Zanzibar I disagree. The world may have been created to a certain extent by the devs, but the world is truely made up of those who live within it. It is a "mold" as Karyuu put it, but by necesity it must be a maleable one.
I see your point and partially agree. There really isn't one without the other. The devs can create the game but in the end without players to keep the world turning for lack of a better word, the world of Yliakum would be empty except for those devs who play it. On that same note .... the devs can also say that you wouldn't have the characters you have developed without the settings we give you to work with, or the items, or the in game events or the rules we have laided down. The players could say, without us writing ours stories, creating back grounds, spending hours in game and playing with the items this world ..... Yliakum wouldn't really exsist with life and the realisim you are trying to create. One needs the other to make this project sucessful. So in a sense it takes two to make it work.
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Roleplaying an evil characterPlaying an evil character is very hard to do from what I hear from a certain few I have had the pleasure of roleplaying with. I don't think the game is anywhere near the point where you can play evil (Not anyones fault really). There just isn't enough information and with easy access about this sort of topic. The best suggestion I can come up with from my own personal experience is this:
If you are going to roleplay an evil character make sure you are doing it with players in the game who understand the difference between roleplay and real life to start off with. Establish your character with friends aka enemies to start and those friends should be the first to stand up and say when a newbie is around that you are not truly that way behind the character but you are just playing an evil character. This way it sets an example for the new comer and they realise that it isn't just the evil character ok with this but that his friends aka enemies support him/her in this behavior. Then the new comer may not feel signaled out with the behavoir. People tend to accept what is if there are large amounts of people supporting it. Most people are sheep ... what can I say.
Second of all know when to stop being your bad self. If a newbie is taking serious offence then don't continue the roleplay. Send a /tell apologising and then make note of that person so that you don't have them involved in your roleplays until they get the understanding of how the world works. Once that is accomplished then maybe invited them to roleplay with you again. I have watched evil character just push and prod a person and not quit. It surprises me that this evil character is shocked when reported.
Evil characters CAN petition too. If you have explained to a newbie that you were just in character and that you meant no offence and they still follow you around and get on your case, well you do have the right to complain about that as it is harrassment. This will aviod your hand getting smacked by a GM as they will have the information that this "good" character is just taking things out of context.
Be willing to accept that you will not be everyones favorite person if you decide to play evil. Don't be surprised if you walk into the tavern and are ignored because you have a rep for being MR bad. Also be willing to accept the game doesn't seem to accommodate at this point evil characters, so there is going to be complications with certain situations. Don't bring it to the forums and freak out if you run into this problem. Instead think about the problem and bring it to the forums worded in a way that you explain the problem and your ideas on how to fix it, or your lack of ideas but that you just wanted to point out the problem.
Understand that evil just isn't stealing or cusing someone out or just being a jack ass. An evil character could be the best friend beside you who seems loyal and trust worthy but is spying on your guild and taking the information to your enemies. I would give more example but at the moment I can't think of any.
Over all playing evil should be fun. If it starts to become a big thing and you have a horde of ticked off people chasing you but you are in real life irritated and just want to be left alone .... well that is why we have a choice to have different character. Take a step away from the computer or log on as someone else and deal with the situation when you and others have calmed down. Trying to deal with people angry won't accomplish much and will just be irritating in the end.
I think this was probably one of the longest posts I ever did. Anyway I hope some of what I have posted will help.
