Video games have always given us the opportunity to become someone else. We can be heroes, warriors, detectives, survivors, kings, outlaws, or even villains. We can save entire cities, defeat impossible enemies, and make decisions that determine the fate of fictional worlds. But there is something particularly interesting about games that give us freedom: sometimes the most questionable character in the story isn't an NPC or an enemy. It is us. When a game gives us the freedom to make our own choices, what happens when we deliberately choose the evil one?
Imagine playing an open world game and coming across an innocent NPC simply going about their day, would you walk past them without giving them a second thought or would you help them if the game gives you the opportunity, perhaps you take the third option and attack them just to see if the game would allow you and see what happens. The game never asked you to do it, neither did the story require it. You yes you the plater reading this article simply decided to make the decision because you could. That small moment reveals one of the most fascinating things about interactive entertainment, unlike movies and books videogames can give us the freedom to act rather than simply watch or read.
So, why do players choose to be evil?
The answer probably isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be. Sometimes, it really is as simple as, “I thought about it, so why not?” Other times, we’ve played so many games where we’re constantly cast as the hero that, eventually, you just want to see what it feels like to be the villain.
And honestly? Both are valid answers.
Sometimes, it’s simply curiosity. We want to know what happens if we choose the dialogue option we would normally avoid. What happens if we betray that character instead of helping them? What if for once we stop being the noble hero and decide to make the worst possible decision?
And there’s probably no better example of this than Baldur’s Gate 3.
**Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played the game yet. You’ve been warned, dear reader.**
In Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re given an incredible amount of freedom. You can create your own character, make your own choices, and experience the game in pretty much whatever way you want. One of the biggest parts of that freedom is the ability to embrace the darker side of your character. How you may ask well the game even gives you an Origin specifically designed around exploring that side of yourself.
Now, I’ll be honest: I’m usually the noble, good guy. I’ll help the random NPC, save the village, and probably choose the morally correct dialogue option even when there’s absolutely no reason for me to do so.
So when it came time to unlock the achievements that required me to make some of those more… *questionable* decisions, I had a problem.
I just couldn’t commit to being evil.
Eventually, I had to do an evil playthrough with my friends because, apparently, peer pressure is the only thing powerful enough to turn me into a terrible person in Baldur’s Gate 3. And that got me thinking: maybe that’s part of the appeal of playing an evil character.
It gives us the chance to experience a side of the game and sometimes even a side of ourselves that we normally wouldn’t explore.
This becomes especially interesting when we consider what I like to call the NPC test. Why does killing one character feel completely different from killing another?
A nameless enemy soldier might just feel like another obstacle standing between you and your objective. You defeat them, move on and probably forget they ever existed. But a friendly shopkeeper you have visited dozens of times can feel completely different. Afterall interacting with them for hours, they stop feeling like just another NPC. They become part of your experience in that world.
And then there are companions.
These are the characters who travel with us, fight alongside us, and sometimes become characters we genuinely care about. So when a game gives us the option to make a decision that could hurt them, suddenly that choice feels a lot more personal. You might hesitate. You might even choose the “good” option simply because you don’t want to betray a character you’ve grown attached to.
Let’s talk about Skyrim. If you’re familiar with the game, you already know where I’m going with this "The Cloud District" If you got that reference, you’re a legend.
But Skyrim is actually a great example of how we form attachments to NPCs and companions. As we explore the world, we have companions travelling alongside us, constantly reminding us that they’ve got our backs. It sounds simple, but after spending hours travelling across Skyrim with the same companion, those little interactions start to mean something. Then suddenly doing something that could get them killed doesn’t feel like a simple game mechanic anymore. Finding yourself loading a previous save file and this time around change the future.
You actually care.
That’s the interesting thing about games: the more time we spend with a character, the harder it can become to treat them like a collection of pixels and dialogue options.
And maybe that’s why being evil in games can be so difficult.
It’s one thing to choose an evil dialogue option when the character means nothing to you. It’s another thing entirely when the game has spent twenty, thirty, or even a hundred hours convincing you that this person is your friend.
What games have you played that could have made you an evil person?