To quote Jagex's site, shortly before RuneScape was even released:

 

 

 

Coming soon - RuneScape - Our massive 3d RPG game

 

It's been 2 years in the making, and now our latest greatest game is almost complete. Runescape is a massive multiplayer adventure, with monsters to kill, quests to complete, and treasure to win. Trade and communicate in realtime with other players. Your charactor will continue to evolve and improve the more you play. Choose good or evil the choice is entirely yours!

 

 

 

"Choose good or evil the choice is entirely yours!"

 

 

 

It is? Ask yourself, how does one play the role of a bad guy?

 

 

 

A bad guy is a role typically defined by doing deeds that are thought of as unspeakable. Acts which cause others grief, heartache and suffering. Having an element of evil in the game can, and usually does, add more to a game.

 

 

 

What options do we even have in runescape to truly be evil? Putting on a piece of clothing thats red and has zamorak wrote on it does NOT make you "evil".

 

 

 

Most players in the past who have been seen as evil are typically those who break the games rules. The scammers, dupers, etc... were typically the kind who often knew one another, and formed alliances. For that matter, so did many of the good guys.

 

 

 

Two examples of evil acts currently against the rules are Scamming and Luring.

 

 

 

In addition there have been various methods in the past used to cause grief or annoyance to players. Kill stealing was one such method, however that one has effectively been stopped a long time back. The "Fear" spell was another with the potential to cause trouble, however that was removed when "Good" and "Evil" magic were merged.

 

 

 

The original player killing method allowed you to kill similar level players who had pk mode on, effectively giving you the power to stir up trouble for other players by interrupting them training or chatting with another player. With the introduction of the wilderness, that become less of an option.

 

 

 

The thieving skill would have been a oppurtunity to provide a legitimate method of being evil. To be able to steal loot from other players would certainly have added to the skill and the game itself. Players could have been offered whether or not they wanted to participate, much like the original pk mode could have worked. However, by the time thieving had been introduced, the possibility of thieving from players themselves had done been ruled out as well.

 

 

 

 

 

So the question is, exactly how DOES one play the role of the bad guy? Also, should methods to play the role of a villain WITHOUT breaking the rules of the game itself be added to the game?

 

 

 

Personally, I have always seen myself as a good guy, a rule abiding player. But I do think supporting methods of being evil could make the game itself more interesting.

I like this idea, but with all rules against the things you mentioned it's hard to be anything over than a good guy.

Well there's a few quests where you can choose to help evil or good sides. :| .

 

 

 

Also rc pking.

Well there's a few quests where you can choose to help evil or good sides. :| .

 

 

 

Also rc pking.

 

 

 

That's interesting actually, cuz all the bad guy roles mentioned yet are things that the general rs community look down on, like they are in real life so maybe we already have that choice.

when RS was opened to the public, we had good & evil magic/prayer. players could also decide if they wanted PvP on or off (you could only switch it up to 3 times a week or so later).

 

 

 

They got rid of all this early on...

when RS was opened to the public, we had good & evil magic/prayer. players could also decide if they wanted PvP on or off (you could only switch it up to 3 times a week or so later).

 

 

 

They got rid of all this early on...

 

you could only switch 3 times in total!

 

 

 

And it was only at the start of RS that u could do the spell fear... and if you could steal from other players... well... people would just stand around kq the whole time and thief players who just lootted it

No-one sees anything wrong in mindlessly killing Men, Women, Children, Guards, Animals etc?

Thieving isn't nice, either..

I think having the option to be evil would be cool but we don't really have that option. I never played rs1 so I don't know the options in that but rs2 your character is just the good guy who always gets used. Why cant you ever be the guy that uses people?

 

 

 

Maybe like for everything in runescape add an evil counterpart.

I think that they meant it unofficially. Like, you can do quests and help old ladies bake pies or something, slay monsters,or, for evil, you can PK, Pickpocket, kill innocents, etc. That's how I interpret it. They may introduce a Fable-type thing later, but, that's later. Or maybe it's just a promise they didn't keep, or didn't know how to make it work, like other things have been. Or it may have something to do with ScapeRune?

Well, the obvious answer would be that player-killing in the wilderness is an evil act wich is not against the rules. However, in quests, the options are indeed severely limited. Do you knwo, for example, what happens when you try to add a draynor manor cabbage to the invincibility potion of the black knights? It says "you can't do this because you must destroy the witch, not help her" or something to that effect.

Certain P2P quests allow you to make a choice between good and evil (Hazeel's cult, the one with Lucien).

 

Offcourse, this idea could have been worked out much better, making the game possibly more intresting.

As the creator of this post, I wanted to bump this one back up since it has been over two and a half years.

 

Clearly there have been several changes to PVP since the post was originally made. Specifically the additions of PVP Worlds, and Bounty Hunter Worlds.

 

Since I have not been a member in about a year, I was wondering if people think we have any more options of playing the villain role now than we did at time period I created the post?

 

While I see more options for killing in general, I do not see a lot of options in the way of playing a villain even at this point in time.

I think they referred to 10 year olds trolling Runescape.

I think they referred to 10 year olds trolling Runescape.

I think it was their intention from the get-go to implement a good/evil system. Come to think of it there was alot more opposites in the early RS. good/evil prayer (although prayer was useless at the time until crafting anyway) good/evil magic.

pk/non-pk option. Even wizard/necromancer upon character creation!

But as the game progressed I believe they had to scrap the original idea due to unknown reasons.

 

There was also alot more evil in general in the game. Like Dragnfly mentioned, there were pilejumpers. You could also see other peoples drops instantly (also pk'ed ppls loot), without wasting 60 seconds, inciting people to flock and wait like vultures to scavenge loot, when they saw 2 players fighting.

There were people who had fun killing helpless miners, and others who attacked people in banks. In general there was a very evil side which alot of players chose to embrace. And to be honest this made the game pretty fun.

It also pushed alot of sensitive people to the point where a poll was taken and the wilderness was implemented, and a new RS era was born.

 

But yes, I am sure Andrew and Paul had hoped for an option to be an all-out villian in this game.

how to be good guy: do quests

how to be the bad guy: dont do quests

c:

how to be good guy: do quests

how to be the bad guy: dont do quests

c:

 

As blunt as that was, that statement couldn't be any more truthful. Dare I say, ALL quests put you in the role of a "Hero" no matter what. The only difference would be what characteristics your Hero has, by choosing the different dialogues provided. You could be a humble and kind Hero who helps others because it's the right thing to do, while you can be one who merely does them for the sake of rewards. Still, being selfish or greedy dosen't make one evil.

The statement that you can be either good or evil in Runescape is, to say the least, not really true anymore. I would say that it is quite much as far away from true as it is possible to get.

Surely you can be a little evil in the game and choose to be an irritating guy in the world. You can use the thieving skill to create chaos at the Ardounge market place, you can kill other players in PvP and you can go around killing friendly and cute NPCs such as rabbits. But just because of this I wouldn't go so far as to say that you can choose to be evil. Because if you could really be evil you would be able to have much more freedom in the game. First of all the quests would look different, and you would be able to play as the evil guy within them, not only as the Hero with a big "H". And you should also be able to interact more with the environment around you through new evil skills, not only thieving. And speaking of thieving, that skill should include much more robbery, also from other players, to truly become evil.

However I don't think that the rules would really not have to be changed for you to be able to be evil in the game. That is to go a little too far. We still need a nice gaming community, even if we have both an evil and a good group of players. But that will not happen. Runescape have become a game for the good players. And honestly, I don't really care. Most games are like this and I guess that I have got used to it. I think most players have. But surely things would get a little more interesting if there also was an evil side.

Evil side is easy - lead a manip merch clan

Evil side is easy - lead a manip merch clan

 

Win.

 

The character can do some pretty evil things from an NPC's perspective, but nothing that bad from the perspective of another player. I dont think JaGex will ever implement thieving from other people, as that would cause much raging on the forums and other annoyances.

I tried playing in different rule other than good guy but I can't stay longer...

I think it would have been really cool if they stuck with the original idea of choosing sides.

 

It's frustrating sometimes that the only option you have in quests is to be the absolute hero.

 

Certain NPC's can be really annoying, and I would enjoy the quest much more sometimes with an "execution" ending :P Or at least turning on them or something.

I think it would have been really cool if they stuck with the original idea of choosing sides.

 

It's frustrating sometimes that the only option you have in quests is to be the absolute hero.

 

Certain NPC's can be really annoying, and I would enjoy the quest much more sometimes with an "execution" ending :P Or at least turning on them or something.

 

The one time you get a choice (to kill Lucien or not) it turns out it doesn't matter...

There is one quest where you can choose between good and evil - Hazeel Cult Quest.

 

This is taken from the RSwiki about the quest rather than me trying to explain.

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The Cult of Hazeel are a group of humans that worship the Zamorakian Mahjarrat Hazeel, and play a focal part in the Hazeel Cult quest. They are trying to resurrect Hazeel and, depending on whether the player joins them or the Carnillean Family, either resurrect or fail to resurrect him.

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Choice - Good? or Evil?

Just one item in SC like I do, that's seen as many people as being evil :thumbsup: