| | One of the many ways I squander my time is through a wonderful MMORPG called Urban Dead. I've commented on it in the past.
Online roleplaying has brought me similar quandaries that playing board games did, back in the day.
In Monopoly, of course, it was cheating & swindling folks into bankruptcy-- following the rules of the game, but doing everything you can to deprive them of every last penny. A morally reprehensible act in real life. In Risk, the quandary was in imperial power, colonization, and wiping entire races off the face of the earth. Sickening in the real world, harmless fun on a board.
When roleplaying, the dilemma becomes more intense. What I find interesting is that there are some morally reprehensible things I'll have no problem letting my characters do, but other things I would never let them do ever.
One of my characters is a mass murderer. He even got into a cage and fought a boxing match to the death.
Another character gets blind drunk almost every night, pushes dangerous drugs on his compatriots, and often winds up sleeping his hangover off in a snow-filled gutter.
Another character was a monk, but typing the Jesus Prayer fifty times a day got real boring real quick, and so I let the guy go idle.
All of my characters occasionally become zombies and eat people's brains.
But I would never allow any of my characters to do or say anything demeaning, spiteful or lewd. I'd just feel dirty if I did, and it wouldn't be fun the way that roleplaying murder and backstabbing and heavy drinking is fun.
So why? If my character smashes somebody's skull in, why is that part of the game and all in good fun? But if he were to even suggest anything indecent, why would that be so wrong? (in my mind, it would be). Is there a double standard? Is there some kind of game logic? Surely careless sex, drunkenness or foul language isn't worse than murder.
*edit*
ChrisRusso (PC) makes the point that RP characters are authorial creations rather than extensions of personality. That is to say, my Urban Dead character named "buddhagazelle" can be Myself projected into an imaginary world... or, more interestingly, he can be an imaginary character created in an imaginary world.
In which case, my character's interaction with other characters is not buddha-shadow interaction with shadows of other humans. It's an imaginary character interacting with other imaginary people; each behaving according to the personality that their creator has given them. And virtuous authors certainly create despicable characters. More to the point, talented authors create realistic characters, who live and sin as real people do.
|
| | Posted 1/18/2008 3:39 PM - 118 views - 10 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
