In one very important respect games are not like movies or music: you are very rarely required to share any emotional traits with the protagonists. Film critics will often lambast a picture for providing no sympathetic characters - I've yet to read one review of Call of Duty 4 which makes a similar point. Teenagers don't play games wistfully saying to themselves, "yes, this is how I feel, you are speaking directly to me" - yet for most of us, this is how we experienced music when we were growing up (and often still do).
Of all forms of mass entertainment, games are the most truly escapist, for you are not just getting away from everyday life, but also from the human condition, the need to relate to, understand and interpret other people. And no, getting annoyed with mouthy idiots on the Halo 3 servers doesn't count.
But once in a while, a character comes along, that you can - in some small, semi-fabricated way - actually relate to. I, for example, loved Guybrush from the Monkey Island games because he was a confused interloper in an arcane world of passive-aggressive specialists, often speaking in a language he couldn't hope to understand. Which pretty much sums up my early experiences of the games industry.
How about you? Has there ever been a spark of recognition between you and someone you were controlling onscreen? Obviously, if you're an Italian plumber or an aristocratic female archaeologist this must happen to you all the time.
