ewelyn wrote:The common reason to play a neutral/evil character is because "you can do whatever you want". I think you can't - but from my experience that is how people reason. There are no laws you have to follow, there are no values you must defend.. plainly: you do not have to care so much. It is cheaper to avoid limitations.
Honestly, I do not think playing a 'neutral' character, is easier, yet I can imagine that people think it is, or believe they can easier avoid limitations. Maybe it depends on the type of character. Depending on where on the spectrum on the world your character positions themselves you will either have more or less trouble with people, depending on who currently is strong. Same goes for evil, I do not think it is easier, even though people imagine it to be.
ewelyn wrote:
and there is hardly a reward for it. Tougher is when you do something orthodox, like condemning or inquisitioning. It is supposed to be common, but the reaction from 90% of the people is: resistance. As if it's extreme.
The 'no reward for it' thing is something I do not quite grasp to be honest. If you mean that you don't gain reward in terms of appreciation, then yes, I agree with you there.
As for the inquisitioning / condemning thing. It depends a bit on how you view it, yet I agree that it's image is too extreme / too much frowned upon. I've noticed that on several times. On medieval times, inquisitors were not exactly liked by the general population, they were often frowned upon and the common folk feared them. Yet there were other groups who wildly cheered them and praised them for doing the work of god. I think we're are lacking a lot of that duality. One the one hand, you should fear everybody who is an inquisitor (from a commoners view), on the other hand you should be eternally grateful that they root out the evil within society. Furthermore, there are things that should just come with a certain religion. If you are a follower of Taniel, then the stake burning of an neutral/evil to cleanse their soul is something good and you should cheer, or at least deem it as neccersary even though you do not like it. I tend to believe the same goes for followers of Evren too and I have adjusted my chars views to agree with that, once I realized how important it is that certain actions by a holy institution (Crusaders, Clerics) are accepted even though they are ugly. My char will never really like it, but his stance is a bit like 'It does calm the anger of Taniel and Evren, it offers the soul a path of redemption. Not my choice of a ritual, but it gets the job done.' I think there's much to be done in this regard and I think it has to be done by everyone of us, to get more in blend with the lore. I have worked on this with my char for a while now and I hope others will fill gaps there with their chars as well. Religion is important and it should greatly impact your chars belief system.
ewelyn wrote:
But my main reason is the PVP situation. It feels like there is a "game within the game" which is about trying to kill each other for the sake of being on opposite sides.
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Some people say this is realistic, but I think it is just un-cooperative. It does not blend with the idea that roleplay is something you do together. A co-operative effort. It's not about building up interesting interactions together. It is about winning.
I see the problem with that too and I have had many situations where my char's only option was to run because he already was faced with a power swinging cleric that had blocked the exit within seconds. I would like to see more interaction there, though many have mentioned that at least between clerics there is no point/reason/whatever, I still disagree. My opinion is that it'd be always more interesting if hunt/kill would only be the last option, not the first.
ewelyn wrote:
The ones who are not involved in that are usually not involved at all (which is sort of uninteresting too).
Sadly, there's not much point involving unless you want to join the kill and kill around. I do not disagree with PvP, but I disagree with it being the only choice you have to do all day, not moving anywhere without having to fight in a PvP fight. Other then that certain guilds are more vulnerable then others and since it's so extremely easy to gain the weaknesses of any guild just by a few little tricks, some guilds are literally unable to join the fight.