Everybody has to find for themselves, what is allowed, and what is forbidden -forbidden specifically to them. One can never break the law and yet be a vile blackguard. ~Hermann Hesse
So this is my little rant about this year's Christmas event. Let me explain:
There is a question in a online-morals test that asks:
For how much money would you kick a puppy in the head, given that you cannot use the money to make up for your deed?
- For free
For less than ten Dollars
Less than a hundred
Less than thousand
Less than a hundred thousand
A million or less
Never
I chose never. You see, a puppy's life or it being hurt or not may not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it would leave a spot on my conscience, it would change me into a lesser person, and no amount of money can make up for that.
The same applies to the event. No amount of virtual items I could get would make me kick a virtual puppy in the head, or give booze, ether and rat meat to a virtual orphan and then shove a brush down their trachea.
I would never play a game of "club the baby seal", "stomp the fluffy bunny" or "shoot fish in a barrel". Those things, to me, are pointless and cruel.
Oh yes, before you ask, I've wasted hours of my life playing Diablo... but it is not the same. In those games, the pixelated monsters are not defenseless, and it takes at least a moderate amount of skill and cunning to play the game. Maltreating a virtual orphan, which is pretty much the pixel incarnate of innocence and defenselessness (apart from said fluffy bunny maybe), does not.
I hold no grudge for the people who do enjoy those games... it may not be forbidden to them as it is forbidden to me. But I know it would make me a lesser being if I did... maybe by an insignificantly small amount compared to doing such in real life... but the taint is there, so I will not participate in this. No Gaia item can ever be worth that.
Note to self: Update list below.
Edit: To all the haters and flamers:
Giving alcohol, ether and disgusting and / or harmful food to real children is real child abuse. Doing the same with virtual items to virtual children is virtual child abuse, and this is what the thread is about, okay?
Edit Edit: Okay, so you people want the thread to die, and at the same time, you repeat the same arguments over and over again and then complain I don't answer them over and over again.
Very well. Vote in the poll, and the majority will get their way.
A few answers to the ones that keep on popping up again:
- Don't like it, don't participate, n00b.
I don't. The point is, this is a discussion forum. I have a right to my opinion and I can voice it, no matter how outlandish it may sound. I'm not recruiting, I'm not telling people to boycott the event. Ridiculing the person instead of trying to refute their arguments is bad style.
But you watch violent movies, you hypocrite!
As I stated in the first post, violence =/= cruelty. I enjoy games or movies where the virtual opponent fights back, I don't enjoy games/movies where being cruel to someone not able to fight back is rewarded, even if it is over-the-top, cartoonish cruelty.
But you do martial arts, you violent hypocrite!
Not at all. In martial arts, you spar with weaker or less skilled person while making sure not to hurt them. When you do contact fights, you fight against your peers. You don't go out and beat the skinny guy with the glasses over the head.
But you have little birdies on your avatar, you bird-abusing hypocrite!
Oh please. Guess what, I could get them to hover around me without feeding vitriol to a baby bird.
satire(săt'īr')
A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
The branch of literature constituting such works. See synonyms at caricature.
Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.
So the thing about the orphans is supposed to be satire? So human vice is exposed by making people feed alcohol to children for rewards? With that one, I agree.
Otherwise:
tactless(tăkt'lĭs)
Lacking or exhibiting a lack of tact; bluntly inconsiderate or indiscreet.
Satire about child abuse, rape or torture makes me squeamish. Overly sensitive? Maybe.
