Can I share something with you? Y'know just between you and I? There's a particular microscopic part of me that fantasizes about going on a killing spree. That's a bold statement to make, so I feel comfortable expressing it since it's just you and I, without any right-wing judges of evil to cast any judgement on me. It's that same part of me that I pander to when I pass an accident and slow down so as to get a peek at the possible mayhem I might be able to witness.

Seeing as I'm a very domesticated happily married husband, father of three, and quite sane, the thought of going bat shit crazy and going on a murdering spree generally doesn't cross my mind in the real world. But in the confines of the gaming worlds I choose to visit, that's quite a different story. In those instances my lack of inhibitions, restraint, and guilt turn me into a raving homicidal psychopath. I walk down the game world street with thunder in my eyes, unbridled rage in my chest, and purpose in my idle hands.



As a matter of fact, the first thing I do when I begin a game is to test the boundaries of it. Will it allow me to do my nefarious deeds, will it allow me to kill and maim the innocent? Or is it confining me to play by its rules and ethics? Generally I gravitate to games that are open ended and/or give you moral choices. Good or Evil? Like that's even a choice. How one would deny their darker side in a game world, when in the real that's all they do, is beyond me.

To me the most appealing games out there are the ones that unshackle your dark side loose. Games that let your killing tendencies run amok, the ones that let you deviate or give you a choice of unleashing hell on the game world and it's inhabitants. Being in far far away places with a homicidal psychopathic robot cheering you on, to drinking the blood of the innocent to replenish your health, it just doesn't get any better for me.



My Partner-in-Crime.

Is it wrong for me to derive pleasure from my violent tantrums in games? Is it crazy to laugh my ass off at the chaos I create? If it is, I think there's a bunch of crazy gamers out there. I mean really, what better way to release the stress or frustration that you accumulate then to spin your game disc, pick up your controller, walk around a massive environment teeming with innocent pedestrians and casually taking out your AK and unloading at everyone you see all to the chorus of their screams.

If that's not a guilty pleasure, I don't know what is.