Why am I never allowed to side with the bad guy?

[Risingblade]

Usually the bad guy wants to destroy the world, kinda hard to side with a guy who wants to kill you

 

[drmigit2]

Starcraft Broodwar. You join kerrigan and commit genocide. Evil enough?

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Yeah no RPGs let you do that.... Also a choice between good and evil is no choice at all. Most games that let you join the "bad guy" his "badness" is questionable.

 

[Miyam2]

I do understand that it would be unfeasible in most games to allow you to join the bad guys, due to the constraints of storytelling and development time, but I always get disappointed when so called 'open ended' games don't allow you join the kickass, evil team (with inexplicably British accents), while several of the games that do just result in non-standard game-overs, which I find to be even worse than not giving you the option.

Also, thanks for the examples of games which feature this, I now have some 'evil' games for my list.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

New Vegas gives you a number of options to side with the badder guys (Ceasar's Legion), or just say "fuck you" to the whole conflict and use Yes Man to take over the city for yourself.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

My Altmer Mage and Dunmer Battlemage in Skyrim would both have loved to side with the Thalmor instead of the Blades. Opportunity missed, I do feel.

 

[viranimus]

Play Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call.

Spoiler: Huge spoiler!

Side with Lucifer himself.

Destroy the world and any chance it had to ever recover.

The game ends with you leading the armies of hell to the gates of heaven to kill God himself.

Evil enough for you?

Personally? Not even close to enough. For me.. it wouldnt be evil until you join him and then trick him into repenting his sins.

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As for why it isnt done? Because its hard to write a story for an antagonist.It is an affront to our sensibilities. In some respects when presented with the bargain... your protagonist essentially transforms into an ancillary char. Also, if you agree to side with the "bad" guy then the conflict is essentially over. You gave up on your quest to save the world from the bad guy, so theres really nothing left to do but watch it all fall apart in traditional narrative.

Granted games are an interactive media but we have yet to fully comprehend what they are and what they can do. Given that games give more expansive possibilities in narrative than traditional stories/tv/film/lit, ect. have then it stands to reason we do not yet have the proper tools to do that.

I see it as like trying to teach yourself how to program Battlefield 3 by yourself, and without any prior game development experience. Youll have tools at your disposal, but your not going to know what to do with them or what they can do.

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In fable 3 at the end you either keep your promises or listen to the biggest evilest bastard for advice, like turning the orphanage into a brothel...a really crappy brothel.

Is that really evil? I mean in all likelihood Reaver had no intention of kicking the orphans out. I think what he was trying to do was making them earn their room and board was all.

 

[KingofMadCows]

Command and Conquer, you can fight for the Soviet Union, the Global Liberation Army, the Brotherhood of Nod, or the Scrin.

You can also join the villains in several of the Might and Magic and Wizardry games.

There are several campaigns in Heroes of Might and Magic games where you play as the bad guy.

 

[worldruler8]

I recall you could join Dagoth Ur in Morrowind, which had lasting effects in the world of Vvardenfell. And since Dagoth Ur was essentially the Devil, so if that's not allowing you to side with the bad guy, I don't know what is.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well the most obvious reason is because it'd be rather anti-climactic.

 

[emeraldrafael]

If its anyhting like star wars logic I would guess because then you have to raise the next evil and they'll kill you..

 

[Fishyash]

Kerghan's intent was really clear to me, and it couldn't have been more obvious, which is why I felt it didn't really make too much sense.

Spoiler

I thought your character and Kerghan AGREED to kill EVERYTHING, so why is it that all of the sudden you need to defend yourself, why is it that he "turns on you"? It makes sense for him to try and kill you, but it doesn't make sense to fight back in the first place.

That's a good point. I guess the player character's sense of self-preservation won out? I got nothing really.

Yeah... maybe.

Oh well, it's just a plot hole for a choice that not many people make on an overall great game.

 

[Xaio30]

Let me spoil the ending of the wonderful game called [HEADING=1]Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura[/HEADING] in which you can go through the whole game only to end up siding with the bad guy. Selecting this choice, you get to watch a lengthy narrative cut-scene in which yo get to know the aftermath:

You and the bad guy reach incredible powers and roam the world, plundering and killing. In the end, only you two are left so you go against each other. You win, but are so depressed from being the only one left alive in a now ruined world, so you kill yourself. The End.

 

[Double A]

Because that guy would eventually just kill you anyway perhaps? And also if its an RPG like final fantasy or Dragonquest then it wouldnt make any sense at all

What if they're Lawful Evil though? Or you make it clear you're not very ambitious and just want to live in leisure for 50 or so years? Because it seems like trying to kill you would piss you off, and pissing you off is probably how the villain got into the situation of "Hero's coming to kill me, gotta offer him something!"

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I recall you could join Dagoth Ur in Morrowind, which had lasting effects in the world of Vvardenfell. And since Dagoth Ur was essentially the Devil, so if that's not allowing you to side with the bad guy, I don't know what is.

I'm pretty sure you can't join him. Which is a shame because I would like to join him with some characters.

 

[SovietX]

You can in Infinity Blade. But basically it just rolls the credits and starts a new game.

 

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

In that case, are there any games that have you begin as the bad guy? Where your objective is to rule, the world lets say, (cliche, I know) and defeat any "good guys" that try and stop you?

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Most RPGs feature a massively evil Big Bad who wants to conquer the world, and often they invite you to "Join them or die." So, of course, my goody little hero always refuses, and subsequently destroys the Big Bad. My question is, why is it that games don't allow you to accept this offer?

One particularly erroneous example is when, in World of Warcraft, it turns out that you have been unwittingly helping a minion of the Lich King take over an entire civilization. After you have defeated his main opposition, he reveals that he is evil, and offers for you to join as his right hand man, leading hordes of undead minions. Now that, is an extremely tempting offer, and if I could, I would immediately take it. However, the game denies me that option, and I have to take him down personally.

So escapists, have you ever wanted to side with the evil team? Do you know of any games that allow you to rule the world with an iron fist and your evil partner?

Actually there have been examples of this almost since games began. I can remember at least one very old 8bit WW2 strategy game where you could play as the axis powers, for example.

But in terms of the bad guy offering for you to join him, it happened in the original "Streets of Rage". Except that you couldn't take the offer unless you were playing 2-player; and then you had to kill the other guy, kill the boss, and then take over the crime syndicate YOURSELF. As much as I love "Streets of Rage" - what the F-CK?