I disagree completely. Alpha 1 should always remain anon. Just like Freespace 1 and Freespace 2.
I'm not saying they should have "Ensign Bosch, welcome" in the briefings. Just that, you can create the story, and the missions with the idea that the anonymous Alpha 1 is in fact bosch
Then what's the point if you wouldn't be able to tell? They could easily create the same exact game with the idea that Alpha 1 is Ensign Petrarch.
What's the point? Because it's fun.
One of the books I have, how to write science fiction, the author in there says something to the effect of "anyone can write a sex scene, sex scenes are easy. Writing a love scene though, that takes skill."
It's easy to give something raw to the audience. To tell them flat out what the story is, who the characters are and so forth. But in something like a love scene, the emotion is much harder to communicate. How the characters express something so strong without saying "I love you, I love you" lalala. Express it through action, their adoration of one another, so forth.
Similarly, the authors of ST:R can take the story, and start to think . . how do the events of the GTI rebellion influence Bosch? Assuming that Bosch is alpha 1. How do his motivations change, where does the alliance with the Shivans come from? If you take the premise, that Alpha 1 is Bosch, you can tailor every mission to not only tell the story of the GTI rebellion, but to tell the story of Bosch's transformation from young fighter pilot to life long idealist. And hell, if the story's REALLY good, the player might end up believing in Bosch's ideals themselves. To tell the player something, without ever actually telling them that something.
And why? What's the point? Because it's hard andchallenging, and because it's fun. There are one dimensional characters, and there are one dimensional stories. Some people want to create both characters, and stories with multiple dimensions. And for the people that don't care about depth of story, they can play through from start to finsih and feel content. But the people who want to read deeper into things, they can appreciate the subtleties and see the true vision beneath surface. Or at least, what they think is the true vision, the true story. And of course, people will have different opinions, which in turn stimulates both interest and debate. I mean, how much debate has raged throughout the years about the end of FS2? About Bosch's effect on the story. It happens again and again, and each time a new perspective is introduced.
So yeah, it's worth it.
