One thing that I find odd about the whole Good and Evil thing in D&D books and games is why are there never any evil towns? I'm not talking Orc or Goblin citadels or caves or that kind of thing. Where do all the evil human clerics and their human minions come from? There ought to be human settlements or towns in which the majority worship evil gods and still act like humans. The whole structure of Good and Evil seems to be that everyone good comes from towns and farms and such, but evil people sort of appear out of nowhere and then disappear when they are beaten back by the good people. I know that what I'm saying sort of goes against the whole idea of D&D evil, but I think that it would make sense to have humans that are evil aligned, but go around their every day tasks normaly and keep evil to ceremonies and such, just as the good and neutral aligned people seem to do. I anticipate a lot of people to disagree with this so let's hear from you.

I actually agree, not all evil aligned people have to be take-over-the-world and summon-dark-god-type Milwall fans.

Excellent someone agrees, now all I need is someone high up in the gaming industry to agree as well.

I agree, although its cool to have evil people do evil, its getting old, and fast!

I agree and disagree with Gunthar. Evil works through ignorance (people thinking they're doing the right thing when they're not), fear (evil rulers get a number of like minded people together and intimidate anyone who frowns upon thier ways), mistrust (infighting, spreading lies about the non-evil people until everyone is so confused that they don't know what to believe).
So it's not like you'd have a town full of Evil people, with your Evil blacksmiths, Evil farmers, etc.

But most computer games, until recently have been, like Gunthar says "Well, we got this one evil guy here in this dark tower or castle, and he has minions summoned from hell or whatever doing his bidding." So where does Mr. Evil get food, huh? Who dusts his Evil Libraries? When the wagon breaks down, is there an Evil Blacksmith who shows up to fix it?

It's only recently that games have started to reflect the idea that Evil isn't absolute, and neither is good. I think most everyone, realistically, is a little of both.

I know this is an old thread, but I have some input here. I think that while evil and good are not always absolutes for people, they can be for societies and cultures. When a nation's leadership starts becoming 'evil', the population, though generally 'good', start following their leader's ways, of course, and soon the culture becomes 'evil'. Of course, the same can be said for 'good' as well. In a fantasy context, the King dies, and his good for nothing son takes over. Soon, he replaces the Lord's council with all his cronies. The upper class of nobles and merchants, wanting to be in the good graces of the 'evil' king, start doing the same things he does, to impress him. By now, you're getting a very oppressed population, which will either revolt, or suffer under the yoke. Eventually, neighbors will be turning on neighbors, trying to find favor with their betters, and society has finally become evil.

I guess there's a lot more sociological aspects to this all, and when you throw religion into the pot, watch out. Just my 2 cps worth.