Mmmk. Blog post number two. One of the enduring questions that I took away from the semester-long project that I did last year on videogame violence concerned narratives. I looked at the storylines of the most popular games that I could find and thought about the narratives of other ones that I knew. I found the plots of these games to be monolithic. Earth, or wherever, is invaded/subjugated/disturbed by a cruel, overbearing regime, often an alien one. There are no games that I could find where players are assigned the role of a brutal, bloodthirsty character of power who must eviscerate an innocent civilian population that has no means of redress. There’s no bestselling game where you’re a Japanese Colonel during the Rape of Nanking. There’s no blockbuster where you’re a devoted Einsatzgruppen commander. Those are extreme examples, probably the most extreme, but you get my drift. Violence in and of itself doesn’t seem to be that objectionable. But it seems like producers are much more careful about the motives and context of the violence. The U.S. Army was really pissed when Call of Duty was going to allow players to play as Taliban; they nixed that option before the game was released. Do you know of any games that let users be a historical, discredited villain? Are any of those games really popular?