Being the Monster

[hooglese]

There is something primal about being able to play a video game as a monster. Metaphorically or literally. Whether it's tearing around Hyrule as a wolf in Twilight Princess, or mercilessly beating an elderly woman in GTA it feels great. I think it's a large reason we play video games. It's just pure animistic chaos and fun and its easily one of the most cathartic things in life. So why do I always have to play the hero?

In order to like the character? I think that's more on the writers shoulders than anything. Breaking Bad proved you can have a sinister monster as the protagonist and get higher reviews than any show where a hero saves the day. Of course you can side step a good anti-hero and end up being Kane & Lynch, but that's just bad writing. So no, I don't think not letting us play as a monster is because we can't cope with it. It just depends on who's writing it.

Now let's talk in game content. What's the first thing you wanted to do in a sandbox game? It was probably go berserk. Steal a car, kill a guy, jump off the tallest building. You know, general feeling of freedom stuff, that if you did in reality people would likely throw you in an asylum. But regardless, you did it. It was fun. It had no consequences. You remember Modern Warfare 2? Mowing down civilians with a machine gun? Do you remember thinking "by Jehovah this is unacceptable, I must yell to the heavens", if so, stop reading my forum posts, mom. You probably thought the same thing I did: "wow this is lovely in the worst way". Remember that horrific thing you did in Spec Ops The Line? You felt bad after, didn't you? But do you remember doing it? I personally felt giddy, like Hephaestus setting the world ablaze. After of course, I was miserable and can't touch the game again. On a less depressing note Metroid Prime 3 pulled this off well. As you progress, you become more and more like the villain you are sworn to kill. Activating that hyper-mode makes you feel like a god. You can see it hurting you, and you're reminded how much it's hurting you and the environment constantly, but you're going to do it anyways. You're going to try and turn into Dark Samus. A monster, with no motivation but to kill.

But letting you play a real, literal monster. I contorted monstrosity, or a feral beast. A creature, not a human, nor humanoid. That is a rare feature to find in a game. Hardly ever is there a game where you get to play as something with four legs. The obvious reason would be that "it's hard to come up with" and yeah, it is. It's probably one of the hardest things you can make in a game. Also, people typically don't like this. Probably because people don't like admitting they're animals. I don't know, that's just my jaded opinion. One of my favorite games is Aliens Versus Predator. Marine campaign, mind you, sucked chunks but the Aliens game play was so visceral and fast paced, I ignored it's massive flaws and loved it. A game akin to this is "Natural Selection",but it's more of a perfected version of AvP so I won't talk about it. The other game and pretty much one of the only other games that lets you do this is "Twilight Princess". Where you literally get to play as a wolf. Most people played through the game and when they didn't have to, they weren't the wolf. I didn't. I had way more fun using the movement speed and mauling my opponent. Dead to Rights did this, but I had to share the game with the least interesting Lethal Weapon impersonator ever written so I don't think it counts. I hear Call of Duty another one is adding dogs too but you can't die so it's essentially a QTE. Also, why are there no games where I play as a tiger, or a lizard? It's always dogs. I like dogs, but its always dogs. If I could play a game as an agile, acrobatic death cat, I'd be stoked.

Anyways what's the point?
Why would you think theres a point.

This is an internet forum...

GET OUT OF HERE

 

[Illesdan]

You sound like you would enjoy tabletop roleplaying 'Werewolf: The Apocalypse' than an actual video game. Just saying.

I think the reason there aren't more games where you are the beast/predator is because its all about public access. Most people (and I am guilty of this as well) want a character that visually reflects what they would prefer to be, or prefer to see on a screen for hours on end. Many of my male friends make female characters on games just because they'd rather see the backside of someone attractive if they're going to be stuck looking at the back of the character 90 per cent of the game.

Its not so much people don't WANT to play the bad guy; its just those types of stories are a hard sell if the protagonist doesn't have a very solid, good reason for being the bad guy. 'City of Heroes' tried (and failed miserably) when they made 'City of Villains' to make it where you were 'the heavy', but, in my opinion, it just felt like you were an errand boy for a bunch of second-rate losers. In short, there was no good reason you were bad, you were just tossed into the game that way.

 

[stormeris]

Being the monster?
Prototype in a nutshell.
I mean, all you do is run around shapeshifting your arms into swords, whips, giant claws and slicing soldiers and civilians alike into bloody bits.

But yeah, i feel there aren't enough games were you're the monster and not someone hunting the said monster. I wouldn't mind a game where you're like a fucking dinosaur (or an alien, or a frankenstein monster or whatever) trying to evade capture, while at the same time spreading chaos and destruction, or whatever...

Kind of wish Xcom would have a Alien campaign, cause that shit'd be crazy then

Captcha: Nyan cat. Yes i agree,
Nyan cat is a fucking monster. It scares me

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

To be honest, I think it's quite sad that not many video games really explore the psyche and actions of a truly irredeemable monster. Not just the Bad Guy who you learn about his past, but allowing you to be so. It'd also be even better if it were mandatory, since there are too many games that force you to play hero. It'd be interesting to see how players react to this type of game (probably negatively) and whether it'd really sell.

 

[Full]

You know what they say, you have to become a monster to defeat a monster. Maybe that's what all these violent "heroes" have always been.

I like hearing about the underdog rising up or see the hero fly in at the nick of time as much as the next person, and certainly don't want everything to be Serbian Film or something, but it would be neat to see more things like what MW2 or Spec Ops did. Just drop bombshells on everyone out of nowhere and see how they react. The big scenes in both of those had very mixed reactions, and they are still talked about. I like that.

I still like that scene in MW2, though. It played to the strength of video games, and told it's story in a way I haven't seen much of, which was especially surprising in a game as big as CoD.

But yeah more games where we play as rabies infected bunny rabbits would be cool. Bunny rabbits are fucking scary violent, man.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

One of the things that really pulls me into the elder scrolls games is being a monster. A murderous vampire or werewolf terrorising the countryside and amassing ridiculous amounts of power. Slitting throats in the night or just being the unstoppable berserker in daedric armour who strikes down anyone they feel like. I loved just roaming the countryside in werewolf form in Skyrim, I modded it so I could eat anything so I could go hunting for animals in the night as a wolf(until the patched in the ability to do that anyway with werewolf perks.)

 

[briankoontz]

What a monster always is before being a monster is being an outsider, who is then made a victim. Consider the Witch Hunts of the Puritans, for example. Think about Dungeons and Dragons - first the outsiders are pushed off of the surface, exiled to dungeons, then they are hunted for sport. The basic purpose of the "heroes" of Dungeons and Dragons are personal enrichment and becoming more effective murderers (leveling up) through extensive practice doing so. So the dungeons, once teeming with life, are genocided, wiped clean of all life in order for the surface dwellers, who dominate the culture so as to convince the world they are the "good guys", to become safe from retaliation from the very people they victimized in the first place. Victimizing someone causes fear of retaliation, which causes oppression or extermination so as to prevent the retaliation from taking place.

Consider the connection between theft, domination, and dehumanization. When the American military occupied and dominated Iraq recently the Iraqi people, previously irrelevant creatures, became Hadjis, and not in the good way. The dehumanization allows for theft and domination to be happy, just as condemning goblins as "monsters" allows the "D&D heroes" to happily exterminate them, even their children, and loot them of every copper piece. All in the name of improving civilization.

"Heroic genocide" often cites the "savage", "barbaric", "uncivilized" nature of the outsiders as the reason for the subsequent extermination. Recent developments in Israel regarding the Palestinians mimics the genocide of the Native Americans by European colonists and in one of history's saddest ironies, mimics the Holocaust itself, as Gaza has come to reflect the Warsaw Ghetto, and a city-sized detention camp is housing African migrants who like the "unclean" Palestinians are not worthy of inclusion in the gated community called the state of Israel.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this "civilizing" process which requires so much dehumanization, forced suffering, and murder is that the only lasting gift that modern civilization (the "good guys") is going to give to the world is global warming.

So that's why I enjoy being the monster. Because the monster, with tears streaming down his face as another grim band of heroes comes to exterminate everyone he knows and loves, who enraged fights with tooth and claw against a sneering foe who separates the genocide he causes from his body by means of swords and magic thus keeping his hands free of blood, is far more noble and decent in all his grime, sores, and fur than the "heroes" are in their well-groomed hairstyles, their super-clean hygiene, their meticulous murder skills, and their utter lack of consideration for human life.

 

[rorychief]

One of the most enjoyable moments in AvP for me was the opening of the Alien campaign. That was where I decided, Wow I'm really going to enjoy this game aren't I? Playing as the monster, confined in an enclosure and having WY scientists release terrified humans into the room just to test/demonstrate how efficient a killer the protagonist is, hearing their gushing praise of your ferocity before breaking free to murder the people who admired your murder skills most (It is set in the alien universe after all).
Completely agree with your sentiment above. Part of what made that such a memorable and refreshing videogame experience was that the monster didn't need a sympathetic backstory, it was just doing what monsters do and there was a great sense of it all being part of a basic animal survival prerogative to wipe your new territory clear of rivals and lay the way for the next generation. (though the facehugger implantation seemed kind of token, just another takedown animation really)and there was no need to make it out that this was a revenge story or even personal on any level. It's just insanely, apologetically fun.

Anyone remember that game that was in development, don't remember its name or what became of it, where you play as a kind of zombie general? Strategically directing the outbreak to overtake territories, overseeing the development of special zombies and deploying rare or unique mutants for specific situations, infiltrating and laying siege to survivor strongholds. Sounded like a similar idea, would've loved to have seen it finished, Like L4D2 Versus but you're playing as both the director and the infected.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well theres okami and Dogs life as well off the top of my head and ofc Tokyo Jungle but its true most are humanoid in some way even a lot of the Aliens are humanoid at least a lot of the ones we see in the games and films are because of the circumstances there are also a few dragon games.

I would say its rare for them not to be humanoid in some way and if they are not they are usually abstract in some way. Even a lot of monsters have human type characteristics certainly the more intelligent ones tend to anyway. I think its because its hard to relate to something thats not human in any way and harder still to make them interesting for long periods of time, for short periods its easy they provide an obvious contrast to more human characters which is why they traditionally made great enemies.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Well, in every other game outside of the first one, Kratos is an irredeemable monster in God of War. It's nice to root for him on the other side of the TV screen, but someone like that in the real world would be terrifying and unforgivable.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

There's being a monster in mind and being a monster in body. I'd say recent games like GTA5 and Spec Ops have given us quite a lot of the former, with Twilight Princess being the only recent example of the latter. Still quite fun to see everyone in the castle town market scream in fear at you and run.

I would like to see a J/WRPG made with the premise that the main character is transformed by a curse into a monster very early on, and able to evolve into different ones as well as communicate with the ones in the wild. However, he is effectively exiled from his home since no one recognizes him, and the same for most other cities. The SaGa series let you transform from human to robot to monster and back again by absorbing the essence of defeated enemies, but then its people were much more accepting than usual/did not have enough processing power for a separate dialogue. No one batted an eye at having an NPC slime, ogre or zombie in their town, and in some cities over half the NPC population was cyborgs and robots.