Why are most MMOs about genocide?

I can hear the reaction already. “It’s just a game.” “That’s stupid.” “We’re just pretending.”

I’m more interested in why exactly we pretend this way.

Let’s look at the facts: the classic Diku model is rife with intriguing cultural assumptions. Among them:

* There’s two broad sorts of people depicted: conquerors (”real people”) and victims.
* Among the “real people” there’s the heroes, and the serfs.
* Among the heroes and serfs alike, there are what get called “races” but are really species; but these are treated in terms of gameplay less as races and more as a well-disguised form of job choice.
* The victims are generally portrayed as intelligent beings who are native to the places where they live.
* The primary purpose for existence of these beings in the world is so that gold may be mined from them, experience obtained, and the ‘heroes’ may climb higher in their civilization’s hierarchy.
* These beings are slaughtered by the thousands with no care for consequences, and indeed, there is an endless supply of them.
* The victims are generally portrayed as ugly, stupid brutes.