I can never bring myself to be evil/cruel in video games

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In video games, I can never really bring myself to do anything that's needlessly cruel or just f***ed up. For example, in Wasteland 3 there's a quest that requires you to break-up some partying teens who are making too much noise. One of the ways you can accomplish this is by killing them all. No matter how annoying they might have been, this is something that I could never bring myself to do (but others seem to enjoy thoroughly). I know some people replay games as wholly good and then wholly evil, but even when I do replay a game I can never really interact with it in a way that goes against my conscious.

Of course, it's not as though I'm incapable of doing anything that would be seen as morally questionable in games. In Skyrim I'm perfectly fine with joining the Thieves Guild, but I can't bring myself to work for the Dark Brotherhood. And if the game requires me to do something I wouldn't normally be okay with (like that story mission in GTA V where you interrogate that guy) then I can usually grit and bear with it. But otherwise I'll always end up making the choice that feels right (or the lesser evil).

Just because a world is virtual, I see no reason to act like an as*hole who insults everyone or a murderous psychopath who kills everyone.

Have you ever played Postal 2?

Good for you. If it feels real and bad to do it, then I'd say the right call is not to do it.

If something isn't too realistic I can usually dissociate and do the "bad" thing guilt-free because it's just a game. I don't think I have ever even played a realistic 3D/virtual world type of video game though.

I love that game. You can play it nonviolently if you can try, but all the absurd situations you're put in as you try to complete errands will test your patience and drive you mad.

Oh, I remember. I've played it as non-violently as possible and I've played it with no goal beyond seeing how many burnt torsos spilling vomit out of their top hole I could leave.

Have you played Postal 4 yet?

No, I don't play too many games these days.

I haven't played it, or any of the other Postal games. They just don't interest me to be honest.

They interested me when I was 17. It was interesting to play through without ever being violent just to see how it worked out since most similar games oblige you to violence due to the setting (say like Battlefield 1942).

Although to be fair I'm not sure how much I'd struggle with being cruel IRL. Unfortunately it's proven to be a successful strategy when dealing with antagonists and bullies too many times during the formative stages of my life, so doing it in the context of a game just seems like how some problems get solved.

I mean I get those kind of issues in games to...but I guess sometimes I just figure I am not actually playing my real self in a game...so like maybe it is ok to explore those darker things without, having to see it as being totally attached to the character. But yeah for sure sometimes I feel like bad for doing choices that may harm some of the NPC's...and when it comes down to it in video games it is difficult to make more evil choices if you get the chance to try and resolve something with more of a moral comapass, like maybe you got to go save some npcs kid, but at the same time you're doing the skyrim assassins' guild missions.

So I get that sort of conflict, but at the end of the day you are just playing a game...so it is good to remember like its just a game and you aren't actually harming anyone's life by playing it. LIke you don't have to be 'you' in a video game but at the same time I for sure get the same kind of thoughts of feeling bad if I make choices that harm the NPCs.

Like Idk I felt bad about a skyrim mission where I basically had to take what had been a friendly like religious monk t a place where they were going to commit canabalism on him. And like I wanted to check out the canabalism quests and such but there was an option at the last minute to save that character and also void your attempt at joining the canbalism guild. And so of course at the last minute i was like, nah I don't want to kill this kind monk and so I have not completed that quest and I have had the game for around 5 years. Same with a dragon in Skyrim, I just cannot bring myself to kill that dragon in any playthrough, so of course I miss out on whatever gear you get if you do complete that mission. But how can you kill a dragon that told you its whole life story....so yeah I have played the game a few times and never can bring myself to kill that dragon even though if you don't, it means you don't complete the dragon guild missions since one requires killing that dragon. But yet I just cannot bring myself in any playthrough to kill that dragon.

Like it i literally a mission you have to do to actually say you played the whole game...but according to the subreddit for skyrim, seems plenty of others also have a hard time with the idea of killing that dragon even if they did all the other sort of murderous and darker kind of quests.

If you do like being evil in video games, have you played Manhunt on the PS2 console yet? It was banned for a period of time in the US due to the gore and graphic violence (it got a well earned MA rating after editing for release). You basically have to kill your way out of a prison complex using creative items, such as a shard of glass and plastic bags. Guns are nice, but there are better toys to play with there. I have multiple copies, plus the sequel in my collection. They are getting hard to find over time, as they were never a favorite of parental groups. There is also an unedited AO version for PC. I do not have that one.

One of my friends got all the way to the final boss, but could never finish Piggsy off. He has a working chainsaw to contend with.

Same for me, generally.
It's helped if I try to role-play that my character is immoral or morally grey. Maybe my character doesn't think stealing is all that bad bc of something in their past. Maybe they hate [group of people] because they were raised to believe that. Maybe they are just a cold, calculating individual more concerned with results than morals.

Or I just do a joke run like I did in Skyrim where I make my character look like one of my cats and have them kill every character they can find.

Yeah, when it comes to games where you create you create your character, mine ends up being a (idealized) reflection of myself. As a result I typically interact within a game the same way I would (or would like to) in real life.

However if I'm playing a game where the player character's personality/mindset is already set, then I'm usually more open to doing things that I normally wouldn't (i.e. like Trevor from GTAV). Similarly, if the character we create is already a part of a certain group/faction within the game, my interactions become a reflection of myself and that group.

For example, in Tyranny (a game where the whole battle between good and evil has ended, and 'evil' has won), you're character is actually an agent for the 'evil empire' of the game's world. You start off being sent to aid in quelling the rebellion taking place in the last part of the continent that the empire has conquered. Typically I show no mercy to those who rebel against the empire, but will spare civilians and those who surrender.

I don't play video games but I would probably always play the same way. I can't pretend to be anyone other than myself. I see violence in video games as abhorrent as violence in real life. As virtual reality becomes more lifelike violent video games become more dangerous. Eventually we could reach a point where some people can't separate VR from real life and go around hurting and killing real people because they think it's all a game.

I used to be like this, I say used to because I don't really play video games anymore so I can't gauge how I'd be now.

The way I read that situation - you know that your behavior in the world, your reflexes, etc. are governed by how you put yourself together and that whatever you do to stay alive, stay healthy, and stay out of other people's f'd drama is in large part how well you build yourself to handle the pressure of life or have 'no-go' zones where you won't do certain things no matter how high the pressure is in the other direction.

I think this also depends on what people are doing. A lot of people who enjoy doing bad things in video games may be trying to get a fear of something out of their system. On one hand it's important - just for staying alive in anyway that you'd really desire - to have your integrity together, but at the same time if you're hyper-aware of the white suit culture gave you at birth and are worried about the possibility of being extorted, messed with, or victimized for having fears around getting the white suit dirty (this did happen to me) you have to then find creative ways of engaging the darkness of the human condition and find ways that both leave you dangerous (for anyone who'd want to mess with you) while at the same time keeping your morality intact. It's a tough balancing act but I'm finding the world's gone cluster B enough that its getting tougher to survive for anyone who can't read the Machiavellian map of priorities and determine who's doing what around them with what intent.

I know it has always bothered me that Resident Evil 4 and 5 gave you the option to kill animals that were of no harm to the main characters.