Games don't kill people, YOU kill people!... in games.Your parents probably read something in some unreliable news article about violence in video games. Now smirk as you think of a video game that doesn't involve killing...

Pokemon doesn't count. Just because they knock people unconscious instead of killing them doesn't make any difference. The guy on the controller is still going “DIE PIKACHU DIE”... or something like that.

"I always knew...."

Now FIFA might be fun and all, but fails to exploit the advantages of the virtual world being able to play soccer in a minefield! How about PANGYA? Golf in a computer game? Wait, does it involve you running away from your murderous wife after an illicit golf-related affair? If not, where's the fun in that!

I'm not here to discuss violence in video games. It's there, it's encouraged, and it's fun. It makes the game competitive. The whole binary system of life and death works such that (for the most part) the other guy who is dead, well, he can't kill you. Killing often becomes the best way to survive.

So if you're inclined to disagree with the previous few paragraphs, and you would much rather play Tiger Woods' Pro Golf Tour (scandals not included) than Call of Duty 4, then this article is not for you. This article is about why you should kill people... in video games.

For the purpose of this article, there are only two kinds of players. Firstly, there are defensive players. It's not like they don't like to kill people, just that they don't like dying because... it stops them from killing people. Then, there are aggressive players, who wouldn't mind chancing death to kill someone.

Most people play defensive. It's much easier to do well by being selectively defensive! It's significantly easier to wait for someone to walk into your trap to die then to try to find him (and possibly end up walking into his trap and dying). Avoiding conflict generally has no cost.

Most games make defensive play easy. DotA (and all the other MOBA's as they call the genre) has the tower and creeps. Realistic FPS'es generally have many places where there are too many corners to scan from one entry point. Generally, it's much easier to co-ordinate 5 people waiting for one guy to pop up then for 5 people to attack one place at the same time. For most team games.

Playing defensive is so much easier on the mind.

"A gamer's natural inclination"

Conversely, it's much harder to play aggressive, but is more rewarding as well. Because you see, more or less, to win a game, you have to kill people.

See, killing people is fun. Then there's the slippery slope in most games, which means that killing people allows you to kill even more people etc. until it gets so easy that it isn't fun anymore... but that's still fun. Defensive players only start pushing people down that slippery slope near the end of the game, when the advantage has been built up finally. Aggressive players wrestle people down that slope from the start.

Heck, I'm probably not going to explain why you should be playing aggressive. You've been playing games. You KNOW the rewards of being aggressive. You want to own people, and the reason you're not doing that is because your inner fear of being owned is holding you back.

The road to uberpwn is paved with much failure. However, it is also paved with much pwn.

Elaborating too much on why being aggressive has its rewards, why being aggressive actually takes more skill, and why being aggressive wins you games, will be much more philosophical a treatise than I care to write. I mean, I've already written one page without even touching on how to kill people.

Let's start with being aggressive step one. For all games, for all you defensive people out there. Step one is to learn when you are unable to run away. Some games don't even give you the chance to run away, like... ummm... Guitar Hero?

Scrap that. If you can kill people in a game, it makes sense to provide an escape mechanism for all the defensive players to take. Most people however, fail to realize that they are past the event horizon. It is impossible to run away. So if running away leads to failure, what would be the only other option you have?

Maybe you can... FIGHT!!

The whole “fight or flight” instinct in human beings rarely fails to manifest its brutal half when it comes to computer games. In other words, faced with a threat, the first thing most people do is run the heck away. Logically, if running away still leads to you dying, then running away is useless. So, step one. Preempt your death, and don't run when it's coming. Fight.

Then you'll probably realize that sometimes when you fight instead of running, you win!

Step two is the harder part. See, fighting when you think you're about to die is an easy choice. It's the logical one. It's much harder to judge when you actually can run away. And how. Now that you know that fighting is a much more attractive alternative than running to death, it's time to judge when running is an option.

Because being aggressive is being aggressive. It's being courageous. It's not being suicidal. Don't get me wrong, there are pretty great suicidal players who rush into any situation and generally have great success, but chances are that if you were a defensive player to begin with, you are never going to be that guy.

If I could elaborate on when you could run and when you could not, I would be the greatest gamer in history. I'm not. That's why I spend my time writing articles instead of playing. Just know that being aggressive is not about being suicidal. Tell yourself when you could have run and when you couldn't, and how you could have been of use in those moments prior to your death.

In DotA it's possible to totally avoid life and death decisions by just not getting into any conflict. This is not true for most other multi-player games, and trying to not kill anyone is definitely not going to get you that far in DotA (believe me this! I play DotA!). Entering conflicts that you know you can come out of victorious is what every General in history has been trying to achieve, and so should you.

The problem with being aggressive is that in order for it to work, you have to be better than the guy you're killing. Running into a 1v1 Rocket Launcher fight with f4t4l1ty without any powerups is hopeless, and I don't even need to specify a game here. Bullies pick on the weak. Bullies don't go after people stronger than them. Bullying is frowned upon in school, but that's what computer games are for.

"Face this guy? Not a good idea...no-sir-ree..."

The best thing about most computer games is the slippery slope. Eating the small fish gets you bigger to eat the bigger fish, so soon you don't need a significant skill advantage to take on the harder to kill players. Powerups and weapons give you an advantage over another player who doesn't have them. Items and levels in DotA give you the ability to kill more skillful players who somehow couldn't obtain them.

So that's step 3. Start by picking on the weaker people. It really is an art, but finding out who is weak enough to pick on is significantly easier than rushing into conflict with everyone. As said before, there are advantages to being defensive in most games, and you don't want to rush into someone who both plays better than you and has an inherent in-game advantage. Until of course, you bully his entire team and you're 3 levels higher. No amount of skill can make up for an in-game advantage.

Being aggressive makes you play better, but for most people, at a certain point, they realize that there are only so many people they can out-skill. At least they should. You do know that you can't win everyone, right? Bullying the weak might be dishonorable, but honour is for the weak. And the best. You aren't the best, so abuse all the dishonorable tactics you can. Chances are anyway, one doesn't become the best by being honorable.

So, how do you turn aggressive on a defensive player anyway? Picking on people who make many mistakes is easy, but it's picking on those who don't make many mistakes, those better defensive players, that's difficult. Occasionally you get defensive players who don't make mistakes at all. Usually in DotA that's the guy who AFKs in fountain for the entire game. He doesn't die! Obviously, you win by killing the rest of his team. The guy who camps at his tower the entire game? You win by killing the rest of his team, then getting enough items to rush him at his tower. The point is, games reward successful aggressive play, which you can use to force an in-game advantage.

So, for overly defensive play, simply ignore those people. Chances are, while you're both bored to death, you're gaining a lot more than he is by being aggressive. Just make sure that you don't go all the way to kill overly defensive people. That's like reaching into a jar to strangle a snake. The snake has all the advantage. What you do is ignore the snake, buy a grenade, and throw it down the jar. As if I needed the bad analogy.

For people who are reasonably defensive, bait their mistakes out. Play with them. Make them think you're unprepared when you are. There's really nothing wrong with camping, but aggressive players and defensive players hide in corners for totally different reasons. The defensive player hides in a corner because he doesn't want to die. The aggressive player hides there because he has lured the opponent there. In games that give you a huge defensive advantage, the aggressive player basically lures the defensive player into being aggressive at the wrong time.

Generally, all that is just called “baiting”. It is up to your imagination of course, how you want to lure defensive players into being aggressive. The most important thing is to be prepared to punish him for his actions. The second most important thing is to actually know what to do if he doesn't walk into your trap. Low HP heroes in DotA walking around encourage opponents to make mistakes, but need to be trying to do something as well. A low HP farmer will be great bait if he's farming, and a waste of time if he sits around not doing anything and just baiting. Camping around a corner for a potential threat is great until you realize that the opponent is halfway across the map. You need to have a plan for what happens if no one wants to walk into your trap.

"Now that's what I call good baiting!"

Then there is to chance being overly aggressive. Force your opponent into a situation that he thinks he might lose, and tries to run from. Now, you know that if your opponent fights back, you're pretty screwed. Many a times, the “flight” instinct is too strong though, and your opponent will most likely run at the first sign of aggression. When people run, they don't fight back. When they don't fight back, they can't win. Abuse that. Just for example, back in DotA 6.27b, I used to start every game with a first blood using Lich + Venomancer, 2 heroes with slow, and charging into people in a clearly disadvantageous situation. Every single time, our opponents ran and died when they could have easily fought back and won.

Ultimately, play to kill people instead of not getting killed, and you might find that you don't get killed so often. Abuse the instinct to run in others, and curb it on your side. You might find that you'll be rewarded, or you might find that playing defensively is the best way for you. In which case, you can go play... umm... Wii bowling.