Morals in RL vs morals in a small, contained environment
Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 12:55 pm
I've been pondering this:
[spoiler]
In RL, this is one of the dominant ideas of "cultured" society for a number of reasons.
1. real crimes -> real consequences
2. lack of morals -> possible loss of life -> crossing into relatively unknown (but widely speculated and prophesied about) territory
3. small actions -> HUGE, potentially terrible repercussions, usually unforeseen in the long run
Any unlawful action has the potential to be morally wrong. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor, but also indirectly caused deaths. The core of Christianity revolves around a man who defied common religious tenets of the day, indirectly causing both the social alienation of those that followed him and directly causing his death. But the Christian doctrine also teaches that that man, while doing these things on Earth, gives the opportunity for eternal life after bodily death. Depending on which religion a person practices (not to mention their personal morals), either of these are wrong, right, both wrong or both right.
Now this isn't a religion debate topic, PLEASE don't turn this into a religion debate. I'm just bringing up familiar cases of apparent moral ambiguity.
Let's bring it back to the "common trader scamming a scammer" discussion. There is a very obvious moral ambiguity present here. He very clearly did it with good intentions, but "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". The big questions?
1. Do morals outside of the game ALWAYS apply ingame, due to much less severe repercussions and different situations?
2. Is this matter a "big deal"? Should the community chuckle and move on, or blacklist/continue blacklisting him as a trader?
3. Are we as a community obligated to say what is wrong, and what is right?
3b. Are we as a community entitled to say what is wrong, and what is right?
Thoughts plz.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Drahazar wrote:il say it again,
I'm still with Clarkey at this point and always will be, i have never been scammed, i know its a very real risk, and i'm naturally cautious. If i was silly enough to not to get (at least 5) references from a trader and do my in depth background check, and then pay half now half after i have the stuff for example and got scammed, i would not trade with the scammer again, however i would NOT scam my stuff back from him/her i would simply write it off as a bad debt. If someone was to offer my stuff back for free after i had written it off i would share it with my alliance (as i had already written it off it wouldn't cause a shortfall in my accounts to ignore it and share it with alliance mates).
In the real world business's have an account called allowance for doubtful debt, this account is sort of a safeguard, your know you wont get all of your creditors to pay you so you put some aside for the inevitable bad debt that you will suffer at some point. NO one that i know of does this in this game bar myself, and i don't really trade much.....
Scamming someone bad for a good cause is never that simple, there are always repercussions eg. If i was to steal for a nasty Dictator and give the money to charity, he will go on a killing spree. If i was to steal money from a big corporation that was exploiting child labor and give to charity, well the company might go down, thousands of people would lose their jobs, homes, their children would be hungry and homeless.
My point is this, who are we to take these things into our own hands when we wont ever know the full extent of the damage it will do, robin hood got people killed...
If you want scamming to stop, do it the right way, have we tried signing a petition, creating a union, going on strike, if all active accounts hit vac for a week, i'm sure mods would be more willing to implement ideas for anti-scamming measures that people have suggested.
A "he stole so its ok for me to steal back" mindset is just down and out wrong, its at this time i quote the bible, "thou shalt not steal" tho religion might not be for everyone, the 10 commandments, no mater if your christian or not, guide a better way for life.
The only thing i have learnt from this thread is that more people are morally ambiguous than i originally thought.
In RL, this is one of the dominant ideas of "cultured" society for a number of reasons.
1. real crimes -> real consequences
2. lack of morals -> possible loss of life -> crossing into relatively unknown (but widely speculated and prophesied about) territory
3. small actions -> HUGE, potentially terrible repercussions, usually unforeseen in the long run
Any unlawful action has the potential to be morally wrong. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor, but also indirectly caused deaths. The core of Christianity revolves around a man who defied common religious tenets of the day, indirectly causing both the social alienation of those that followed him and directly causing his death. But the Christian doctrine also teaches that that man, while doing these things on Earth, gives the opportunity for eternal life after bodily death. Depending on which religion a person practices (not to mention their personal morals), either of these are wrong, right, both wrong or both right.
Now this isn't a religion debate topic, PLEASE don't turn this into a religion debate. I'm just bringing up familiar cases of apparent moral ambiguity.
Let's bring it back to the "common trader scamming a scammer" discussion. There is a very obvious moral ambiguity present here. He very clearly did it with good intentions, but "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions". The big questions?
1. Do morals outside of the game ALWAYS apply ingame, due to much less severe repercussions and different situations?
2. Is this matter a "big deal"? Should the community chuckle and move on, or blacklist/continue blacklisting him as a trader?
3. Are we as a community obligated to say what is wrong, and what is right?
3b. Are we as a community entitled to say what is wrong, and what is right?
Thoughts plz.
