorn said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:58PM flashpointzero said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:11PM Aerothorn said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:38PM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:39PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:52PM MBMBaM fan said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:53PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:09PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 2:37AM Courtney said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:43PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:44PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:56PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:11PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:15PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:17PM dscuber9000 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:03AM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:10AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:13AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 12:35AM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 1:47AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 2:24AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 10:04AM antv said

Posted: Feb 2nd 2011 1:57PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Feb 4th 2011 2:26AM antv said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 10:56PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:03PM Prboi said

Posted: Feb 1st 2011 11:04PM bullmunky4 said

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