Roger Wilco as an idiot

[SierraFan1885]

One of the funniest aspects of the SQ series is it's treatment of it's protagonist, Roger Wilco, who we all know is slightly inept, and a bit of an idiot. But was he always?

Space Quest 1 portrays Roger as a lazy, clumsy janitor who would much rather nap in dark closets than do any actual cleaning, the jokes seem to be on how you, the player are the idiot, rather than Roger himself.

The same can be said of Space Quest 2.

Space Quest 3 has a few cracks about Roger being clumsy and a bit of a wuss, but not really shown to be an idiot. Just a guy who gets very lucky without really trying

Space Quest 4 has a few cracks about Roger being slightly dimwitted, courtesy of our friend Gary Owens, but again, most of the cracks seem to be about Roger being a clumsy wuss.

Space Quest 5 shows Roger to be sure of himself, a bit cocky, and even intelligent at certain moments, however, still very clumsy.

Space Quest 6 is where we really see "idiot Roger", and he's entertaining and fun, but does he seem like the same guy who defeated the Sariens, Vohaul twice, pulled the plug on the pukoids, and infiltrated ScumSoft?

[DrJones]

You have made me realize one of the things I love the most about Sierra adventures, and it is in how the narrator seems to adapt his speech accordingly to the character you are portraying. In King's Quest talks as if you were the King and avoids to displease you in any way, and in Quest for Glory it dignifies your character even when you do really stupid things so that you are not discouraged. Then in the outright comedy games such as Space Quest the mood is meticulously set so that you have a direct feel of what means being bottom of the barrel with all the good things out of your reach, but it is still different than in games like Leisure Suit Larry where you are basically a buffoon and the narrator is always making fun of you.

I mentioned those series because they are the ones where the difference in tones are more obvious, but this also happens in other Sierra titles like Conquests of Camelot, Gabriel Knight or Laura Bow. Now I'm really puzzled about this, because most adventures nowadays don't feature a narrator, and yet they undoubtly made those old games more immersive for me. Was this LucasArts influence? Why didn't they use one in any of their games? Fear of a wall of text? Looks like a waste of potential.

Of course, a narrator only helps as long as the writer is good. For example I couldn't enjoy the text in the Fountain of Youth demo nor the supreme amount of blahblahblah in the Hero6 demo. Note to all future writers: reading should be a pleasure, not a punishment, and carefully choosing the words as to instill the proper mood is a lost art that helps achieving the first.

[gamecreator]

Narration was replaced by animation/action, as people would rather see what they did, instead of read about it or listen to it being described.

[pbpb33]

It depends how the narration is used. The relatively minimal amount of narration in LSL7, for example, added a lot to the humor and made for a more enjoyable game.

Narration was replaced by animation/action, as people would rather see what they did, instead of read about it or listen to it being described.