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I’m a very non-confrontational person. Whenever I’m presented with a moral choice, regardless of the game, I usually end up taking the moral high ground; even when the NPCs turn out to be complete and utter dicks. Worse still, I do it even when I have irrefutable proof that the other party will screw me over once I’m done with their little favor; yet I endure whatever inconveniences it may cause me, only because I know I remain a hero in the eyes of the people that I protect. In the game, everyone likes me because I uphold an image of all that is supposedly good in the world, and for that, I feel a rewarding sense of acceptance that eludes me in the real world.

But this isn’t my story. This is a story about the other end of the spectrum, about those who take the moral low ground, those depraved souls who only gain pleasure from spreading human misery. Moral ambiguity is all the rage these days; although in most games, we’ve always had the opportunity to be jerks. The problem was, it was always detrimental to the player’s cause. “Shoot a hostage, you lose health.” Well, what if the dumb civvie just happened to run into your line of sight? “Tough Luck, aim better next time.”

Nowadays, if you want to shoot that hostage, the game will step aside and simply say “Go Right Ahead! You’ll just be awarded negative karma/dark side points/etc.” Which is fine and dandy, but it still raises a question in my mind: what happens when you get all the points you could possibly get? What if, let’s say in Fallout 3, merely completing the evil-themed side quests just wasn’t enough? 

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

There’s this kid I used to know. Pretty decent guy all around, to be honest with you. But looking back on him, his flaws become more apparent, and perhaps none are so noticeable than those related to his gaming.

See, many of his choices were spotty at best. He spent two years on World of Warcraft, enjoying his time immensely but ignoring nearly every other game that came out during that period. He would choose a game like NFL Street over Beyond Good and Evil. Worst of all, he would take lengthy breaks from gaming altogether, playing little to nothing at all besides random games already in his collection -- some old, many bad.

Worst of all, he missed out on the great offerings on entire consoles. It’s hard to say exactly why: perhaps out of financial necessity, perhaps out of a misplaced and nonsensical sense of loyalty, and perhaps some combination of these. But the reason is unimportant, as the sad fact is that he deprived himself of great things.

Let this kid serve as a warning to you all, for this misled youth was me, and I’m still paying the price today for his past transgressions. 

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When the world is falling to ruin, it is very important to know which side you are on. If you just happen to be the one doing the ruining, great, good for you. You are pretty evil and people definitely hate you. However if you're on the side doing the hating, you know, of the evil guy, it is also very important that you ally yourself with reliable friends.

In the world of gaming this act of camaraderie is referred to as "Co-op."

The goal in any co-op mode is to work together to complete common objectives. It makes perfect sense! Why do what one person can do when more can do it better and faster?!?! However my experiences have proven time and again that this dream theory brings with it more chaos than any mob of baddies could ever have wrought down upon my blistered thumbs.

What I mean of course, is that friends, nay ANY ally, when converted to virtual sprites and polygons, are the most evil creatures you will ever meet. Just picture it, if you and your friends were basically immortal and on a quest to save the world, how many times would you f**k with them just to do it?

Exactly. 

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

In my lifelong career as a gamer, I have saved the world countless times. I have saved it from aliens, I have saved it from Nazis, I have saved it from nuclear war, and I have saved it from long-haired mama's boys. But if one thing has been consistent in my genre-spanning heroic romps, it's that when saving the world, I've taken my sweet-ass time doing it.

Nothing is ever urgent. The games may lead us to believe the situation is dire, but it rarely is. Huge meteor threatening to collide with Midgar? It'll hang in the sky indefinitely. Ophelia is in danger and needs help? She can wait for Eddie Riggs to find some sweet jumps in his hot rod. There is a friggin' castle collapsing from naval bombardment around Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson? He can still take the time to look for dubiously unexplained "enemy intel" laptops. Such is the life of the procrastinating protagonist. 

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs. Also note that this is NOT an official Destructoid review of Style Savvy. -- CTZ]

When Style Savvy was announced during Nintendo's E3 2009 presser, the Internet let out an emphatic groan. Oh boy. More pretty princess dress-me-up nonsense. Thanks for making our decision to not invite you to our next birthday even easier, Nintendo.

While the hardcore thumped their chests, I was genuinely interested. No, not because I'm a ten-year-old girl but because Style Savvy is the localized title of Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode, the 19th best-selling game as well as the best-selling new IP of 2008 in Japan. It continued to chart well into 2009 and was last seen hovering above 800k units sold. This game came out of nowhere and struck a big chord with audiences.

Numbers aside, it's a Nintendo-published title and thus should be considered as part of the company's expanded-audience campaign. Software like Brain Age and Wii Sports demonstrate that Nintendo has knack for marrying accessibility and high quality unlike its me-too competitors. It would be unfair to lump it in the same group as Ubisoft's Imagine line without intense scrutiny.

But even if this game is successful in the West, it is directly marketed at teen and preteen females who love shopping, styling, and accessorizing. No self-conscious male gamer would ever come within spitting distance of it. Nonetheless, I'm surprised at how little attention this game is being paid anywhere. Style Savvy has been out for three weeks and there are still only two reviews on Metacritic.

Well, I went down to Target and plunked down my own cash for a copy with the aim of understanding its appeal. You probably think I'm fucking bonkers, but dammit! I feel compelled to convince you that a game can be good and not tailored to your specific interests by using the most radical example I can find! Think of it as a personal challenge. 

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Ah, Thanksgiving. A time of turkey and family for many. A few days off for those in school, perhaps a full week for those in college, and at least one day for those in the working world. There’s seemingly very little about this inoffensive holiday to dislike.

Yet where there is a will, there is a way, and some among us stand at the gates of Thanksgiving with torches and pitchforks in hand, ready to burn that mother down in a fit of righteous anger. Perhaps they were sexually assaulted by a turkey as a young lad, or perhaps that one time that they burned down the neighborhood while cooking stuffing is burned into their memory. Whatever the case is, it is not up to me to judge. If Thanksgiving isn’t your thing, who I am to be insensitive toward your feelings?

What is left to play for a person with such a strong aversion to this upcoming holiday? Believe it or not, you can have a completely neutral or even anti-Thanksgiving gaming experience on your favorite home console or PC. Read on to see my top ten picks to get you through this difficult time. 

[Editor's note: Here's the sequel to Mxyzptlk and Mudkip5000's Interview with a Left 4 Dead zombie. -- CTZ]

Hey guys, this is Mudkip5000, posting on Mxyzptlk's account because his work banned Destructoid.com and our internet at home is broken. Anyway, we finished editing the Left4 Dead 2: Interview with a Zombie 2 video.

Hope you all enjoy it. Outtakes after the break!

[Editor's note: I'm promoting this one as a friendly PSA to remind you all that Goodwill and thrift stores do hold good finds every so often. -- CTZ]

[Goodwill Hunting is a possibly weekly series about my gaming adventures at local Goodwill Stores and thrift stores. Sometimes it will be interesting and sometimes it won't be. Just like Goodwill. I may occasionally hold contests for games I find and already own or don't feel like keeping, so keep your eyes open for that because everyone likes free stuff, right?! This first episode occurs over a period of about two weeks.]

It all started around Noon on a Friday. The location, a little home owned restaurant with my mother, brother, and fiancee. I had ordered the American burger special, all beef patty, cheddar cheese, onion, mayo, mustard, hold the ketchup. Soup or salad? Soup, clam chowder. 

Link’s Awakening on the Nintendo Game Boy was one of the fruits of the success of Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo. A portable episode of Nintendo’s adventure had been a long time coming, and after wading through the SNES game, I lined up the handheld Legend of Zelda for a purchase.

Beforehand, I heard of a way to get an expensive item from a shop without having to pay for it. I believe I watched an episode of Gamesmaster, and it showed the familiar green/yellow tint of the Game Boy screen. Link ran in circles around the shopkeeper to the point that he was looking the other way, leaving Link to run out of the shop with the item. When I had the game myself, I found that if you tried to nip out the shop without paying for something, you’d be stopped from leaving by the alert owner.

That revealed, I decided to have a go at the shoplifting. Around I went several times, and I rushed out the door, prize in hand. However, I was then reminded of the fact that I was not to return to the shop. This warning would lead to the downfall of Link and my positive gaming experience.

I had left the shop, but the reminder not to return was, in theory, only tempting me to go back and check out what would happen. Whether I played a bit of the game afterwards or foolishly had a peek straight away, it didn’t matter; my curiosity was aroused. Like a child that had seen something that looked nice and edible, I took the opportunity regardless of the approaching cost.

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

"Bey, old boy," I thought to myself as I lay down the shovel, "sometimes we get swept up in evil without realizing it. Even with the purest intentions, we might ignorantly fall to evil."

Wiping the dirt on my hands off on my jeans, I straightened up and reflected on Tetris and how the vibrancy of its bright colours belie its truly sinister workings. We believe we act only to fill in the rows, but examination reveals darker workings. The tetrominoes appear as if from nowhere, but conservation of mass tells us such cannot be the case. The only alternative is that the poor blocks are ripped from their lives and loved ones by the sheer force of our will to game, left to shiver naked in the wings before they're called to the play field.

And then their agony truly beings. The tetrominoes plummet down, seeing only the bodies of their fellows below them and as they fall, we make them dance according to our whims. They land hard and are smothered by more bodies from above. They live on in anguish until we relieve them of it -- by clearing a row, decimating blocks and often cleaving their geometric bodies in twain. Their screams are all but audible, though they fall on the deaf ears of the entertained gamer. 

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.  PHOTO CREDIT:  http://thesketcher.deviantart.com/]

It’s 1998. You’re a good few hours into Metal Gear Solid. After a dumb move by Snake’s squeeze Meryl you’re forced to backtrack half the game to find a sniper rifle. Upon returning to the scene you find her body replaced by a few blood spatters and the deadly-accurate laser sight of Sniper Wolf.

So you hit the deck, pop some pills, and harry the sh*t out of her with your own scoped boomstick. Once victory is achieved, you run to investigate where the hell Meryl may have gotten to, only to be ambushed by the surprisingly healthy Wolf and a whole gang of troopers. Why you’re not given the opportunity to fight back is unknown. What is known however is that you’re in a whole heap of trouble, trouble in the guise of BDSM pervert Revolver Ocelot. 

_{[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]}

At first glance, some may expect a treatise on Pokémon as a cock-fighting simulator. That would be way too easy, and it's been done before. Rather, I'm here to expose how Pokémon, as a cumulative franchise, has a more insidious, wide-reaching goal.

Nintendo's Pocket Monsters series has spent the last thirteen years raising a whole new generation of sociopaths, turning our world's children into legions of irredeemable, self-centered pricks.

But how, you ask? Pokémon is all about making friends with small, adorable creatures, so that they will aid you in combating less well-intentioned critters of similar adorability, and gain honor and prestige as you make even more friends in this great and wonderful world with way too much tall grass!

What a load, and in many ways, a load that makes a lot of the veiled corruption in this game come across as even more repulsive. Let's take a loose, imaginary play-through of your average Pokémon title, and begin shedding some light on things. 

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When it comes to RPGs, enemies mostly come in four varieties: humans, flora, fauna, and monsters. Typically you'll see the first and the fourth as major foes, and the second and third as the fodder you mash while building money and experience. When you defeat foes such as the Turks in Final Fantasy VII, evil is punished, no big deal. Toppling a behemoth isn't much of a moral issue either because you know he'd tear you a new materia hole if given the chance.

But what about when you're running around outside Midgar, trampling into the wilds and intentionally stirring up fights? Sure, it appears as innocent grinding, stomping around and making noise to scare out the animals, but let me tell you what you're grinding there -- animal guts.

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I have a confession to make -- my virtual gamer self is a sociopath. In every open world game I play, innocent civilians stand no chance against me, being slain by the hundreds. Their forbidden fruit of dropped money and items is more dear to me then any item bought legitimately through an in-game store.

*Mild Modern Warfare 2 spoiler below, and major Fable 2 Spoiler after that*

As I played Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" level in this same mindset, I felt some real twinges of guilt from the actions I was performing. I began to question how this was affecting me -- these were the same fundamental rituals I had partaken in thousands of times in other games. As I was participating in this massacre, shooting innocents who were dragging the injured to safety while wading through a marsh of dead bodies, I realized that this scene was not the event that had affected me the most in the game and I think I now know why.