Forums » Elder Scrolls

Why do people play evil characters?

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:20 PM EST
    I just don't get it... Every time I try to play as an evil character I give up after 20 minutes cause I feel too bad... How and why do people as evil characters? And before anyone says "you're against having fun like stealing etc.", no, I like making thief characters, I like making morally ambiguous characters... I just give tem a moral center that tells them what they will and won't do
    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:39 PM EST
    If you steal someone medication that they need to survive or steal something and place the blame on someone else and make them get punished for it, it is. We can go at this all day
    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:39 PM EST

    I can't how many times I've jumped off cliffs to see what would happen/whether I would survive or not in skyrim. And I'm sure you have too. Yet I would never do that in real life. It's the same concept, yea?

  • December 28, 2012 6:40 PM EST

    None of my characters consider themselves evil (except for my Fearmonger, but he was insane), even though they've killed innocent people, stolen from the poor, killed families, all because their Daedra told them to, they believe they're doing the right thing. 

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:41 PM EST
    But I roleplaying my characters, I essentially become them, and I don't do anything I know I wouldn't survive from (eating poison food, jumping off cliffs, running head first into danger)
    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:42 PM EST
    Then point proven, I am not harping on people who play characters who do evil things, I'm harping on people who make their characters specifically to become evil
  • December 28, 2012 6:44 PM EST

    The main reason in a nutshell for me. It's a lot more interesting going completely against my own personal morals. 

    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:44 PM EST

    Placing the blame on someone else adds to stealing, it isn't stealing itself. Stealing medication someone needs to survive is classed as murder. I probably should have been more specific: Theft/stealing that does not put someone else's life at risk is wrong, not evil :)

    • 6 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:45 PM EST

    Yes but the motivation of a character is what matters. Being evil just to be evil is boring and dull. But if the character themselves don't see anything wrong in Killing, Raping, and stealing why should you? Maybe the character just sees themselves as above the concept of Right and wrong, or maybe they just accept evil as human nature. It's all about Why you're playing an evil character, not How you're playing one.

    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:46 PM EST

    Ok, I can agree with you if you strictly role-play, but I'm talking about the concept of doing something you wouldn't normally do because you just.... can 

  • December 28, 2012 6:47 PM EST

    What do you mean "specifically to become evil?" That was my mindset when I made my Imperial vampire, I said "This guy is gonna evil." Now he's one of my favorite characters (I even wrote a story about him). 

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:48 PM EST
    How does putting someone to jail risk their life, they are still alive.
    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:50 PM EST
    Which doesn't apply to people who play rpg's to actually RP and not just go "how much can I fuck up before I die and reload the last save"
    • 952 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:52 PM EST

    I just love killing people I hate in brutal or sneaky ways over and over again. The quicksave/quickload button helps with this but they will die nonetheless. It's just fun to have a character where you can do the evil thing, taking money over grattitude, or a life over mercy.

    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:52 PM EST

    I don't know, maybe the fact they lose their home, are exposed to a potentially lethal environment and for the rest of their life treated as a second class citizen for a crime they did not commit. Risking their life does not just amount to life itself. Regardless the point I made still stands of "Theft/stealing that does not put someone else's life at risk is wrong, not evil :)"

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:53 PM EST
    Yeah, but when I ask people why they are playing evil characters and they just say "because I can". That is not a legitimate responde in my eyes. And I'm pretty sure that people who kill or whatever if they are not doing it for a god, they know it is wrong (sometimes even if they are doing it for a god, they know it is wrong).
    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:55 PM EST
    I meant to say to just be evil, my spell check fixes grammar sometimes and makes what I put down look odd at points
    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:55 PM EST

    You're completely missing the point dude! The whole part about dying was an example, a way to visualise the concept behind being evil in a video game.

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:57 PM EST
    Do they lose their homes? Have you ever seen the jarls out on the street after all of their stuff is stole? I haven't seen that. Have you seen anyone else who wasn't already homeless ingame do that? I haven't.
    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 6:59 PM EST
    Which I don't care to do since I would never put my characters life in peril, and none of my characters (even the rudest ones) would ever think to do something that would negatively affect someones life without a good reason (and even then, they would feel bad about it)
    • 952 posts
    December 28, 2012 7:00 PM EST

    No. Only choices that you yourself give a morality alignment.

  • December 28, 2012 7:00 PM EST

    Ok, that makes- Fuckin' Ning -_- Bottom line, what do you consider the difference between morally ambiguous and evil?

    • 6 posts
    December 28, 2012 7:01 PM EST

    Wrong is the same thing as evil. There's not a difference between the 2 only how you perceive them. Anything that isn't Righteous and Just is by default Evil. Like how any crime is a crime because by nature it is unforgivable and requires repayment.

    • 158 posts
    December 28, 2012 7:02 PM EST

    Well from skyrims POV, if you haven't, and I haven't seen any repercussions of stealing and then blaming someone, then this changes nothing about my point lol 

    • 1913 posts
    December 28, 2012 7:03 PM EST
    So you're saying that if we saw a group of people getting brutally murdered in front of our screen in a work of fiction, just because somebody was bored, it wouldn't be evil? There is evil in fiction and real life, except with real life people tend to do things for a reason (not always the best or nicest reason), in fiction people can just laugh maniacally and kill innocents just because "I'm evil"