I was watching resident evil last night and a though occured to me wouldn''t it be fun to play a game where you are the umbrella corporation. What do people think about a game like that? Where you are an evil corporation running illegal biological experiments, dealing with information leaks, investigations and contaiment breachs. While at the same time find ways to utilize your reseach for untold profits? ----------------------------------------------------- "Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own." Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

Sign me on!

I''m dying for more games with intrigue and double dealing. The more games I play, the more I grow to want subtlety and sophistocation.

I''ve tried out some of the corporate sims, but I quickly get bogged down in detail. There''s something about advertising and accounting that''s just not as fun as preventing terrorists from breaking into my facilities or having to bribe the law to keep things quiet.

I think it would be cool to switch back and forth between characters with story-lines or aspects of story, who are trying to do something and have hidden motivations, and some of the practical sim stuff. For instance, infecting a potential leaker with a virus triggers her long lost Ex-marine brother to come in and start trying to rampage through your base.

I can already think of a title, btw: Evil, Inc.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

Mmmh, Dungeon Keeper in the future ?

I was thinking of Bio Hazard for the title. But then I relized that was the japanese name for Resident evil.

Not like dungeon keeper since that is mainly a comdey game, I was thinking more dark, and horror like. Imagine reciving a paniced call from one of your hidden research bases about an accidental release of a new experimental virus or genetically engineered lifeform. Then deciding how to respond, do you dispatch a commando team to passive the base and rescue survivors, dispatch a reasearch team to observe and collect data, activate the bases remote self destructions singal destroying it and any evidence of the accident. Or heck since its an evil game, allow the player to cause the accident to observe the results, or even cause an acccident in a competiting departments base inorder to advance your own postion within the company.



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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

Theres a game coming out soon (or it may already be out) where you play an james bond like villian, with a secret hidaway and goons and stuff.

Its called "Evil Genius" http://www.howevilareyou.com/ its sort of the same thing.

No, thats not what I''m talking about thats seems to be just a dungeon keeper remake.

I''d like to see a game where you actually play an evil character who does evil things. All the games that focus on playing an evil character make take the humerous evil route.

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

quote:

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Original post by TechnoGoth
I''d like to see a game where you actually play an evil character who does evil things. All the games that focus on playing an evil character make take the humerous evil route.

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There''s a couple of reasons for this, I think. Firstly, one way we manage our fear of evil is to laugh at it or make it cartoony. It''s hard to emotionally identify with a bast*rd, so you have to make it funny (the old HBO series Arliss was a great example of this).

Another reason, I think, is that giving players the role of an evil character has some morally unsettling implications: If you yourself aren''t the good guy, and the game is done with a mature theme, then you''re transgressing boundaries that imply things about you as a person. After all, if you know how to behave with evil, and wish to do so--even in a virtual world-- doesn''t that imply (especially in the simplistic dualities of many mass religions) that you yourself are somewhat evil?

You do get to play evil characters, btw, but they''re in empire games that focus on strategy. You rarely, if ever, see the human toll of bombing cities and genocide, and I think you''re encouraged not to by both the mechanics and the sentiments of those who design these games. It took several versions of Civilization, for example, before the idea of "atrocity" as a game concept made it in as a game factor.

In your idea, evil would have more of a human face and the player would be the hand of that evil. Depending on how high fidelity this was, I think many would find it nihilistic and disturbing.


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Just waiting for the mothership...

Interesting point of view. With peoples fascination of with horror movies, heroizing of notorious criminals, and growth of morally dubius games that focous on nothing but random violence. Would people be put off by a game where they are for lack of a better term evil?

With games like Grand theft auto becoming increasingly popular it would seem to suggest gamers are becoming more blood thirsty and enjoy dancing on the darkside. Afterall GTA gives bonus points and secerts for killing large numbers of civilians.

Is a game where the player performs illegal experiments, human experimentation and uses treachery and decit to advance their own poition any worse?

Or is graphic violence under the blanket of action more acceptable then a more cerbal appliaction of our darker nature.

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

quote:

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Original post by TechnoGoth
With games like Grand theft auto becoming increasingly popular it would seem to suggest gamers are becoming more blood thirsty and enjoy dancing on the darkside. Afterall GTA gives bonus points and secerts for killing large numbers of civilians.

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You''re right that these games have started popping up more and more. However, it seems that invariably the subjects in the game are unsympathetic and that the mass violence carries what you''re doing to an over-the-top level. You kill people who are considered by society expendible: prostitutes, drug dealers, bedragged homeless looking people. My theory is that middle class players can''t identify with these people, and so that makes it more acceptable.

You also end up more often than not with overwhelming violence, and it''s cartoony. You don''t see, for example, a middle aged victim crawling on the ground, crying for help. You don''t hear extended pleas for mercy. And children certainly aren''t your victims (I think they''re absent from the game).

quote:

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Is a game where the player performs illegal experiments, human experimentation and uses treachery and decit to advance their own poition any worse?

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You have to stop and consider that you''d be making a game where you play the likes of a Joseph Mengel. I think the betrayal and deceit might be acceptable, but depending on how much the players identify themselves with the test subjects and how well the test subject''s suffering is emulated, I think you will get past that wall of disassociation people normally erect when they''re doing bad things in games.

The more real it is, the harder it is to ignore. The more personal it is, the uglier people will find it. Consider, for example, that players would understandably find a game about being a rapist repugnant.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

I think its a matter of context and content. For instance I was thinking a more far removed situation. I hadn''t planned on the players interacting with test subjects on a personal level. Rather more of looking at reports from the research division on the results of the new viral strain, and possible applications and improvements to the virus.



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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave