The Player (Pandemic)

The Player is a nameless antagonist in the online game Pandemic and its sequel Pandemic II, the Player is never named in-game but is actually the one who is controlling the game: in effect you play as the villain.

The goal of "The Player" is to engineer a lethal bio-weapon by which to wipe out the entire human race, spending points on evolving your disease so that it can spread to as many countries as possible before the world governments begin to fight back.

The bio-weapon can be a virus, a bacteria or a parasite and can have all manner of horrific side-effects - the game encourages "The Player" to develop their disease slowly so as to avoid detection as well as ensure it spreads rapidly.

Due to the very nature of the game this can be considered one of several "Play The Villain" type games, others in this genre include (but are by no means limited to) the Torture Game and any crime-simulator where you play as a mob-boss or similar.

The game will only end if you succeed in wiping out humanity or all infected individuals are dead, which means regardless of outcome "The Player" will become a mass-murderer with one of the highest death-counts ever (far outstripping that of any current real-world terrorist) : if successful "The Player" effectively becomes a Planet Destroyer as they have exterminated the human race.