I asked a revenge expert why I'm obsessed with retribution in games like Elden Ring and The Last of Us

gamesradar.com:

The first time I sought revenge in Elden Ring was against that bastard Tree Sentinel. Anyone who's visited the Lands Between in the last year, assuming you've played past the tutorial, knows the one I'm talking about. That big, bruting, heavily-armored knight on horseback with the magic-reflecting Erdree Greatshield, Golden Halberd, and stinking attitude. The one that waits for you just as you emerge from the Cave of Knowledge, patrolling the grassy thoroughfare between the First Step sight of grace and the Church of Elleh. The one who will kill you again and again because they're big and mean and OP. You could memorize their moveset to prevail. And you could enlist the help of a player-controlled summon. But I much prefer revenge. 

Sweet, cold-blooded, let me level up elsewhere before I come back and valiantly kick your arse revenge. Which is the best tactic in any video game, for my money – be that trouncing Elden Ring Tree Sentinels, slaughtering Skyrim giants, destroying Fallout: New Vegas Deathclaws, or steering an emotionally-charged narrative to conclusion in The Last of Us 2. I love revenge in video games, and I always have. But something I've always wondered is: why?  

"Justice violations are a common theme in many video games, where you're the hero. And if there's a hero, there of course needs to be a non-hero. Whether that's an enemy or not is a different question, but that thirst for justice violations is something that comes up in video games a lot," says Fade Eadeh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at Seattle University. Eadeh's 2016 academic paper, 'The bittersweet taste of revenge: On the negative and positive consequences of retaliation (opens in new tab)', explores our appetite as human beings