Posted by Player on July 13, 2000 at 22:45:11:
In Reply to: Bargaining with the Father of Devils. posted by Proud Blade(VIP) on July 13, 2000 at 14:33:49:
Once again, Proud Blade, thank you for that stirring, if somewhat unwarranted, sermon on the evils of cheating and the One True Salvation through Our Lords, the Great Immortals. However unrelated to the objection voiced by the original poster to whom you responded, it was nonetheless invigorating to hear the timeless refrain of that well-known hymn, "Great and Selfless Is Our Immortal Staff." While my meagre faculties of reason fail to see how the point benefited the discussion or the well-being of forum readers in general, since there was no proposal anywhere in the thread that mass-cheating be tolerated, I suppose it serves *your* personal purposes, which I will not dare to question.
By no means am I suggesting that cheating is good or that permagroups are in some way permissible. I make that statement in an attempt to stem the tide of holy invective. However, suggesting that a human being is immoral based on their behavior in a game is an exaggeration. You will never learn morality from CF. You will never fall from grace in that arena either. That's because it is, in fact, a game, and your actions there are not real and *may* have nothing to do with your real self. This statement applies particularly to permagrouping. It's a vague rule which does not clearly outline what constitutes a group in this sense. How many times a week can I play with my same-site bud? Once? Twice? Or is it figured on a ratio of time played apart over time played together? It is inconsistently applied. Most of the permagroups that have interfered with my game play have not been people from the same site. They've been people who know each other on IRC. Given the actual functon of the game, if a guy gets tired of constantly looking for group members and dealing with their massive incompetence when he does find them and decides to join with someone who he knows to be reasonably competent, with whom his interactions will be more rewarding and entertaining (let us not forget that entertainment is the point of a *game*), we are to conclude that he is immoral? No. He's bored. He's trying to have fun. It means nothing about his inner character, if, indeed, he, or anyone, can be said to have anything more than a situational character.
If you posted in an attempt to be holy, feel free to take those issues to a church, synagogue, or other place of worship. If you posted in an attempt to polish your image with the immortal staff, feel free to do that in private correspondence.