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They had it coming (probably).
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00:00The promise of loot is a love language for most gamers.
00:03Odd job, menial task, one small favor, call it what you want.
00:07No good or bad deed goes unpunished in video game land.
00:10Dip means one hell of a drug and factions, when stripped to their core components,
00:15are essentially a reward structure presented with a side of story.
00:19That said, not all rewards are tangible.
00:21Sometimes watching the world burn is the best payoff.
00:25And if you did any of the following, that was probably your motivation.
00:28I'm Jess from WorldCulture, and here are 10 video game factions you joined just to mess with.
00:34Number 10. Tenpenny. Fallout 3.
00:37Rather than ease players into Interplay's quirky post-apocalypse franchise,
00:42Bethesda decided to break in its newly acquired IP in 2008 with a social experiment.
00:48Upon leaving the confines of Vault 101,
00:50the Lone Wanderer's first major quest involved siding with one of two establishments,
00:56Megaton or Tenpenny Tower.
00:58The former, a town formed around an undetonated nuclear bomb,
01:02is the morally good option here,
01:05as the alternative means detonating said ordinance for the aristocratic Alistair Tenpenny,
01:10for reasons amounting to little more than just curse.
01:14Ignoring Tenpenny's request and helping the nearby ghouls overrun and commandeer his hotel for themselves
01:19is the option most players probably went for in their canon playthrough.
01:23But explosions are fun.
01:25Most everyone wanted to know what would happen to Megaton if the bomb went off,
01:30even if they weren't willing to live with the consequences.
01:33Cue the creation of a splinter save just to mess with the town.
01:36Unsurprisingly, the explosion results in Megaton becoming a hole in the ground.
01:40Who would have guessed?
01:41Though not everyone perishes.
01:43Some of your acquaintances live on as ghouls,
01:46though they're not exactly thrilled that you opted to give them and their home a radioactive makeover.
01:51Number 9.
01:52Forest Hunters, Dark Souls
01:54Booting Lortrek off the edge of Firelink Shrine to obtain his Ring of Favor and Protection
01:59has become a rite of passage in Dark Souls,
02:02but he's far from the only NPC worth killing off early.
02:05Some of the best items in From Software's seminal masterpiece
02:08come from offing otherwise non-aggressive characters,
02:12including the infamous Darkwood Grain Ring.
02:15This little trinket gives your character the ability to ninja flip instead of roll,
02:19increasing invulnerability frames and mobility out the wazoo.
02:23Naturally, anyone who cares about agility wants this jewelry,
02:27which requires a merry jaunt to Darkroot Garden.
02:30To make the nameless shinobi possessing the ring show a space,
02:33you gotta join the Forest Hunters by talking to its wily feline leader, Alvina.
02:38Sign the contract and Mr. Ninja, partner in tow,
02:41will emerge from the woods to welcome you as a recruit.
02:44As an upstanding member of your new tribe,
02:46the order of the day is to kill your fellow Forest Hunter and Stealer's belongings.
02:50The trick here is to carry out the premeditated murder swiftly.
02:55As soon as you show violence,
02:56the entire covenant will jump you for your transgressions,
02:59which, given the circumstances, is a pretty fair reaction.
03:03Number eight, Dead Orbit, Destiny.
03:06Without sugarcoating it,
03:07factions in the original Destiny were largely pointless.
03:11Guardians could side with one of three different groups,
03:14all with varying extremist ideologies on how to secure mankind's future.
03:18But in a gameplay sense, the choice boiled down to which one has the best guns.
03:23The answer to that first question from start to finish of Destiny's life cycle
03:27was always Dead Orbit.
03:28Even if you vehemently disagreed with the Klan's mantra of
03:31abandoning Earth to seek refuge in space, it didn't really matter.
03:35Already boasting a leg up on the competition with black and white decals,
03:39obviously the best pairing,
03:40Dead Orbit's armoury stocked the best of the best,
03:43a particular highlight being Hung Jury.
03:46Scout rifles were the king in OG Destiny,
03:49and this one, besides being essentially recoil-less,
03:52came with one of the best perks right out of the box in Firefly.
03:56It's no wonder new monarchy and a future war cult never got a look in,
04:00thanks to their inferior wares.
04:02The only reason to ever rescind membership of Dead Orbit
04:04and pledge allegiance to either
04:06was for your guardian to get their mitts
04:08on some admittedly slick-looking armour shaders.
04:11Then it was right back to the latter
04:12to continue the never-ending chase for god-roll weapons.
04:16Number 7. Thieves' Guild
04:18The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
04:20Honour among thieves?
04:21Absolutely not.
04:23The Thieves' Guild Skyrim branch
04:25clearly disagrees with this sentiment as well,
04:27because it has no qualms with letting recruits
04:29steal from their brothers and sisters on a whim.
04:31While there's technically no time gate,
04:33preventing immediate abuse of the lackadaisical followers of Nocturnal,
04:37following the group's questline through to its conclusion
04:40will make your grand heist immeasurably easier
04:43thanks to a certain Daedric artefact.
04:46Once Mercer Frey hands over the Skeleton Key,
04:48lord knows why,
04:50the first point of order is to rob
04:51every last one of your guildmates' belongings.
04:54They won't care either.
04:55Having max reputation means NPCs will acknowledge you
04:58yoinking their stuff without ever growing violent.
05:01Best of all, everything you lift can be sold
05:03directly back to the person you stole it from,
05:06making freezy money.
05:07No playthrough of Skyrim is complete
05:09without going on an uncontested shopping spree
05:12in the ragged flagon
05:13and stripping it clean of every valuable.
05:15Just make sure you don't accidentally complete Darkness Returns,
05:19because doing so requires you to return the key
05:21to its rifle owner,
05:22and once it's lost, it's gone for good.
05:25Number 6.
05:26Executioners
05:27Bloodborne
05:27Getting a hold of Bloodborne's more,
05:30let's say, exquisite weapons
05:32can be a pain in the ass.
05:33Most are locked behind multi-stage quests
05:35that only conclude towards the climax of the vanilla game,
05:39including Ligarius' wheel.
05:41However, there is a nifty workaround,
05:43which hunters looking for an early game damage boost can adopt,
05:47though it's not easy.
05:48Alfred, leader of the Executioners,
05:51is the proud owner of Ligarius' back-breaking weapon,
05:54and he only yields it under two circumstances.
05:57One of those is joining his crew
05:59and following his questline through to its end
06:01at Cainhurst Castle,
06:02and the other, less conventional method,
06:05is baning allegiance to his cult of vile blood slayers,
06:08then offing him,
06:10and stealing the weapon from his cold dead corpse.
06:12The latter sounds simple enough,
06:14but Alfred's no pushover.
06:16The bloke has a ton of health,
06:18and hits like a freight train,
06:19even able to outright one-shot your poor hunter,
06:22depending on your level and build.
06:24Unfortunately, the best course of action here
06:26is to get good, as the kids say,
06:28and become a parry god.
06:30This way, you'll open the cleric up
06:32to repeated visceral attacks,
06:34and, should you triumph,
06:35gain early access to one of Bloodborne's
06:37strongest strength weapons.
06:39Number five, Caesar's Legion,
06:42Fallout New Vegas.
06:43Obsidian did a bang-up job
06:44of making most of Fallout New Vegas'
06:46major characters morally questionable figureheads,
06:50but it dropped the ball with Caesar.
06:52The leader of the Legion,
06:53a pseudo-Roman neo-pagan cult
06:55headquartered in the Mojave Wasteland,
06:58exudes arsehole energy out of every orifice,
07:01whenever the player's courier is in his company,
07:04and probably when they're not as well.
07:06True to life,
07:07the real world has no shortage
07:08of irredeemable bail-ends,
07:10the effect of Caesar's unlikable nature
07:12meant anyone with a moral compass
07:14would want to put him six feet under
07:16as soon as possible.
07:17How soon?
07:18Well, much faster than anybody
07:19initially thought possible.
07:20Once you hit the Vegas Strip,
07:22and met Mr. House,
07:23Caesar will invite you to his camp
07:25and attempt to win your loyalty.
07:27You can refuse his invite to join the Legion
07:29and set up a fateful encounter at Hoover Dam,
07:32or you can play nice and gain his trust.
07:35Caesar's life is forfeit from here on out,
07:37and technically,
07:38you aren't required to join the Legion
07:40if you want to offer its leader.
07:41But let's face it,
07:42it's way more satisfying,
07:44at least from a role-playing perspective,
07:46if you want to stab the pompous dictator in the back.
07:49Number four,
07:50Corporations,
07:50EVE Online
07:51EVE Online's player-driven ecosystem
07:54is like no other.
07:55An MMO in name alone,
07:57CCP Games' long-running spacefarer
07:59is more akin to a social experiment.
08:02Anything goes in this inhospitable universe,
08:04including screwing over your fellow players
08:07for individual gain.
08:08Corporations are the name that's given
08:10to player-run guilds in EVE.
08:12Able to recruit members numbering in the hundreds,
08:15corps offer, among other incentives,
08:17safety in numbers.
08:17If an opposing crew ambushes you in the far reaches of space
08:21or otherwise wrongs you,
08:22your corps can have your back.
08:24Some unsavory types, however,
08:26will play the long con.
08:27Instead of declaring outright war with another corp,
08:30individuals will infiltrate the competition
08:33and dismantle them from the inside out.
08:36Such Machiavellian schemes aren't always successful
08:38and require a degree of social engineering.
08:41But if they're successful,
08:43the gains can be massive,
08:44especially if a corps leader sees fit
08:46to grant unfettered access
08:48to the guild's shared storage.
08:50Moral of the story?
08:51Trust is very hard to come by in EVE Online.
08:54If you've ever decided to get your feet wet,
08:56assume that every stranger you encounter
08:58has the worst of intentions.
09:00Number 3.
09:01The Mages Guild.
09:02The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion.
09:05Oblivion is very much a product of its time.
09:07Back in 2006, Bethesda's RPG
09:10was the pinnacle of game design.
09:12In 2024, it's a relic that Elder Scrolls
09:14bans new and old revisit
09:16for reasons ranging from curiosity to nostalgia.
09:20Oblivion's core gameplay and systems
09:22have always been buggy at best
09:24and borderline broken at worst.
09:26As expected, it's a Bethesda title.
09:28But nowhere is that more evident than NPC behavior.
09:32Aspiring magic users can visit the Imperial City
09:35to join the Mages Guild.
09:36Here, you'll be taught the ins and outs of spellcrafting
09:39and the importance of soul gems.
09:41In addition to those, it's also the potential grounds
09:44for a spontaneous war between wizards and warriors.
09:48To do so, commit and act heinous enough
09:50to have a bounty placed on your head,
09:52then immediately head to the Mages Guild
09:54and resist arrest from the nearby Imperial Guards.
09:57The latter, heavy-handed in their approach
09:59to law enforcement, will immediately attack,
10:02triggering your mage friends to join the fight on your side.
10:06The last and most important step is to grab a cuppa
10:08and watch the chaos unfold on the city streets.
10:11Sheregorath would be so proud.
10:13Number 2.
10:14Volcano Manor, Elden Ring
10:16Elden Ring ditches the traditional covenant system
10:19of previous Souls games,
10:21but that doesn't mean the lands between
10:22is free from infighting between opposing ideologies.
10:25The Volcano Manor, Preeta Rykid's stronghold,
10:29strongly opposes the Golden Order,
10:31and, well, anything or anyone
10:33that doesn't have a funness for snakes.
10:35Meanwhile, the Tarnished can pledge allegiance
10:37to the manor early on by following Raya's questline.
10:40Doing so grants access to the manor,
10:42a late-game area, and all the riches therein.
10:45Here, if you want to,
10:46you can completely shirk the responsibilities
10:48bestowed upon you by Rykid's humanoid wife, Tanith,
10:52and instead infiltrate the manor's inner sanctum,
10:55plunder its treasures,
10:56and put a sword between the Preeta's many, many eyes.
10:59To twist the knife even further,
11:02you can revisit the parish at a later date
11:04to find Tanith mourning
11:05and eating her late husband's corpse.
11:08It's entirely up to you
11:09whether she deserves to die by your hand as well,
11:12but laying her to rest
11:13will trigger a secret mini-boss fight.
11:16Polish that off,
11:17and you'll become the proud owner
11:19of an armor set and incantation
11:21not available anywhere else in the game.
11:24Number 1.
11:25Brotherhood of Steel, 4 out 4
11:27Even with the constant threat of supermutants
11:30and radroaches at your door on any given day,
11:33fashion is still important in the post-apocalypse.
11:35The Brotherhood of Steel's supreme leader
11:37knows this all too well
11:38and comes dressed for the occasion in Fallout 4.
11:42Sporting the only battle coat of its kind
11:44in the Boston wasteland,
11:46Arthur Maxson's drip is fantastic,
11:48even if the Brotherhood kinda suck.
11:51Not only does it look good,
11:52it also happens to be a great bit of kit,
11:55boasting superior defense
11:56to other protective gear of similar weight
11:58and a boost to perception.
12:00Unfortunately, the only way
12:01to get a hold of Maxson's threads
12:03is to kill the poor sod,
12:05and to do that,
12:06you'll have to join the Brotherhood,
12:07even if yours and their moral leanings aren't aligned.
12:10But it's okay, really.
12:11Killing Maxson aboard the Pride Wend
12:13and lifting his coat
12:14will make his colleagues a bit irate,
12:17and you'll become a kill-on-a-sight target
12:19for any wandering Brotherhood knights
12:20from there on out.
12:21Is it worth it?
12:23I mean, look at that genuine Brahmin leather
12:25and interwoven officer uniform,
12:27and hell else you wouldn't be willing
12:28to kill for those duds.
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