Player (Ding Dong Dead)

## Player

The **player** is a playable character and the main protagonist in *Ding Dong Dead*.

## Description

### Appearance

The Player is never seen in-game, but appears to be a young adult man.

### Personality

Unlike most protagonists, the player's personality is largely tied to the in-game actions and accompanying endings that are achieved. The player may either be cowardly and/or incompetent when failing to save the lives of those in the house, brave and calculating when hiding away his friends while avoiding the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper, or sadistic and cruel when he murders everyone in a conceited attempt to gain the same kind of infamy as the DDDR. There are some attributes that stay consistent throughout the game, such as his level-headedness, casual attitude, and matter of fact view on his environment.

### History

Not much is known about the player. It is known that he recently moved into his own apartment, having received a letter from his parents congratulating him on this. He also mentions having a grandmother who passed and left him several books, which he would never read and instead use as home decor to make himself look smart. The player is described as being the best friend of Hip G and an acquaintance to Hilary for a few weeks.

Shortly before the events of *Ding Dong Dead*, the player saw a flyer for a babysitter while walking down a street. Despite having never done any babysitting before, he felt compelled to pick it up and answered the ad.

## *Ding Dong Dead*

The player starts in his apartment, which doubles as the game's main menu, before leaving for his side-job tonight. He arrives at the house of the Mathesons off the boulevard,and briefly greeted by them as they prepare to leave, giving him a basic rundown on his tasks while watching over their son Rex. The player goes to meet the kid in his room, which is empty, but ends up finding him when he opens the wardrobe, where Rex had been hiding to scare his babysitter. Rex laughs and calls the player a bitch for getting scared by him. The player tells Rex that he's getting a pizza delivery and asks him to stay in his room, but Rex continues to insult him, to which he can threaten Rex with either calling his parents or physical violence. The latter increases his respect but the other decreases it. The player goes on to use the phone to order pizza from Tony Pepperoni and invite his friends Hip G and Hilary over to hang out. Meanwhile, the radio DJ informs his listeners that there has been a breakout at the State Insane Asylum and that there are rumors that one of the escaped patients is the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper, who committed a string of murders in his neighborhood not far away from the asylum exactly ten years ago. He also announces that tonight's rainstorm might cause power outages in the area.

Shortly after, the door bell is heard ringing. The player goes out to check who is it as he sees a man, who introduced himself as Dr. Pleasant and warns the player about the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper, revealing that the neighborhood they are in was where the murders took place.

This is where the player needs to make preparations by making use the skill points he's accumulated. Afterwards, a blackout will occur, during which the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper will break in.

#### Ending 1

The player is attacked by the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper, causing life-changing injuries and leaving him in a permanent coma at the hospital. Although he lives, albeit unconscious, the DDDR ends up killing everyone else at the house

#### Ending 2

Using the knife, the player kills everyone before the DDDR's arrival and once he gets in, the player states that he will not allow the Ripper to take the credit for "his glory". The Ripper is also murdered by the player, who then attempts to leave through the front door, only to be confronted by Dr. Pleasant. Horrified by the player's actions, he shoots the player in the head. Miraculously, the player survives, waking up at a coroner's office along with the body of the DDDR and Dr. Pleasant, who has his back turned on him. The player grabs a scalpel and attacks Dr. Pleasant from behind. The epilogue reveals that the doctor is able to fend him off and that it takes almost ten police officers to restrain the player, who is committed to the State Asylum for observation. Dr. Pleasant grows obsessed with the player, just as he had with the DDDR, while the player plans his escape, implicitly having been possessed or become haunted by the same voice/entity that motivated the Ripper to kill.

#### Ending 3

The Player is able to hide everyone before the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper's arrival. He either fights the DDDR, seemingly killing him, or retrieves Rex from his hiding place and attempts to leave through the front door. Either way, the Ripper appears and tries to kill the player and Rex, only to be shot by Dr. Pleasant. When they are outside, everyone congratulates the player for surviving his ordeal with the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper, and Dr. Pleasant offers to counsel him at his office. The player is later seen arriving at his home with a bottle of pills prescribed by Dr. Pleasant, but after taking them, he hears something in his closet, finding an ominous note before he is attacked by the bloodied Ripper.

The epilogue revealed that the player suffered an intense hallucination, likely as a result from the trauma he sustained during the night and is commited to the State Asylum where Dr. Pleasant hopes to alleviate his symptoms within a short time. The player, however, believes that something has haunted him, implicitly the voice that had entangled the DDDR, which was now trying to turn him into a killer as well.

## Trivia

* The player is the second playable character who can optionally become a villain protagonist through his actions, with the first being the father from *Spiders*.
* When examining the newspaper, the player mentions that he is too young to remember the Ding Dong Ditcher Ripper murders, despite them only having been ten years ago, when he would have been in his early teens, though it's likely that he simply meant that he did not hear of the news due to lack of interest at his age.
* Though the player's gender is never outright stated, he is referred to as "homie" by Hip G while Rex insults the player as having "screamed like a girl", suggesting he's a male
* The player can be seen as a combined homage to Laurie Strode and Tommy Doyle from the *Halloween* franchise.
	+ The player is also similar to Sarah from *Babysitter Bloodbath*, which is also based off of the original *Halloween*.