Okay, so one of my bigger "pet peeves" is the aforementioned "evil" characters and groups. Sorry if I offend anyone, you're of course able to disagree, these are just my thoughts. Anyways.....
(https://bevwere.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/evil.jpg?w=300&h=240)
I've always hated them. I kinda can accept it from small groups with animal effort but in, but when you have huge roleplays with gorgeous maps and all this work and effort, it's just sad.
Why bother with all that work if you don't even bother to give your character/group a decent motive? Come on people! Okay, so a rival pack is invading your territory. Why? How about instead of them just being "evil" they are starving to death. Or maybe something chased them out. Give everything a reason beyond "because they're evil". It can add so much more to a roleplay, and it really opens new doors for character development.
It's one thing to have a character be in the wrong, but allow me to quote Tom Hiddleston here when I say that "Every Villain is a hero in his own mind". Let your characters learn from they're mistakes, or make tough moral choices. Blur the lines a little bit!
So, what do you all think? Are flat out "evil" characters okay sometimes, but maybe not all the time? Am I way to harsh about these characters? (Probably lol)
I've been apart of a couple "evil" roleplay groups myself.
It was a small group at first and we were all pretty experienced when it came to RPing and our plot had been written and planned out prior.
But as our story grew, so did our group numbers.
We all had some kind of backstory from each of our own characters we were using and had a reason for creating the group because it strung in well with our RP.
What I mean is we didn't just all meet up one day and say "hey, lets make an evil group lol"
But I understand what you are talking about.
It's definitely a pet peeve of mine too -- the way people choose to have those pitch black coloured characters and give the typical "my parents died and i am evil" bio.
Because it is their choice and they are choosing to be commonly boring. (Was that too harsh?)
I agree with this entirely.
I feel that people are being evil just for the sake of going on killing sprees, or just for plot. Very few have a true reason for their crusades. Those groups that do have a reason for being "evil," however, actually do very well in progressing the plot or changing things around with a powerful twist.