History VideoGameCrueltyPotential / FourX

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has become known for this. While you don't actually have to, the game certainly provides ''plenty'' of opportunities for you to be a menace to galactic society:
** For starter, slavery. You can enslave your own population or conquered aliens living under your rule. Understandably, they're not very happy about it, and there's always a chance they turn Malcontent and start causing problems. There's an option to change to Regulated Slavery to reduce the sting, at least; Regulated Slavery reduce slave output by 10%, but also make sure they will never turn Malcontent, and can later be boosted by another 30% with a certain edict.
*** In the Utopia DLC a new type of slavery is added: [[ToServeMan livestock]]. To add insult to injury, you can gene-mod the species first to be delicious.
** And then we have Purge option, which can be used to [[ThePurge eliminate dissidents from your own Empire (including the aforementioned Malcontent Slaves)]], or can be used to [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide cleanse]] conquered alien race too defiant to submit under your rule. Notably the latter option is considered an in-universe MoralEventHorizon, with the race's faction getting -1000 reaction that recovers only very slowly over hundreds of years.
*** Utopia added two new types of purging: work the given pops to death or process them into food. Bonus points if you then sell the food back to whatever empire you took those worlds from to cement an alliance.
*** And Synthetic Dawn added a third: process them chemically into energy credits.
** With the aptly-named Apocalypse expansion came the colossi, mobile superweapons that you can build:
*** The kindest version is probably the god-ray which only turns organic pops spiritual but utterly destroys robots. Even the fully sentient ones.
*** One more step to the crueler end of the scale is the pacifier which surrounds the planet with an impenetrable shield. Forever. Visible light can still pass through, so you can watch the people squirm (with a +10 society resource on the planet!).
*** Driven Assimilator machine empires (think: the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Borg]]) can use the nanite assimilator which will assimilate every biological pop on the planet.
*** You can always just kill every organic pop (and army) on the planet with a neutron sweep.
*** And of course there is the classic [[EarthShatteringKaboom World Cracker]] which is basically the [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]] superlaser. If you destroy a habitable planet with it, you'll also get a nice little mineral deposit!
*** The Aquatics DLC adds a new one in the form of the Deluge Colossus, exclusive to the Ocean Paradise origin. Now you can drop a literal ocean onto a planet, not only allowing you to instantly terraform it into an ocean world, but also causing all the inhabitants that don't have the aquatic trait to drown and free up space for your aquatic colonists.
** The ''Nemesis'' expansion... well, it basically lets ''you'' become the game's FinalBoss for the rest of the galaxy to destroy. Your ultimate goal if you choose this path is to, quite literally, annihilate the entire galaxy to fuel your race's ascension to become god-like {{Energy Being}}s. To do this you must acquire "Menace" points, which requires you to deliberately do evil things to other civilizations. If you progress far enough along this path, all other civilizations will declare you a "Galactic Crisis" and unite together to exterminate your civilization.

** The ''Nemesis'' expansion... well, it basically lets ''you'' become the game's FinalBoss for the rest of the galaxy to destroy. Your ultimate goal if you choose this path is to, quite literally, annihilate the entire galaxy to fuel your race's ascension to become god-like {{Energy Being}}s. If you progress far enough along this path, all other civilizations will declare you a "Galactic Crisis" and unite together to exterminate your civilization.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' has 2 major ones:

** In the original ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'', there were two ways to win. You could open a whole new vista for the human race by leading the colonization of Alpha Centauri, in a triumph of learning, technology, and the indomitable human spirit. Or you could just conquer the world by force. Now guess which was not only easier, but [[EvilPaysBetter gave you more points]].

** ''VideoGame/SidMeiersColonization'', however, really took the cake. The manual that came with the game talked specifically, and in no uncertain terms, about how evil the treatment of the American Indians by the European colonists was. The game itself, however, heavily rewarded the destruction of the Indians. About the dozenth time they have launched an unprovoked attack on one of your colonies, you will likely feel tempted to adopt a particularly violent form of Manifest Destiny.

* ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'':
** Step one: Complete the [[spoiler:Hub plot]] in ''X3: Terran Conflict''. Step two: [[spoiler:Use your newfound control over the game's PortalNetwork to connect four [[AIIsACrapshoot Xenon]] sectors to a populated area.]] Step three: [[EvilLaugh Laugh maniacally.]]
** If another pilot ejects from his ship (whether because you bought it from him, or because he offered his damaged ship in exchange for you not finishing him off), they'll start floating towards the nearest space station in their spacesuits. You have the choice of leaving them alone, using them for target practice, or scooping them into your cargo bay and enslaving them at pirate bases.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders2TheWizardsThrone'' encouraged this. Poison Clouds on a city? Check. Blowing up the forge to deal damage and set back construction? Done. Steal your enemy's supply of mana, and use nearby mana pools as places to launch magical attacks from? Done and done. Not to mention the evil races had plenty of abilities designed to kick opponent's teeth in (Charm is a very awesome one-make the enemy's big, badass Behemoth kill the entire back line of archers!)

** In the larger picture, it's generally better to be seen as a Good civ than an Evil one, since other civs will be automatically distrustful of you if you're Evil, and more trusting if you are Good. Being Evil and attacking everyone around you will also quickly lead to other civilizations ganging up on you. It is possible to play the game this way, but you had better make sure your military and economy can handle that much conflict!

*** Utopia added two new types of purging: work the given pops to death or process them into food.

*** In later versions a new type of slavery is added: [[ToServeMan livestock]]. To add insult to injury, you can gene-mod the species first to be delicious.

*** Later versions added a new type of purging: work the given pops to death.

** Also note that the evil responses are HILARIOUS. "I've told you before, citizens are a RENEWABLE resource" for one of the ones where you have to sacrifice people. Most of the others require too much context to describe here.

* In ''GalacticCivilizations'' when colonizing planets, the player may sometimes be confronted with an event that can affect both the bonuses and the people on it, in which the player decides based on a Good/Neutral/Evil multiple choice response, going insofar as to sometimes [[MoralEventHorizon commit genocide]] for more productive bonuses. It should be noted that these bonuses are often incredibly biased, as most of the 'Evil' choices [[EvilIsCool have great bonuses]] whilst 'Good' choices [[BeingGoodSucks not only have no bonuses, but oftentimes have DRAWBACKS.]]

* ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' allows you to be a genocidal maniac. You can order your units to obliterate cities you've just conquered, killing every man, woman, and child inside in the process; the game gives you the approximate number of people you've murdered each time you do this. You can even annihilate YOUR OWN cities in the same way. You have a thing for nukes? How about Planet Busters that can engulf the heart of your enemies' civilizations in nuclear flame, instantly erasing three or four bases and leaving an inland sea where their capital city used to be? Use enough of these and you may melt the polar caps, drowning everyone on the planet who happens to live near a coastline. Maybe you want to commit mass murder without the pesky ecological side effects of nuclear holocaust? Just depopulate entire continents with nerve gas, or have your units destroy every farm in an enemies' territory and watch their population drop as their bases starve to death. If you prefer biological weapons, you can breed Mind Worms to paralyze your rivals with horrific hallucinations while they implant ravenous larvae into the still-living brains of their victims. The list goes on. And the icing on the cake? You can do all this as the leader of a free-market democracy under the aegis of the United Nations!
** He really seemed to enjoy using this trope: In the original ''SidMeiersCivilization'', there were two ways to win. You could open a whole new vista for the human race by leading the colonization of Alpha Centauri, in a triumph of learning, technology, and the indomitable human spirit. Or you could just conquer the world by force. Now guess which was not only easier, but gave you more points.
** ''SidMeiersColonization'', however, really took the cake. The manual that came with the game talked specifically, and in no uncertain terms, about how evil the treatment of the American Indians by the European colonists was. The game itself, however, heavily rewarded the destruction of the Indians. About the dozenth time they have launched an unprovoked attack on one of your colonies, you will likely feel tempted to adopt a particularly violent form of Manifest Destiny.

* Step one: Complete the [[spoiler:Hub plot]] in ''VideoGame/{{X}}3: Terran Conflict''. Step two: [[spoiler:Use your newfound control over the game's PortalNetwork to connect four [[AIIsACrapshoot Xenon]] sectors to a populated area.]] Step three: [[EvilLaugh Laugh maniacally.]]
** {{Lampshaded}}: A character actually mentions this possibility in passing.

** ''AgeOfWonders'' and its sequel ''AgeOfWonders2TheWizardsThrone'' encouraged this. Poison Clouds on a city? Check. Blowing up the forge to deal damage and set back construction? Done. Steal your enemy's supply of mana, and use nearby mana pools as places to launch magical attacks from? Done and done. Not to mention the evil races had plenty of abilities designed to kick opponent's teeth in (Charm is a very awesome one-make the enemy's big, badass Behemoth kill the entire back line of archers!)