Joystiq - RPGs Deserve A Better Class of Criminal

[RPGWatch]

Joystiq writes about the quality of villains in RPGs. The article is aimed at jRPGs and, for the most part, I think we fare better on the wRPG side but it's still valid for a lot of games:

Like much of America, I saw The Dark Knight Rises last weekend. Like much of America, I left the theater completely enamored with the vicious (and occasionally ridiculous) villain Bane.

My first thought: "Holy crap, Bane sounds exactly like Deckard Cain."

My second thought: "Why don't RPGs have villains this awesome?"

Okay. Maybe it's unfair to ask every role-playing game to be more like the $250 million blockbuster that everyone on the planet went to see last weekend. And it's absolutely unfair to expect polygonal enemies to exude the personality of a real human being on a thirty-foot screen. But can't RPG makers learn something from the chilling villains in Christopher Nolan's wonderful superhero trilogy? Can the Joker help tell better stories?