» Tue Oct 11, 2011 6:32 am
As many a philosopher has noted, there is both light and dark within each of us. Most of the time in civilized society, we're constrained from letting those dark parts out. Laws and (hopefully) morality keep us in check when we're tempted to do anything truly heinous, but in games we have the luxury of indulgence. In fact, I think one of the greatest things about games is that they allow us to do things we can't do in reality, whether it's because they're simply impossible or because our better judgement prevents us from doing them.
I think it's very natural to explore the darker parts of our psyche when playing games, and in many ways it can serve as an outlet for the more violent, competitive sides of our personalities. That said, there are still some lines I have problems crossing. In Oblivion, I had very little remorse stabbing a sleeping man to death in the first Dark Brotherhood quest, but in Bioshock I couldn't bring myself to kill the little sisters. :-/ Everyone has their own limits.