My Inner Bad Guy

[runedeadthA]

Nice article Susan. The people in that game deserve to die when even when I'm driving a tank towards them, they only do a small jog in the direction I'm going.

Agreed, its a bit like " Oh no! A tank is coming towards me! Let me slowly jog out of the way". Likewise the people who actually dive UNDER the treads of my tank -_-.

Anyway I generally don't consume the average person simply because it's more useful to keep a Military disguise backed up... Doesn't stop me killing them though, Those poor bunch of pixels.

 

[Lyri]

Reading this makes me want to play [Prototype] more than I did, I'll have to try and blag a copy out of someone tommorow.
It's good that someone finally made a game where people can relish in the fact that they're being complete dicks, good or bad cause or purely for self interest.
I feel games like SpiderMan lose value when you play as the friendly neighbourhood spider and start punching babies.

Games like GTAIV have some kind of justification to killing of a few pixel people, but when you look at the character of Niko Bellic, his reason for being in Liberty City I can't really imagine him gunning down groups of innocents.
However, with a game like [Prototype] being a jackass seems like the right thing too do, I'm going to trample over your flowerbed, run up the side of your house and leave my footprints on your roof, why?
I wanted to zoom zoom across the sky so I could drop in on that tank.
The characters story justifys the actions too.

I remember on the DVD of "The Crow", there was an interview with Brendon Lee about how he's been in films with lots of violence in them, but this film the violence is justified.
Finally gamers get a slice of that pie.

 

[silentsentinel]

Are you kidding me? Whenever I found myself with the slightest bit of lost health in Prototype, I immediately leapt into the closest crowd of people and started consuming them left and right, as though they were nothing more than a bunch of cheesy nachos. Then I would hijack a helicopter and fly it into a military base.

 

[CoverYourHead]

Okay, so this spoiler will ruin the story of the game; if you haven't beaten it, don't read... at least, don't blame me if it spoils things.

Spoiler: I'm serious!

What's crazy is discovering through the story and web of intrigue that Alex Mercer is the guy that caused everything terrible happening in New York. He was one evil guy before he got super powers, and he still pretty much is. It was something that made me reflect on all of his (or my) terrible actions working towards revenge and information. It was a really cool moment.

 

[JamminOz07]

I started playing Prototype last night. When you, as Alex is moving through a crowd of people, he'll push and backhand people out of the way. There's no way to stop this, short of walking around the people. It shows what kind of character Alex is, a prick, which is totally fun to play cause I'm such a normal, law abiding person in real life.

 

[Souplex]

Susie gets her own section of the site? JUBILATIONS!

 

[Clemenstation]

Are you kidding me? Whenever I found myself with the slightest bit of lost health in Prototype, I immediately leapt into the closest crowd of people and started consuming them left and right, as though they were nothing more than a bunch of cheesy nachos. Then I would hijack a helicopter and fly it into a military base.

Humanitarian of the year!

 

[Susan Arendt]

Wait a minute... So collateral damage is acceptable providing the reason for it is self preservation and information? That doesn't sit right with me.

I get that the player might be able to connect with Alex more when he's emotionally driven by anger ("You are pissed + I am sympathetic = I will help you break things violently") but even still I hardly think that's a valid license to destroy the world. At least you have a clear aim with money, power and information, but where does retribution end? Anger (or any emotion for that matter) is a flimsier excuse than any material end to destroy everything because while it might connect and seem more agreeable to the player, it still doesn't offer an adequate reason for such behaviour.

At least with a bad person, you know exactly what you're aiming for. With an angry or emotional person, the end isn't exactly as clear.

I get that Prototype is a game (a game I haven't played so I may be far, far from the point) but I have trouble imagining a legitimate reason for anger induced madness.

You have a clear aim with Alex, too -- to find out what has been done to you, and by whom. Your goal is perfectly clear: to get the information you want, then use that information to exact vengeance on those who've put you in this position. As for the collateral damage, like I said, it's not something I try to achieve as I play. I'd much rather the innocent civilians just stay clear of me. But if they don't, that's a them problem, not a me problem.

 

[Neotericity]

Well your article definetly brought some things I hadn't thought about, but my two favourite activities are how far can I throw someone and using the shield power to ram through crowds. Maybe I'll think twice now.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Good article, Susan

I agree with several points

 

[Fightgarr]

Now I haven't played our dear friend Prototype so I have no idea what its about and the depth of the story. Arguably this destroys how legitimate my post may be in the context of the article. From what I've gather this is a virus (by definition is not something altogether good) that gives you superpowers? After receiving said superpowers you go batshit bonkers and kill people? I mean I assume there's a lot more to it than that. I assume the whole story element explains why he's doing what he's doing and why this virus is a virus and why the game is called Prototype.

Personally when I want to be the evil dude I go for Overlord. Its cartoony enough and filled with enough parody for me to love being a bastard.
Though even in Overlord I was a relatively uncorrupted overlord.

 

[Valiard]

and yet no one has mentioned the Dungeon Keeper series at all...pity

 

[stompythebeast]

i really really like you. there...i said it.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Great article, Susan. I'm impressed at all of the discussion here about morality and character motivations. It's too bad more game developers don't have discussions like these -- we might just see real moral dilemmas and believable characters. I can't wait for a character with enough density that I can place myself in his shoes, rather than projecting my own character on top of him.

 

[paragon1]

Now I haven't played our dear friend Prototype so I have no idea what its about and the depth of the story. Arguably this destroys how legitimate my post may be in the context of the article. From what I've gather this is a virus (by definition is not something altogether good) that gives you superpowers? After receiving said superpowers you go batshit bonkers and kill people? I mean I assume there's a lot more to it than that. I assume the whole story element explains why he's doing what he's doing and why this virus is a virus and why the game is called Prototype.

Personally when I want to be the evil dude I go for Overlord. Its cartoony enough and filled with enough parody for me to love being a bastard.
Though even in Overlord I was a relatively uncorrupted overlord.

Okay, first of all, the game is called [Prototype], not Protoype Seriously, its on the box, and thats how it appears on sites like game FAQs. Secondly, you do not go "batshit bonkers". You wake up with amnesia to the sight of three guys in hazmat suits about to do an autopsy on you. When you wake up, they immeadiately flee outside, where they inform some guards in high-tech military gear, and are promptly killed by said guards. The same guards immediately shoot you. At this point Alex discovers his powers. See how the character might be a little pissed off?

So who else got the "nice guy" acheivement?

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Good article, and it was a very interesting read for sure. However, I get the sense that you lean more so toward a bit of an anti-hero motivation. Now it is entirely possible I am misinterpreting, but that does sound more anti-hero to me than true villian, even if the said character is only out for them self. A sort of Machaivalian approach where the end justifies the means. Though I probably would be pissed two in Alex's situation
I get the feeling that with the option to be evil in many games, often the motivation is evil for the sake of evil. Well no that isn't entirely true. When I tried out evil in Fable, I found out I could become evil just by stealing alot of stuff, and I didn't have to commit mass murder, though I did kill a few characters (Whisper and Thunder learned quite painfully why they shouldn't call me farmboy!) but other than that maybe I was being more mischevious than truly evil.

 

[DonPauliani]

Fine line between narratology and ludology, babe. There is rarely such a thing as over analyzing: it behooves us all as trendy, chic, edgy gamers to inspect and criticize games; and to decide whether or not we want to engage in a cliche so we can play a cliche, or whether we want something different-- like being able to dropkick a helicopter WHILE questioning the ethics of murdering innocent, albeit, non existent people.

 

[DonPauliani]

Good article, and it was a very interesting read for sure. However, I get the sense that you lean more so toward a bit of an anti-hero motivation. Now it is entirely possible I am misinterpreting, but that does sound more anti-hero to me than true villian, even if the said character is only out for them self. A sort of Machaivalian approach where the end justifies the means. Though I probably would be pissed two in Alex's situation
I get the feeling that with the option to be evil in many games, often the motivation is evil for the sake of evil. Well no that isn't entirely true. When I tried out evil in Fable, I found out I could become evil just by stealing alot of stuff, and I didn't have to commit mass murder, though I did kill a few characters (Whisper and Thunder learned quite painfully why they shouldn't call me farmboy!) but other than that maybe I was being more mischevious than truly evil.

Oh thank GOD. I was waiting for someone to point out moral ambiguity is cool while rough-quoting the prince.

 

[Laura.]

I pretty much agree with the review, I also tried to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage... until I found out that

Spoiler

I wasn't human, and I wasn't playing Mercer, but the Blacklight virus

from that point on I started killing every single thing between me and my objective

For me it was a turning point in the game. I was no longer bound by

Spoiler: this might be a spoiler

human morals!

 

[similar.squirrel]

Erm..I think it was Yahtzee who pointed out that civilians you slaughtered in that game probably had sisters too.
And were about as confused Alex by the whole situation.