My buddy Cesar Quintero over at Area 5 once told me a story about how he waited patiently for a wedding to start in Fallout 3 -- just so he could nuke everyone in attendance. He also told me about several other acts of horror that he'd committed in the open-world, do-anything-you-want-including-stuff-you-probably-shouldn't RPG, so that got me thinking:

People sure know how to act like a-holes when given the means.

(Hey, I'm not judging -- I did get the Achievement for planting a live grenade in someone's back pocket in the same game.)

So, for fun and curiosity's sake, we asked some of our game-industry friends what sort of sick, depraved, evil video-game deeds that they try to get away with when no one's looking (and sometimes, even when someone is), starting with the guys who made the wedding-slaughter simulator. And don't forget to share your own terrible tales in the comments below.

Todd Howard - Game Director and Executive Producer, Bethesda Game Studios: In the first X-Com, if your guys get mind-controlled by an alien, they drop their weapons and then start going crazy, often attacking the others.

So I would send my squad out, all with grenades equipped and pins pulled. If they got mind-controlled, they would drop the grenade and blow themselves up. I love the idea of a commander handing out live grenades and saying “keep your wits” with a smirk.

Hal Halpin - President, Entertainment Consumers Association: Back when Mario Kart 64 first came out, I was running GameWeek magazine. Four-player races quickly consumed the lunch hours of the sales and marketing departments, but none had the affliction more than me -- a dangerous thing for everyone.

Anyhow, we realized that if you got the lightning-bolt weapon and used it while other characters were about to jump the ramp on the Stadium track, they would not clear the gorge below. Instead, they'd fall down "The Hole" and lose a lot of time.

Like my character [Wario], I rarely hesitated in sending other racers off the cliff -- unless we had unofficial teammates or someone didn't use it on me...so I guess it's not completely "evil".

Emil Pagliarulo - Lead Designer, Fallout 3/Bethesda Game Studios: The problem with evil in video games is that it tends to be very heavy-handed. And when it is, it’s uncomfortable and not a lot of fun -- at least for me. As a designer, I absolutely love creating evil gameplay for the player to experience. But as a player, it takes a lot for me to play that way. But make it funny, in a darkly humorous sort of way, and I’m in.

So for me, the ultimate evil moment came when I was playing The Lord of the Rings Online. I decided to try some of the game’s PVP [player vs. player] “Monster Play,” where you create a high-level monster character. Well, one of the first missions I got was to raid this Hobbit village.

Now, up until this point the game had been violent, sure, but I was playing as my human character, fighting Orcs, Goblins, spiders -- stuff like that. But when I created my own Orc and had to raid that Hobbit village? Wow. I mean, I was slaughtering innocent Hobbits left and right. Even long after I had completed my quest, I remember just hanging around, waiting for the cute little roly-polys to respawn, so I could slaughter them again and again and loot their body parts.

Being bad really never felt so good.

Jason Andersen - Director of Public Relations, Entertainment Consumers Association: I was playing Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, and in several of the levels, there are herds of irritatingly slow and lifeless cows that seem to get in my way. So, my personal side-mission in the game was to systematically “remove” all of the cows that crossed me. I’m a huge animal lover, but c’mon...this is the Wild West. Barbecue, anyone?

Robert Mull - Community Relations Director, EA Mythic: Back in the early days of Ultima Online, we were attending a large PVP tournament on our shard being hosted by several guilds. Player-run events are pretty common in UO, but this one was bigger and better promoted than most.

There were a considerable number of guards around to keep PKs [player killers] at bay. This was important as the event organizers wanted the contestants to wear their best gear for the tourney and not worry about being looted. Contestants were “searched” by official thieves to ensure they were carrying no illegal items into the arena. All of these precautions had the desired effect and a large group of people, wearing some of their best gear, showed up to cheer on their friends and favorites and enjoy the festivities.

After a couple hours of engaging dueling, the contestants dwindled down to the final two and everyone’s focus was on the arena. All the onlookers had crowded up as close to the arena as possible to get a good view, and it’s easy to picture everyone kicked back in their chairs lazily typing as they enjoyed the show at home.

Nobody really paid attention to the line of approximately eight warriors on horseback standing slightly off from the crowd in a nice row. At least they didn’t until all eight of them opened the gates simultaneously, and the horde of PKs came screaming through.

Everyone was so packed in tightly around the arena and so focused on the tournament that the raiders cut through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. After that it became a chaotic blur as isolated pockets fought back while others ran for safety.

In the end, the raiders had a field day with the gear they looted from the downed contestants and onlookers. The epic nature of the attack, with its carefully planned-out precision, sticks with me today as a truly memorable event…even if I did die.

Jason Wilson - Managing Editor, Bitmob: Baldur's Gate 2 allows you to embrace your dark soul and become the avatar of the god of murder.

Michael Donahoe - Editor, Bitmob: I hate being good in games. I always choose to be an asshole. I did every possible bad action in the original Knights of the Old Republic. I maxed out my Sith rating pretty darn quickly and made an effort to genuinely be an intergalactic dick. Hell, I even killed my own party member because she disagreed with me. Dumb Twi’lek bitch.

Also: In Animal Crossing, I had entirely too much fun hitting folks in the mug with my bug net. I’d also run around Tom Nook’s store for no reason other to make him cart his fat raccoon ass around. I know it’s not possible for him to get tired -- or annoyed -- but in my head, I was totally pissing him off.