I played the monkey toast game up until the 'base jumping' level, then said fook dat.
Venijn wrote:I'd like to point out that the rebuttal is obvious. My point clearly disagreed with what you said, and Concord's point was used to reiterate my opinion.
I don't think you know what the word "rebuttal" means.
Bringing my whole set of ethics into account over this....
Well, first, I didn't bring in your "whole set" of ethics. I addressed a particular set of ethics concerning what constitutes cheating, and associated attitudes. Second, I wasn't addressing only you. There are several others in this thread who expressed similar sentiment, even arguing that deceptive behavior should be lauded, astonishingly.
What's more, I was by the end of the statement addressing a larger culture of ethics that has become far too prevalent in modern society. A culture that says, for examples, "it's not cheating if you don't get caught." "It's not cheating if it ultimately doesn't end up giving you an advantage." "It's not really cheating because they still have to go out there and play the game (or face the electorate)." "Deceptiveness and manipulation of people or a system isn't really cheating if it's within the rules." To wit:
Venijn wrote:...within the rules. ... it can't be called cheating if they haven't broken any rules.
Concord wrote:and breaking a couple procedural rules.
And while I appreciate your exaggerated font, here's the thing: Cheating isn't simply defined as breaking written rules.[quote="Dictionary definition of "Cheating""]1. Act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage.
2. Deceive or trick.[/quote]Dishonesty, deception, manipulation of people and/or a system—behavior that certain people are actually holding up as virtuous, bewildering as that may be. It's still cheating.
And this isn't just a trivial point about some utterly meaningless video game tournament. In fact, you can forget that, because I want to move on to the larger, more important point. And that is that this sort of twisted ethics is exactly the sort of mentality and behavior, the culture, that got us into our current political and economic situation.
Almost everything that the the big banks and Wall Street, the financial industry, engaged in that led to the crash and the depression (yes, it's a depression)—all the rigging and manipulation, all the gaming of the system, the misleading, the screwing over, the swindling—was entirely legal.
All the money that corrupts our politics—elections bought by big business and the rich and their Super PACs, politicians bought and sold by the same, the lobbying, said lobbies paying for vacations for politicians, legislation written by corporations and their lobbyists rather than by legislators, and so on—all of it, completely legal.
All of it, still crooked, still corrupt, still cheating. Cheating because it's dishonest, manipulative, deceptive, unfair, abusive, and undermines and perverts the legitimacy of markets and democracy. (And yes, sports—the examples to which I alluded earlier, since I think it's the most useful analogy to this game.)
And none of that will get fixed or improve so long as this culture that rationalizes cheating continues to be popular and even glorified.
Phytotron wrote:[Note, my comment isn't necessarily or specifically related to this hullabaloo; I'm not even entirely clear what it's about. I'm mostly responding to Concord's twisted logic. It may apply in principle, however.]
Incidentally, I keep changing my name, and every time I do, I create a new account.
Yeah, so stop. It's obnoxious. Change your name in-game all you like, but pick one "official" forum/GID account name and stick with it, wouldja please.
honour
So ye be a Brit, eh? We'll find you out, limey!
EDIT: expounded on cheating
