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There are many ways of being evil, petting the dog does not make a truly evil character less evil.
A lot of real life evil people actually like animals at least when it suits them in my experience.
A bit off topic but there are games where you are absolutely evil but it's not easily recognizable. For example factorio.
Most people consider themselves not evil.
In Factorio you pollute, but there isn't much evidence the native critters are intelligent. They sure don't act intelligent. There also doesn't seem to be any way to live in harmony with them.
Sure sounds like something a colonizer would say.
I first wanted to "/s" this but it's literally the reasons some colonizers used to justify atrocities. Btw it's canon that the factorio guy is evil as confirmed by the developers.
I get it in the game there is no way of confirming or even researching the sentients of the bugs but be honest was it your first instinct to check if they are? I sure as hell didn't. I mean they attacked me first, right?...right?! (Until you realize that you are killing them with your pollution)
I love that game design, even the music plays a role. Iirc it was designed a bit eerie as if something is wrong.
be honest was it your first instinct to check if they are?
From what I remember, on my first play-through the first thing I tried to do was explore, and when I got near the critters I was attacked. I don't think I even knew how to use my gun, so I just ran away.
In the real world, non-evil animals are often territorial. OTOH, they're often also curious, and if you approach slowly you can end up interacting with them without it coming to violence. But, the biters in Factorio go straight from ignoring you to attacking you with no in-between.
As for colonizing, it's worth noting that the goal in Factorio isn't to establish a colony, but to escape after your ship crashed.
I do like that the game subtly makes it clear that you're causing a lot of pollution, and that basically the only reason the natives attack is because of your pollution. OTOH, it would have been better if the biter "nests" contained something like worker ants who didn't attack you but needed to be killed to wipe out the nest. I guess you could argue that the spawner things fill that role, but they don't seem to do anything other than pump out enemies who immediately attack. So, not really.
Hmmm, ok what if the biters the critters themselves are stupid drones but the nests are sentient. Maybe the biters are like white blood cells part of the natural defenses of the nests. Something the "Brain" cannot control directly.
I am not saying this is the case or the developers thought that but it certainly is a possibility.
How can my pollution kill them‽ Their nests absorb it in huge swaths and actually give birth to MORE of them not less! /s very, very much (because although I didn't know the player even had any kind of external alignment in factorio until right now I can totally see and understand this being the canon response of the devs thus making my statement rather sarcastic!)
A lot of real life evil people actually like animals at least when it suits them in my experience.
It's really frustrating as someone who just doesn't care for dogs. I'm seen as some heartless monster, but there are literal monsters are out there with dogs too... Idk about globally, but the US has had some "recent" (10-15 years ago) explosion of obsession with dogs.
Old man voice: back in my day the womenfolk found dogs gross, now they like dogs more than anything else in the world! :P