A Strange Obsession with NPC battles

[UberScout]

Garry's Mod has a feature that lets you spawn NPCs from Half Life 2 into the game and watch opposing sides fight to the death. On certain maps, people release "navmeshes" which are nodes that tell NPCs where to go to get to who and from where. With the Team Fortress 2 Bots [2019] addon on the Steam Workshop, these are even made more interesting by the fact that all nine classes are powered by unique A.I. coding; that is, Engineers actually build, Spies will cloak and disguise themselves (not just as other classes but other NPCs as well!), Scouts will jump to and fro to avoid being shot, and Medics will stay close by to keep the front lines healed. One of the tools it comes with allows you to set spawn points that continuously deliver TF2 bots that run for each other and lay waste to the battlefield.

IT IS SO FREAKING FUN. I personally like to make up a game I invented called "Mann. Co's Last Stand" where you spawn neutral NPCs to balance the RED side from controlling too much of the battlefield, with the goal being to help BLU side keep the RED side's spawn point pinned down. It's even more fun with the fact that you can just jump in to the fray yourself and try to fight off the REDs with weapons from other addons!

I cannot stop playing around with this, it's just become so much fun to watch virtual mercenaries convert each other to puddles of mush amidst all the gun play! What I'm worried about is that this may make me seem psychotic to other people; sure, no real lives are being taken here, but the idea alone may make people nervous.

It's just a game, isn't it?

 

[Fino]

It's a part of the game, isn't it?

A popular game, I'm guessing?

It sounds normal to me, judging by the people I've talked to who played video-games, mostly children. The enjoyment of violence and murder seem to be a natural part of being human.

Just from the two threads of yours I just read, you're completely normal.

 

[onlything]

As you said, it's just a game. Are gamers playing all of the shooters and other violent games full of gore considered psychotic? No. It's just fun.

Shooting people for no reason in real life is psychotic. Organising a crime syndicate to kidnap people and make them fight each other is psychotic. As long as you don't cross the line between virtual and real it's just fun and games.

I'd say watching virtual people killing each other is much better than observing people torn apart by animals in a colosseum.