10 Video Game Factions You Joined (Just To Mess With)

The promise of loot is a love language for gamers. Odd job, menial task, one small favour, call it whatever you want: no good (or bad) deed goes unpunished in video game land. Dopamine is one hell of a drug, after all, but often, what an NPC considers worthwhile payment isn't enough. We, as players, always want more baubles and trinkets to throw on the pile, even if it means screwing over digital — and sometimes real — people to get them.

Factions, when stripped to their core components, are essentially a reward structure presented with a side of story. They encourage others to join their cause with the promise of lucrative treasure. Whether the ideologies of Skyrim's Thieves Guild or Dark Souls' Forest Hunters aligned with your own mattered little in the long run. They claim ownership of something you want; feign allegiance and do their dirty work and you'll be rewarded handsomely.

The trouble is, patience isn't a common virtue. If shortcuts exist, they're going to be taken. Sure, you could follow Alfred's questline through to its natural end in Bloodborne to get your hands on Logarius' Wheel. Know what else you could do? Feign devotion to his cause and stab him in the back at the earliest opportunity. You get a shiny new weapon earlier than intended and Alfred is spared the horror of continued existence in Yharnam. Win-win, right?

Not all rewards are tangible, though. Sometimes, watching the world burn is the best payoff. Allistair Tenpenny knows what's up.

Rather than ease players into Interplay's quirky post-apocalyptic franchise, Bethesda decided to break in its newly acquired IP in 2008 with a social experiment. Upon leaving the confines of Vault 101, the Lone Wanderer's first major quest involves siding with one of two establishments, Megaton, or Tenpenny Tower. The former, a town formed around an undetonated nuclear bomb, is the 'morally good' option here, as the alternative means detonating said ordnance for the aristocratic Allistaire Tenpenny for reasons amounting to little more than 'just 'cause'.

Ignoring Tenpenny's request — and helping the nearby Ghouls overrun and commandeer his hotel for themselves — is the option most plumped for in their 'canon' playthrough, but explosions are fun. Most everyone wanted to know what would happen to Megaton if the bomb went off, even if they weren't willing to live with the consequences, cue the creation of a splinter save just to mess with the town.

Unsurprisingly, the explosion results in Megaton becoming a hole in the ground, though not everyone perishes. Some of your acquaintances live on as Ghouls, though they're not exactly thrilled that you opted to give them and their home a radioactive makeover.