Can YOU manage to be sincerely EVIL in games??? Either/or Video/table RPGs...

[Basement Cat]

The title says it all. Evil with the big 'E'. The bad guy who makes even the other bad guys wince.

Table top RPG's are wide open for this sort of thing, though most players who try to play evil characters just have them behave like jerks or try to gross everyone out, i.e. "I pick up the baby I accidentally fireballed. I'll eat it later for dinner with a nice Chianti and some beans."

Then there are video game RPG's. It's a given that in most video games--particularly the ones with moral choice systems--there are limits and specific choices a player is allowed. How far will you go, though, if given the option?

I can manage evil in table top RPG's, but I go soft when playing video games.

Way back in the day when I role played D&D and Role Master I was the only one in our group who could play a character who was Evil with a capital 'E' rather than one who was boorish or just posing. My friends had played doofus evil characters upon occasion, but during one campaign I took my cue from some book I'd read and gave the nice people in our base town a plague which took weeks to set in while we were kicking in doors at a conveniently approachable, well inhabited dungeon a few miles away. When we got back my friends did the "Here we come to save the DAYYYY!!!" thing which I pretended to enthusiastically go along with while in fact I was looting (and torturing for information--then smothering to death with pillows) all the key NPC's in the town for everything they were worth. All of which I did with long term plans in mind.

My friends didn't have a clue for weeks (to his credit the DM actually kept his mouth shut despite my blowing his campaign plans into gnat droppings), but they did get puzzled why my character tended to be 2 to 3 levels above them. And the quiet, behind the scenes atrocities I routinely committed while working together with a troupe of known do-gooders (paladin included--Ahhh, the benefits of alignment concealing spells) eventually resulted in the entire region falling to a humanoid invasion while I reaped the awards and eventually retired into a pocket dimension with fawning slaves and endless wealth and power. I REALLY screwed things up for everybody but myself in those campaigns, and did some things I don't enjoy remembering.

NOTE: I only did it to annoy my friends, of course (what are friends for), and they, in return, later got together and murdered one of my characters--in his sleep--at a game session when I wasn't present (*sigh* what ARE friends for???). When the novelty of playing a truly evil character wore off (months before they murdered my character, who--how's this for irony--wasn't even the same character, he just happened to be mine) I quit being a bad guy only to find several of them trying out being "Evil with a capital 'E'".

But when it comes to video games I JUST CAN'T DO IT! Whenever I tried to play the bad guy in Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Dragon's Age: Origins, etc (Video RPG's are my mana--I've never played a FPS) I found myself starting off strong for at first, but after a few hours I find myself cringing at the thought of not helping this or that waif and eventually giving in to my natural inclinations towards just being nice and good to others (I swear, I'm such a push over). Even when I make my character evil enough to get to the 'bad guy' ending I'm wincing at betraying others, i.e. "*sob* Forgive me, Mission!!! *sob*". You get the idea.

So how hard or easy is it for the rest of you to really be the bad guy? The one with the capital 'E'.


NOTE: The captcha for posting this is "feeding frenzy". An omen, perhaps...?




EDIT: Tales of past villainies are fine, but, how shall I put this...Try not to get so into it that you need a drool cup.

All good? So, good.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I always play the good guy before playing the bad one. It alwasy felt right. I just check the bad side by curiosity.

Although, if you were really evil in a video game, try playing Mario Party 2 with the only intention to win. Your opponents can be your friends, your family or your loved one. That's evil. I got a "Bowser bomb" just to make sure the other guy wouldn't get a star.

 

[mattttherman3]

I can, but the First time I did it in the old republic, I was soo depressed after, I mean I made that wookie kill that chick, and I killed the old coot! Kotor 2 was worse because you make everyone evil with you, yeesh

 

[AndrewF022]

I find it quite easy to be evil in video games, but I am never sincere about it. The only reason I am playing as the evil character is because it's either more fun, or I've already played the good side and I'm just seeing the rest of the content I missed.

I can distance myself from the game pretty easily which helps. To me I'm not betraying a character, I'm just seeing what would happen if I killed him instead. I know people who find it to difficult to do this though, particularly if they have come from Table Top or P&P RPGs, and get really into the role-playing aspect of it, which I don't touch with a 10' pole myself, just not my thing.

 

[Tuxedoman]

I can't play 'evil' without feeling bad, but I can play 'Dick' without being too guilty, if that makes sense.
In origins for example, I was a total dick to Alistair for most of the game, aside from two moments when I decided to give him a break. His 'sister' mission, and the talk before the final attack.

A better example of being a dick though is in Multiplayer games with friends, like Civ 5 when we were playing 'Co-op', I betrayed two of my mates when they were about to crush someone simply to keep the game going on. I feel you need someone to be a villain in games like this otherwise it becomes really boring really fast.

 

[Anget Colslaw]

Usually, when I play evil it's just for laughs or sheer boredom. Which is usually undone by reloading a save. Otherwise, I just lack the motivation or interest to do so.

Funnily enough, I'm rather evil to evil factions or characters. Oh, the joys of watching a nearly dead Raider be slaughtered by an alerted yao goai.

 

[piinyouri]

Oh yes, quite easily.
Especially if rewards are involved.(And they almost always are)

That aside I still find enjoyment enough in the left hand path even if there is no reward.
I know evil choices have become a massive gimmick over the years, and for me personally they will lose their fun in their own time, but as of now I still enjoy, probably because I can still remember hardly ever being given the chance to do so.

 

[Basement Cat]

Mattttherman3

Mission. She was...sniff...Mission Vao.

 

[LetalisK]

The only problems I have playing evil is all the evil choices are usually mind numbingly stupid. But when they're actually intelligent? Fun times.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I almost exclusively play evil in games. On the rare occasion where I play good as a change of pace I have to be really careful not to pick evil things out of habit.

 

[octafish]

I find it a struggle to be honest, in CRPGs it is a frustrating one as the Evil choices are generally stupid or difficult to fathom. I'm just not built for understanding the natural progression of evil quests in computer games.

In Pen and Paper it is a bit easier, I've never played a Chaotic Evil character, because they are just a bit too overtly individualist to work in teams very well, especially if the team is a mix of alignments. Mostly when I've played Evil I've played Neutral Evil. Pragmatism is something I can understand and roleplay especially if you play a character with a sense of guile. I find pure Chaotic Evil tends to be a little dull/shallow to play.

 

[tsb247]

I have a hard itme playing as, "Evil," in any game. Perhaps my moral compass is too accurate, and for whatever reason, I tend to feel some kind of strange sympathy for NPCs. Whatever the case my be, I am playing a game of Galactic Civilizations II right now, and I can't bring myself to make evil choices no matter how beneficial they can sometimes be.

 

[Zhukov]

Generally only if I'm not taking the game at all seriously.

 

[Easton Dark]

I always play good... I even feel bad stealing in Elder Scrolls and Fallouts.

I don't think I could handle the raping and pillaging thing.

 

[FalloutJack]

They call me Garlock The Destroyer.

 

[museofdoom]

It's hard for me to be full on evil! Like, in Fallout 3, I can never choose the mean conversation options because I feel bad, but then I have no problem killing that same person and stealing all of their stuff. I'm weird like that.

 

[vortalism]

It's obviously easy for people to be card-carrying villains in any roleplaying-game setting, tabletop or otherwise. That just requires you to be extremely absurd with your moral choices and pretty much be the joker. Having been a DM for the better part of my tabletop gaming career, I can assure you playing the real grim and gritty villains who actually punch a whole through the player's thin heroic fabric was hard indeed.

I seem to have the same problem as you do Mr. Zen. In video game RPGs, all my villainous characters are either anti-heroes or absurdly ridiculous for laughs. Can't role-play with a straight face when your victims are blabbing on about mud crabs I guess...

 

[kortin]

Oh yes. Of course, the things I (attempt) to do while being evil are genuinely evil. Racism, genocide, xenophobia, no mercy, the whole mile. No last wishes, no last words, nothing. Execution is simple and efficient. Nothing is wasted, I wouldn't hesitate to feed other people human flesh and torture people.

It kind of terrifies me, to be honest. I tend to sway to the good side of things when I naturally play, though.