And its not your character they are trusting it is you the real person playing the character.

Well, then they are silly, because they likely know nothing about the real person. They are trusting nothing more than a caricature, a character.

Your constant leaning on poker as a game for deceiptful people makes me wonder if you think faking a pass in basketball is also decieptful.

Misdirection becomes unethical/deceiptful only when you know the party you are misdirecting trusts you. In poker, chess and basketball you know they are not trusting you. In eve they are trusting you. And its not your character they are trusting it is you the real person playing the character.

Well, then they are silly, because they likely know nothing about the real person. They are trusting nothing more than a caricature, a character.

I trust you, so you can't cheat me ~

What I find surprising is how naive certain players are in thinking, that none of the lying for spaceship glory could be the result of people who are indeed just scumbags. Rotten people doing what comes naturally to them. You know, there are, in fact, ****** people in real life. And they can download eve just like you can. And they very well may enjoy being deceitful to people in relation to this game just like in every other aspect of their lives.

What pisses me off is that some people will paint anyone who ganks a Hulk as a socio/psychopath, a generally bad person in real life. That attitude/thinking/reasoning is simply garbage.

stuff

Cry more scum bag

Now you've gone and hurt my feelings, psycho!

And that is your opinion. That you discount the opinion or view, or feelings is what is at the root of this. If you do not care about how someone else feels about their pixel space ship, RL feelings that person may have, then to you it is an okay thing - their feelings don't matter to you, the pixel space ship is secondary.

It's a game, if you want to pretend to be a heartless scum bag that doesn't care about the golden rule, go for it. But don't whine when someone calls you a heartless scum bag. Their feelings don't matter to you, why the hell should your feelings matter to them?

Cry more scum bag :)

Wait, what if we don't care about someone's pretend spaceship because it is just pretend? Are we still scumbags for not caring about a persons pretend things?

Wait, what if we don't care about someone's pretend spaceship because it is just pretend? Are we still scumbags for not caring about a persons pretend things?

You missed the point, the pretend space ship is secondary.

Hell, look at me: I'm a real world nutcase who's a nuise gai in EVE, just a moron and terrible PvPer. ;-)

As for Mittens, well, he's a lawyer. At least insofar as civil law is concerned, their whole profession revolves around legitimizing and "gaming the system" to effectively grief people.
EVE, indeed, is real, it seems. ;-)

Personally I would consider the Japanese scenario to be more that the "straight-laced rigid exterior" is more of a facade, albeit carefully maintained, but still a facade, over the "true" selves.
I have a dear friend from HS days who just came back from spending 6 yrs in Japan teaching Engrish. She said that over there, alcohol is consumed in astounding quantities, ostensibly just to "let go" of the rigid facade -- it's such an ingrained thing for them. And, here's the interesting part, corollary to the "EVE is just a 'release'" idea: what happens when you're drunk there, stays at when you were drunk.
Interesting when you compare it to Western culture, where "what happens when you're drunk goes on Facebook and everyone lulz or raeg!es at you about it."

Psychopathic in-game behaviour as a way for people to let off steam sounds like a better explanation than pretending there are no connections between in-game behaviour and real life behaviour.

There are grey areas to almost every moral decission. Its those grey areas where we get ourselves into trouble, where we justify our actions and convince ourselves that those actions are morally defensible. In game, we can play whatever character we please, then log off and continue playing the character we choose in RL.

But those damned grey areas keep poping up. In this particular case, there was a character who was perpetrating a scam that bled into RL and a victim whose in game decission affected his RL bank account.

Stay clear of those grey areas and you can play any character you want. Cross that line, though, and your in game character starts to look a lot like your RL character.

It's a game, if you want to pretend to be a heartless scum bag that doesn't care about the golden rule, go for it. But don't whine when someone calls you a heartless scum bag. )

So what is primary? The persons feelings about their pretend spaceship?

Yep.

Since obviously "pretending to be something" equals "being something all the time forever".

Does it make me a heartless prick if I don't care about a persons feelings toward their pretend spaceship?

Yep.

You miss the point too. Just because the space ship is a cartoon, doesn't mean some one won't have any emotional investment in the pretend thing.

Emotional investment is relative. Just because someone has a huge investment in, say, his favorite hulk doesn't somehow affect the rest of the (decidedly uncaring) universe.

In fact, if you (As in "Someone", not you specifically) put so much into a game that you get upset about being blown up the problem lies mainly with you, not the rest of the game.

Does that make me a violent sociopath in real life?

Nope. Being a violent sociopath in real life makes you a violent sociopath in real life.

Does someone in the game calling you a "real life violent sociopath" bother you?

I would be lying if I said it wasn't frustrating a little bit for being labelled a sociopath by armchair psychologists for pretend actions in a video game about pretend spaceships.

Especially when it always seems as though THEY are the ones who cannot distinguish reality from fantasy.

It is their emotions that are real. The context of the setting in which those emotions manifest is not relevant.

But the setting is what it is all about. It is the difference between someone being upset that their car caught fire and someone being upset that their pretend spaceship blew up.

That however is not for you to decide. One's emotional attachment to their pixel space ship is not yours to determine. You can only determine your emotional attachment to your pixel space ship.

That however is not for you to decide. One's emotional attachment to their pixel space ship is not yours to determine. You can only determine your emotional attachment to your pixel space ship.