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Necessary Evil
tries to problematize and demystify the unquestioned idealistic
structuring of videogames in a playful and interactive fashion. By doing so, it also
inevitably ridicules the player-centrism of videogame worlds.
6
In game-design
wise, this purpose is principally pursued by having the player control a contributory
character: a generic and disposable evil minion. Following established conventions
of the games industry, the evil minion is a marginal character who plays a secondary
role in the process of another character: the main one. The main character will be a
hero (see Fig.
4.4
). In
Necessary Evil
and in strident contrast with video-ludic tradi-
tion, the hero will be a nonplayer character (NPC).
As mentioned, the player controls a horned minion of evil confi ned in a dark cel-
lar of sorts (see Fig.
4.3
). The minion is deprived of any consequential interactive
possibilities with the room. This design decision was meant to make the players
experience feeling marginal and to practically reveal to them what a virtual world
feels like, once it is designed around someone else's desires and perceptive
possibilities. In the one room that the player can experience in
Necessary Evil
, in
fact, nothing can be meaningfully interacted with: doors do not open for the player,
chests contain nothing and objects in the room are mere theatrical props.
The game world is presented as it only exists to be explored and experienced by
the NPC hero. The presence of the playing character (the horned minion) only
serves as a challenge to the hero, an obstacle to be overcome to continue on his
heroic journey. Once the NPC hero fi nally kills the little horned monster, he opens
the door and leaves the room. At that point, the room and the player creature are
swiftly removed from the computer's memory, leaving nothing behind. The de-
allocation of the game elements and their disappearance corresponds with the end
of the experience for the player.
In relation to what was discussed in the previous sections of this essay, the starkly
limited possibilities afforded by the game's interaction as well as its narrative (forc-
ing the players only into one out of two possible ending scenarios) make
Necessary
Evil
a suitable experience for the conveyance of explicit philosophical messages or
standpoints (Fig.
4.4
).
6
I believe it is interesting to observe that, like most games and videogames that take a critical
stance,
Necessary Evil
relies on controls, conventions and aesthetics that are already established in
the tradition of a particular game genre, in this case the action role-playing videogame one. The
deliberate design decision of not pursuing innovation and of relying on convention has the double
advantage of:
1. Not having to teach the players how to understand the world and operate in it, allowing them to
access the critical message of the game in a more immediate and effi cient way
2. Making the subversive, critical aspects of the game more evident by contrast, that is to say, by
making them stand out in their being unexpected and unfamiliar over the background of what
can largely be considered as already known by the players
For a more thorough discussion focused on the ironic and self-critical dimensions of
Necessary
Evil
, I recommend reading my gamasutra.com-featured blog post titled 'Self-refl exive Video
Games as Playable Critical Thought', available online at:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/
