What defines a villain? As far as I can see it, it is merely someone
with views quite contrary to your own. Bowser kidnaps the princess, but Mario also destroys 8 of his Koopa children and
blows up all of their castles – it is all a matter of perspective. GameCloud has a lengthy piece on the topic of
playing as the antagonist in video games. From Epic Games to Gearbox to Running With Scissors (known for the
politically incorrect Postal series), the article has gathered a diverse crowd from the industry.
The general consensus, naturally, is that playing the villain can be very cathartic and actually beneficial to the player, who can act out his or her aggression in a safe environment. The interesting tidbits lie in the developer’s personal views on playing the villain – while it is a freedom of expression, many do not like to play the villain (I, for one, had a hard time being evil in Fable, of all games). The most poignant quote, however, comes from Tripwire Entertainment’s John Gibson:
”…There has to be a limit though. As with most things, playing as the villain can be taken to unhealthy extremes. In our game for instance you can play as a German soldier during WWII. The Germans were essentially the “bad guys” in that war. But if we took it to the extreme and allowed you to play as a concentration camp guard and participate in the holocaust that would just be wrong. Some games go as far as letting you be a murderer, killing and torturing innocent people. I feel that at that point the game can become psychologically unhealthy for the player and that is not the type of thing we would want to create as a studio.”
What are your feelings on all this? And, for creativity, what video game villain have you always wanted to play as?
