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Why do I almost always have to play as a good character?

Spyxos

Gold Member
I'm playing Jedi Survival right now and as almost always, you're the good one. Especially here it would make sense that the main character changes to the Dark Side. Or at least give me the option to be the bad guy. In Mass Effect I was sometimes good sometimes evil. The same in Fable. Gives us some choice. I don't want to play the same stuff all the time.
 

sainraja

Member
Haze was a game that tried to put you in a position where the side you were initially fighting with weren't exactly the good guys (there is a point in the where you realize this and switch sides). Unlike many, I have finished Haze lol, and the execution of that wasn't exactly the best. I loved the idea or concept of that though.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
Moral decay of society? You can laugh it off but it’s already happening for that very reason.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
caim-smile.gif
drakengard-zero.gif
 

killatopak

Member
I'm playing Jedi Survival right now and as almost always, you're the good one. Especially here it would make sense that the main character changes to the Dark Side. Or at least give me the option to be the bad guy. In Mass Effect I was sometimes good sometimes evil. The same in Fable. Gives us some choice. I don't want to play the same stuff all the time.
Because people choose the good guy 90% of the time regardless if given the choice or not. Simply put, if your work isn't gonna be seen by majority of people, it would make more sense to put more effort in those that do.

For reference check out the data gathered by Bioware during the Mass Effect trilogy to see the splits between Paragon and Renegade.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Final Fantasy XIII
you destroy the only source of food/water/shelter for a city of 10 million people and dump them all into a savage wasteland filled with beasts that already eradicated a far more rugged human civilization.
 

Fbh

Member
Yeah it's pretty boring, though I guess metrics in games like Mass Effect show people tend to prefer to play as good guys.
IMO it also sucks that when games give you the option to be evil you usually become some cartoony villain who is a dick to everyone and seemingly just does bad stuff for the sake of it. I was always disappointed that Mass Effect encourages you to go either 100% Paragon or 100% Renegade, if you try to play as a mix of both you get no benefits and get locked out from a lot of dialogue choices. I always wanted to do a playthrough as an evil bastard that's still sort of nice and friendly with his inner circle, but the game isn't designed for that.

Cause gamers brains implode if you're not playing the good guy (the Last of Us 2)

But most people love TLOU 1 and Joel was easily a worse person than anyone in TLOU2
 
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I like games that have you playing as the bad guy, but you don't realize it at first because we're trained to think we're the good guys by default. A few come to mind:
Spec Ops: The Line, Silent Hill 2, Far Cry 3, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

The Dishonored series does a good job of playing in moral grey areas. Kane and Lynch 2 went all-out on being bad guys, but it didn't do well.
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
Then go play something else, lol. Clearly this isn't a game with branching story paths where you get to build a character and make decisions, so why would you even complain about something like that? Do you go around complaining about Doom for not giving you an option to sit down and have a tea party with demons instead of ripping their spleens out?

And by the way, you didn't have an option to be evil in Mass Effect either. You could maybe pull a Dirty Harry move sometimes and throw some asshole off a roof, and he would always have it coming, but otherwise you literally save the galaxy and maybe tell Liara to quit crying in a slightly assertive manner while passing her a hanky and patting her on the back. You certainly don't get an option to murder half your squad in cold blood and become a space dictator like in KOTOR, that's for sure.

And yeah, speaking of, just go play KOTOR if you're looking for a Star Wars game with options.
 
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Cashon

Banned
I like games that have you playing as the bad guy, but you don't realize it at first because we're trained to think we're the good guys by default. A few come to mind:
Spec Ops: The Line, Silent Hill 2, Far Cry 3, Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

The Dishonored series does a good job of playing in moral grey areas. Kane and Lynch 2 went all-out on being bad guys, but it didn't do well.
I immediately thought of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.
 
People are dumb and think that they are "good" and always"do good" and that they good always wins at the end....

Grey/bad characters are too much for most games brains, they want a simple dumb "hero's journey" story to play through.

TLDR: understand that "good" and "bad" is a matter of perspective and that good do not always wins is too much for lesser brains.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
The thing is only Drag-on Dragoon franchise is just... not good
Drakengard truly is the Poor Man's BERSERK everyone should play and is therefore amazing. Nothing yet has topped Caim and his slasher smile. You just a heretic.

Not my fault you don't like Musou with bad objectives and a nice Panzer Dragoon shoot em up.

And if you shame Drakengard you also shame NieR. Shame on you.

Angry Half Baked GIF


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If you want to be evil in Star Wars then KotoR 1 and 2 along with SWTOR are the go to. Particularly with the Sith Empire Faction although Trooper and Smuggler can be pretty evil Republic side as well. Jedi mostly come off as jerks dark side.
 
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SlimeGooGoo

Party Gooper
Because we want to pass good values to future generations.

We want the good guys to be used as role models for good citizens.
 

Arachnid

Member
Yeah, it's annoying. I try my best to play a degenerate in every game I can, but it's rare I get that chance. Tbh, the few games I've seen with degenerate main characters have a bunch of people who avoid them because they don't want to play as bad people. It's kind of annoying to see that comment around. I've seen it here in Neogaf a bunch. I want a new Manhunt.

At least Hogwarts lets me be a viscous school bully who tortures and murders his enemies, but it's not enough.
 
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This is why OG God of War is amazing
And even then we have lame people and even the modern dev team that dont understand that what made kratos unique was that you werent playing a good, rational, ethical or always perfect human being.

You're playing as a ruthless, vengeful, self interested person. Who's about as bad as the enemies hes fighting.

And now these days they need to clean him up as if they feel they have to apologize for the character.

People today are lowkey so narcisistic that they cant comprehend playing as someone different than themselves...or a bad person.

We had a better understanding of what kratos was as a character then, than we do now.
 
The Syndicate FPS: four hours of awesome civilian massacre as you're working for Michael Wincott and Brian Cox, then you randomly join... the communists or something and fight the corporation for like forty minutes.
I was so fucking mad.
Every time I see Rosario Dawson I remember that shitty U-turn. I just wanted to commit terrorist attacks in trains and discos and make people kill themselves for another twenty hours!
 
People are dumb and think that they are "good" and always"do good" and that they good always wins at the end....

Grey/bad characters are too much for most games brains, they want a simple dumb "hero's journey" story to play through.

TLDR: understand that "good" and "bad" is a matter of perspective and that good do not always wins is too much for lesser brains.
Exactly, its why god of war ragnarok and modern kratos is not a "growth" in character as much as it is a cliche now.

Old kratos broke the rules of the heroes journey.

Smart dumb people say things like "he was so angry and was a psychopath" THATS THE POINT. NOW GET IN CHARACTER.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
I wouldn't say the protagonists in the Mafia series are necessarily good guys, same with GTA and Read Dead for the most part.

Though even in those they attempt to shape the negative aspects into something that gives the characters some kind of moral high ground in their actions. I can see where it would be a rough go PR wise to make a game where you are a mass murderer or serial killer or something.

Edit: And Hitman, how could I forget the assassin for hire game. There though they work really hard to give the targets backstories that make them villains to the player.
 
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poodaddy

Member
I don't get the appeal of playing as a pile of shit human being. The world is mostly filled with pile of shit people, and dealing with pile of shit people on a daily basis is just exhausting and disheartening, and you wanna play as a pile of shit while you're engaging in escapism?

That's a pile of shit.
 

A.Romero

Member
The real reason is because it's impossible to find absolute black or white in real life but we are not used to use critical thinking and our empathetic capabilities as human beings so it becomes second nature to take absolutist positions and satanize whatever is different. Recognizing gray areas and operating within them requires way more effort and intelect than just fall into radicalism.

So basically game writers and designers know people are dumb or lazy (or both) and know that demanding that kind of effort from the majority of players will result in their game's success being jeopardized. Most likely they are also dumb/lazy too and there are way more tropes to chose from when you start from the greatest trope of all: good vs evil.
 

A.Romero

Member
I wouldn't say the protagonists in the Mafia series are necessarily good guys, same with GTA and Read Dead for the most part.

Though even in those they attend to shape the negative aspects into something that tries to give the characters some kind of moral high ground in their actions. I can see where it would be a rough go PR wise to make a game where you are a mass murderer or serial killer or something.

That's a good point. GTA and RDR are all about the criminal life as well as other similar games but they frame it in a likeable way. Understandable, nobody wants to play as someone you couldn't find somewhat enticing or made you feel truly evil. Regretfully, that comes at the cost of mostly superficial characters.
 
Because people choose the good guy 90% of the time regardless if given the choice or not. Simply put, if your work isn't gonna be seen by majority of people, it would make more sense to put more effort in those that do.

For reference check out the data gathered by Bioware during the Mass Effect trilogy to see the splits between Paragon and Renegade.
Lol dude the reason why people go good, is because there's always this looming threat that if you go bad, you be punished with a bad ending or some shit like that.
 
Exactly, its why god of war ragnarok and modern kratos is not a "growth" in character as much as it is a cliche now.

Old kratos broke the rules of the heroes journey.

Smart dumb people say things like "he was so angry and was a psychopath" THATS THE POINT. NOW GET IN CHARACTER.
WTF are to talking about dude?

In old GoW games Kratos was never the baddie he's clearly the grey anti hero very cliche and cheese(but what did you expected from a masher hack n slash?)... I agree that new Kratos is better but that's has nothing to do with my comment and even with the Op.

People are talking a out being Bad character the vilain the one that kills innocent people with or without goals...

Very few games let you do that and when they do they almost always try to paint you as sometype of victim seeking vengeance (the game Prototype comes to mind). Like I explained above I firmly believe the reason they do those things is because lesser brains have a very limited vision of the world.

People have a very 0/1 black/white thinking which is way they have a hard time understanding bad(real bad) guys.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Link: -Appropriates Kokiri culture, is an Immigrant AND a colonizer.

- Was raised by a tree. Proceeds to kill tree.

- Breaks into a castle.

- Slingshots peoples' windows.

- Walks into peoples houses. Breaks their pottery. Takes their money.

- Encounters starving race, takes their food.

- Let's the King of Evil take over the world.

- Trolls Ruto.

- Joins a guild of desert Thieves.

- Frees an ancient evil from beneath Kakariko.

- He goes to break a curse freezing Zora's Domain. Breaks curse. Zora's Domain is still frozen. Leaves.

- Routinely steals farm animals.

- Abuses chickens.

- Captures spirits and sells them.

- Doesn't even kill Ganon, and just peaces out to Past Hyrule, leaving the entire world to drown when Ganon escapes and is reasonably pissed about spending a century in a white void.

Play OOT, OP.
 

Lasha

Member
Compelling evil characters are difficult to write. Evil protagonists are even harder to write. Tropes like redemption and the traditional heroes journey lack the same impact because audiences have trouble sympathizing with evil. The works that do focus on "bad" character target good/sympathetic individuals who are part of a larger "bad" organization.

Games have trouble handling evil for multiple reasons. Game writing lacks the talent to handle non traditional stories. Publishers hesitate to put anything too objectionable in their games in fear of legal retribution and a roasting in the press. Real evil doesn't have an imaginary hand preventing the killing of kids or innocents. Players themselves are probably the biggest barrier. Players like being the "dark" or "evil" path when it's funny or edgy stuff. The average player isn't going to be down for torturing people, murding families, or other evil acts as mandatory gameplay.
 
I'm playing Jedi Survival right now and as almost always, you're the good one. Especially here it would make sense that the main character changes to the Dark Side. Or at least give me the option to be the bad guy. In Mass Effect I was sometimes good sometimes evil. The same in Fable. Gives us some choice. I don't want to play the same stuff all the time.

Harada, the director of Tekken, said his favorite game is Payday2 because the game allowed him to rob banks. And that he can't make a game like that in Japan.
GTA from the very first game onwards had always allowed you to be the bad guy, and is the entire appeal of the franchise.

For example, one game I like a lot, Payday 2, has four people trying to plan a bank robbery, which, to your average Japanese citizen, is crazy to have this kind of crime simulator.

Note that if you play mostly Japanese games, you wouldn't be able to play as a violent bad guy due to social views on violent crime.

On the other hand if you mostly play Western games you wouldn't get games of a sexual nature because THAT is the boogie man of the West.
 
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WTF are to talking about dude?

In old GoW games Kratos was never the baddie he's clearly the grey anti hero very cliche and cheese(but what did you expected from a masher hack n slash?)... I agree that new Kratos is better but that's has nothing to do with my comment and even with the Op.

People are talking a out being Bad character the vilain the one that kills innocent people with or without goals...

Very few games let you do that and when they do they almost always try to paint you as sometype of victim seeking vengeance (the game Prototype comes to mind). Like I explained above I firmly believe the reason they do those things is because lesser brains have a very limited vision of the world.

People have a very 0/1 black/white thinking which is way they have a hard time understanding bad(real bad) guys.

Maybe if you only played the first game.

I see the grey anti-hero less in games, than the likeable hard ass. You played as someone who was written to kill innocents without any regard in the past games. His journey was arguably misguided in god of war 2 and 3 and he is arguably as bad as the enemies he fought, although you related to his perspectibe of events. The goal was to have the player say "aw zues imma beat that ass I swear" against all reason.

That's not done today.
 

SeraphJan

Member
Drakengard truly is the Poor Man's BERSERK everyone should play and is therefore amazing. Nothing yet has topped Caim and his slasher smile. You just a heretic.

Not my fault you don't like Musou with bad objectives and a nice Panzer Dragoon shoot em up.

And if you shame Drakengard you also shame NieR. Shame on you.

Angry Half Baked GIF


--------------------

If you want to be evil in Star Wars then KotoR 1 and 2 along with SWTOR are the go to. Particularly with the Sith Empire Faction although Trooper and Smuggler can be pretty evil Republic side as well. Jedi mostly come off as jerks dark side.
:messenger_tongue:Joke aside. The reason I playthrough the PS2 Drag-on Dragoons was exactly because I thought it was Sangoku Musou 3 (when Musou was actually good) meets Panzer Dragoon, however It turns out it was equally mediocre in both genre (The controls and animations are so awkward even by PS2 standard). Nier wasn't even made back then (the lore was loosely connected anyways), both Nier games were my favorite, but their "prequels" are completely different games.
 
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