Why does the Ethical Hedonism Symbol need to be on all the assets?

I believe you may also find some circumstantial evidence lurking around in Jaan's basement...

 

**** Alexander quickly rushes to Jaans basement *****

Edit: Yes, the Net B0t. Ever since K'rul and K'rawl went into the game, I've been asking myself who actually engineered the Oracle bugs. Are the Titans the original designers of these mechanical insects, or is this actually Kolbold technology?

 

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Hacked_Oracle_Crawler_Pet

 

Considering that

Spoiler

the "Titans" are actually human

I wouldn't put it past them to be obfuscating the true purpose of the Oracle.

Perhaps... The Kobold are trying to rectify the situation?

 

Interesting thought. I have yet to see any advanced tech from the Titans, other than the Oracle Confirmatory, which really looks primitive compared to Kobald technology. So, despite the info on the pet oracle crawler, I still question who was the original builders of these insects. I'm still leaning towards the Kobolds, although I'm certain they are cleaver enough to reverse engineer the Titans tech.

Edit: And yes, since the Titans are

Spoiler: .......

Human

, this would make sense.

 

Titans being

Spoiler

human

makes sense... also sort of explains why the old knight statue looks to be wearing the same boot that the Cabalists will be wearing.

 

Ooohh... Nice catch!

 

No worries... Pretty much every Christian symbol has been borrowed from the pagans or so-called occult.

http://www.jesuswalk.com/christian-symbols/

 

Not sure that it is a "religious" symbol per se... The philosophy equates the pursuit of pleasure with happiness... Which is at odds with many modern interpretations of religiosity that suggest one need forego "earthly pleasures" in order to receive heavenly rewards upon death. At least the Abrahamic religions...

 

It was others who brought up the "religious" connection first, not i

Yeah people keep talking about the "Hedonism" part, and forget about the ethical part of that discussion.

 

Gotcha. Ya the ethical part means to pursue happiness so long as it doesn't infringe upon the happiness of others.

Although I suppose, technically speaking, the term "ethical" just refers to a sense of right and wrong. It doesn't necessarily mean that one must follow commonly accepted standards of morality.

One might conjecture that @Baron Drocis Fondorlatos [the SotA character] pursues his own happiness according to some form of ethical code that he is following... It just happens to allow for murdering others and ganking their stuff.

Anyhow you did mention being "against" religious symbols... I wonder do you mean using symbols in religious settings? Or the symbols themselves?

For example, the ratio of the horizontal part to the vertical part of the Christian cross is the golden ratio.

 

"Ethical hedonism is the view that our fundamental moral obligation is to maximize pleasure or happiness. Ethical hedonism is most associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270 BCE.) who taught that our life's goal should be to minimize pain and maximize pleasure." - some random internet definition.

This is a philosophy that is purely about the self, and is therefore flawed because we are a demonstrably social species. Note that there is no mention of responsibility or obligation.

An alternative view is that freedom and responsibility are opposite sides of the same coin. This view believes that the greater the level of personal freedom one enjoys, the greater is one's level of responsibility to others around you. This is a less self-indulgent philosophy, and may on occasion require self-denial and self-sacrifice - concepts that appear to be missing from ethical hedonism. This alternative view should be familiar to every responsible parent - the freedom to reproduce brings with it an enormous responsibility.

 

aye, for the most part. as much as physical Symbols. Right, dont make yourself any graven images, because they will just pervert them into being something they are not and make up some to say they are. Anything Physical, they can pervert -they will,
i.e control the language and control the conversation.

 

Hmmmm, I think the symbol is on it's side..... It's supposed to mean 'not 8'

 

Note that there is no restriction either. Would not maximizing the pleasure of others also fall within the definition? In fact, without such a stated limitation, I posit that maximizing pleasure or happiness for everyone is required to fulfill the definition.

 

In practice, there are constraints that must be considered. The dark triad for instance is from the viewpoint of psychology that the personality traits Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy are malevolent and people possessing these personality traits are malevolent to some degree.

Who gets to define what is and what is not ethical? What is the reasonable standard of Ethical Hedonism? Can there even be one? At its core, Ethical Hedonism abandons socially accepted norms and laws and gives the self license to maximize pleasure with complete disregard for everyone else.

In game, this translates to what exactly? How does Ethical Hedonism help the game? People pursue happiness by leveling their characters, decorating their POTs and homes, and testing game mechanics in the name of achieving happiness. For some, it means flagging for Open PVP... but that creates a paradox and one that generates a great amount of stress.

The game mechanics promote leveling, decorating, emoting, and social activity. Another argument could be used to say that the ideology of Ethos, as represented by the idea of Ethical Hedonism, is here to support player retention and provide motivation to frequent and support the add-on store. Having rares, player markets, trading, finding, grinding, and even posting here in the forums, all these activities create a path to happiness - and it's ok because you're not hurting anyone.

 

So...
We should just ignore Richard Garriott's definition of a Richard Garriott symbol in a Richard Garriott game?
Waste of time.

 

That is pretty much the definition of utilitarianism.

 

Additionally, the question posed in the original post was answered quite succinctly by @DarkStarr.

Seeing as the topic has diverged into somewhat of a comparative religion discussion (though a very civil one), which is (by the letter of the law) outside the forum rules, I suggest that the thread has run its course, @Berek.

 

@Berek, I disagree. This conversation has finally turned to fundamental nature of the OP. What is the true nature of Ethos and why is symbol of Ethical Hedonism such a phenomenon where rarity, telethons, stretch goals, wearables, and resale are concerned?

I think it's very interesting that the symbol of Ethos and the ideology represented by Ethical Hedonism is now being considered a religious point of view. How dose Ethical Hedonism being portrayed as a religious ideology help the game?