Evil and good are subjective. From definition itself it is entirely in the viewpoint of the beholder. Anything is evil if you simply view it so. Though motive and true actions maybe unknown it is difficult to apply a branding to anything without the ability of past, present, and future knowledge. That information itself is beyond our capabilities and comprehension therefore we submit everything to judgment to simplify and diagnose, as is human behavior and genetic programming. Sadly, judgment is necessary for survival. In game or real life you must account all factors of a potential threat or benefit that lay before you, much like a mother would view a strange presence among her children. Protection comes at a difficult and sometimes horrendous cost.

In game design, the goal is more often than not to make the player aware that something is dangerous, not necessarily evil. In single-player CRPGs the main Drama Queen.... errr... antagonist will often subject the player to extensive soliloquies in order to describe the extent of his evil and nefarious ways, but other games don't have an audience willing to suffer through such droning nonsense, so the game designer has to use whatever tools are at his disposal to convey that your nemesis or opponent is truly dangerous. Without backstory/lore at your disposal, you are left with visual and audible cues... the bloodied armor, the scaly skin and sharp fangs/claws, the growling or roar of the enemy. As a designer, you want to make your audience dislike the bad guy. You want them to fear him or loathe him, and to do that, you use every tool at your disposal to make him something the players either want to flee in fear or slaughter at first sight.

As for evil... there are few things more evil than a legion of greedy bastards hellbent on genocide for the sake of gaining personal fame and fortune. An army of sheer depravity that strips and violates each and every victim, be it man or beast, in search of a trinket or coin or other usable item. This army roams the gaming worlds with pockets and sacks of body parts severed from their mutilated victims in hopes that some villager is in dire need of countless teeth or ears or entrails. No creature is as sadistic, horrifying, single-minded of purpose, and undeniably evil as the beast called 'the player' - An armada of killing machines that exists solely to murder, rob and dismember every creature in its path.

I agree with rakul's last post, in that looks alone don't always tell the story. My main on World of Warcraft is a relatively small, helpless looking, gnome rogue whose chief attributes are his stealth ability and his assassination skills. Definitely evil from an absolutist standpoint, and ambiguious from a relativist standpoint. Even the nature of the races in WOW depend on where you are viewing from. The orc's may seem evil from a human standpoint, but they were transported to Azeroth against their will and faced with a hostile world immediately.

Well, then there's also the evil of indifference. Some people just enjoy doing horrible things and don't care whether or not it's morally right.....or stand by and allow others to do such things. (Anyone seen Boondock Saints?)

As far as roleplaying an "evil"character, is that you have to remember that they consider themselves in the right, therefore they don't think they're evil. Some of my main's actions could be easily interpreted as evil, but she believed she was doing the right thing, she was being true to her beliefs.

The way I see it, if it's got big teeth and/or claws and it's trying to eat my Paladin, it's evil! /smite

It all depends on how you approach morality in a game. From a philosophical standpoint, there are two options: absolutism and relativism. Absolutism states that there is a set of objective moral truths and standards, while relativism states that morals are subjective, and solely determined by groups.

In games, absolutism is most often advocated in the way of gods or some form of supreme being(s), and there's very little middle ground, so you can readily identify friend from foe. Relativism can definitely be used, although it's nearly impossible to make players see that what they believe is right and wrong is merely because the group(s) they belong to say it is so; they'll never see the other side of it without actually joining the other side, embracing its groups' standards, and rejecting their previous groups' standards.

It's all very complicated. As far as games go, I see the absolutist reality as the easy way out, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about using relativism successfully. Players will bring their own concepts of right and wrong into the game, and that will usually screw up relativism.

Meh, no one is evil.

Yeah, I've always thought that you shouldn't always be able to tell by looks alone (in regards to gaming). Even the possibility of members of some "good" races should have the potential to be evil, and you wouldn't be able to tell unless they did something to show themselves as such.