People turning into monsters

[Tartarga]

So I started playing through the Resistance series again and a thought popped into my head. Why in so many games are people being turned into the monsters we are sworn to kill. In Resistance the Chimera had those conversion centers, or at least they did in the first game, in Fable 2 it spoke of the Hobbs kidnapping children to turn them into more Hobbs, and in Dragon Age there were the mages becoming Abominations. I'm sure there are more but this is all I can think of. Is it just lazy writing? Our enemies have to come from somewhere but surly they could come up with something better than this.

What do you think my fellow Escapians, lazy writing or something else?

 

[Olrod]

Because it would send a bad message if we were allowed to kill people "just because". So we have to have an excuse to kill them, ergo they become monsters instead so we can kill them without needing to think too much about it.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I guess it's because it gives a sad story that gives us a reason to care about what's going on while keeping the enemies human like, but not too inhuman so they're still fun to kill. See: zombies.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well the most prominent example in my mind is FFX whereby the soul of a dead person,m if it was not sent on, would eventually become jealous of the living and turn into a monster.

Honestly that worked for me... and it seems like Gears of War 3 is going to go that way... they've been dropping enough hints.

I find myself okay with it as generally it's not just shoehorned in and it is a good plot point, in my non-professional opinion.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Because we're not allowed to kill kids, or hurt women, or hurt authority figures or...anything else apart from Nazis...and possibly smokers.

So, we give them a palette swap and YAY! CARNAGE!

Normal hypocritical censors. The same ones that let you join the Army and kill people at 16, but don't let you buy violent video games until 18 because "they're interactive".

 

[NeedAUserName]

Well, before it became over popular, it probably was a very cool idea, I mean if you really think about it theres the moral dilemma of "Are they human, or are they monsters?". But it also shows how the enemy seemingly has an unlimited supply of troops from out of nowhere and I imagine, although its late and I'm going to bed so can't be arsed to research, armies have probably done this before in real life (kidnapped/acquired opposition forces) and turned them on their former allies through one way or another.

 

[twistedheat15]

Well having ppl turn into monsters is better then picking a random group of ppl to be the "Monsters", and it doesn't have that overly done "save the world from invading aliens that for some reason are fighting us with guns instead of some super microwave gun from space". Some games just pick the random zombie nazi's to fight others just say fck it lets have ppl turning into monsters that way no1 feels like they're being targeted specifically.

 

[Furious Styles]

It makes it more horrifying if they were us once, means it could happen to us.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

I always felt that it was that sense that your race is slowly losing. It kind of adds a sense of hopelessness.

Humans are often fairly bland as well, whereas the possibilities with monsters are endless. You can have them do whatever you want.

 

[Gilhelmi]

I say it is lazy writing. Just less lazy than Nazis

For instance, how many games had us kill Nazis? No need to explain why you are killing them they are Nazis, just like vampires you kill Nazis.

 

[Tartarga]

I always felt that it was that sense that your race is slowly losing. It kind of adds a sense of hopelessness.

That makes sense to me, if anything Resistance 2 made very good use of this with the radio broadcasts that slowly get more depressing as you progress through the game.

 

[Elephant Walker19]

Also in Dragon Age women who eat dark spawn meat turn in to brood mothers.