User blog:Dalledayul/Are some Elder Scrolls players sadists?

So I've been looking at tons of stuff involving Skyrim and Oblivion over the weekend. Skyrim Confessions, the many talk pages on here, forums littered across the internet and one or two fairly f****d up 4chan threads, and there seems to be a trend which is scaring me. Massively.

Everyone has a character in an Elder Scrolls game they just hate. And this isn't just the 'he gets on my nerves' hate, this is the level 9001 hatred, the kind that makes you want to find that character, rip their head off and kick it off the Throat of the World. You all have one, and don't deny it (mine is Ondolemar, screw that prick!). What worries me though is when people talk about how they punched them, killed them, Fus-Ro-Dah'd them or set them on fire... and enjoyed it. Now don't get me wrong, there are times when killing is fun. I myself love chopping my way through a vampire lair with my trusty sword and dagger, but when it comes to a fully fledged character, with storylines and personality traits, it's a bit different. Take Nazeem, for instance. This is a guy who no one likes. No one. There are many who have killed him, and some have actually decapititated him with a battleaxe, but most did it because he's a scumbag. What worries me is when someone does it for one of two reasons: either they kill him purely because they murder anyone they feel like murdering, or they get a kick out of bludgeoning a man to death with a warhammer.

So are a lot of Elder Scrolls players mad sadists? Possibly. There is a thin line between killing someone because they're a dick and killing someone because you enjoy killing them because ''they're a dick. ''When I (eventually) killed Ondolemar, it was because he was a Thalmor scumbag and killing him was for the good of the people of Markarth. I didn't kill him because he had a snobby voice, I killed him because he deserved death. Did I enjoy it? I enjoyed the idea of Markarth not having to put up with the arsehole, but I didn't enjoy ramming a sword through him. I'm not sure whether people aren't presenting their views on the matter correctly or whether they do actually enjoy murdering innocents for fun. I'm fine with people hating a character in a video game, or TV or a movie (many are designed to do just that) but I think fantasizing about the cruelest, most painful way they can die is pretty f****d up!