Quote (Taurean @ Jul 31 2019 08:20am)
1) So there is no definite wrong or right in ethics? A child rapist should be forgiven? The line should not be drawn anywhere at any time?
2) That's your opinion, but it is not ethically correct. A game is a -game-, and should it not be allowed to be enjoyed by everyone, at least those that could afford to pay for the game as it is? And then not be given a weaker position in the market in the game because you paid a botter to get your gear for you? That now means that the "poor" player must work much harder to trade for the gear he or she wants.
3) If your point is that the pvp scene was bad because of less bots, then the problem lies with Blizzard. They should allocate enough resources so that the game is impossible to cheat. As always, the problem is unethical leadership.
4) Don't you think the game would be more fun without people cheating?
5) I think it probably would. But Blizzard should have a trading forum as i described in my last post, so that trading would be more efficient.
1. Of course there are different levels of severity in terms of offenses and ethics. The only problem is that ethics are not based on individual opinion, they are based on the collective opinion of a community or society. And based on recent polling regarding bots, autoshops etc, approximately 55% of the population disagree with you or don't care enough to vote.
2. Putting aside ethics, d2jsp has made it significantly easier to trade for gear that people want. It is much easier to use than ingame trading and due to bots and autoshops, gear is ridiculously cheap and availability is high. A poor person can basically buy a full gear set for the price of a single hell rush these days. Without JSP, a casual player would likely never get access to a single item like Enigma or Infinity.
3. There are no ethics related to game design or administration. Blizzard has no obligation to create or police a game that caters to you - nor did they advertise D2 as a game with no bots etc. when it was released. Just because you feel entitled doesn't mean anybody owes you anything.
4. Perhaps - but there is no evidence that it would be. An equally viable alternative is to have everybody cheating - in which case the status quo would be the same as if nobody cheated. Since everybody on JSP is cheating - including you, this is a moot point.
5. Agreed. But they don't. So we use JSP.
On the topic of ethics though, I would like to present a counter-argument for botting. It is undeniable that bots generate a lot of wealth for the community as a whole since they "flood" the market with items and drive down prices for everyone. Given the current state of JSP, is it ethical to remove the source of our wealth now that most of us have become accustomed to these "living standards" and prices? Essentially you would be nuking the economy back to the stone age where almost nothing good is affordable for a casual player. People would be buying 100 USD worth of FG for a single high rune instead of a full gear setup. How does impoverishing the entire community constitute ethical behaviour?
On that note, history has taught us that the most motivated and innovative people will always come out on top. So even if you were to eliminate the bots and JSP, the poor people who are whining now will still be poor - and the Elon Musks of the world will simply find new ways of taking advantage of the system (and new ways of cheating) to generate profit.
This post was edited by draftw3dr on Jul 31 2019 06:55am