Playing as the bad guy is something unique to video games and a specific niche. In the last few weeks between Destroy All Humans, Maneater, and Carrion, I got to be an evil alien, an evil shark, and…another evil alien. There have been many games that toy with the notion of letting the player’s evil impulses come out, presenting us with a discussion on why breaking bad is a lot harder than it sounds.

P 铺设为坏人是一些独特的视频游戏和特定的利基。 在销毁全人类 ， 食蚁兽和腐肉之间的最后几周中，我成为了一个邪恶的外星人，一个邪恶的鲨鱼和……另一个邪恶的外星人。 有很多游戏玩弄的概念是让玩家产生邪恶的冲动，这使我们讨论了为什么破烂比听起来难得多。

反英雄vs恶棍 (Antihero vs Villain)

During the early 2000s, developers loved letting players live on the wild side as evidenced by the widespread use of “morality sliders” in AAA games. However, morality sliders are one of the hokiest game systems in my opinion, and not what I’m talking about today.

在2000年代初期，开发人员喜欢让玩家活在狂野的一面，这在AAA游戏中广泛使用了“道德滑条”就证明了这一点。 但是，道德滑子是我认为最稳定的游戏系统之一，而不是我今天所说的。

Many games like to say “you’re bad, but you’re just an antihero. Yes, you are doing bad things, but they’re for the greater good.” Bioware is perhaps the most notable example of this, but the problem I’ve had with Bioware’s use of this technique is that being bad in their games usually means you’re a jerk. But a jerk that’s still saving the day from the bad guy. Even Overlord, a game where you play as a Sauron-looking villain, still has you saving the day from another evil force. The plot point “bad guys fighting bad guys” is often the story of games featuring the antihero archetype.

许多游戏都喜欢说“你很糟糕，但你只是一个反英雄” 。 是的，您在做坏事，但这是为了更大的利益。” 生物软件也许是最著名的例子，但是我对生物软件使用这种技术所遇到的问题是，在他们的游戏中表现不佳通常意味着你很蠢。 但是这个混蛋仍然可以挽救坏蛋。 即使是《 霸王》(Overlord)，您可以扮演看起来像索伦(Sauron)的恶棍，也可以让您摆脱另一种邪恶势力的束缚。 情节要点“坏人与坏人交战”通常是具有反英雄原型的游戏的故事。

The games mentioned at the start make no bones about it: You are the bad guy doing bad things. But what does it actually mean to be the bad guy?

一开始提到的游戏无可厚非：您是做坏事的坏人。 但是， 成为坏人实际上意味着什么？

什么是邪恶？ (What is Evil?)

When it comes to depicting violence and disturbing imagery, there’s a common theme: the more over the top and unrealistic the violence and imagery are, the more palatable they become. Watching Kratos slice and dice monsters in God of War is an exciting experience. If he was doing that in a park or public setting with normal people, it would be a completely different story.

在描述暴力和令人不安的图像时，有一个共同的主题：暴力和图像越是顶层和不切实际，它们就越可口。 观看《 战神》中的 Kratos切片和切块怪物是令人兴奋的体验。 如果他是在公园或公共场合与普通人一起这样做，那将是完全不同的故事。

When video games deal with issues of good and evil, it’s always taken to the extreme. Playing the bad guy often means playing a cartoon character. Even egregious examples like Grand Theft Auto play up the fact that the world is highly exaggerated and not meant to be a real place. Even then, the player is constantly being told that the people they’re fighting (in story missions) are other bad guys.

当视频游戏处理善恶问题时，它总是被带到极端。 扮演坏人通常意味着扮演卡通人物。 甚至像侠盗猎车手(Grand Theft Auto)之类的令人震惊的例子也说明了这个事实，即世界高度夸张，而不是真实的世界。 即使这样，玩家仍被不断告知他们所战斗的人(在故事任务中)是其他坏人。

A few years ago there was a controversial game called Hatred that involved you playing a character who went on a rampage in a real-world setting, and the character was designed to be so over the top that it came off as a cartoon and was criticized for repetitive gameplay.

几年前，有个有争议的游戏叫做《 仇恨》 ，它涉及到您扮演一个在现实世界中横冲直撞的角色，该角色的设计如此之高，以至于以卡通的形式脱颖而出并受到批评用于重复的游戏。

And of course, there was the famous “No Russian” level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It was one of the very few cases where a terror attack was depicted in a realistic setting, where you were the terrorist.

当然，在《 使命召唤：现代战争2 》中有一个著名的“没有俄罗斯”级别。 这是在现实环境中描绘恐怖袭击的极少数情况之一，而您是恐怖分子。

It’s rare to see a game like Destroy All Humans where the main character’s goal involves targeting innocent characters and being rewarded for it, but again, “alien invader” is not a realistic point of view. The closest there has been to a really good villain with pathos in a game would be someone like Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2, but it’s a character that the player doesn’t control.

很少看到像《 毁灭所有人》这样的游戏，其主要角色的目标涉及瞄准无辜的角色并为此获得回报，但是同样，“外来入侵者”并不是现实的观点。 在游戏中，最接近有反感的真正反派是《 无主之地2》中的《英俊杰克》，但这是玩家无法控制的角色。

The game industry still treats villains like they’re Universal Studios Monsters, while TV has characters like Walter White. Speaking of Breaking Bad, that takes us to one area where video games fail the most.

游戏行业仍然将恶棍当作环球影城的怪物，而电视中的角色则是沃尔特·怀特。 说到《 绝命毒师》 ，这使我们进入了视频游戏最失败的领域。

显示与光荣 (Showing vs Glorifying)

As I’ve mentioned before, the interactivity of the video game medium is one of its most powerful qualities. However, being in control over the situation raises questions when it comes to showing — and having the player engage in — disturbing behavior.

如前所述，视频游戏媒体的交互性是其最强大的品质之一。 但是，控制局势会在显示-并让玩家参与-干扰行为方面引起疑问。

In any medium, there is a fine line between showing something awful and glorifying it. For video games that are meant to cast the player as the one in control or the most important character, it can be viewed as poor taste to allow them to engage in certain behavior. Imagine for a second a video game that allows players to commit sexual assault as part of the core gameplay loop and be rewarded for doing so. Undoubtedly, this would lead to plenty of boycotts and congressional hearings.

在任何媒介中，在显示可怕的事物和美化事物之间都有一条细线。 对于要让玩家成为掌控者或最重要角色的视频游戏，可以将其视为不良品味，以允许他们从事某些行为。 想象一下一个视频游戏，该视频游戏允许玩家在核心游戏循环中进行性侵犯，并因此而受到奖励。 无疑，这将导致大量抵制和国会听证会。

While Maneater does take place in a loosely realistic setting and has the player killing innocent people, I’m still playing as a shark that can harness electricity to fight off boats. There are plenty of mobile games that involve you running a gang or drug empire, but I bet none of them focus on the negative consequences of this illicit activity. How many people would feel good about playing a game that shows the deterioration of the people and neighborhoods around them?

尽管Maneater确实是在宽松的现实环境中进行的，并且玩家杀死了无辜的人，但我仍在扮演可以利用电力击打船只的鲨鱼。 有很多手机游戏牵涉到您经营帮派或毒品帝国，但我敢打赌，他们中没有一个将重点放在这种非法活动的负面后果上。 有多少人会对玩显示周围的人和周围环境恶化的游戏感到满意？

And it’s for this reason that games in which players take on the role of the bad guy rarely take place in the real world. In the game Dungeon Keeper, you are spreading your doom and destruction all over the world, but there’s no real-world precedent for an army of monsters building dungeons. Other mediums are fine with ending the story on an unhappy note. After all, the final episode of Breaking Bad didn’t end with Walter getting a big congratulations party and a banner saying, “You Win!”

因此，在现实世界中很少有玩家扮演坏人角色的游戏。 在《 地牢守护者 》游戏中，您将厄运和破坏散布到世界各地，但对于建造地牢的怪物大军来说，这并没有现实的先例。 其他媒体也可以用不愉快的音符结束故事。 毕竟，《 绝命毒师》的最后一集并没有以沃尔特举行的大型祝贺派对和标语“你赢了！”结束。

悲剧与统计 (A Tragedy vs a Statistic)

There is a famous quote by Stalin: “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic,” that I think about when it comes to the depiction of video game violence. When people discuss the most violent games, they think of titles like Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, or Hotline Miami. However, those body counts pale in comparison to games like Plague Inc or Defcon — where both titles end with the extinction of the human race.

斯大林有句名言：“一个人的死是一场悲剧。 数以百万计的死亡是一个统计数字，”我在描述电子游戏暴力时会考虑这一点。 当人们讨论最激烈的游戏时，他们会想到诸如真人快打 ， 侠盗猎车手或迈阿密热线等游戏 。 但是，与Plague Inc或Defcon等游戏相比，这些人的身材显得苍白。

People are fine with violence if it’s not meant to be realistic. Some titles can get away with the player being bad when the player themselves is not, but kind of like a force or intelligence for the bad guys. With Zombie Night Terror, the player is never shown as being in the game but acts as the driving force for the zombie attacks.

如果这不是现实的话，人们会遭受暴力侵害。 当玩家本人并不处于劣势时，某些称号会随着玩家的劣势而消失，但是对于那些坏家伙来说，这就像是一种力量或智力。 使用“ 僵尸夜惊”，该玩家从不会显示在游戏中，而是充当了僵尸攻击的驱动力。

The only titles I can think of that let players actively play as a violent monster going after regular people would be Carrion and Dead by Daylight. Both titles in a way desensitize the player to the killing — Carrion leverages it for healing and Dead by Daylight for scoring purposes.

我能想到的唯一的标题是让玩家积极地扮演一个追随普通人的暴力怪物角色，例如“ 腐尸”和“死在白天” 。 这两种游戏都以某种方式使玩家对杀戮不敏感-Carrion利用它来治愈，而Dead by Daylight则用于得分目的。

This is why people can find these games uncomfortable and are the complete 180 from the low stakes games that I’ve discussed in the past. Recently, there have been discussions over the treatment of people working on games like Mortal Kombat 11 and the Last of Us Part II, who are shown depictions of violent acts as a means of inspiration for designing graphic scenes. There is a greater topic regarding forcing people to see this kind of imagery that I don’t have space here to explore, but that does warrant its own examination.

这就是为什么人们会觉得这些游戏不舒服，而我过去讨论过的低赌注游戏却是完整的180种原因的原因。 最近，关于在诸如Mortal Kombat 11和《 Last of Us Part II》等游戏上工作的人的待遇进行了讨论，这些人被描绘成暴力行为，以此作为设计图形场景的灵感手段。 关于强迫人们看到这种图像，还有一个更大的话题，我在这里没有探索的空间，但这确实需要自己研究。

不好 (Being Bad)

Making a story in any medium centering on the bad guy requires a level of maturity when handling the topic. Not all villains are concerned with laughing maniacally while twirling their mustaches, and it takes a skilled writer to make a story where bad things happen to good people that keeps the audience engaged.

在以话题为中心的任何媒介中编写故事都需要一定的成熟度。 并非所有恶棍都关心在旋转胡须时狂笑，而且需要熟练的作家来写一个故事，讲述好人发生的坏事使观众保持参与。

To quote John Barth: “ Everyone is necessarily the hero in his own life story.” The challenge when it comes to games is getting that point across without once again glorifying the actions of the main character. Video game writing has evolved considerably over the last decade, and now it’s just a waiting game for someone to make our own version of Walter White.

引用约翰·巴特(John Barth)的话：“每个人都一定是他自己人生故事中的英雄。” 游戏所面临的挑战是如何在不再次强调主角的行为的情况下克服这一点。 在过去的十年中，视频游戏的写作有了长足的发展，现在，它只是一个等待有人制作我们自己的Walter White版本的游戏。

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如果您喜欢我的文章，请考虑加入 Game-Wisdom Discord频道 。 它向所有人开放。