Waiiiit I have two cents toooooo!
In my mind, Zhi is a villain, if we're defining villains in rp as people who are willing to do anything to get what they want. The idea here being that "villain" itself implies something others would consider morally reprehensible, as opposed to antagonists whose goals are simply different or opposite to any other character. That's how I reckon it. Zhi works as both, and indeed, has -- she tried to find someone to kill Osric, ffs. The only thing that stopped her was her lack of money. She killed someone that a normal person would have considered a friend for the sake of a job. She has no problem fooling Lolotaru into thinking she's a wide-eyed student who looks up to him as a teacher in order to steal his most precious possession. Her only qualms about that job is the niggling sense that the only reason she was hired is because she's expendable (ie, killable once it's done). She is not a nice person. She is not, by any means, a good person.
But she thinks she's justified, and she thinks her way is the only viable, practical way. She doesn't think she's good, but she thinks she's right.
So, to me, getting her involved was a matter of creating a space within the game world where she could thrive, and then giving her something to do. OOC communication is a must there.
I don't think she has to lose. Ever. I don't think it has to be assumed that any villain does -- unless you're talking about something game-affecting, but that goes for "good" guys too (things like fixing Ul'dah and scouring it of all its corruption or annihilating most of the problems affecting npc refugees or knocking out game-established npc hot-shots who do bad things, getting rid of pirate crews in Limsa who have been noted as being bad, etc), so imo that's not really something worthy of note. Tailor your villain to the setting, aim for goals that you can realistically implement on the off chance that your character succeeds, and go wild.
Zhi isn't high up on the ladder, but given the social and economic ideas we've implemented into our rp, someone who did play, say, a baron or gang leader could feasibly "win" in a rp arc, because all we'd be affecting is the status-quo in the underbelly; we wouldn't need to change Limsa's infrastructure or anything that is set up in game. That makes it more fun for me (though, of course, there are innumerable ways to rp and no one way is the right way), not knowing where my character will end up, not knowing what will happen.
And, of course, if you want to set up some "villain" types in Limsa, hit me up. I created Zhi with the idea that she could be hired as an underling (without realizing that Limsa has a bit of a surfeit of mastermind types, at least that I've run across) so that I could help foster that sort of rp.
In my mind, Zhi is a villain, if we're defining villains in rp as people who are willing to do anything to get what they want. The idea here being that "villain" itself implies something others would consider morally reprehensible, as opposed to antagonists whose goals are simply different or opposite to any other character. That's how I reckon it. Zhi works as both, and indeed, has -- she tried to find someone to kill Osric, ffs. The only thing that stopped her was her lack of money. She killed someone that a normal person would have considered a friend for the sake of a job. She has no problem fooling Lolotaru into thinking she's a wide-eyed student who looks up to him as a teacher in order to steal his most precious possession. Her only qualms about that job is the niggling sense that the only reason she was hired is because she's expendable (ie, killable once it's done). She is not a nice person. She is not, by any means, a good person.
But she thinks she's justified, and she thinks her way is the only viable, practical way. She doesn't think she's good, but she thinks she's right.
So, to me, getting her involved was a matter of creating a space within the game world where she could thrive, and then giving her something to do. OOC communication is a must there.
I don't think she has to lose. Ever. I don't think it has to be assumed that any villain does -- unless you're talking about something game-affecting, but that goes for "good" guys too (things like fixing Ul'dah and scouring it of all its corruption or annihilating most of the problems affecting npc refugees or knocking out game-established npc hot-shots who do bad things, getting rid of pirate crews in Limsa who have been noted as being bad, etc), so imo that's not really something worthy of note. Tailor your villain to the setting, aim for goals that you can realistically implement on the off chance that your character succeeds, and go wild.
Zhi isn't high up on the ladder, but given the social and economic ideas we've implemented into our rp, someone who did play, say, a baron or gang leader could feasibly "win" in a rp arc, because all we'd be affecting is the status-quo in the underbelly; we wouldn't need to change Limsa's infrastructure or anything that is set up in game. That makes it more fun for me (though, of course, there are innumerable ways to rp and no one way is the right way), not knowing where my character will end up, not knowing what will happen.
And, of course, if you want to set up some "villain" types in Limsa, hit me up. I created Zhi with the idea that she could be hired as an underling (without realizing that Limsa has a bit of a surfeit of mastermind types, at least that I've run across) so that I could help foster that sort of rp.