(08-22-2013, 01:26 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote:(08-22-2013, 01:06 AM)Theodric Ridgefield Wrote: I know from experience how difficult it can be to find solid role-play as a villain, especially when the 'good guys' believe they should win at every turn and overcome all odds put before them.
Well, I'd gently suggest that you can't much blame them, since in typical narrative structures, the bad guys lose to the good guys, after they overcome all odds.Ultimately, the villain -- the antagonist -- loses, as its narrative purpose is to provide opposition to the heroes and act as a foil. That's one of the major issues, I think, with playing a villain full time; the scriptwriter isn't nominally supposed to be on your side in the story, and always losing in the end (even if you win now and then) can get a little old. In a story, this is no big deal, but in an MMO? It kinda sucks.
About the only way I've seen villainous interactions with full time "bad guy" PCs work well and in a rewarding way for everyone is for there to be a more or less planned "tit for tat" between two groups with a constant source of conflict, which can but doesn't have to be a classic good versus evil morality conflict. In this case, the "heroes" can legitimately be viewed as "villains" from the ostensible villains' perspective. Narratively, they are; the two opposing groups might as well be called Red Team and Blue Team, with each side acting as the villain in the other's stories. Of course, this requires a lot of commitment and both sides having a willingness to lose.
As a side note, there's a fine line between being a villain and merely being evil. Villainy is a narrative construct; evil is a construct of morality in a particular social system. A character can be evil without being the villain of any particular PC narrative. That's how you end up with "Team Evil" in games like EverQuest.
Heh, that's precisely why I'm rather eager to tie in a 'villain' with my own character's ongoing story. I often find myself sympathising with the plight of many 'villains' to the point where my friends joke about me being on their side! To use a few examples, I'm pretty fond of Scar, Cersei Lannister and Shane Walsh from the Lion King, Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead respectively. Many brush them off as the 'bad guys' due to their actions, but I enjoy recognising why they act the way they do and coming to understand what makes them tick.Â
Hopefully I'm not rambling too much, but in short I don't mind compromising with a well role-played 'villain', especially on a long term basis.
