I notice that so many players want to go the evil path, some planning to commit terrible acts of evil like killing all the druids for instance.
In traditional fairy tales the protagonist is always good (or start out being good), the helpers are good, and typically enemies are evil. The very definition of evil is wanting to do harm to others I think. They don't just have other opinions, they generally are not nice to their fellow beings (except sometimes on the surface perhaps). I don't think you will find any society on Earth (in real life) where being evil is an ideal. We may as outsiders judge other societies as evil yes, but that is not how they see themselves. The struggle to go through life wanting to be good while being opposed (or tempted) by evil is the challenge most of us face, and if in a fairy tale the protagonist should fall to evil that's the end of the story.
What then is the challenge for an evil protagonist, what will be his goal? World domination? Vengence? Optimizing body count numbers for his diary? Playing evil doesn't appeal to me, but I'll try not to be judgemental and instead ask the question: What appeals to you about playing an evil character? Hoping for some good answers
To have deeper philosophical meaning. To remind yourself that world is not black and white, good and evil.
It short: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Or, having good intentions - doesn't necessary means helping, or even not doing harm. Likewise harsh egotistical approach doesn't necessary means that endgoal will bring harm and disaster to others.
Funny thing, Gary Gigax himself strongly disagreed with TSR (after he already left it) that evil alignment should even be allowed for players. D&D from the start was strongly inspired by pure heroic fantasy writers like Michle Moorcock. Yet community loved it, and TSR just rolled with it.
Same worked with Star Wars. To nowadays Lucas is on fence with SW fans who adore characters like Palpatine, Darth Vader and Boba Fett (before Disney utterly ruined him in recent show). And again, it just worked. In Clone Wars they had quite a few episodes, showing that evil characters can be far more helpful, and actually doing something good. While some Jedi, been blinded with their own righteousness could bring a great harm.
