Evil-roleplayers please respond- input needed!Follow

I am working on an article about role-playing evil charecters for a magazine production class and appreciate any input you might have. Why do you play an evil charecter, how do you do it, and what does it mean in contrast to real life? Your replies are appreciated,
Thanks in Advance! :-)

Why i like to play an evil character?

Reason 1:
If you look at the games available, 95% of the time, we're forced to play the good guy. Sometimes, the game tries to fool us into playing a good character by giving him a dark aspect (Devil may cry, Prince of persia: warrior within, any evil, etc) but truely evil character are rare.

RPG are mostly the only type of game that sometimes, offer us to play the evil guy. For the same reason, it can also explain why male players play a female character. Because it's unusual to play a woman with a huge sword killing everything.

Reason 2:
Most of the time, evil guys are cool (not talking about real life). Cooler than the heroes. Cooler than us, players forced to kill those well developped, original, strong, awesome characters. Playing an evil character can be a way to say "Hey man, the dark side looks nice. Let's kill those rebels and become powerful and rich!"

Reason 3:
*In link with #1* Everyone takes advantage of the good guys (in real life too actually) You would want to lvl up by killing... stuff. But the orphans needs you to cross 3 zones to talk to 1 npc to see if he could welcome them in his house because the orcs burned theirs. The reward for the quest? A "thanks" and the satisfaction of doing a good deed. The evil guys can say "kid, do it yourself. Oh, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Now go cross those 3 zones infested with orcs and deadly dragons." and my all-time favorite that every hero should learn "That's not my problem."

How do i do it?

I do what i want. I chose the quests i want to do. If i ever have doubts, i ask myself "what would the good guy do?" and i do the opposite.

And what does it mean in contrast to real life?

nothing. it's a game and playing GTA won't turn me in a serial killer. Repeatedly playing evil doesn't make me any more evil in real life. Only the weak minds are influenced by this (like the Force!) and the medias are picking those examples to bash on violent games.

Edit: The only good guy i can think of right now that is always cooler than the bad guy is James Bond. Oh! and Jack Skellington.

Edit #2: When the article is complete, please link it or copy/paste it here :-)

Edited, Thu Sep 22 01:27:39 2005 by Artagant

Edited, Thu Sep 22 02:06:06 2005 by Artagant

Dear OP:

I created an evil character in EQII for one simple reason: Curiosity. I created two good characters to start, a fighter (later to become a Pally), and a priest (who set out to become a Warden). I loved playing in Antonica, it was beautiful, it was enormous, and it was exciting. I should have known when the Peat Bog was my favorite newbie zone, that I was destined for the evil side. Soon, I was burning to see what what Freeport was like. Dismal, I had heard. Not as many groups to be had, I heard, for there were more folks on the good side. One night, while my partner slumbered, I created an Iksar priest and leveled her enough to get off the Isle and get to the land of mystery: Freeport. It was drab. It was shabby. And then, the innkeeper spoke to me and I was HOOKED. These people knew how to taunt. The innkeeper threatened to give my room to a cockroach, and felt he would be wiser to do so...people threatened to rip out my kidneys and serve them for lunch. The dialogue was great! I was so surprised! There were a hundred ways to verbally grind my spirit into the dust. It was so much more creative and interesting to listen to! I read so much more of the dialogue because I appreciated the subtle (and not so subtle) threats, upon my life or the lives of others, should I fail in my quest. So many more quest givers who were surprised when I returned victorious from my task! It is really fun to participate and I give a lot of credit to the developers. They must have had a blast coming up with the insults!

So, I have never looked back. My Defiler is my highest level character at 38. I am guilded and enjoy playing with players from both sides, good and evil, and if it is my job to protect and heal you, I will do so to the best of my ability, as long as we fight a common foe. And if I role play just a little and tease the good characters with taunts I have picked up from my Freeport home, so much to the good. It makes for a richer, more interesting game :)

And when my partner says he sees a bit of Iksar in me in real life, sometimes that is not a bad thing either...

Edited, Thu Sep 22 21:18:15 2005 by cwstar

Edited, Thu Sep 22 21:18:52 2005 by cwstar