: I think that's more of a trait of human beings in general than it is of our
: likeliness to prefer blank slates to project ourselves into in video
: games. We want to identify with things outside of our self. It's human
: nature. It's also the same reason when the Tennessee Volunteers lose a
: game I tell my friends that "I can't believe we lost Saturday"
: or when I'm on the Xbox playing Batman Arkham Knight (one of the most
: 'realized' characters out there today) that I say ' I died' when thugs in
: Gotham get the best of me.

I wasn't saying people prefer blank slates in games, I was saying they can work and are not inherently flawed.

: With Destiny, you don't identify with the blank slate guardian-character at
: all, as someone else in this thread said somewhere, you identify with the
: world/universe around the boring protagonist.

I was going to say this in response to another post and lost my train of thought.

The player characters in Destiny aren't really characterized, but the character classes have certain traits and archetypes associated with them, and some of the subclasses originally and now all of them with the quests have some characterization going on too.

I identify with my character because they're a Hunter, and because of what that means.

Hunters are practical. They dabble in space magic but don't use it as much as the other classes, they like a trusty gun or knife better most of the time. They tend towards sarcasm in their responses. They like to be outside. They like to explore. They like stealth.

A lot of this is conveyed in the Grimoire, but some of it came out pre-release and some of it is in the game, especially since they added quests.

Some of it is even indicated through gameplay.

One Hunter subclass (Gunslinger, the first one you unlock, so maybe it's supposed to be more representative of the whole class) is entirely focused around guns and knives to the point that almost all the perks revolve around them and the most space magic thing you can do is summon a magic gun that shoots people really hard. The other subclasses' biggest attacks involve a magic knife and a magic bow and arrows-- simple and straightforward compared to most of what the other classes can do. Those other two Hunter subclasses also have an abundance of stealth abilities, telling you Hunters value stealth.

My character doesn't say much and has no official backstory, but through my choice of class, I have filled in a whole lot of blanks, and I relate to virtually every single thing that's filled in. It also gives a solid base to fill in more blanks in my head.