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Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person. Pronounced "aff-gn-cap" or "Afghan-cap".
Perhaps the most common type of player character in the early Adventure Game.
In an attempt to reinforce the notion that the player of the game "is" the player character, most early games went out of the way to avoid applying any characterization to the player character.
More often than not, a thorough examination of the game will cause this to break down, as providing any kind of substantial interaction with a player character who is a total cipher is problematic. Most often, the first thing to slip through will be a tacit assumption that the character is male.
Less common in its extreme form today, as it makes anything like compelling storytelling highly problematic. Much easier to achieve in Interactive Fiction, for the same reason that text is better suited to the Tomato Surprise, and to this day, many text games still take this approach, and enthusiasts have been known to be disappointed if "forced" to play a character who does not reflect their gender or sexual orientation.
The name "AFGNCAAP" comes from Zork Grand Inquisitor: the Haunted Lantern which serves as your sidekick dubs the player this after failing to find an accurate third person pronoun to describe him/her/it.
Beyond adventures, most games at least need to graphically present the player, so some amount of customization is required. The result is often an extended form of Purely Aesthetic Gender, with little additional influence on the story.
A weaker form of this attempt results in the Heroic Mime. Often used in conjunction with Second Person Narration. Media which try to put a definite name and face on the protagonist result in Canon Name.
In most Real Time Strategy games, the player is either an AFGNCAAP or just a Non Entity General who directs the action but doesn't even have a character.
Not to be confused with the troper of the same name.
Examples
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Gamebooks
- Back in the days of single-player roleplaying gamebooks, the player character was never referred to by a pronoun other than "you", and in the unlikely event they had a name, it would usually be one that could be a male name or a Tomboyish Name.
- Lone Wolf is a notable aversion; the title character is explicitly male from the outset.
- Most Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks portrayed "you" as a child of unspecified gender... who, in the illustrations, was fittingly androgynous but unmistakably Caucasian.
Video Games — Action Adventure
- The main character in Overlord is AFGNCAAP. Besides being male, all his features are obscured and blurred out by his impressive helmet. He's also never refered to by name by his former friend and collegues. The later Overlords in other games are given some degree of Backstory, with the sequel starting him off as a Creepy Child along with several Badass Nicknames while the prequel Overlord: Dark Legend gives the Overlord the name Lord Gromgard though they still remain relatively faceless, wearing face-obscuring clothing before donning their armor.
- Link from The Legend of Zelda series was originally meant to be this... in fact, that was the very reason he was named Link, because he was the "link to the gameworld", simply a player avatar. Ironically, he is now one of the most recognizable faces in all of gaming, endlessly tributed and/or parodied.
Close Video Games — Action Adventure
Video Games — Action Game
- As far as this troper is able to ascertain, the player character in the upcoming Ghostbusters will be one of these, as Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis (YES) figured that was the best way for the jokes to work.
- There is also an in-story reason: the team is still very shaken up by what happened to the previous new recruit so they refuse to learn even your name to avoid emotional attachments.
Close Video Games — Action Game
Video Games — Adventure Game
- Dark Fall: The Journal is bold enough as to give the player character a last name, ethnicity, and approximate age range, but still sees fit to leave the character genderless.
- In The Journeyman Project, the player is only referred to as "Agent 5", and though we see his reflection, his face is computer-generated and featureless (all other characters are photorealistic). He gets a full name (Gage Blackwood), identity, and face in both of its sequels, as well as the remake, Pegasus Prime. Perhaps as a bit of Lampshade Hanging, in the second game, the player comes across an action figure of himself (the events of the first game had been turned into a popular action movie) with the same mannequin features.
- The player character's gender in the Myst series is never made specific; Atrus only ever refers to you as "my friend."
- Thanks to the Myst games being a series however, the need for a persistent player character is met quite cleverly, by only providing "hints" here and there about the character as they become Atrus' family's friend. This more encourages players either to perceive themselves as part of the story or use their own imaginations, rather than leaving one to wonder who they're playing. The avoidance of even hinting at gender might almost be called impressive — though a couple of points in the series do present players with the ability to create a customisable character.
- It should be noted that Word Of God places the first four Myst games some two-hundred years in the past, which breaks the concept of "the player as him/herself" somewhat. Both Uru and Myst V are set in the present (with certain key characters still alive because the D'ni live very long) and therefore feature a different protagonist. In Uru it's explicitly meant to be the player (one of the meanings of "Uru" is "You Are You"), but recent Word Of God has declared that the protagonist of Myst V is Dr. Watson of the D'ni Restoration Council (an NPC in Uru).
- The only personal information established about your in-game persona in Riddle of the Sphinx and its sequel The Omega Stone is gender, which you can choose in the second game. The only time it ever comes up is in found letters' being addressed either to "sir" or "madam".
- In Shivers and its sequel, though the player is given a home town and set of friends, he is only ever referred to by others as "You", and only ever described in gender-neutral terms.
- Except near the very end when you fall down a large slide and your screams are clearly masculine.
Close Video Games — Adventure Game
Video Games — Edutainment Game
- The hero of the Super Solvers series wears a giant hat, a giant coat with the collar turned up, bermuda shorts and tennis shoes. Either the hero's skin is stark white, or they're wearing tights...
Close Video Games — Edutainment Game
Video Games — First Person Shooter
- Bioshock starts out like this — the only clue to your nature are your hands, which are Caucasian, kind of masculine and have little tattoos of chain links on the wrists; and your voice, heard only in the opening cutscene, which has a non-descript American accent. Then it gets weird and you find out the details of your identity.
- If you examine the photographs pinned up right outside Ryan's office, you can see Jack's face captured in a couple of them.
- In Halo, the protagonist Master Chief, while obviously male, is only referred to as his title, we never see more of him that his SPARTAN armor, and he only speaks a handful of lines. His official designation is the rather generic "John-117" though its not clear if that was his original name, or what his last name was. The one time he takes off his helmet, at the end of the first game, the camera angle shifts to obscure his face just as he removes it.
- In the PC version, it's possible using cheats to keep the camera in the cockpit when he does it. Turns out, under that helmet he has another helmet!
- In the first in the series of companion novels, it is stated that he is white and that John is his birth name.
Close Video Games — First Person Shooter
Video Games — Interactive Fiction
- The Interactive Fiction game Everyone Loves A Parade appears to use this. However, it subverts it. Towards the end of the game, you learn that your character is decidedly female. Using this to your advantage is necessary to actually complete the game.
- Interactive fiction game Jigsaw takes this to extremes: Neither the player nor the main villain is ever referred to by gender-specific terms, but only by the names "White" and "Black" (after their costumes), but are taken to be whichever pair of genders the player is most comfortable with, given their evolving romantic relationship. That said, a number of details from the game have been taken to suggest that the two are almost certainly of opposite sexes. It is also possible to provoke responses indicating that both Black and White are male, though this is believed to be a bug. One scene—set aboard the train bringing Lenin to Petrograd just before the Russian Revolution—requires the player to don the uniform of a British Army officer. However, as many people have pointed out (including the game's author), stories of women passing themselves off as male soldiers in times of war are not uncommon in fiction, nor are they unheard of in reality.
- Slightly subverted in an interesting way in the pornographic Interactive Fiction game Leather Goddesses of Phobos. The game plot features several instances of (heterosexual) sex, so in order for the genders to "match up" the player had to specify his or her gender (but no other details about their character). This was done by making the player go into a restroom — either the men's or women's room.
- The Interactive Fiction game Violet casts you as the lover of a woman named Violet. You are male by default, but can switch genders at any time by typing the command HETERONORMATIVITY OFF (or ON).
Close Video Games — Interactive Fiction
Video Games — Mecha Game
- In the original MechAssault, the main character was an AFGNCAAP. As new gameplay elements of the sequel required an onscreen avatar for the main, they were revised into an explicitly male Heroic Mime — to the disappointment of anyone who had previously imagined him as female.
- Chrome Hounds uses this; it's fairly easy since it's a mech game.
Close Video Games — Mecha Game
Video Games — Puzzle Game
- Perhaps as a nod to this, though slightly characterizied, the player character in The 7th Guest is referred to in the manual as "Ego", Latin for "I", and starts the game with absolutely no idea how he got there or who he is.
- The old BBC-B puzzle game based on Jack and the Beanstalk asked you if you were male or female at the start, and designated you "Jack, a bold young lad" or "Jackie, a bold young lass", depending.
Close Video Games — Puzzle Game
Video Games — Real Time Strategy
- The SpellForce series uses it at times. Since the second sequel of the first series and the sequel of the second games original relate to the previous games and their heroes which's name and gender you can decide on your own they are usually not regarded by name and gender. e.g. Dragon Storm's main hero and various characters will resort to the hero of Shaow Wars by 'Soul Carrier' or 'my friend'.
Close Video Games — Real Time Strategy
Video Games — Role Playing Game
- The original release of Dragon Quest IV allowed the player to select a name and gender for their ultimate main character (though unusually, you wouldn't actually get the character until very late into the game, and so could easily be confused when the game first has you playing someone else.) However, this breaks down at many points, especially in bath scenes that have decidedly (and presumably unintentional) Les Yay overtones if you're playing a female character.
- The DS version of DQIV lets you choose your name and gender again, with some of these incidents corrected. They also added a 'Prologue' that lets you see your hero briefly before the main game begins.
- Dragon Quest III also allowed you to pick the name and gender of not just your hero, but the rest of your allies. Again, in the original translation of the NES game, several referred to you as 'Ortega's son' — starting with the king himself. This was corrected in later versions, though.
- Corrected with a Lampshade Hanging: "Ortega's Son... er, I mean, Daughter!"
- In The Elder Scrolls series of games, you can customize your protagonist, but when a character or an in-game book refers to the protagonist of a PREVIOUS Elder Scrolls game, the said protagonist is always an AFGNCAAP referred to with a nebulous nickname ("The Eternal Champion", "The Emperor's Agent", "The Nerevarine", etc.). The game does not know what kind of character you played the previous one with.
- The first and third Final Fantasy games apply all characterization to your whole party; the individual members are completely interchangeable. This is especially true in III, where you can change your characters' very identities at any time through the job system — all they have to call their own are their names (which you chose).
- Only true for the original NES release; the DS re-release of III gives all four characters their own names, personalities and backgrounds, and they each have their own character models for every single possible class.
- Outside the first game, player characters in the Fallout series have no canon gender, age or any other attributes.
- Masterfuly averted in the Knights of the Old Republic games. While the games are pretty character background driven and thus don't allow for an AFGNCAAP in the first place, very subtle dialog options in the second game determine in what gender the main protagonist of the first game is referred to. Considering every line is voice acted, they did a hell of a job there.
- Canonically, however, the protagonists of the first and second games are respectively male and female humans.
Close Video Games — Role Playing Game
Video Games — Simulation Game
- The Freespace series of games, where the player is only ever addressed as "pilot" or by the wing position "Alpha 1". Just like all the other Red Shirt wingmen, except the Red Shirts actually talk, so they aren't exactly AFGNCAAPs. The only thing we know is that the PC is Terran ("Terran" being the only name the Vasudans use to address the PC, ever).
- Subverted in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere. The Player Character turns out to be an AI. The planes you were flying the whole time? They were completely unmanned.
- But pretty much played straight in most other Ace Combats. It's often implied that the pilot is male, at least, but other than that...
- Jamie, your rival in Harvest Moon: Magical Melody will always be the opposite gender of the player character and is considered a marriage candidate. Because of that, while s/he will always have a gender neutral appearance consisting of a colorful poncho and cowboy hat. However, if you marry Jamie, s/he will attend the wedding wearing either a dress of a tuxedo depending on what gender s/he is.
- Star Trek: Bridge Commander plays this straight. You are the nameless Captain (or maybe your name is Captain) of a Starship, and nowhere, anywhere, can you get a glimpse of yourself. The entire game runs in first person view.
- However, a Ferengi is outraged that you allow a woman (your First Officer) talk to him. That makes you very likely male.
Close Video Games — Simulation Game
Video Games — Turn Based Strategy
- Advance Wars puts you in the role of an "adviser" to the Orange Star Army, who is spoken to directly but never shown onscreen. Absolutely nothing is known about your character except that they are new to the job. In practice, your "advising" consists of telling the various generals what to do (they never go against your advice) and they in turn deliver these orders to their troops. This makes your character seem a bit redundant, which is probably why the adviser was removed completely in Advance Wars 2, which puts you in control of the generals directly (which is basically what you were doing in the first game.)
Close Video Games — Turn Based Strategy
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