Alignment is and should be a Gameplay mechanic.
DnD isnt a highschool drama play, its a game
- In BG1+2 you automatically max out reputation by finishing quests. I do not remember quests that you could in an evil way were you get the full exp for finishing the quest and you lose reputation for finishing the quest. Its a long time since I played so I am not 100% sure. I could never play those games with evil chars in my party because I always end up with max reputation.
But people liked that. In fact people liked BG so much that companies competed for the right to make a sequel.
And yeah, in the EEs there are fully developed evil quests. The half orcs story begins by slaughtering wedding party. The vampire thief starts with you luring an innocent to her lair so she can feed.
People didn't like those stories as much as they liked the originals.
