To say acting a villain in a production and behaving as villain in a game (or IRL) are the same morally is absurd, and should be obvious to anyone who’s not a sociopath.
The most obvious point is everyone on a movie set and in a scene has explicitly consented to the interaction beforehand.
Obviously mugging someone IRL is astronomically worse than blowing up someone’s internet spaceship, but if you take joy out of making people feel bad, even in a game, I can’t help but wonder if it’s your IRL moral compass that stops you from mugging people, or just the threat of jail time.
No comment on this specific case though. How toxic someone needs to be before they deserve to be griefed is a different question.
its not about making people feel bad
is about being more of what you want to be
lets suppose you pretend to be a space pirate /warrior / rogue whatever
the more people you kill the more you fell like you are doing what you propose yourself to do
and that gives a progress feeling since not all eve players care for SP or isk
“Mining salt” was and continues to be a prime motivator for ganking, to pretend otherwise is dishonest.
The mindset of the victim is irrelevant, it’s about your intent ganking and your motivations for doing so. It’s why imo, someone camping Uedama is less degenerate morally than Safety/CODE (though more degenerate content-wise) because they’re doing it for the isk ( I assume)
If you sit down to poker to compete / win / showoff / pay your bills / whatever, those are all FUNDAMENTALLY different from sitting at a particular table just to end someone’s night there.
The motivations are entirely irrelevant if everyone is abiding by the rules of the contest. Thoughts can’t be amoral, only actions can. If someone thinks nothing but offensive and hateful things, but lives their entire life abiding by the rules and doing others no actual harm, can that person be amoral?
That’s a fair point, although I imagine most professional basketball players simply enjoy playing for the sheer joy of dunking on their opponents, there are probably a couple who find the most enjoyable part is listening to their opponents cry and moan and whine. I won’t judge one’s personal preferences, we are all here to play ball, and if you want to shoot hoops by yourself you might want to download Minecraft and check out creative mode.
I’m not saying they’re equal, and there’s also the difference between morality and legality, but yes I do think you are amoral if you only think horrible thoughts but don’t act on them.
You’ve really caused me to rethink my views on morality in video games.
I used to play Monopoly, and I realized the most enjoyable part of the game was when my opponent freaked out and flipped over the board, because they couldn’t afford to pay rent. For years I have felt ashamed of this guilty pleasure, but now I realize that sometimes the reaction of your opponent is more interesting than the game itself.
I’m down with that if they can get some good crusades going. I even have my own lance and Templar uniform. I just hope that they don’t make posting anime girl pictures on their forums a cardinal sin.
We’ll go to where the men speak memes, and then continue until they speak something else.
Yes? Generally speaking, everyone could stand to be better people. Is that even a controversial opinion?
Morality is a gradient. Just like calling someone a mean name and stabbing someone are not equally bad.
It’s not a mark of shame to admit you could be a better person, probably the opposite. If you don’t think you make mistakes (including morally) you probably have personality issues.
If your reason for doing anything is to be as cruel and emotionally hurtful to other human beings as possible, and that cruelty is the sole reason you’re doing it?
I’d rate it “quite bad indeed”
Edit: By your example, there is literally zero in-game reason for doing it, it is only to cause distress to the other player behind the keyboard, in real life. As much “salt mining” as possible.
If you don’t find that amoral, I worry about your priorities.
