Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Community Debate - Good, Neutral and Evil

    • 9115 posts
    September 13, 2018 3:58 AM PDT

    Community Debate - Good, Neutral and Evil, all have their place in-game, so how do you typically play your character when faced with tough moral decisions? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    • 97 posts
    September 13, 2018 5:16 AM PDT

    I'm always an angel. I once tried to heal a Fairy outside of Felwithe because someone was trying to kill it and I didn't understand back in 1999. Yeah....

    • 1247 posts
    September 13, 2018 5:31 AM PDT

    The first thing I thought of was the fun and awesome Good vs Evil vs Neutral system that existed on the Sullon Zek pvp server in Classic EQ. It was a deity team-based pvp server. A class might only be restricted to Evil like the Necromancer and Shadow Knight, while some other race/class combos could be restricted to a team - not all of them of course. I've always liked pve, but this pvp server was a lot of fun. Keeping your team alive, like team Good always seemed to be at a disadvantage. Was fun to play with them nonetheless. Perhaps we will see something similar in Pantheon.

    @Avaen Love your Fairy example. Lol.


    This post was edited by Syrif at September 13, 2018 5:36 AM PDT
    • 724 posts
    September 13, 2018 5:46 AM PDT

    I like the "neutral good" or "chaotic good" alignments in terms of DnD, and usually play races or classes which can follow this way. I don't consider my characters "lawful", so they have no problems stepping over rules or laws to do what they want (or have to do).

    If faced with a moral decision, I try to follow the good way most of the time. If there is an alternative to murdering innocent NPCs to get what I want, I will take that route :)

    Of course if I play an outright evil class or race, there's less reason to act this way, but even my evil characters do have a heart (sometimes) ;)

    • 259 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:17 AM PDT

    I play them all, but I usually end up playing them all leaning towards the good side.

    • 257 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:34 AM PDT

    Depends. Which one can eat gnomes?

    • 57 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:39 AM PDT

    Typically fall in the chaotic good or neutral evil depending on race. 

     

    Retsof said:

    Depends. Which one can eat gnomes?

    Thats like eating a magical sock

    • 1247 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:42 AM PDT

    noo don't eat the Gnomes! ^_^

    • 198 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:44 AM PDT

    The Revenant will be smited, no matter the cost!


    This post was edited by Parascol at September 13, 2018 2:38 PM PDT
    • 3852 posts
    September 13, 2018 6:54 AM PDT

    Always good over recent years - probably trending to neutral good. 

    If a race is intrinsically evil - you can't get above level 5 without doing a quest requiring pulling the legs off of kittens - I won't play it.

    • 168 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:01 AM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Community Debate - Good, Neutral and Evil, all have their place in-game, so how do you typically play your character when faced with tough moral decisions? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    While I can identify in RL as Chaotic Good. That stuff translates to zero effect in a game that is about the class, the class abilities, and the racial abilities. I place no emphasis on anything remotely related to RP. To me the R in MMORPG still means Role but Role = your Job; nothing else. There are no tough moral decisions based on the race I have chosen (racial abilities) for the class I desire to play.


    This post was edited by Dashed at September 13, 2018 7:02 AM PDT
    • 2419 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:05 AM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Community Debate - Good, Neutral and Evil, all have their place in-game, so how do you typically play your character when faced with tough moral decisions? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    I take whatever path, perform whatever action, ruin whatever faction necessary for the betterment of my character(s) and my guild.  Moral schmoral.  The victor determines what is or is not moral.  :)

    • 178 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:08 AM PDT

    lawfull good,

    all my assassins and necromancers are closeted paladins.


    This post was edited by MyNegation at September 13, 2018 7:08 AM PDT
    • 1785 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:11 AM PDT

    I'm a goody goody usually.  I can't really roleplay evil all that well.  I've tried a few times to play the bad guy in RPGs, and it never really works for me.

    • 2138 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:18 AM PDT

    I default to good, as I react to others although I want to play evil, but I am unable ot pull it off, so I have alot of evil friends.*sigh* the kind of person where people point at me and say "why is she hanging out with THEM?!" like snarky and acerbic gnomes, skar's that get me killed doing challenging stuff, rogues even when I know they are pickpocketing me. that kind of thing.

     

    Neutral as I react to the world; meaning I prefer to keep all my factios indifferent until I have proof, or a desire of wanting to side with one or the other. I like taking my time to decide who would be better, Dragons? or Wurms. Treants? or Ratkin- and it could be as frivolous as nice treant bark regen ability vs the dimensional ratkin bag- to heck with surviving, I want the bag! haha!

    • 1281 posts
    September 13, 2018 7:37 AM PDT

    Kilsin said:

    Community Debate - Good, Neutral and Evil, all have their place in-game, so how do you typically play your character when faced with tough moral decisions? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    Neutral-good.

    • 432 posts
    September 13, 2018 8:05 AM PDT

    These differentiations (good, neutral and evil) in an MMORPG are not consistent with the differentiations in RL .

    In an MMORPG world we are all without exception murderers, war criminals and often mass murderers . When you first come to Guk , most creatures who are  there at home leave you alone . But then you start murdering and looting them and they start hating you . In RL every single PC in Guk would be considered evil but in an MMORPG it is business as usual . So when somebody wants, for example for RP reasons  (not everybody does),  to act in an MMORPG according to some code which cannot be by MMORPG definition the RL moral code , then we generally substitute to it the loyalty code . It is a poor substitute but it is all there is .

    In the loyalty code good means loyal to the faction to which we belong and evil is being loyal to a faction which is ennemy of the faction to which we belong . It is not exactly symmetrical because even if all factions are evil by RL standards, some have a much larger range of RL moral code violations than others . Of course because the loyalty code is not a moral code , it is much easier to take decisions , the distinction between allowed and frowned upon is sharp and dilemmas are rare .

    So for me, once I accepted that killing orcs, bears and ogres was OK , I always try to follow maximally the loyalty code .

    Examples of decisions even if they were not tough were that in EQ I always refused to participate on a Dain Frostreaver raid because Coldains were my friends and I never participated on a Mithaniel Marr raid because Mithaniel Marr was the God I worshipped . I found out that it increases hugely immersion when there is a consistent lore of races/factions/religions/deities and I behave according to a loyalty code derived from this lore . That's why for me consistent lore is by far the most important reason why I play and like an MMORPG . For example Lotro is for me N°1 on this account, WoW among the last and EQ somewhere in the middle .

    Obviously when the act is no more an act of my character impacting only the game world but my own act which impacts the real world (like dealing or trading with another player) then I am good according to the standard definition of the RL moral code e.g I will not steal or cheat .

    • 57 posts
    September 13, 2018 8:14 AM PDT
    Will alignment have any bearing on gear or diety availability?

    To answer your question I always play “good” and if the race is considered “good challenged” I play with honour.
    • 646 posts
    September 13, 2018 8:44 AM PDT

    When it comes to actually making decisions in quest dialogue or whatever... I can never bring myself to do anything except help as many people as possible. My "power fantasy" is being able to help everyone, and that is what I try to do!

    When it comes to roleplay outside of the main quest story (most RPers don't actually RP as part of the main story), I have been known to create some less-than-moral characters. But those are for RP only!

    • 696 posts
    September 13, 2018 8:50 AM PDT

    I am rather weird in my alignments. I am basically against the majority of players at all times. If everyone is being evil, then I am usually good. Usually there are games like Dayz where everyone is pretty much evil, so I got good enough to be a good player, instead of killing everyone on sight, like most. But one server I was in had a lot of really good people, and I actually became a bandit and started raising hell and getting banned a few times. I got unbanned though everytime because the staff realizes that I made the game fun and immersive when going against their community with my group.

     

    Another dumb example would be Dungeon Realms, yes in Minecraft lol. This one guild tried to control all the resources and good farming spots and would kill anyone who got near there. I and a few others got geared enough in secret with bad grinding spots, we just got really lucky with the loot, and ended up beating this guild back. Had historical moments of killing some high end pvpers and getting there gear( you get gear when someone has a red name above there character when they killed someone who didn't fight back).

    So to sum it all up for me I am usually good, but realistically I guess I am just chaotic because I like to be on the underdog side and topple massive threats.

    • 793 posts
    September 13, 2018 9:04 AM PDT

    If killing that innocent farmer will net me cool loot, even my Paladin will cover his blade in blood. :)

     

    • 454 posts
    September 13, 2018 2:36 PM PDT

    I’ve always been a good race and a healer to boot.  I really want to test out an evil race as a possible main toon.  I really like The Ogre race (evil) this time out.  I wish there was an Ogre rogue.  I like the idea of this huge sneaky guy backstabbing someone.  Since that’s not gonna happen the Skar look interesting for a rogue.  Home starting city will have an effect too.  I want a starting city that seems real to me.  I know that’s a nebulous concept, but I’ll know it when I see it.  Can’t wait for launch.


    This post was edited by Questaar at September 13, 2018 2:41 PM PDT
    • 303 posts
    September 13, 2018 2:40 PM PDT

    I don't larp, I'll pick the one that benefits my stats

    EDIT: If moral values have been decided FOR me and not BY me, then they better have done that as reverse psychology because I don't believe at all in inherent morality and if a book was preaching to me, I'd drop in a heartbeat. A game is hopefully carried by its gameplay even if its preachy but I sure don't like it, it doesn't add anything and is just an annoyance. Morals, like beauty, are in the eyes of the beholder.

     


    This post was edited by Spluffen at September 13, 2018 2:44 PM PDT
    • 752 posts
    September 13, 2018 2:46 PM PDT

    With other players i usually play it as the good guy, i don't roleplay evil. Against NPC's i like to be evil and kill them when it suits my needs. If i need a faction for something i will do what i have to for that faction. I used to play DE Rogue and would kill (Old) Freeport guards for fun. I had no qualms about killing coldain to gain giant faction.

    • 409 posts
    September 14, 2018 7:52 AM PDT

    Depends if I'm roleplaying or not.
    If I'm roleplaying I prefer choatic good characters but in all honestly it totally depends on lore and my characters backstory.. which usually depends on how I want that character to play out in the world.. what's his goals? what race matches it? etc etc.

    If I'm not roleplaying then I generally go neutral. Why? easier rep gains either way when I want them and who I want them with.


    This post was edited by Nimryl at September 14, 2018 7:54 AM PDT