Discussion: on the Ethics of Pizza-bot Simoleans etc
by Alphaville Herald on 22/03/04 at 6:10 pm
This is a topic for me and Coco to argue about stuff without derailing every other topic in the blog. Here are some of the points at issue.
1) Is there a difference between being violating the TOS and violating the rules?
2) If yes, is running your own Pizza Bot against The Rules?
3) Either way, is buying simoleans made by a Pizza Bot wrong?
4) What about accepting simoleans from someone else who bought them from someone who used a Pizza Bot?
5) More generally, are there any rules at all beyond those that individual groups of players may chose to adopt for themselves?
ian
Mar 27th, 2004
okay sorry, but i see what she says on the Sim Stratics boards, and all she is …well is a board bitch….as for this blog…i did say a comment way far up ^^^^
Cocoanut
Mar 27th, 2004
And who the heck are you, Ian? Or are you too scared to say?
coco
Urizenus
Mar 27th, 2004
How soon they forget. Here is the interview with Ian:
http://www.alphavilleherald.com/archives/000128.html
Cocoanut
Mar 27th, 2004
What I meant was who is he REALLY. In the game. Or on the Stratics boards. But of course he would be too afraid to tell us this.
However, now that you have posted that link, I notice he is a high school student, which puts him at probably about three grades older than I would guessed. (Wonder what his religion teacher would have to say about his posts here.)
coco
Ian
Mar 27th, 2004
LOL Coco, you just stooped down to the same level as me:)
Cocoanut
Mar 27th, 2004
Yep. Thought I’d give you some attention.
coco
urizenus
Mar 27th, 2004
>Wonder what his religion teacher would have to say about his posts here.
Coco, you are now officially a parody of yourself.
Not that you aren’t welcome here….
Cocoanut
Mar 27th, 2004
Uri, in his interview he mentioned taking religion class.
coco
urizenus
Mar 27th, 2004
yes, I know, but is there any reason why we should wonder or care what said teacher thinks about his posts on AVH?
ian
Mar 27th, 2004
lol its cool uri, i love to watch people make fools outta them selves
Cocoanut
Mar 28th, 2004
“3) Either way, is buying simoleans made by a Pizza Bot wrong?
4) What about accepting simoleans from someone else who bought them from someone who used a Pizza Bot?”
No. Neither activity is against the rules.
coco
Ian
Mar 28th, 2004
Coco it was a moral question….
So if you think that isn’t wrong, then why do you think it is wrong to Pizza Bot:
It is kinda of like this:
IF a poor man steals a loaf of bread for his hungry family…
You are saying it is wrong for him to steal it, but not wrong for his family to eat it..
TBT
Mar 28th, 2004
“lol its cool uri, i love to watch people make fools outta them selves”
Then you must be hysterical with laughter at your posts daily ian!
Sorry couldn’t resist that one LMAO
ian
Mar 29th, 2004
i don’t really read your comments because to make they don’t make any contribution, the only comments i read is coco’s and uri because they do make excellent points, so that makes two of us
Cocoanut
Mar 30th, 2004
“5) More generally, are there any rules at all beyond those that individual groups of players may chose to adopt for themselves?”
Yes, the TOS. At first I thought you meant what sorts of rules did players make for themselves, which would have been a fun question.
coco
Cocoanut
Mar 30th, 2004
“IF a poor man steals a loaf of bread for his hungry family…
You are saying it is wrong for him to steal it, but not wrong for his family to eat it..”
It would not be wrong for his family to eat it, legally speaking. For many of the same reasons it is not wrong in this game to use bot-made Simoleons. The man may not have told his family he stole the bread. Similarly, ebay items for sale don’t generally include the notation, “made by bot”. If he had told them, it would be hard to prove they knew, and impossible to prove they knew it was the truth.
Most people, however, would not consider it to be morally wrong to steal the bread in the first place, as it is generally accepted that letting your family starve is a greater moral wrong than stealing food for them to prevent that.
But the analogy is kind of extreme. I wouldn’t think of people in this game, with access to computers and plenty of free time, who create Simoleons by bot for their personal rl monetary gain, to be in any way analogous to a poor man trying to feed his hungry family, which few people would consider much of a crime anyway.
coco
ian
Mar 30th, 2004
yeah but how do you know the Bot’s aren’t paying for peoples family’s?