Poll: Would you play as a truly appalling person in a game?

[KazeAizen]

I'm not talking like GTA's Trevor Phillips level of evil, where they have no problem with torture and casually murder people. I'm talking about someone who is a literal piece of filth. Someone who:-

1.Is a sadist in every sense of the word
2.Will steal from the very poor
3.Rapes people
4.Kills children
5.Would prefer to leave an enemy to die broken and mutilated rather than finish them off.
6.Is manipulative and willing to exploit the earnest and unaware.

Basically would you be interested in playing as a person who is almost everything that is wrong with humanity? I'm sure some would like the "it depends" option, so lets say that the character does all six of those things. Would you still be able to play the game? I'm not saying you'd have to be comfortable whilst doing so.

Personally I'd be very interested to. Gaming is a good medium to explore such a dark theme. For example you wouldn't have to put any child actors through anything questionable to get footage. And actors wouldn't be reluctant to sign up to have their image used in an unpleasant way. But I can easily see why people would be offended by the idea.

What do you guys think?

Oh you better hope someone from CNN or Fox doesn't see this. Otherwise you will be all over the news as "Why video games are making our kids violent murderers and sociopaths."

OT: I'm not sure. I'm convinced anything can be done in a game if carefully thought out but that is the kind of stuff that is reserved for the villains you fight. I've seen games that have "game over" style endings such as Halo: Reach or Final Fantasy XIII-2. However I've yet to see a series where the bad guy actually wins or when you play as the bad guy. I wouldn't mind playing a character like that. Being put on the villain side instead of the noble hero. However they'd have to be careful about it. Careful in the sense of how well its executed.

 

[The Night Shade]

Sure but it needs to be fun or atleast interesting, and the mood also helps if it's presented in a funny way it could be satirical.

 

[Phasmal]

No, probably not.
I would definitely not play as a rapist.
That is just something I have absolutely no interest in.

Being horrible for the sake of being horrible would be pretty boring.
I mean, I've been bad in video games before. I filled a bath up with heads in Fallout 3.

But any kind of realistic be-a-terrible-person simulator just doesn't sound like a fun game to me.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Sure. Though, it wouldn't be the type of character I would invest in much.

In Warcraft 2, playing as the Orcs was fun if you took it with a grain of salt, because you truly felt like an unstoppable horde of malice and evil that would slaughter any human man, woman or child in its way and take down any force the "pathetic" Alliance could muster. Why? Because you can. They were fun to play (Ogre bloodlust) but pretty one-dimensional and bland the more you try to dissect them. Hence, I could never take Warcraft 1/2's story seriously, since it was about a bunch of evil, green-skinned aliens killing humans because that's what they do.

In Warcraft 3, on the other hand, the Orcs were more humanized. While it could have been done without retcons, the redemption arc was genuinely interesting in that you have a bunch of homeless Orcs struggling with their violent past and nature as they look for a new home, with Grom and Thrall representing two different facets of the Orcish race. From there, you could genuinely connect with them as protagonists.

In all cases, a developer should be encouraged to try out any new ideas.

 

[Generalsexbad]

Well, no one just decides to go around murdering everyone they see for no reason, it would depend on how they executed the character. The I reason why I never really start randomly killing, pillaging, and setting things on fire in rpgs is because typically there never is a reason too for my character. A character that does all those things you just mentioned would be a very difficult character for a game director to create a game for, and I'm not one of those kids who were bullied in school so I kill NPCs in games to feel powerful(which I'd bet would be the big chunk of the demographic for a game like that).

So I do think it would be really friggin' dumb if they just made a game where you start it and immediately they're telling you the objective is to set the mail man on fire.

 

[DarklordKyo]

Care to bother explaining who on earth that is? Sounds like some weird hentai villain.

You'r actually right on the money. He's the Villain Protagonist of this eroge called Virgin Roster. He's an unrepentant rapist working as a High School teacher, hoping to gain some sex slaves in the form of some students & a few faculty members. He's essentially a complete scumbag of a character.

 

[axillarypuma]

the only characters similar to that are the main characters in manhunt 1 and 2, that game is fucking sick, but it was an enjoyable stealth game and the theme was pretty disturbing.

Still waiting for a manhunt 3.

 

[verdant monkai]

You'r actually right on the money. He's the Villain Protagonist of this eroge called Virgin Roster. He's an unrepentant rapist working as a High School teacher, hoping to gain some sex slaves in the form of some students & a few faculty members. He's essentially a complete scumbag of a character.

I see you live in America. Shame.

If you lived over here I'd ask you to come by my flat and play it with me. I guess it's just not to be :'(

 

[DarklordKyo]

I see you live in America. Shame.

If you lived over here I'd ask you to come by my flat and play it with me. I guess it's just not to be :'(

I don't even own a copy, so you'd be kinda screwed even if I did lived near you (unless you got yourself one). If you decide you want to get yourself a copy, it was given an english translation, and you can buy a physical copy from Amazon or eBay.

 

[ThisNickname]

It all comes down to developer, doesn't it? =) In the right hands, that could be really amazing (though probably not very enjoyable). Lazy minds could reduce it to cheap shock value. The Escapist's own Mr. Chipman likes to say that you can make a good movie out of anything, and I think the same holds true for games, and indeed media in general.

So yeah... it depends. (Sorry.) X)

 

[Timedraven 117]

I actually know entire race of people like that. They are called the Dark Eldar, and they will prolong your suffering for so long that you will wish you were dead in the first hour. Seriously those guys are demented as all hell.

Would i play as someone like the Dark Eldar or someone who you described? Probably. My parents would heavily reject it however (I'm not allowed to buy GTA)

 

[otakon17]

I'm not talking like GTA's Trevor Phillips level of evil, where they have no problem with torture and casually murder people. I'm talking about someone who is a literal piece of filth. Someone who:-

1.Is a sadist in every sense of the word
2.Will steal from the very poor
3.Rapes people
4.Kills children
5.Would prefer to leave an enemy to die broken and mutilated rather than finish them off.
6.Is manipulative and willing to exploit the earnest and unaware.

Basically would you be interested in playing as a person who is almost everything that is wrong with humanity? I'm sure some would like the "it depends" option, so lets say that the character does all six of those things. Would you still be able to play the game? I'm not saying you'd have to be comfortable whilst doing so.

Personally I'd be very interested to. Gaming is a good medium to explore such a dark theme. For example you wouldn't have to put any child actors through anything questionable to get footage. And actors wouldn't be reluctant to sign up to have their image used in an unpleasant way. But I can easily see why people would be offended by the idea.

What do you guys think?

Nope, I've tried to be an evil selfish bastard in games that let you have that option. I can't do it, it makes me queasy and uneasy. It's not like I don't know it's virtual characters with no real emotions or feelings, it just doesn't feel right. SOMETIMES I'll do the "renegade" or "evil" option but only in the most justifiable of cases(like how is taking down an enemy combatant with an explosion in a story scene "renegade" if I'm just going to have to kill them anyway?).

 

[kaizen2468]

Depends if it was my choice. Take SW:KoTR. I'm always a pretty sadistic darkside asshole, but I have control of it. If they just did w/e vile thing they wanted without my input I wouldn't play them probably, or wouldn't enjoy it.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Wasn't that Postal in a nutshell?

I mean, I don't mind playing an omnicidal maniac. When sufficiently bored, I turn into this in any sandbox game. I don't mind playing a right bastard from time to time. However, I think this is going a bit far. Even evil has standards.

Then again, playing as a Viking in Crusader Kings III is kind of close to that. You can certainly maim opponents, abduct women for either ransom or concubines, kill children because they hold titles you want, and steal from other people's poor people. What lets them get away with it is distance and no graphical representation of such things taking place.

On a side note, I've been spending far too much time on TV Tropes.

 

[Dragonlayer]

It depends on how I personally view the character really.

I mean, I thought I'd be fine with being an appalling excuse for a human being until I played GTA V which is chock-full of unlikable twats. But on the other hand, I typically go for the "Evil" options in RPGs and didn't even blame Captain Walker that much for his actions in Spec Ops: The Line. I think I'm going to go ahead and agree with the posers talking about "Doing 'evil' things for more intelligent and believable reasons then for the lolz". For example, I sided with Caeser's Legion not because I get off on slavery and genocide but because I felt their ruthless actions were the best solution to the anarchy of New Vegas and the Nevada wastes.

 

[Ice Car]

Thaaaaat really depends. I'm the kind of person that detests playing as a villain if it means siding with somebody that inherently goes against what I believe in. I can't side with the Legion in New Vegas for instance, because of, well, everything that they do. I've never so much as explored their side of the story, because I detested the idea of killing people that didn't deserve it for those that I found morally reprehensible in a video game no less. Not sure if that's a sign of me being too soft or just getting too immersed in the game universe whenever I play.

Let's see. From a gameplay standpoint, is this method of play a lot more fun? Are the people we're killing just nameless NPCs that I couldn't care about? Is that all the game allows you to do? I dunno. I don't like playing as absolute evil and there'd actually have to be a lot for me to play as one. Ambiguous evil, or anti-heroes I can get behind, but I can't role play as a person that's mean to good people in any capacity.

 

[Sofus]

That depends on the situation, the outcome and how much the game decides to punish me.

I'm not sure how anyone could manage to incorporate something like being sadistic into a game.. isn't it relatd to getting gratification from causing pain? oh right... we all love to play games that have combat in them.

I rather doubt that I would ever want to play a game that had a rape mechanic. I also doubt that any sane developer would want to work on such a mechanic in the first place.

I'm okay with killing children in games.. especially the ones in Skyrim.

I left Mr. House to rot away in the Lucky 38.. and it felt right.

Would I steal from the poor? well... if they are so poor then they won't miss those five gold coins anyway. Oh and manipulating people isn't always a bad thing. I often play a goodie two shoe character... that just happens to steal, lie, murder, betray and exploit everyone so long as there aren't any real negative consequences.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Well, I don't meet all of that criteria, but my Oblivion/Skyrim character (or in pretty much any game like that) is usually a bit of a dick.

I steal from churches, the poor, women, children, or even the fence that I sell to, usually sell his own stuff that I'd just stolen.

I have killed children in those games after modding in the ability to do so. Namely Jarl Balgruff's bratty semen-spawns in Whiterun.

Also, I usually have magic with my sneakiness that charms people into fighting with me or fighting each other, so that kinda covers the manipulative thing.

I've also killed NPCs just because I felt like it. Then I usually steal all of their belongings of value.

No rape or leaving people broken instead of mercy killing (although, that'd be something I'd do if that was an option). So, all in all, maybe not evil, but a massive dick nonetheless.