[size="4"]What makes an antagonist?
Let me go ahead and preface this discussion by stating that I'm currently working on creating an interesting and unique antagonist for a little project I'm thinking about starting up. I'm having a lot of trouble defining what compels users (players) to defeat their fictional foes. So, I thought, hey - I might as well ask you guys for your opinion regarding what your motivation is as a player in defeating them, right? I feel as though establishing these motivations will definitely help me craft better adversaries in the future. By the way, I'm also wondering what aspect of defeating the antagonist you think is the most rewarding. I've been throwing around a couple of ideas in my head but I'd like to see what you guys have to say about it.

In a sense, what I'm asking you is - what compels you to want to defeat these enemies? What makes an enemy interesting? What emotional investment(s) do you harbor that most that compels you to triumph over their tyranny? Also, what do you think the best reward is upon defeating your enemy? Something visual like the restoration of a torn land? Or item or power acquisition?

Some antagonists are quite cool but you don't particularly want to defeat them. But I'll stick to talking about ones you particularly want to defeat here, since you specified that.

To particularly want to defeat someone, they have to be doing something immoral and/or really annoying. The more contemptible or frightening someone's motives, the less sympathetic the character is, the less you hesitate to smash them. So a greedy sadist, maybe make him a bigot while you're at it, who is extra dangerous because he is smart, is one of the most contemptible and frightening types of villain. A psychopath who enjoys death and destruction and kills people in creepy ways because the insane voices in his head tell him to is also a particularly frightening type of villain because he is unpredictable and alien. A non-sentient but physically strong and fast monster which is motivated by bottomless hunger to eat people is another scary type of monster; more so if the 'eaten' people are converted into something creepy, like zombies/borg.

Just a question, but do you think questionably moral villains are any more interesting than say someone who's just innately evil? I guess what I'm asking is, do you think "villains" acting on rational emotion such as vengeance in an irrational way such as genocide are any more interesting than just say, someone who's corrupt - someone bent on domination (power hungry) without an immediate reason? Do you think it's any more satisfying to the player seeing for themselves human flaws within the antagonist that they're battling with? And please do expound on the villains that you aren't necessarily meant to hate - that's more what I'm aiming for.

I'm just trying to determine if it's worth writing in a back-story for a villain if the average player isn't going to appreciate it. In what ways do you guys think you can spice up an antagonist? You know, other than them just being hellbent on destroying the world.

Antagonists are the best fans of the hero. They admire the hero and recognize him as such. They care about the hero and take serious note about everything he does. Antagonists ultimate purpose is to denigrate everything the hero represents and in that way prove their own point as valid.

I could go on, but I'm urged to make a barbecue!

I guess what I'm asking about is an indirect antagonist, or an overall villain - a common villain (such as an evil overlord avidly attempting to take over the world.) This is in regards to games - so, the villain wouldn't necessarily take note of the hero until the hero is his or her opposition, a thorn in their side.