Glancing over some of the games in my collection, I was struck recently by what so many people have already observed: Gamers LOVE killing Nazis.

I mean, seriously. It has to be a full-on fetish by now. It would not surprise me in the least to discover an entire server farm hosting nothing but pornography involving the killing of the soldiers of fascist Germany, but frankly I’m terrified to Google it. If www.BadGirlsKillNazis.com is an occupied domain, I’d just rather not know about it. (Must….resist…urge to click…)

This is nothing new, of course. Any gamer who’s been half-way paying attention could immediately list for you a dozen games that feature blonde-haired, blue-eyed bull’s-eyes. Me? Straight off the top of my head I’ve got Brothers in Arms, Medal of Honor, Company of Heroes…. right on this site you can find Day of Defeat: Source game servers and Call of Duty game servers. You get the point. IGN even named “The Nazis” the #1 Most Memorable Villain in gaming history. The game they were featured in? “Too many to count.” Tell me about it.

There’s just something hopelessly nostalgic about blowing away a bunker full of Nazis. Perhaps it’s just that the Nazis have been the target of choice for much of my formative years: my first ever game was Wolfenstein 3D at the tender age of 8 (thanks Mom and Dad!). As I sat in the posture I would soon lovingly call “my gaming stoop,” my legs swinging in the air above my dad’s office floor, I stabbed guards and shot German Shepherds and threw 20 pounds of lead at the ugly grump pictured to the right. Little did I know that that was just the beginning.

So what gives? Well, out of necessity, action games feature a struggle against good and evil and, well, who’s more evil than the Nazis? They’ve become such a catchword for unspeakable, zero-shades-of-grey über-evil that even Cthulu’s starting to think the whole thing is a bit silly. Be that as it may, you’ll have to look very hard to find someone who thinks that the Nazis were something other than scumbags, so a game pitting the player against the Third Reich has basically unlimited market appeal. A game against, say, the evil forces of the Democratic Party would find their potential audience cut neatly in half.

Another reason is the nature of the conflict in which Nazi shoot-em-ups are based: World War 2. If you’re looking for a setting that features epic real-world struggle and a universally despised antagonist, look no further in history than 1939! No wonder WW2 games have become an almost developmental cliché.

And while it may be that terrorists are beginning to edge in on the Nazis’ turf as the end-all be-all of video game bad guys (Counter Strike, America’s Army and Call of Duty 4 to name a few of the game servers we love around here), the Nazi, yelling his German commands to halt and surrender, will always have a special place in my heart… and in my crosshairs.

P.s. Good news! Upon further research, BadGirlsKillNazis.com is up for grabs! You’re welcome.