RPG aligment

[jack1974]

In a RPG, if you can choose between playing as GOOD or EVIL character, which side you usually play on? Do you bother replaying it with the opposite side?
I asked the same question today on twitter and I got almost the same reply: sometimes EVIL choices can be taken but in general people prefer to play as GOOD. I use the same approach.
I was asking because I was thinking to offer some sort of evil endings / choices in Planet Stronghold sequel, but on the other hands if they would be very unpopular... doesn't make much sense. In the first game there are many "grey area" decisions, like when you can exterminate an alien race or destroy their places of cult, but in the end you're always a hero and not an evil tyranny or something like that

[Anima_]

You know, that's one of the reasons I stopped playing Western RPGs. I never play evil story lines, these decisions add nothing for me. Even worse, it often means that I can not experience a pretty significant portion of the game at all.

[jack1974]

Well I never play as evil, but Fallout series are a good example of "grey area"... Since there are monsters, you feel less guilty for example for exterminating a camp of ghouls rather than helping them

[Themobboss]

Having played western RPG's like Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Fallout, Vampire Bloodlines my own experience is for the most part that being "evil" equates to being an a**hole jerk. Star Wars the old Republic is one of the few RPGish games where evil jumped from jerk to "I'm really not comfortable with this option you're giving me."

Honestly I think it'll come down to what you define as an "evil" path. Are we talking "Ha, I just took up four parking spots with my car", shoot first & the end justify the means, or I just spent the afternoon dropping burning crates of puppies onto the roof of an orphanage from my helicopter?

[jack1974]

Haha no, in my mind (or how I would implement it in a possible game) evil is not necessarily cruel but selfish and maybe craving for power. Someone that wouldn't hesitate to kill a long-time friend if that can allow him to get a big advantage. But not someone who gets excited by gratuitous/pointless acts of destructions/cruelty.

[abnaxus]

I prefer a "grey area". Planet Stronghold doesn't really have a 'good' and 'evil' path imo, there are good arguments to be made to join each faction.

I'm not a big fan or morality meters and alignments in any case, I prefer how the Witcher games do it: "there is no good and evil, only choices & consequences".

[Themobboss]

If it helps with the decision making at all I found this article doing some breakdowns of the playing habits of people with Mass Effect 2. http://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect- ... 8362.phtml Per this the breakdown was 1/3 of the playthroughs were the renegade path so you may be able to pull some correlation from that. Humans are social creatures and for the most part we're going to choose the "good" path.

[jack1974]

That was an interesting article, thanks!

[fleetp]

I never play as an evil character.

[Aleema]

I'm usually pure good. I think it's because I'm compensating for being evil in real life.

Oddly, the Fable series was the only time I've truly played "evil" and enjoyed it. It's a more comical universe and the NPCs are really annoying and dull, so it's an entirely different atmosphere. In fact, Fable makes it extremely unrewarding to be good, as if being good is the reward itself. Now, that is indeed an interesting construct to keep players from mindlessly doing the right thing (by putting heavy prices on "good" choices) , but as a player, it was rather frustrating to get bad consequences because I wanted to be nice.