I.... can't bring myself to play evil?

[aozgolo]

It's such a strange notion, there's tons of RPGs out there that let you choose to go down an evil path at least to some degree, and I've been playing them for awhile.

Baldur's Gate
Dragon Age
Mass Effect
The Elder Scrolls

The only exception I can think of would be in Fable where I randomly decide during the arena to kill Whisper and suddenly change to an evil megalomaniacal... landlord who owns all of Oakvale.

I don't really understand why I have this problem, I've certainly never had issue roleplaying before. I have no moral compunctions preventing me, I've been an honest thief, or even a noble assassin; though in 3 different Elder Scrolls games I've put hundreds of hours into I've never joined any of the assassin guilds.

I've taken to playing Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition lately, and I wonder to myself if this is where it all began. I recall playing openly evil characters who while openly patronizing on other's misfortunes would instantly find himself in a world full of super powered flaming fist mercenaries should I decide one silly little innkeeper needed to die.

Maybe I just have this idea in my head that I won't fully get to enjoy as much of the game if I go evil? I can be a snarky little petty thieving kind of evil, but like they said in Tropic Thunder: "Never go full evil".

So here I am, this poor sorry paragon for good, crying desperately for help. I call out to you evil overlords and dark cultists, please teach me your ways, help me become evil and enjoy it long enough to finish one playthrough!

Share your thoughts with me, is there any kind of character you simply can't bring yourself to play?

 

[TheRiddler]

I can never bring myself to play as the slow, lumbering, tank character. It's just absolutely frustrating to me. It's like playing with Elmer's glue in all the little crevices of the controller. It just feels so heavy handed and imprecise.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Mage characters, you know the ones who are really squishy and have to stay at the back to do damage? I always get bored of them and there's a reason why every single mage in my Fire Emblem Awakening has died apart from Lissa (though she's a healer so the line is a bit blurred.)

I can't do evil very well either. I have to rationalise every decision I make and many RPGs' evil options are so pointlessly cruel I can't do it. Remember the evil option in Jade Empire and how it comes down to basically betraying everyone and everything for full power over the world? All my attempted Closed Fist runs eventually devolved into standard good guy runs after a few hours. I played that game like 10 times at least too.

Also boxing characters in fighting games. The lack of range frustrates me always. I love you Makoto, really I do but we just can't be together. No don't bring Mu-12 into this, it's not her fault she's more my style. No I didn't mean it like that, where are you going? Come back! We can still be friends right?

Yeah I never thought zoning characters were going to be my sort of thing but there's a kind of twisted sense of enjoyment around irritating people to death with lasers. Literally.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

I don't like the evil characters in general. I think evil characters are great when you're good...but KOTOR was the only game to really turn all of that good/evil stuff on its head because...well...you have a past.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

I can never bring myself to play as the slow, lumbering, tank character. It's just absolutely frustrating to me. It's like playing with Elmer's glue in all the little crevices of the controller. It just feels so heavy handed and imprecise.

This. Yes OMG this. Many PC oriented games where the interface is the mouse and keyboard are the games that feel like your description, and I can't stand them either. It has to be something interesting like Zeno Clash or Just Cause 2 in order for me to put up with the "tank" thing.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I've created quite a few characters in The Old Republic now, and the majority of them are Light-aligned because a lot of the Dark side actions seem pointlessly dickish and profit no one. I actually found the Republic Trooper to have the most logical and profitable Dark side options, some of which could be excused given the circumstances and what you personally believe a nation owes to its soldiers (not quite Colonel Jessup, but close).

Most disturbing of all to me however, is the Sith Warrior's potential treatment of their first companion, Vette. There is a compilation of it on Youtube. I couldn't finish watching it past about 6 minutes. I found Vette to be a headstrong, independent-minded, funny character in my playthrough but repeated use of the shock collar will have her begging and crying for you to make it stop. You can bleed all the fun and joy out of her face and voice... but I couldn't.

 

[aozgolo]

I can never bring myself to play as the slow, lumbering, tank character. It's just absolutely frustrating to me. It's like playing with Elmer's glue in all the little crevices of the controller. It just feels so heavy handed and imprecise.

Can't quite say I'm the same as in World of Warcraft I played a Protection Warrior and loved it (though I admit I didn't plan on being a tank when I rolled the character) but I'm sure that's not the game you were refering to. Brick characters in general though can become dull if not given enough skills to make them more than a damage sponge with a big fist.

I can't do evil very well either. I have to rationalise every decision I make and many RPGs' evil options are so pointlessly cruel I can't do it. Remember the evil option in Jade Empire and how it comes down to basically betraying everyone and everything for full power over the world? All my attempted Closed Fist runs eventually devolved into standard good guy runs after a few hours. I played that game like 10 times at least too.

I don't like the evil characters in general. I think evil characters are great when you're good...but KOTOR was the only game to really turn all of that good/evil stuff on its head because...well...you have a past.

Perhaps this is part of the problem, most games expect you to be the hero, even if they give you the option to play a villain, usually you're just a "lesser vilain" who still must overthrow the same "big bad" that a good hero has to, with far less applause. Though I find even in games like Overlord I preferred the less evil version of evil in the domination path. It seems that the less evil route tends to be more materially rewarding as well, which should be the opposite. I mean if I'm the villain I should be making bank through thievery, assassinations, extortions, and other general mayhem, but it seems that roleplaying evil instead only makes it harder for me to accept quests that offer the best rewards because it involves "helping someone"... which isn't very evil is it?

i don't like playing evil in games either. games are supposed to be escapism and i'm actually evil irl...

no wait..

seriously i think my most "evil" (only by supposed association) game character is probably a Tauren...

i kinda wish for more cheesy fantasy heroism in games...

like the old Human Warcraft heroes, all "lawful good" and "cartoon" derring-do and an·nun·ci·a·tion!..

sadly we haven't seen much of that recently cause games now go for "realism" etc...

...but i have a window...

i don't need games to tell me people are "complicated"...and shades of..."brown"...

show me what's not outside...or inside...the window...

let me play at being better.

I have to say while I have trouble playing evil, I don't very often go for the full on "lawful goody good paladin of light" character, I mean it has happened from time to time but generally speaking I play more of a realist, someone who isn't perfect nor do they try to be, but in general tries to help people and make the best decisions possible, but doesn't fret terribly over ubiquitous moral consequences for every action.

Though you did point out an interesting paradigm, "evil in real life" which brings to mind the big problem I have with evil in games is that while the cheesy fantasy heroism is played up to the 11th degree that the evil choices in games are... not. With a few exceptions, generally you can't be a straight up psychotic lunatic who massacres entire towns or blows up planets and the like, you can never aspire to be the kind of villain that truly counters the real villain, which is why regardless of alignment choices in all these games, you are still after the same antagonist.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I can't play evil either. From a gameplay perspective it can be fun o let loose and go on a murder spree or whatever but in the long run I have more fun trying to abide by a moral code. It's more challenging and more rewarding. And I like my characters to get happy endings.

 

[dalek sec]

I can't play evil either. From a gameplay perspective it can be fun o let loose and go on a murder spree or whatever but in the long run I have more fun trying to abide by a moral code. It's more challenging and more rewarding. And I like my characters to get happy endings.

Same here for me, I just can't bring myself to be evil in RPG's. Like in Fallout 3 I refuse to be a bastard on the grounds that the wastelands are bad enough, why should I make things worse? That and like Novgorod said, it's just more challenging and rewarding plus I'm a bit of a sucker for my characters to get happy endings.

 

[aozgolo]

I guess it just bothers me in some games that I can't play evil, like in Skyrim, I really really want to be a good guy, but I can't morally justify for that character why he would do some of these daedric quests or join the Dark Brotherhood (which I've never done yet in Skyrim or Oblivion) and the completionist in me is really wanting to experience those, but I feel if I play evil in that game that I have to pass up like 75% of the other quests because they involve helping other people, and the only "evil" option for doing most of those quests is "I'll do it... for a reward", and in my mind a truly evil person wouldn't bother with helping anyone, even for a reward, they'd just take their "dues". Though I guess I could play a two-faced type of person who just "nicely manipulates" others to move them like pawns right where I want them but in some cases that could be a bit of a stretch.

I guess if I'm evil I want to be the chaotic kind, the one that just disrupts and causes mayhem and chaos everywhere, but most games only allow the more diplomatic or "lawful" kind of evil that involves being snide and conniving while twirling your mustache thinking up new ways to game the system.

 

[The Madman]

Mmm... don't think so. In MMO's I've at least dabbled in every role and in singleplayer games I like to experiment. As for the majority of rpg or games with moral dilemma if it's a good game I'll probably have played it twice, in which case I probably alternated between good and evil with the playthrough...

Well mostly. Even in my renegade playthrough I've never been able to take down either Wrex or Mordin in Mass Effect, and in Dark Messiah of Might & Magic I just can't help but be pure evil. The good guys in that game are just so insipid while the dark side... mmm, call me a sucker but she's just much more entertaining to have around.

One thing I really dislike about the whole good/evil thing though is how many games out there equate evil with just being an annoying dick. There's relatively few games that I can think of which give legitimate reasons for being cruel or twisted, and even less which make that path appealing for any reason other that the urge to be a bit of an ass. Ideally there needs to be a slipping slope, a series of scenario in which the decisions you're forced to make blur the lines of what you 'should' do and what you 'must' do. But in most games the options are the right choice and the dickish choice.

 

[solemnwar]

I used to like playing assholes.

I think what happened is I grew up. Yeah. I think the appeal of playing a dick hole character is the glee of being able to do stuff you're not allowed to do in real life. But once you mature a bit it seems less fun? Or maybe that's just me. Not saying playing evil means you're not mature, I don't really think that. Just most people who don't seem to like playing evil people anymore tend to be older. It's weird.

Renegade is still fun in Mass Effect. Until 3 happens and you go from hard-ass who gets the job done to GENOCIDAL MANIAC. Jeez. My "canon" Shepard got so many paragon points in ME3 when she's been predominantly Renegade...

 

[norashepard]

I used to be like this, and I still am in a lot of cases. I'm full-blue, light side, paragon, good in most games, the first to help the poor man get ahead. But there are a few situations where I can't NOT play evil. In D+D I love playing as a Drow even though they're supposedly all planning to conquer the surface and kill everyone, and in TOR, my favorite characters were my Sith Inquisitor and Imperial Agent.

I suppose that in those cases I listed, being evil is less about twirling mustaches and ripping people off and more about solving problems in ways that aren't always pleasant, and dealing with a harsh world by being harsh. After all, all three of those examples feature characters who were banished underground, forced into slavery, and forced into a position where the only way out is to die. They can be a little evil.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I tend to find a lot of games don't really have an Evil path, or that Evil is equal to just taking the easy route....

Like I played Deus Ex: Human Revolution as a robotic Sociopath, and at somepoint in the city level I needed this key from this guy. Problem was he'd only turn it over if I did a quest for him. Well being a sociopath I am, I grabbed his head in my robot hand and quick neck snap later I had my key to continue on with my story.

and that's how most games handle being evil. But it would be nice if, in one of these Open World games (like Skyrim) I could stumble across someones home and do something horrific like the Sharon Tate murders... Actually that's always been a game design idea I've had:

A game were you play as a serial rapist and/or murderer in a city. You have to go about your daily chores in addition to stalking your human prey. All the while after each murder the Police are closing in on the player. The player has to juggle balancing the infamy of his crimes (the more horrific they are the more press coverage) and his desire not to go to jail. Game wouldn't end then either, you'd have to stand trial and try to get off, face the victims families, and then once you're in jail figure out a way to escape.

 

[Flutterguy]

I was the same way for a years, until I decided to indulge myself while I was playing KOTOR 2. The evil dialogue options were hilarious. Went from a clean cut Ben Kenobi to a Sith Consular.

I can't really think of a role I can't play in a game. If I enjoy one enough I will play every option in time. Although for character creation games I rarely if ever pick large/ugly characters like Tauren in WoW. I do tend to avoid taking healing in games where it is an option too.

 

[Grottnikk]

I'm generally a good natured, gregarious burglar when I play RPGs. I talk to people, I accept their quests and help them out, and then I break into their houses and steal all their shit .

I genuinely feel like a bit of a douchebag when I go 'full evil' and hurt little innocent pixel-people. No idea why. I don't feel so bad about being a dick to evil NPCs, though.

My least liked type of character? I hate playing cleric/healer types. Totally boring for me. I remember Everquest clerics...ugh: Buff, heal, meditate... buff, heal, meditate... fall asleep, wake up, resurrect party. I find them boring in the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, too. Useful, but boring. Their *just* sucky enough at fighting to be useless at it once you're halfway through the game, and they have no really good damaging spells that are 'mage quality'. The buffs are nice, but they get dispelled too easily. Turn Undead never works. To top it all off, the way aggro works in those games can be totally random and I'll end up not being able to cast heal spells because every archer in the room decided to turn the cleric's ass into a pincushion.

 

[TiefBlau]

To a large extent, every player wants to "be" the character they're playing in most RPGs. So doing something you can't really see yourself doing in the same situation tends to break that. Ever since I was little and I was playing make believe with my friends, I just couldn't bring myself to be the evil guy.

In all honesty, it's just that no one's really evil. Evil is an intangible concept in terms of "I'm just gonna go kill people because I'm a dick." There are more complex reasons that people do bad things, so when a game just says "y'know, you have an option to kill this guy's kid just for the fuck of it," most people just shrug and say, "why the fuck would I want to do that?"

 

[Drummodino]

I often struggle to play evil too. It seems to vary from game to game though, I have no problems going the evil route in the Infamous series (although I did prefer and feel more comfortable with the good route in both games). I struggle to play a bad guy in games like Fallout or Elder Scrolls though, I just can't bring myself to be a dick. I like to help people ^_^

I think that comes down to not being able to violate my personal ethics. In games like Persona 4 where you can romance multiple partners at once, I just cannot do it even if I really like the other character. I just can't bring myself to cheat since I think it is a horrible thing to do. Catherine was similar, I was almost completely in the blue side because I felt really guilty about how Vincent was cheating on Katherine.

As for character types I struggle with... there isn't really one I can't stand. I tend to prefer lightly armoured fighters with either ranged weapons (snipers, bows, magic etc) or fast and quick melee (dual swords, daggers). I have played big tanks before though and enjoyed them. My next Fallout character is going to be a power armoured, energy weapon/power fist beast I think.