10 Times You Were An Utter Dick To NPCs
You don't need to kick everyone in The Simpsons: Hit & Run's Springfield, but you can and have.
Video games are a good way to destress. After a long day, with the weight of the world sometimes pressing on you, it's a good way to clear your head to retreat into a piece of electronic entertainment. You can forget your woes and, in some cases, take your frustrations out in a safe environment.
Unless you feel particularly guilty for trolling NPCs, in which case this article may not be for you.
Admittedly, sometimes it's hard not to feel this way as the things players can do to non-player characters can be particularly cruel. Even if they are just lines of code and textures over a wireframe, there's something human in all of us that thinks "this is pretty messed up". Yet, in many cases, we do it anyway.
And it is funny. Very, very funny.
Video games are a power fantasy, and the power here is being able to ask "how much of a dick can I be with no consequences" knowing that there's no real victim. Which is thankful because, if you've done everything on this list, you'd have a pretty impressive rap sheet.
10. Incitement - Red Dead Redemption 2
We've all dealt with someone being deliberately annoying, but not being able to respond as that would be giving them exactly what they want. It's nothing directly harmful, but the kind of thing that wears on your sanity over time.
Red Dead Redemption 2 allows you to play out that role. In fact, the game literally has a button for "antagonising", so it's an expected part of the experience. Arthur Morgan has a giant script of insults at his disposal for various NPCs.
Do this enough times and you can upset them into picking a fight with you. As long as you're not the one throwing the first punch, you'll lose no honour in these little "misunderstandings".
But even better is when you don't need to fight back and let others handle the situation. If anyone is caught firing weapons in residential towns like Saint Denis, they'll attract the presence of lawmen who will gun them down to keep everyone around them safe.
So ergo, if you find an NPC you decide you don't like you can bait them into a fight, stay out of the way when they get too mad and then watch the law do your dirty work for you.
The game might not tell you you've lost honour, but if you had a good conscience, you might feel it.