I have always understood the appeal of the Forsaken. Of a lot of the Horde races. Whether it's being a snooty, aristocratic elf who looks at the other races like Calvin Candie describing black people, or a blood and thunder orc who thinks peace is for weaklings, or a broody Forsaken who revels in misery because it's all they understand, being a bad guy is FUN sometimes. It's cathartic to release your darkest thoughts and impulses safely, and I think that's one of the amazing things video games bring to our lives. Moral crusaders claim they'll poison our brains and teach us to do evil in the real world, but the statistics show quite the opposite, they're a beneficial release valve for those elements of human nature we have to repress in the real world, and having that release makes us LESS likely to act on those urges for real.
What I don't understand, what I think I'll NEVER understand, is Forsaken APOLOGISTS. People who actually argue in complete, out of character seriousness, the moral acceptability of the things the Forsaken do. That they're just being practical, or that the living have it coming because of some ancient grievance, or that Sylvanas is only obligated to care about what's good for HER people, to hell with everyone else. This sort of rhetoric cleaves so close to nationalistic hysterias in the real world which have preceded wars, genocides, and other atrocities.
If you want to play the bad guys, EMBRACE being a bad guy, revel in villainy...but also remember the faction you're being villainous to is, in a game like WOW, made up of real people too, and your entertainment should not come from ruining THEIR entertainment. So yeah, you're gonna lose in the end. You're always gonna lose in the end and get your comeuppance, because that's how being the bad guy works. If it's a singleplayer game, sure, have at, be as bad as you like with no consequences. But in an MMO, you have to go into playing a villain understanding and accepting that cycle of good triumphing over evil, otherwise you're getting your enjoyment out of making someone else miserable, and hiding that behind a game narrative doesn't change it.
You shouldn't expect to have your cake and eat it too at other people's expense, and you certainly shouldn't try and convince yourself that plainly villainous behavior is somehow okay just so you can rationalize to yourself why you should get to win a fictitious war.
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