Jim Rossignol:

Game developers are unconstrained in their designs for the enemy. Such designers will be punished with poor sales, not death in the gulag, if their designs for the overlord are unpopular. They could go anywhere with the homes of evildoers: halls of electric fluorescence, palaces carved from corduroy, suburban back yards.

And yet, in spite of this freedom, most videogame designers choose to make a definite connection to familiar – or real-world – architecture. Perhaps they think that the evil lair must emanate evil. There's surely no room for ambiguity with videogame evildoers: the gamer needs to know that it's okay to aim for hi-score vengeance.

Paul Graham, from last year's best-of:

Don't just not be evil. Be good.

Bill Joy, from years ago:

We are on the cusp of perfection of extreme evil -- an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond weapons of mass destruction.

Robert Draper, for GQ:

Donald Rumsfeld has always answered his detractors by claiming that history will one day judge him kindly. But as he waits for that day, a new group of critics—his administration peers—are suddenly speaking out for the first time. What they’re saying? It isn’t pretty.

Evil Lair: On the Architecture of the Enemy in Videogame Worlds