Nil Bid

When you get a few levels down in Torchlight, you will start seeing this whole other civilization there. It is beyond the mines and the ancient ruins, still pristine and inhabited by some humanoid societies. In role-playing games we are often sent into these villages like we’re starring in a Vietnam war flick. We go in there and kill anything and everything that moves because the game calls these creatures evil.

However, if we put aside the aggressive nature of these creatures for a second and think about what it is we are really doing here, that kind of behavior makes sense. I mean what would you do if a tank rolled down your street and started blowing up your neighbor’s houses and killing the neighborhood children? Would you run away or would you arm yourself and fight? I know I’d send my family to safety and help in any way I could..

There is a particular area in Torchlight – I believe level 17 – where you are that tank rolling down the street. If you look around – even a cursory glance – you will see things that say “hey this is a neighborhood.” There are spits outside over glowing campfires, there are huts filled with lizard men, and there are spiders wandering around peaceably. You do not think about the fact that the lizard man you just stabbed in the face has a family because he is attacking you. You do not give a second thought to the fact that you have invaded his personal property and violated the sanctity of his home.

You do not worry about the fact that the giant spider you just shot with an Ember Beam for 30 seconds might be somebody’s mom. Little Sally Spider might come out of hiding a few hours later to find that giant corpse on the front lawn. All mom wanted to do was to protect her home, after all.

We never get the option to sit down and talk to these creatures. Maybe to say “hey Lizard man, what are your hopes and dreams for the future?”

Maybe he would say something like “someday i’d like to open a Korean Barbecue place on the corner of Slither and Coil.”

I guess we will never know because we stabbed the poor guy in his snaky face. And I guess Sally Spider is shit out of luck too. The itsy bitsy spider goes down the spout again and into the spider orphanage because her mom’s hairy corpse is decomposing on the front lawn.

Maybe that’s the real reason why monsters really hate heroes, why they are so damned aggressive. You’d be aggressive too if some psycho came along and killed thousands of your kin and littered your front lawn with blood and corpses.

So the next time some spider is shooting venom in your face or an ogre is dropping a 500 lbs. club on your head, note that they are probably justified in doing so.