Eric of Elder Game discusses more game development on his MMO in progress. This time: why the undead are evil, not “misunderstood.” It’s a lovely, short treatment of the question in world-building:
Early in Diablo 3, you meet a Necromancer. And your character basically says something like, “Hmm, you don’t see many of those around town!†This is the saddest reaction to necromancy ever. Necromancy should be evil. …
Most zombie flicks don’t suggest that it’s Grandpa inside that rotting corpse: it’s just a meat puppet. So if you can get over the shock of seeing Grandpa’s rotting body, reusing his corpse isn’t so evil. It’s almost a noble act: you’re up-cycling useless flesh into something productive! …
[Shifting to talking about his differing design:] Necromancy mostly uses hate-filled undead, but there are other kinds, mostly occurring naturally. Ghosts, wraiths, banshees, and so on are fueled by unpleasant emotions like depression, greed, agony, and jealousy. They’re all sentient, and all of them are feared…
The Combat Psychology skill now has direct tie-ins to undeath. If you make a skeleton feel less hatred, you’ll literally make him weaker. Psychoanalysis can kill the undead!…
Maybe depression in this world is now a serious public safety issue. Most suicides are committed by extremely depressed people, and if they come back as ghosts, haunting their loved ones, they can spread more depression like an infectious disease. What would society do? …
Worth reading.
: Zubon
Very cool and I can respect it – I like people who actually think through how these things fit in their world (“why wouldn’t everyone have animated skeleton butlers” is exactly the kind of question we should ask and answer!).
Of course I have to mention that non-evil necromancy can also be incredibly fun; the Guild Wars role-play I’ve done with friends includes a few great necromancers who each have their own moral codes and personal justifications for what they do. But that, too, requires us to think it through – not just decide it’s ok to raise the dead and leave it at that. And I’m all for making zombies and vampires scary again!
Kind of reminiscent of Madoka Magica.