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I love some of the comments that have been made on here...I just had a couple of my own.
1) On emoting, I understand that it can get annoying to see people *only* built-in socials, all the time. But I still think there are times when yes, a grin is just a grin. And sometimes, when someone grins, you have no idea whether it's an innocent grin or a smug grin or if they're amused or just want you to shut up and leave them alone. Except by context, which is conveyed by the situation and the conversation, not what the person types in an emote. There are situations where an emote is appropriate and situations where it isn't. Sometimes I want to use a shrug social that displays "you shrug helplessly" and sometimes I want to emote "shrugs her shoulders and spreads her hands in front of her in a gesture of helplessness."
2) I could not agree more that evil people shouldn't be utterly evil, all the time. The fact is, some of the worst twinks are people who go around being mean to everyone and pking at random and then claim "hey i'm just roleplaying evil." The heck you are. You're roleplaying idiocy.
Yes, evil people do bad things. But even serial killers look normal sometimes. Wild pk is not evil rp. Real evil is very hard to pull off well. I am no expert, but I think one of the most crucial things about the evil frame of mind is a profound selfishness. What does this mean? There are two things that make people "evil": consistently doing things we think are bad in situations where we think they're inappropriate, and believing that their actions are okay, or even right.
For example, why is Paladin good? He kills, which is often considered a bad thing to do. But his motives are rooted in selflessness and a willingness to help others or kill those who oppress the weak. This makes him Good. A villain is bad because he kills for a reason society as a whole considers inappropriate, such as greed, or because he believes himself superior to the people he hurts. Many societies consider selfishness, the placing of the self before others, to be a negative trait, and therefore evil actions are those that hurt other people and place the self before the wellbeing of those others.
The concept of what actions are bad varies from culture to culture. But generally most cultures will agree that the person doing these actions is not bad if the person has selfless motives. The point is, evil is rooted in motive, not action. If you kill people at random and have no real background that supports the idea that you're evil, you're not roleplaying evil, you're just making people angry. A good rper will start by creating a background and a character that has a good reason to do evil things, and goals and motives that will lead him to do evil things naturally.
It's also important to remember that the world is not usually black and white. Perhaps the evil player has a soft spot for puppies, or is a particularly caring father, or is especially helpful with the youngsters in his guild or clan. Evil people aren't all evil, all the time, and assuming they are probably just means that the character in question hasn't been fleshed out enough. And in many types of evil characters, what's really interesting about them is that while the world sees their actions as cruel and wrong, to *them* their actions make perfect sense. It's not just their actions that are twisted- it's their whole worldview.
One last thing. Do I roleplay evil well? Not really. That's why I don't do it very often. *grin*
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