For years we have been in the boots of heroes and heroines, helped the poor rebels fight against the oppressive empire or destroy an ancient evil hungry for power and control.
But how many games do we get the chance to play as an evil character? I really can't remember the last game I saw or played that let you play as "evil".
And this is why I'm making this post, in games, movies or books, a great majority of times we see good and evil personified pretty easily from the onset of a story, this is the bad guy because he wanted power this is the good guy because he fights for the people.
Wouldn't it be interesting to have a game where you play a neutral character? or perhaps 2 characters who begin as neutral and depending on your actions they end up being good or evil, but your perception of their moral standing depends on you not a heavily scripted and restricted story.
In the real world, no one is born being "evil" or "good", these people who end up being frowned upon by society because they did X or Y is most of the times due to what happen to them before.
Perhaps someone was brought up in a family that beat them up, or maybe they suffered an accident that completely changed their perception of life so now they try to do what they think is better.
Why are Batman's foes so successful as villains? most of the time its not because of what they do, but what they are. They are characters that even though oppose what Batman fights for (justice and order) they are as troubled and confused as he is, they are victims of their life experiences and that makes them what they are, they weren't born to do evil just as Batman wasn't born to fight against it.
My problem with games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Fable is not that their not done well, because they are, my problem is that no matter what you do in each of them you will always have similar results. If your good you save the world if your evil people die, why can't I have a game where I can do either without the moral implications developers put on us.
Maybe it wouldn't be a marketable or profitable game, I mean, would anyone out there like to play as Hitler? I don't think so, but would it be interesting to see their life and how it was shaped up before they became the "good" or "evil" characters in a game? Im pretty sure a lot of people would love to see that.
If there is one thing that I hate about story driven games is this exact problem, the boundries developers force on people with their moral compass. Im pretty sure you wouldn't think your character is evil because you experienced their life situations leading up to the end, but to someone else it could be the exact opposite and that is what I think would make for a very personal and compelling experience.
What do you think?
