The pros and cons of adding bad guys to game

[amanta4ray]

I have been making games for several years now and each one has had some type of bad guy.  My question to all...is it necessary to add bad guys to your game??  What I mean is...does it really add to the enjoyment to have the suspense of someone chasing you??  Or can a game stand on its own without having a bad guy??  I leave it open for debate....

                    Anne

[Cassiebsg]

I don't see why a "bad guy" is necessary. Plenty of good games around, that don't have a bad guy.

[Radiant]

Just like a book or a movie, a game needs conflict. A bad guy is a common, but by no means the only, way of accomplishing that. It also lets you use a number of popular tropes.

[CaptainD]

Well... your game will need some sort of conflict, but that doesn't have to be portrayed as a traditional bad guy.  (Anyway, why always a bad "guy"?!  That's just plain sexist. )  Conflict can take many forms, including a characters' inner conflict with themselves or all sorts of other things.  I guess the popularity of having a bad guy / gal is that you can very easily plot towards a rousing climax with the final encounter of the good character(s) and bad character(s).  Having a "final battle" is definitely cliche but it's also inescapably effective when done right.

So all I would say is there is certainly room for a bad guy - a physical enemy / antagonist for the game's protagonist - but it certainly isn't a prerequisite.  If the plot lends itself to having one there's no reason to try to avoid it, but equally no reason to add one if the storyline is strong enough, and the player character has enough conflict to resolve, without one.

[AnasAbdin]

Dspends on many factors.

What type of game is it?
Do you have a story?
Do you want to add a bad guy just to have a bad guy?

IMO I think it depends on the story.

[Blondbraid]

I've heard that all conflicts can be boiled down to three alternatives:

Man versus Man - A conflict between two persons, this can be anything between a friendly chess-match between two old men and an epic tale of a hero defeating a tyrant and his armies

Man versus Nature - A struggle against an unthinking and unreasonable force, like hunting an animal or trying to survive in a harsh environment

Man versus Self - A person trying to overcome their own flaws and shortcomings with focus on the mental and emotional journey of the protagonist

However, there must almost always be some sort of conflict to keep the audience interested, even in abstract games like Tetris and Bejeweled there is a conflict between the player and the game system.
And you can also have an antagonist who isn't a bad guy, there are many stories where there are no good or bad side, simply people on opposing teams, and antagonists who have good justifications for their actions.

[cat]

Man versus Nature - A struggle against an unthinking and unreasonable force, like hunting an animal or trying to survive in a harsh environment

I can definitely  see some kind of  pattern here

So, yes, you can have a game without a bad guy.

[amanta4ray]

Captain D you really make some valid points.  I did mean bad guy or gal as the case may be.  It just seems that a lot of the Sierra games seem to rely on bad guys for intense drama or intrigue and as I try to emulate that, I felt that every game needed some type of evil to overcome. 

However, there must almost always be some sort of conflict to keep the audience interested

That is completely true which brings me to my dilemma.  In some ways, I feel as if the game I am working on needs a bad guy/gal, but in others, I feel as if I am adding one just to add one.  It's the traditional...going after a treasure story.  I guess maybe the conflict can be whether the hero/heroine wants to keep the treasure for themselves or reveal it to the world.

[Blondbraid]

That is completely true which brings me to my dilemma.  In some ways, I feel as if the game I am working on needs a bad guy/gal, but in others, I feel as if I am adding one just to add one.  It's the traditional...going after a treasure story.  I guess maybe the conflict can be whether the hero/heroine wants to keep the treasure for themselves or reveal it to the world.

There are many ways to go with a going after the treasure story without having a bad guy, and having the hero/heroine be in conflict with themselves is an interesting idea, but with treasure hunting there is also the conflict with nature the environment too, the main character can struggle against traps and puzzles placed out to keep them away from the treasure.

Furthermore, all conflict doesn't need to be openly violent or even hostile, you can also have characters simply and calmly explain to the hero/heroine why they think that they shouldn't go for the treasure,
it's too dangerous, the treasure can't be real and is just a legend or some things shouldn't be found and so forth...

[Grundislav]

I'm all for non-traditional conflict types in games.

You could easily make your game a story about Man vs Self. Think of it this way: why is your main character going after this treasure? Is it to prove something to himself or the world? Is it to feed some sort of addiction to adventure and glory? Is it because he thinks his life is meaningless otherwise? You can explore the character's inner struggle and make the the focus of your narrative while still telling an intriguing adventure story. It can be much more interesting than just having a generic bad guy who is also after the treasure.

[Snarky]

Repeating a lot of what others have said...

You don't necessarily need a traditional "bad guy" (who doesn't need to be a guy, and doesn't even need to be bad), but you do need to figure out what your story is. It shouldn't just be a series of events â€" it should mean something to your characters.

Usually this works by giving the main character a problem, or something they're missing in their life. The experiences they have as they go through the story changes them, and somehow resolves that problem or need, though not necessarily in the expected way.

The challenge is that inner conflict isn't necessarily that easy to portray. You don't want hours of inner monologues about their psychological issues. A good way to get around that is to have the inner issues represented in some external way. There are various ways to do that, but one is to have the problems embodied in a "bad guy."

For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy's "problem" at the outset is that he's a selfish, unprincipled, cynical looter and Lothario. The bad guy, Belloq, represents these same traits. Indy needs to change so that he's not like that any more, by coming to respect the artifacts he finds, fighting for something bigger than himself, and by getting back together with the girl he abandoned. By defeating Belloq and the Nazis, he demonstrates that he really has changed.

"Defeating random baddie" is not a very satisfying story beat. It's when doing so allows your character to change in some way that it becomes a good story.

A good AGS example is The Shivah, where the main character is a rabbi who has almost given up on his faith. Confronted with a murderous conspiracy, he has to decide what he really believes in and what his principles are. The final "boss fight" has him prove his skill as a rabbi.

Or take The Journey Down: Over the Edge, which is (the first chapter of) an actual treasure hunt. You're given all sorts of problems and "needs" that provide motivation and meaning to the adventure: your father disappeared on an expedition many years ago and you want to find him, your business is almost broke and you need money to pay the bills, you want to impress a beautiful girl, etc. etc. Oh, and the bad guys are chasing the girl, they're the ones you owe money to, and they probably had something to do with your father's disappearance!

So if you're going to have any bad guys, make them matter! Find out how to do that, and they won't feel unnecessary to the story.

[Danvzare]

Wow, I'm learning a lot about basic story telling from this thread.
Stuff I should have learnt myself years ago, but never did.

This a useful thread, and unfortunately not one I can contribute to in any meaningful way.

[Mandle]

You could also have the adversary have a change of heart and become the ally of the player, as happens in Casablanca between Rick and Louis for example...

Or the "bad-guy" could have been on your side all along, but you just did not see it that way, as happens in E.T. with the "key-jangling-man" and Elliot, or (tribute intended I'm sure): between the agent and Pegg and Frost in Paul...

This kind of "twist" bad-guy is hard to pull off though I feel without some good (and subtle) foreshadowing in the latter example, and (even harder) without some excellent character development and motivational triggers in the former...

Otherwise it will just be another "I saw that coming a mile off!" or "Where the frick did that come from?" twist that spoils the whole story.

A very delicate balance indeed...

[Blondbraid]

You don't necessarily need a traditional "bad guy" (who doesn't need to be a guy, and doesn't even need to be bad), but you do need to figure out what your story is. It shouldn't just be a series of events â€" it should mean something to your characters.

Actually, you can have a story that's just a series of events. In literature there is a genre called Picaresque which has a random events plot and little to no character development.
Examples of these stories are Don Quixote, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen and The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. However this type of storytelling usually best lends itself to satire and comedy.

Perhaps the most important thing to decide is the tone and feel of your story, and know exactly how serious or humorous you want it to be.

[amanta4ray]

So if you're going to have any bad guys, make them matter! Find out how to do that, and they won't feel unnecessary to the story.

I guess that is what it all breaks down to.  If something or someone isn't necessary to the story, in that they don't contribute in some way, then they don't really need to be there.  I think that I was trying to add the evil element because I thought it should be and not because it actually related to the story.

Actually, you can have a story that's just a series of events.

Most of my stories tend to lean towards this type.

Thanks everyone for your input and comments...that helps a lot in trying to put together a decent story.