Vagrant protagonist better description needed.


2019-05-20
I understand the distinction that was trying to be made but the phrase "not turned to crime" just doesn't work.

First, people can literally be charged with vagrancy; vagrancy itself is a crime. It doesn't end there. To put it bluntly, in many jurisdictions criminal activity is required to be homeless. To find survivable shelter, trespassing or an alternative crime is also required. Some particularly fuliginous communities and/or law makers have made it illegal to sit, eat, and/or sleep outside. Or even standing the same place for to long. Many junctions make it a crime to ask for food or money. And legal or not, police have been known to arrest homeless for any reason they choose. Often, one can get maybe one meal as day legally without payment. But this is not always the case, people may go a week without food. And there's the fact that one meal daily is not antiquate for long term survival. Homeless will eat at, for example, waiting rooms that have food for their customers. This is a crime the business owner can choose to accuse non-customers with. The police can be called and will issue a warrant for the offender (or arrest them there, if they did not flee; fleeing is an crime). Stealing from trash is a crime. Homeless shelters are not safe; gang activity, violence, rape, criminal death, and murder are to be expected. But even if one choose to go to one, the level of criminal activity at homeless shelters is similar to that of prisons. Weapons and drug possession and sales take place. Residents must support it, or become a victim. You can be charged with a crime for 'fighting' and it is defined as fighting if you are attacked. In some jurisdictions it is a crime to be "mentally unstable" in a shelter. There were so many arrests in New York city shelters that they passed a law that crime and arrests in homeless shelters cannot be legally disclosed to the public.

Also, Hobos are associated with "freighthopping" (riding a trains not intended to carry passengers). This is criminal activity.



source: /www.uvlist.net/groups/info/vagrantprotagonist


2019-05-29
It's indeed a mistake I made when writing up the description. I was trying to differentiate it from the general concept of highway robbers and similar who are homeless on top of it. I guess that's unnecessary specificity, though.

The primary thing I had with it is that they're not intentionally breaking the law, instead of it being unfortunate result of their situation in life. But the more I think on it now, that seems unnecessary distinction.

I removed the part about crime, but looking at it I'm not sure if the jobless part should also be removed and focus on just that they don't have a home. A lot of fiction tends to paint plot-important vagrants as being freelancers of some sort.

2019-06-04
Thank you.

Also, in North America, a hobo strictly defined means a migrant laborer. A homeless freelancer would be very similar. Although there is also a hobo culture that is more than just freight hopping. There are traditions, a set of values, art, verbal and written language as well. Simple homelessness does not really have a common culture. Becoming a hobo is nearly always a continuous choice. Becoming homeless is more of a consequence. Homeless people nearly always try to avoid incarceration but hobos have a wide set of techniques to purposefully getting incarcerated depending on circumstance. That's some sciencey ways of distinguishing hobo and homeless. In reality, it is often considered offensive to mislabeled or lump together these groups. It is not only an issue of identity. but also divides opinions about distribution of social services.

2019-06-06 (updated 2019-06-06)
I feel like the tag should be renamed to just homeless protagonist.

Problem with that is however games where this is either never stated in any manner, only implied, or is not much cared for. There's plenty of games where the protagonist's home gets burned down and they go on an epic quest to kill the big bad who did it. They're homeless, sure, but it seems irrelevant in many such cases. This happens to some degree in many Japanese fantasy games especially, this was part of the intro for Dungeon Siege 1, but instead of trying to re-establish a home, you go hunting big bads.

Games where this is implied include things like Dark Souls, any post-apocalyptic game, very large number of action-adventure games, and a great number of others.

Maybe not a huge deal, but rather a finger pointing at problems with video game story writing?

Edit: Renamed and retagged it as homeless.

2019-06-15
Didn't we used to have and itinerant tag?

Also, new tag seems fine. Added Grover

2019-07-02
Didn't we used to have and itinerant tag?

I don't recall seeing such here.