Overly Positive

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Recently, I happened to be at a friend’s house as he struggled through a session of that old classic, Knights of the Old Republic.  As I tried to pat him on the back and explain that his skills at gaming were really not as bad considering most children actually don’t learn how to destroy you at Counterstrike until at least 7, I took the controller from him and proceeded to take the shortest path to success – that being lightsabering the cowardly lazy person who sent you on the quest, taking what you were going to give to him, and force choking people on my merry way. Imagine his surprise at my sudden turn for the worse – because I’m as sunny a person offline as I am in this blog, you know.

Why is the evil side of “choice” games more appealing? Simple – becasue geeks like us are so bored of playing the hero, the good guy, or the slightly-bad-ass-anti-hero-yet-still-goody-goody guy. Being evil is simply more fun.

Why do you think Peter Molyneux, creator of such gems as Populous (Evil Gods), Fable (Evil Child to Evil Adults) and Black and White (Evil Pet Owner) is so rich? It’s pretty easy – evil is just more exciting. Maybe some people out there who play a Wii more like a status symbol than an actual game system are more content with saving a princess over and over again, but some of us just want to experience the siren call of world domination and shaky morals.

I mean, without evil choices in video games, what excitement would there be, anyway? Knights of the Old Republic is, after all, our fantasy into becoming more than just Luke Skywalker minus the bad haircut and terrible wardrobe choices. Want to know why the largest Star Wars costuming organization is an Imperial Army? It’s because geeks like evil. Heck, some of us even turn it into a living by becoming supreme evil overlords of our websites, our forums, and even our jobs, where people’s dependence on techmnology makes them slaves to our Jabba the Hutt (bring me the Cookies!).

Don’t worry though – there’s nothing wrong with geeks who do this. After all, we’re just making up for the fact that our meaningless lives are filled with solitary moments of loneliness, inability to get laid, or silent weeping. We’re just ensuring that the bully who put our head in the toilet in high school gets theirs back because the only time they play a Halo game is at a frat party. And we’re just making sure that at least in a fantasy world, geeks are the ruling force behind every single guillotining of nubbish players around the world.

Aren’t you glad these skills aren’t used for evil in the real world? One could only imagine.