Why want to have something like ‘ethics’ in SL, if even in RL most peoples vieuws of what is ethical is so screwed up, even satan would go “Now hold on… WTF?”

Flying a plane into a building is unethical, while going into another country, bomb it to bits and kill and torture people just cause they don’t like you for doin exactly that, is ethical?

It’s ethical to kill and mame individuals, just for one’s own profit, yet killing and maming another individual isn’t, just cause it happens to be the same species you are?

It’s ethical to light a cross on fire in someone’s front yard and scream for their blood, just because they have a different colour on the outside? Or, on the flip side, call out to one’s fellow people to “Kill the white opressors”?

It’s ethical to deny the right to two people to declare eachother’s love officially for everyone and the state, just because they happen to be of the same gender?

Is it ethical to waste billions on creating more and more deathdealing tools, while people are starving in the streets?

Is it ethical to deny a whole CONTINENT theright to use a little latex tube to prevent millions of deaths, just because we should “Go forth and Muliply”?

Please. SL could very well do without etchics, they’re meaningless anyways unless everyone follows the same ethics. And with an international place like SL, that is not gonna happen.

Unless of course one country goes to more and more countries, pick a fight and decide they have the right to tell others how to live. Which actually, I can see happening.

I think it’s unethical to try and impose one’s ethics on anyone other then themselves.
The only ethic I could see that would be fitting for the whole of SL, is “Don’t be an asshole”. But that would mean at least HALF of SL’s population breaking that rule by default.

I ditch this response, type another long response giving props to the people who said what I pretty much did, preview and post, and my original response is the one that posts.

Hmm.

Anyway, yeah – my second post was sounding a little less dismissive after I realized that the article I’m researching on landlord/tenant issues in SL deals with this. After all, it’s all fun and games until someone loses a marriage – or real money.

And yes, it took a while – I haven’t had my coffee yet.

Well.

Death: Fell down a well and died the other day. Really pissed me off. What’s bad is I can’t remember the sim I was wandering when I got killed, so I don’t know if it was a trap or a critter that killed me. Still, no harm, no foul – but the next weeping well I see is getting the ol’ laser screwdriver treatment.

Sex: Umm, this is a game. What one pixellated avatar is “doing” to another pixellated avatar is, at best, interactive erotica and at worst boring poseball tours. That would be like me getting jealous over the topless shopkeeper woman in Champions of Norrath.

When I can lightly brush my hand over my lover’s shoulders in SL, then you can talk to me about sex and how I’m hurting my RL. Now it’s barely a cartoon version of what some fourteen-year-old boy thinks is sex.

Would I pose nude? Sure, I have been told I have a very good av and I don’t mind if people enjoy it. Would I escort? No, only because I don’t see the point. And I do try to be respectful of the feelings of others because they probably don’t have the same views that I do – namely that it isn’t sex and this isn’t me.

Morals: In SL, I can be a woman, a man, a talking horse, a robot, a dragon, or a floating eyeball. Must I have a set of morals and ethics for each avatar? And must they be the same ones? And why?

My thought that this is Much Ado About Nothing is belied by the length of my response and the number and quality of the responses. Guess I will keep reading Second Life Herald after all.

If you want the illusion that you know what you are dealing with, stick to meatspace and meatspace alone — and get blood samples while you’re at it. That Police Benevolent Association guy calling you from a blind number might SEEM like he’s meatspace and oh so real, but chances are he’s a boiler-room operator preying on your gullibility. If you actually talk to telemarketers for any other reason than yanking their chains, PLEASE do yourself a favor and stay out of virtual worlds, because, at best, you’ll only get your feelings hurt.

SL is not RL. Period. Banging 6 girls at once while pink unicorns egg us on as we all float in a flying castle simply has NO reallife analog. Likewise, murder, theft, or other antisocial behaviors aren’t quite the same either. So I’ll boil them down to basic tenets.

Sex: If you think what you are doing is wrong, then it is wrong. If you can have cartoon sex in SL without messing up your RL, then have at it. Details about quantity or deviations are irrelevant so long as your playtime doesn’t damage meattime. Keep your RL and your SL seperate and you can pretty well go as far as your own feelings will let you. But if you aren’t comfortable with it then don’t do it.

Murder: Can’t kill what isn’t alive. Can’t do anything to someone else without their consent, save for caging or orbitting. It is no different than wasting monsters in Doom. If you want to play and your opponent wants to play, then play. If the opponent doesn’t want to play, find another playmate.

Theft: Ethics here depend on whether or not it is in character or out of character. It’s somewhat hard to steal from strangers. Thus you mostly have familiar friends as potential marks. If you can gyp them in the context of a game, then you are playing the game you mutually agreed upon. It’s like gambling. But if you are taking stuff with RL value or not roleplaying with the group, then you are in the wrong.

Gambling: heh. Not much of an issue anymore in SL. But if you want to play games of chance and you only wager what you can afford to lose, have at it. It’s the same in RL. Anyone can buy one lotto ticket. But buying 10,000 probably will put the RL finances in jeopardy. Be responsible for your SL and RL wealth.

Drinking, smoking, toking grass: Not real. Remember? Neither is carjacking in Grand Theft Auto.

Dancing: Put giraffes in the air! Put giraffes up in the air… If only my RL bod could move continuously for 2 hours. Unless you attend Baylor in SL, wiggle that butt all you like.

PoleDancing: See Dancing.

Escorting: Immoral? Nah. If cartoon sex is okay, then how is exchanging money for something you’ve decided is okay, NOT okay? If a comic book is acceptable then how is paying for a comic book bad? Again, if it bugs you, then don’t partake. But in general it is nothing but pretend people making pretend pillow talk with pretend partners. If you can seperate real from not real, have fun. If not, do something else. At the same time though, if you want to roleplay being an escort, then fuss not about some people’s reactions. If you want to roleplay then take the bad with the good.

“Do nothing that you know might cause harm to another”.

And definitely, in SL, it isn’t safe to assume what level of relationship the other person is attempting to be involved in – a good role player will play passion and ‘one and only’ monogamy very well and yet may be appalled to discover their partner believes that means something beyond a good role play scenario.”

Indeed. I think that’s a good pragmatic guideline for ethical encounters, at first blush, but I’d like to reflect more on the underpinnings for it … I may try to follow this article with some specific cases to open up the debate/discussion to specific issues — something that tends to be easier to focus on, I think.

“That Ethics has no one meaning so relativism is the (non-)rule of thumb even in RL. The one Ethical model that I hope SL avoids is the disease known as The Hardening of the Oughteries.”

The relatavist perspective — but not the only one. Thanks for your comment, though.

It is more than a game. I like it.
I try to: respect, enjoy, explore (in this order)
*unsure of hitting the right tone throughout the whole text, not being a native speaker*
Thank you for your article, Victorria. It came the right moment to initiate reflection after the first month in SL

Merica