History Main / FeaturelessProtagonist

* Some games give your character a gender-neutral name (e.g. in ''Rhiannon'', you're "Chris") to allow some sense of identity without excluding either gender.

* 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 [[spoiler:set aboard the train bringing Lenin to Petrograd just before the Russian Revolution]] requires the player to don the uniform of a [[spoiler:British Army officer]]. However, as many people have pointed out (including the game's author), stories of [[SweetPollyOliver women passing themselves off as male soldiers]] in times of war are not uncommon in fiction, nor are they unheard of in reality.

** Since everyone except the Lone Wanderer in ''{{Fallout 3}}'' is - in fan terms - [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Talking_head a talking head]], the developers took their time and recorded voice clips for both genders - even Three Dog's radio speeches come in gender-specific variants. Exceptions are the intro and ending cutscenes where RonPerlman uses gender-neutral terms, only referring to the player by their title or as "the child" (though again, the developers took their time and the absolute ending containing an old family photograph was pre-made with every possible race/gender combination).

* In ''TheElderScrolls'' 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 Featureless Protagonist 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.

** Though Nintendo is still trying to retain some of Link's AFGNCAAP qualities (hence why he is still a HeroicMime), he seems to be growing out of this in the more recent games, especially with regards to his personality.

* ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR]]''[='s=] lead protagonist, Point Man, is, aside from being specified to be male, basically an AFGNCAAP. [[spoiler: This is actually practically canon, considering that he is later revealed to have no memory and be one of a number of clone soldiers birthed by [[BigBad Alma]].]] The third game finally revealed his appearance.

* 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 HeroicMime -- to the disappointment of anyone who had previously imagined him as female.

* In ''TheElderScrolls'' 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.

** Regardless of this, Nintendo is still desperately trying to keep him as AFGNCAAP as still possible, which is the reason for him still being a HeroicMime. (Though he's starting to slowly slip away from it in the Cel Shaded games)

* The more recent ''CallOfDuty'' games have this in effect for most of the multiple player characters, who never speak and are never seen in third person. One notable exception is 'Soap' [=MacTavish=], who is the primary player character in ''ModernWarfare'', but your squad's commander in the sequel, in which he has a full speaking part.

** Averted in the animated adaptation of ''SisterPrincess'', though the main character still looks fairly generic.

--> '''Ruka:''' [Hat Guy], ''you can't put on a shirt with your hat on!''

* ''VideoGame/{{Etrian Odyssey}}'' does this in two ways. One being that all of your guild members have absolutely no background, name, gender, or anything. It's up to you to give them a class, a face (which also defines their gender), and a name.
** The other occurrence would be the guild leader. Being impersonated by the player, he even only gets vaguely mentioned in the beginning as one of many daring explorers who are willing to challenge the labyrinth.
** And like the troper above, the games seem to assume it's a he... either that or [[LesYay every female NPC in Lagaard is batting for the other team]].
** Strangely, the guild officer in ''EtrianOdyssey 2'' invites you to register yourself as a member (i.e. name a character after yourself), but the system isn't designed to recognize which character is "you." If you take her up on her suggestion, the narrator will refer to you and your avatar as separate people for the rest of the game.

* The ''{{Yugioh}} Tag Force'' series has the player character as ''[[FanNickname Hat Guy]]'' [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Tag+Force+4#/d2h2hv0 as seen here]]: a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hat-wearing]] Slifer Red Student (In the first three), and a rather lean-built red-clad guy (In the fourth installment). HilarityEnsues to find that in the fourth installment the developers have [[LampshadeHanging left inside jokes about him]] as you play the games:

** Averted in the animated adaptation of SisterPrincess, though the main character still looks fairly generic.

** Toyed with in the PrinceOfTennis dating sims. The first one, ''Gakuensai no Oujisama'', ''never'' shows the face of the brunette main girl (default name: Shizuka Hirose), and there are few mentions to her possible looks (Kawamura's path implies that [[{{Meganekko}} she uses glasses]]). In the other two, ''Umibe no Secret'' and ''Sanroku no Mystic'', the trope is subverted: the girls's faces ''are'' clearly seen from the beginning (''Sanroku's'' Tsugumi is a long-haired YamatoNadeshiko, ''Umibe's'' Ayaka is a short-haired tomboy), and yet sometimes the CG's deliberately show them only from behind or from angles where we cannot see their faces despite us already knowing how they look like.

*** This is nodded to in ''{{Dissidia}}'', Onion Knight and Warrior Of Light are called by their class and title, respectively, the warrior says he doesn't remember his name, because he never had one, It was the player's choice.

* BatenKaitos has a mix of this and NonEntityGeneral; while the cast are all well defined, the player is in fact a spirit connected to the main protagonist. It's also subverted in the second game when [[spoiler: YOU get a TomatoInTheMirror]].

** Strangely, the guild officer in EO2 invites you to register yourself as a member (i.e. name a character after yourself), but the system isn't designed to recognize which character is "you." If you take her up on her suggestion, the narrator will refer to you and your avatar as separate people for the rest of the game.

* In ''Starcraft'' and its expansion, the player character was called by titles such as Magistrate, Cerebrate, or Executor depending on what campaign you were playing.

*** The Rookie in ODST is another example, never removing his helmet or saying anything. The only clue about his appearance is his fingers, which are white.
*** Even more so with Halo Reach, in which the player designs their character and uses it for multiplayer as well.

* [[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR's]] Lead protagonist, Point Man, is, aside from being specified to be male, basically an AFGNCAAP. [[spoiler: This is actually practically canon, considering that he is later revealed to have no memory and be one of a number of clone soldiers birthed by [[BigBad Alma]].]] The third game finally revealed his appearance.

* In ''VideoGames/RedBaron'' the player character has no real characterization whatsoever beyond the player-input name. It can be reasonably deduced that he's male, but this is due to the fact that, other than nurses, there ''were'' no female personnel in any of the major armed forces during WorldWarOne ([[SweetPollyOliver officially]]).

* ''{{Etrian Odyssey}}'' does this in two ways. One being that all of your guild members have absolutely no background, name, gender, or anything. It's up to you to give them a class, a face (which also defines their gender), and a name.

* Slightly subverted in an interesting way in the pornographic InteractiveFiction 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.

[[IThoughtItMeant Has absolutely nothing to do]] with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turban#Afghan_turbans Afghan caps.]]

AFGNCAAP is not to be confused with an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiyah_(cap) Afghan cap]].

* ''[=~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 ''Starcraft'' and its expansion, the player character was called by titles such as Magistrate, Cerebrate, or Executor depending on what campaign you were playing.

** [[CasanovaWannabe His interactions with the character 'partners' can be interpreted as Romantic]]...[[BlueBishounenGhetto even if nearly 95% of the cast]] [[HetIsEw Male]].

-> ''What's your name? ''[[HeroicMime (pause)]]'' Okay. I'll just call you Ageless-Faceless-Gender-Neutral-Culturally-Ambiguous-Adventure-Person. AFGNCAAP for short.''