Online Characterization and Voice

Source: Chapters 9–10 Impact: HIGH

Key Principle

In transmedia storytelling, every non-narrative decision is characterization. There is no narrator to describe a character's traits — design choices, platform selection, typography, posting habits, and writing voice all function as direct characterization. Every piece of content produced from a character's point of view is functionally dialogue, not narration. This makes transmedia characterization closer to comics and games than to prose fiction.

Why This Matters

When characters produce their own content, the creator loses the narrator buffer that prose fiction provides. Voice consistency becomes mandatory because the character is the ostensible author. Unintentional inconsistency damages believability, while intentional breaks in consistency — dropping emoticons when a character gets serious, shifting from text-speak to formal language under pressure — become meaningful story signals. The gap between a character's self-presentation and their actual nature generates subtext without authorial intervention: every transmedia character is, by structural necessity, an unreliable narrator.

Good Examples

• Design as costuming: A character who chooses a hot-pink floral blog theme with Comic Sans communicates entirely different traits than one using a minimalist black-and-white site with Helvetica. Each customizable element must reflect the character's taste, not the creator's defaults. (Ch. 9)
• Platform as signal: Assigning a character to LinkedIn communicates "all business"; placing them on AOL signals they are technologically behind the curve. Platform choice does characterization work without a single line of exposition. (Ch. 9)
• Bargiel / Valemont voice system: When one writer runs multiple character accounts, each needs a mechanically identifiable signature — linguistic quirk (no contractions, text-speak, bad French), distinct profile picture, bio, username, and posting schedule locked to the character's time zone. Bargiel woke at 5 a.m. PST to tweet on an EST schedule; verisimilitude has concrete operational costs. (Ch. 9)
• Contradictions as depth: A character who insists they hold no grudges while trash-talking creates depth the audience discovers rather than receives. The audience does interpretive work to close the gap between self-presentation and truth. (Ch. 9)

Counterpoints

• The Realism Trap: Over-investing in technical plausibility (would this character really know HTML?) weakens the storytelling arsenal for negligible audience benefit. Match production values to the character's plausible skill level, then stop worrying. (Ch. 9)
• Design is necessary but insufficient: Visual detail and clever media choices cannot compensate for a character who does nothing interesting for interesting reasons. Action remains the engine of characterization. (Ch. 9)
• The Engagement Trap in dialogue: Direct in-character conversation with audiences produces deep immersion but carries three structural failures: uncontrollable audience input prevents reliable plot advancement; private-channel fragmentation causes players to miss information and drop out; much "two-way" dialogue is actually one-way broadcast masquerading as responsiveness. (Ch. 9)

Key Quotes

"You can learn a lot about a character who chooses a hot-pink floral blog theme and uses Comic Sans as compared to a minimalist black-and-white site that sticks to Helvetica." (Ch. 9)

"Voice is about a hundred times more important in social media storytelling." (Ch. 9)

"I usually give each character a 'quirk' to keep them separate." — Nina Bargiel (Ch. 9)

"It's a good bet not to rely on truly responsive two-way dialogue, especially for key plot points, and especially if you're aiming for an audience with more than a few thousand players. Always have a plan B." (Ch. 9)

"All the great visual detail and telling media choices in the world won't help you if your character doesn't do interesting things for interesting reasons." (Ch. 9)

"Audiences don't generally care about it in the first place." (Ch. 9) — on over-engineering technical realism

Rules of Thumb

1. Every element is a costume piece. Color, font, layout, image treatment, platform — if the character "chose" it, it must reflect them, not you.
2. Define voice at the granular level. Contractions, slang, capitalization, emoticons, text abbreviations. Lock these down before launch and maintain a reference sheet per character.
3. Intentional inconsistency is story; unintentional inconsistency is damage. Plan voice breaks as narrative signals — a character who suddenly drops their usual exclamation marks is telling the audience something.
4. Every character is an unreliable narrator. Their content reflects who they want to be seen as, not who they are. Use this gap deliberately.
5. If defaults leak, characters collapse. When multiple characters share the creator's own voice or design preferences, they become indistinguishable.
6. Dialogue with the audience is operationally exhausting. It demands sustained discipline, not clever design. Never place load-bearing plot points in audience interaction without a fallback plan.
7. Stop at plausible, not perfect. Audiences accept the conventions you establish — the realism ceiling is lower than creators fear.

Dialogue Exposure: Three Categories

Private conversations drive plot but must reach the audience through justified mechanisms:

1. Public digital conversation (@ replies, forum comments) — easiest, but posting from the wrong character account breaks immersion instantly. (Ch. 9)
2. Private digital conversation — requires in-world justification (hacked emails, leaks). An omniscient narrator outlet must be established early; retrofitting one feels "disruptive, implausible, and lazy." (Ch. 9)
3. Live conversation — traditional dialogue delivered via web series, graphic novels, or other media in the transmedia ecosystem. (Ch. 9)

When none of these fit, three workarounds exist: post video/audio of the conversation; stage it at a live event for eavesdropping; or have a character report it afterward in their own voice. The third option is cheapest but filters everything through one character's perspective — which can itself become a characterization tool. (Ch. 9)

Related References

• Audience engagement and interaction design (engagement pyramid, depth vs. scale)
• Action conveyance and coverage modes (live vs. delayed vs. archaeology)
• World-building and platform architecture