The best villains are the ones that after you kill them, you realise that they were actually better persons than you were.
No, but seriously, that would make a good villain. For a villain, or any character to be good, they need to be well-defined. They need to get under you skin, be believable, well developed. You need to be able to relate to them, on some level, to be able to set your mind to how they are thinking and to be able to understand. Even someone like Shodan or Hal 9000, or GlaDOS can be understood, there is logic behind what they do. What would make them even more frightening is if they were actually right, which ties in with what I stated at first. I love (to give the player, or recieve when I play myself) a moral dilemma, to show that the hero is not perfect. That's quite rare in games, the first expansion to Neverwinter nights had a very interesting conversation in it, with the apprentice paladin you train with. She was furios at the trainer because he wanted her to save a goblin child, because goblins are evil. It was only an infant, but to her it was still a goblin, and she can't associate with evil creatures. This is interesting because in that world there is no greater good than paladins, and despite this one of them is willing to slay infants, just because of what they might turn into when they grow up. The webcomic "Goblins" also shows this in a very good way. It's quite hard to see which side is really the villains there, sure the protagonists are portrayed as heroes and they don't do anything evil, except defend themselves. But many of the ones they defend themselves against are normal people, who just happened to have chosen to pursue a career as soldiers, or champions of light.
Of course, the moral dilemma is just a bonus, there can be great villains without that, but it does add a certain flavour to it. A completely insane, evil person can also make a great villain. Most characters in Vampire: The masquerade - Bloodlines are good examples of this. Especially the sabbat. The thing to remember about a villain though is that they don't do things to be evil, a supervillain building a doomsday device has a reason for it, and will, at least for themselves, consider what they are doing as justified. Almost no one considers themselves evil, they may realise that some of what they are doing is bad, but it is always for a greater cause. Evil for the sake of evil is boring. Evil as a means to an end is interesting, especially if that end would bring about a better world, for everyone.
No, but seriously, that would make a good villain. For a villain, or any character to be good, they need to be well-defined. They need to get under you skin, be believable, well developed. You need to be able to relate to them, on some level, to be able to set your mind to how they are thinking and to be able to understand. Even someone like Shodan or Hal 9000, or GlaDOS can be understood, there is logic behind what they do. What would make them even more frightening is if they were actually right, which ties in with what I stated at first. I love (to give the player, or recieve when I play myself) a moral dilemma, to show that the hero is not perfect. That's quite rare in games, the first expansion to Neverwinter nights had a very interesting conversation in it, with the apprentice paladin you train with. She was furios at the trainer because he wanted her to save a goblin child, because goblins are evil. It was only an infant, but to her it was still a goblin, and she can't associate with evil creatures. This is interesting because in that world there is no greater good than paladins, and despite this one of them is willing to slay infants, just because of what they might turn into when they grow up. The webcomic "Goblins" also shows this in a very good way. It's quite hard to see which side is really the villains there, sure the protagonists are portrayed as heroes and they don't do anything evil, except defend themselves. But many of the ones they defend themselves against are normal people, who just happened to have chosen to pursue a career as soldiers, or champions of light.
Of course, the moral dilemma is just a bonus, there can be great villains without that, but it does add a certain flavour to it. A completely insane, evil person can also make a great villain. Most characters in Vampire: The masquerade - Bloodlines are good examples of this. Especially the sabbat. The thing to remember about a villain though is that they don't do things to be evil, a supervillain building a doomsday device has a reason for it, and will, at least for themselves, consider what they are doing as justified. Almost no one considers themselves evil, they may realise that some of what they are doing is bad, but it is always for a greater cause. Evil for the sake of evil is boring. Evil as a means to an end is interesting, especially if that end would bring about a better world, for everyone.
