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[de5me7]

after a light lunch i watched a few hundred thermonuclear warheads whipe a few million (possibly billions) people of a planet on the copy of Sins of a Solar empire i have just purchased.

As this happend it made me wonder about the role of genocide in video games. In some games like Sins, and Defcon theres quite a sickening yet atmospheric beauty to it (possibly some emotion) in other games like total war its just necessary to quell the population

The media has historically kicked up quite a fuss about fps and violence e.g. doom and GTA but genocide rarley gets a mention?


Genocide can occur at a primative level in dorffortress, if your adventurers bad ass enough

What are ppls feelings about genoicde in video games? Is it fun? Do you feel any emotion whilst carrying it out? do you activly avoid or seek it out (some games give you a choice e.g. total war)? Will it ever be contenious with the media. Should games make you aware of the consequences of such actions, or is it just a game?

[Cthulhu]

It's just a game.

And yes, I brutally suppress enemy races in games, and exterminate the populace of towns in Total War.

[Phantom]

Im usually the Merciful and Good dude in games.

[Enzo]

I have no feelings of remorse when I boot up the latest version of Civilization and scorch the earth out from under my foes with a barrage of nuclear warheads.

Does this make me a bad person?

At least in Civilization games choosing the nuclear option alienates every other faction on the planet, which conveys a thread of morality to the player.

[Phantom]

Well on a few occasions, like in the game Aliens (RTS for PS2) I usually slaughter all the civvies for no reason.

[JoshuaFH]

I'm immediately reminded of Nethack and it's "Scrolls of Genocide", which are very rare scrolls that, when read, can be used to COMPLETELY wipe out a certain species, or a certain letter in the blink of an eye. Some monsters are immune to the scroll however.

To win the game, it's very recommended you atleast wipe out ONE thing that's likely to hinder you, and thus mass murder is actually part of the best strategy to winning.

[Jude]

When I win a game of Master of Orion, it usually involves my Fleet o' Death crusing around obliterating millions of alien colonists, either in order to eliminate their empire, or to reduce their population and thus their amount of votes in the elections for Galactic Overlord. Somehow, repeatedly exterminating 200 million virtual sentient life-forms with one mouse click has failed to transform me into a monster in real life.

Also, in Nethack, do Genocide scrolls literally wipe out that letter completely? As in, no new ones will ever spawn for the rest of the game? If so, that would be nuts...in Angband, you can eliminate all the D's, or Z's, say, from a level, but that doesn't carry over once you leave that level...

[JoshuaFH]

Yes Jude, that's how it works. Say, if you genocide h, then that'll eliminate all h's in the game, and prevent any from spawning ever again. There is ONE exception to this however, and that's that monsters can still be summoned by reading a cursed scroll of genocide.

Of course, it's in one's best interest to only genocide a few things, cause if you go crazy and genocide ALOT of things then the monsters which can't be genocided (which are the strongest in the game, mind you) will be more likely to spawn in their place.

[Armok]

Mostly sadistic glee, as far as I can remember, but it was a while since I played games like that.

[Neonivek]

Genocide in videogames is usually alright because it almost always happens as some sort of mindless assault by the player.

[Zangi]

Systematic Genocide, one wyvern or elder dragon at a time.  Will they ever become extinct?
Monster Hunting.

Tactically, in strategy games, it is much easier to commit genocide, where the end result is what matters.  I do it all the time and have no remorse about it.  Does that make me a bad person?   

[Reasonableman]

Usually, in the sorts of games that give you the opportunity to commit it, genocide is just a little set of numbers that tick down to zero, kinda reducing the chance for any sort of serious... feeling behind it. Just you wait until you can nuke a planet from orbit, and then zoom down to see the shadows of children burned into playground equipment; theeeen we'll have a heck of a media frenzy on our hands.


Crispy children.

[Sensei]

I think the reason they're worried about GTA and such, but not about having the option to use your Novalith Cannon to crack a planet in two, is that hijacking a car and shooting at cops is far more accessible to someone with poor judgment. You're not really going to have to worry about someone getting the idea of nuking anything actually being able to. Well, supposedly anyway. The media tends to only learn from mistakes in this field, and thus they will by definition never learn if videogames are likely to have a hand in ultimately driving some madman to start the nuclear apocalypse.

[Nilocy]

Im usually the Merciful and Good dude in games.

I used to be like this until i played Defcon. Then it all went down the pan, now I'm itching to genocide everything, cats, dogs, family members... Ingame of course.

[Jackrabbit]

I actively go out of my way to avoid causing harm to people that actually look like people. I'm just sappy like that, I can't bring myself to do it. But games like Defcon? Bang bang bang!