Can you play Evil? I can't.

[Ulthar]

Caveat: I am an old school gamer from way back in the 1980s, and I love all things roleplay. This game is beyond my expectations.


I am a Roleplayer, but I am also a min/maxxer who likes to be very strategic about my choices.

Example: I am playing a Paladin High Elf. I often make selfless choices that would not benefit my character in the long run. That's quite alright. I feel like trying to maximize the gold I can earn would take away from the RP.

I feel like if a person were to play the game to maximize gold, they may not get the same joy I am from making choices to simply maximize gold and power, when that's not your character. If OTOH, you were literally Asterion or someone who fancies the finer things in life, you'd feel bad if you gave away your services for free.

I get more immersed in the game when I start to align my thinking with my character, so that I AM my character. If I were to play Gale, I'd be gregarious and magic focused, and so thats how I lose myself in the game world and disconnect from reality for a little while to truly consume the world that Larian gave me to explore.

It allows me to "Feel" something - to connect to the world.

I say that, to mention that I tried an evil run. I thought Lolth Drow Priest, and I was going to just go full on evil. The evil choices make me feel like Snidely Whiplash.

"Street Urchins? Where is my cut of their profits from these (Checks notes) incredibly poor refugees that are being pushed out of their home by Goblins and druids"

"Your daughter was taken by druids? sounds like an opportunity for you to pay me to intercede..."

granted, those ARE evil choices, but I just can't do it. I feel like a petty jerk. It's not satisfying at all.

Do you play evil and enjoy doing stuff like that? or do you break immersion and sort of take yourself out of your characters head, and just make it a collection of stats/XP and gold?
So you don't feel guilty about the choices to fleece a group of children/tell them they will definitely die with sword play like that.

[Brian Sirith]

I enjoy the playthrough and yes I occasionally feel like a big jerk. I suppose it’s natural since your average human is probably somewhere in the neutral / good-ish zone.

I do put limits to my evil characters though: protect friends and party. And I -my evil characters- do have friends / goals they care about. I’ll rarely ‘kick the dog’ though. Usually I’ll have a reason even for the worst behaviour. So won’t kill and rob the beggar for 1 silver coin for example. Waste of energy.

[Mattee]

I find it really hard too. The dark urge actually helped me with this.

[Sbreven the 7nd]

Yes, I enjoy playing evil in games. They are little digital pixels and I get to make them rue the day they were coded. It hasn't made me feel bad, even if I do empathize or feel for them in a regular playthrough. It's just fun to play a game as evil as possible to see what *can* be done.

Source: I regularly like to see which RPGs can be genocided: i.e. kill every npc possible.

[Ulthar]

Originally posted by Mattee:

I find it really hard too. The dark urge actually helped me with this.

How?

As Brian said, I thought about being Evil but having my own honor code - sort of Lawful Evil. Lloth Worship or Gith Imperialism to conquer for the good of the people, over those we consider lesser.

I also thought about a Sorcerer who is consumed with personal power/knowledge at any cost - so that Gale would definitely not be welcome because he is more of a rival. He may even seek to be a mindflayer, because he feels it will make him more powerful.

Then I thought just a sociopath that kills all the druids, refugees, and goblins, and I am guessing that is the dark urge?

[Elendir Blue]

I tried it long time ago and I didn't enjoy it. So I don't play evil characters. I dont see any reason to think about it more.

[Ulthar]

Originally posted by écuyerq:

Yes, I enjoy playing evil in games. They are little digital pixels and I get to make them rue the day they were coded. It hasn't made me feel bad, even if I do empathize or feel for them in a regular playthrough. It's just fun to play a game as evil as possible to see what *can* be done.

Source: I regularly like to see which RPGs can be genocided: i.e. kill every npc possible.

I don't have that callous over my soul. If the game were more absurd or lower level detail I might be able to do that, but even Astarion feeling dejected makes me feel bad for the guy.

[Sazzbot]

It is ok to play good and be good. Nothing wrong with it.

[Jonas™]

Originally posted by Sazzbot:

It is ok to play good and be good. Nothing wrong with it.

Except Larian, as they are wont to do, made it much harder, and much less satisfying to play anything other than evil. And the entire first act saddles you with 5/7 of the companions being evil.

[Lur Nen Rue]

Originally posted by Jonas™:

Originally posted by Sazzbot:

It is ok to play good and be good. Nothing wrong with it.

Except Larian, as they are wont to do, made it much harder, and much less satisfying to play anything other than evil. And the entire first act saddles you with 5/7 of the companions being evil.

Dude you're too harsh they're not evil they just walking time bomb and traitors

[Sbreven the 7nd]

Originally posted by Ulthar:

I don't have that callous over my soul. If the game were more absurd or lower level detail I might be able to do that, but even Astarion feeling dejected makes me feel bad for the guy.

That's fine, I think most people don't enjoy playing evil in games. But it helps to remember that at the end of the day, regardless of how immersive it may seem, they truly are just fictional text on a screen and don't exist and never have existed, and cannot feel.

To me, aside from just the gameplay entertainment of just Blowing Stuff The Hell Up, I look at most RPGs as a true roleplaying experience. I've never played a game just "as myself". I don't think "How would I react to this situation"? I always imagine up a character, with morals, with interests, at the start, and try to adhere to them. It can make for good story-telling. An example: In Dragon Age 2, My character romanced Anders, but he committed an act that was so against what her morality was, that I had to choose to kill him. It was surprising and dramatic, and even sad. But I liked that..

When I set out playing an evil character, aside from just the fun of "let's go around killing everyone" like I'm sure most people have done at least once in a GTA game because it just gives you toys and targets, you get to see what your critter does to the world. How much is affected by their evil? Do I see the impact? it's cool. Plus, I tend to enjoy munchkinning games, and being evil tends you let you do whatever you want and maximize the most out of everything. All for me, none for thee type deal.

Also, it's just funny and cathartic to lightning bolt some little pixels.

[Sazzbot]

Originally posted by Jonas™:

Originally posted by Sazzbot:

It is ok to play good and be good. Nothing wrong with it.

Except Larian, as they are wont to do, made it much harder, and much less satisfying to play anything other than evil. And the entire first act saddles you with 5/7 of the companions being evil.

Yep

[LeftPaw]

Originally posted by Mattee:

I find it really hard too. The dark urge actually helped me with this.

I think I am in the opposite frame of mind. I am actually thinking of starting again. When I went with the dark urge I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

[Adam__86]

My default for RPGs is always Nuetral Good

[RamzaBehoulve]

Dark Surge Paladin is the best for that as you will definitively break your Oath sooner or later and slowly turn into a murder machine.

Sometimes, you don't even get to choose good, pure evil happens automatically and you'll have to deal with the consequences.

Otherwise, yes, most people struggle to play Evil in games because at heart most of us are naturally neutral or good. Playing evil is a true roleplay for most.

[His Divine Shadow]

Same, I've said it before but the older I get the harder it is to be evil in games. Even in games like Stellaris, cracking whole worlds just makes me think of the millions of virtual lives snuffed out in an instance and it makes me feel terrible. I can do justified villain, or an anti hero punisher like character but full on cartoon villain is a no go