The Merchant Hero

I love games that allow the player to develop their character. Some excellent recent examples are the games Dishonored and Skyrim. Dishonored basically makes you an assassin, and you get to grow your character, choosing whether you want to be stealthy or plain sight, and whether you want to be lethal or non-lethal. Skyrim has you being the hero of legend, but gives you a wide array of skills you can specialize in.

Both are excellent games and I would recommend them both readily, but I find Dishonored's character development superior. The game is perfectly balanced. Of the 4 basic combinations you can be (or any mix of them), every single choice is 100% viable. The game never forces you to kill, nor does it ever demand you hide in the shadows.

Skyrim, ironically, gives me far more choices, but upsets me with their implementation. This game is an open world and you can choose to do in it basically whatever you want. As you use the various skills at your disposal, they increase in power and allow you to unlock special perks within them. You can thoroughly specialize in about three particular skills out of 15.

In theory, all of these skills should be a way to approach life. You could focus in using melee weapons, in archery, in armors, blocking, several distinct schools of magic, smithing, alchemy, enchanting, and speechcraft. All wonderful walks of life, right?

Well, the problem here is that only a handful of them really let you beat the game. Despite all the choices and freedoms you have, the game is about killing monsters and bandits and dragons. If you aren't doing that, you can't beat the game. And I understand where they're coming from, but I have a problem with its execution.

Obviously weapon skills help you kill better. Armor let's you last longer. All the magic schools pretty much do the same. Even smithing and enchanting allow your gear to be noticeably improved (even though they, too, cannot allow you to win the game). But Speechcraft is worthless. The only thing it does is help you get better prices for buying and selling (which don't matter, since you spend must of the game flush with gold), and periodically persuading people in conversations (which also don't matter since there are at least three ways to do the same thing without Speechcraft.

Most importantly, I find it a shame that we have very few stories about merchant heroes. Slaying dragons is awesome. Banishing dragons is great. Nobody cares about the guy who politely convinced the dragon that the country to the south was a way nicer place to live. Nobody cares about the guy who ended a goblin siege by tossing treasure at them and then convincing them it was cursed.

We do have stories about heroes with cunning minds, sharp tongues, and honeyed words, but they are much rarer. People are impressed by action, by violence and often murder. Maybe it's because a contract is only as strong as the people who agree to follow it, or because might can always crush a piece of paper. Physical dominance has a finality that other forms do not have.

Still, I wish people would tell more stories of a person who showed the feasibility of a merchant hero. I think it is a story severely lacking in this day and age.