Paranoia, from a computer gaming angle

I started my first ever Horde character on Warcraft last week, and it has given me an interesting perspective on the politics of good and evil. (The Horde are the "bad" guys in Warcraft--orcs, trolls, undead, and so on. Although my character is a tauren, by far the cutest of the horde races, because I know that in fantasy literature, and presumably video games, what's on the outside usually stands for what's on the inside. In computer games, as in life, my mantra is: "Always be as cute as possible.") More than once, playing the other side of this game has prompted me to wonder, a la George Bush: "Why do they hate us?" The solution for ethnic wars may actually be a computer game that forces people to play the opposite side! Wow, I totally just came up with a plan for world peace and it's not even lunch time yet!

From Terranova: The Horde is evil-- a fairly serious examination of the ideas of good and evil as they are expressed in the factions of World of Warcraft.
A study on Alliance vs. Horde demographics shows slight differences in what motivates players of either faction.