Teaching the Gospel ingame?

Part of the RP element in the game should include the ability to register interest in key words and find like minded people. I don't think it should be anyone's else's business what those words are as long at it's not illegal.

 

*Content removed for violation of Forums Rules* ~FireLotus

 

*Content removed for violating forums rules*

 

This forum is not for the debate of anyone's opinion on religion, politics or any other similar topic. OP was asking a legitimate question about the game. Whether people agree with his beliefs is completely irrelevant.

 

Hi all,

If there must be a religion or religions, they should be fictional religions so that people can role play (since that?s what the game is about).

KaziQ

 

OP, i guess you can do whatever you want ingame, but if i ever see any real world religion stuff in a channel i can see, be aware that i will report you, for i see that as harrassment.

 

@KaziQ

I can see several posts removed that were not offensive and did not break the forum rules (on my opinion). But i can totally understand the moderators wanting to keep this stuff as neutral as possible as some people are sensitive when it comes to religion.

 

@Sanctius

Yeah, I understand that part, but it's not like they deleted the entire thread, they just removed my post when there is a lot of other posts on this thread. The way (illogical) some people think is amazing and beyond my understanding. And this game won't be an MMO anyway. So it kind of invalidates any discussion like this one.

KaziQ

 

I'm fine with it. I'm a pk anyways. You could change your filter and bring it to the sinners.

 

@KaziQ ~ I replaced your post, as when checking the log I found nothing inappropriate about it. I apologize that it was accidentally pruned, but it was an unfortunate result of the mods having to go through and clean out so many off-topic posts. I am certain it was not intentional. Thank you for understanding.

 

Umm firelotus, if the whole premise of the thread is not "offensive" then I can hardly see how my post was.

All I did was ask how the opening poster felt about someone teaching the Koran?

 

Awe my post was deleted, sorry if it was offensive :\ I think that maybe they didn't mean to delete some of them In any case a game is a game to have fun with, ones political or religious beliefs should not be involved.

 

Quite a bit of posts were deleted as many, including mine, could have been considered offensive, however we are all entitled to our own opinions just as well as everyone else. It is not my place to decide whether or not this is allowed in-game, however i do believe that i will be keeping my eye out for this type of activity in the game so that i may remove the gospel spamming individual from my encounter list.

 

Personally I don't care if people talk about Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Satanism, Roman, Greek or Nordic Mythology, or any of a thousand other religions in-game. I will simply blacklist those that do.

By the same token I will blacklist anyone who wishes to ramble on about politics and social issues that do not specifically pertain to those found with in the game world.

 

I think everyone should take a step back and consider that none of us on any side of this issue are operating from a point of view of malice.

There are a lot of very sensitive parts to this issue.

It is easy to forget that people who proselytize do so out of a desire to be helpful. Just as it is easy to forget by those who proselytize that many people's reaction to their acts are not born out of ignorance.

There are strong cultural and personal forces at work about how people choose their religion (or lack of) and how people react to proselytization. What one person might consider innocuous conversation will evoke in others centuries of warfare and mistrust. What one person might consider reasoned argument will make others feel they are being repressed. What one person might consider light conversation, might evoke in another a memory of a much more traumatic experience and might evoke a time where the listener feels vulnerable and hurt.

Basically what I am asking is that everyone be aware that there is a human being with human weaknesses and human knowledge at the other end of the discussion and realize that human experience is a funny thing. I think if these kind of conversations are held in game sensitively and one on one (i.e. between people who know each other instead of "shouted from the mountaintop") there can be a place for them. However going much further than one on one and you risk actively harming another person due to a difference in past experience.

In short, tread carefully and remember this is supposed to be a game. Anything that has no positive in game purpose that causes another to have a negative game experience seems to me counterproductive. If people keep that in mind and act with care, hopefully this will keep things from going very very bad.

And if things do start to tread on sensitive areas, remember that the person at the other end likely doesn't know the effect they are having on you, and try to the best of your ability to ask nicely and educate them on the effect they are having instead of reacting and further spreading discord and harm.

 

In some respects this discussion is testing the limits of the <em>Ultima</em> ideal to role-play "as yourself" in the game world, which <em>Shroud of the Avatar</em> (last I checked, at any rate) aims to uphold.

To wit: if we are genuinely being invited to play "ourselves" in this game, then there ought to be some room for us to play as though we, ourselves, had been transported to the world of <em>Shroud of the Avatar</em> to make our way therein. If that's the ideal being aimed for, then there is -- hypothetically, at least -- room even for the sort of ministry that OP is proposing, as well as its analogs in other belief systems and philosophies (e.g. Islam, per one poster above...heck, someone could even set up a Secular Humanist Association of New Britannia*)

There are still obvious principles and terms of service to abide by, of course; sectarian squabbles and "in your face" proselytism are obviously not going to be allowable, by or between any groups or individuals. But a "guild" (in effect) of like-minded individuals coming together for periodic worship or discussions, or a vendor who instead of dealing in swords sells relevant literature to interested passers-by...these things could work. In like manner, there's nothing to prevent two players from simply discussing topics such as faith and philosophy casually...and hopefully nobody will report them (frivolously, IMO) if a snippet of that discussion accidentally gets posted to the main channel.

Elvish is also largely correct (although, having seen some of the deleted replies, I can't quite agree with the statement that ALL parties to this discussion are not operating from a position of malice) in his post, above. Of course, since <em>Shroud of the Avatar</em> isn't going to be a "massive" MMO, a lot of this topic is...not moot, but the scope of what is being discussed will be limited by design. Likely, it will come down to a discussion between a couple of players, or a small group meeting inside someone's house to share a lesson. (Which is actually an interesting role-play opportunity in some respects, a chance to act out a piece of history as it were.)

But (kinda like PvP), it's something that should be kept opt-in, rather than opt-out or unavoidably there.

--
* or whatever the world ends up being called

 

Can I play the role of suicide bomber if I'm willing to accept permadeath?

All jokes aside so long as the player is not spamming at the corner of the bank, you're free to talk to people individually however you see fit and what you do behind closed doors is frankly none of my business so preach on!

 

<blockquote cite="Illesac">Can I play the role of suicide bomber if I?m willing to accept permadeath?</blockquote>

Wouldn't that require fully-open, non-optional PvP? Which, last I checked, the game will not have.

That, and Lord British has said that the game <em>won't</em> have gunpowder. Not that there aren't other ways to cause an explosion, I suppose.

 

I'd suggest replacing the names of Christ, Christian and the word Gospel. Call it the Logia of Slyzzax or something RPish. Create a backstory: guy was a craftsman, was a healer, spoke in parables, talked about his dad's kingdom, pissed off the status quo, got killed, resurrected by his dad's necromancers and then disappeared through a lunar rift but the way was closed after that and people who picked up on his teachings, referred to as Slyzzaxians, are awaiting his return to take them to his kingdom. Here's why I'd suggest this:

Names are unimportant although they may be provocative for all the reasons ElvishDragon gave. If you want to preach the message, then preach the message in a way that's universal and not divisive or provocative. You may be wanting to teach people about Jesus and how he is the only way to salvation or whatever, but I think his greater message was about how people should treat one another. If you focus on the latter rather than the former, you'd probably enjoy more community support and have more fun with it and still get the important thing across -- the message.

 

I grew up on Ultima VII and the eight virtues and IMO I turned out great. Successful life, happy marriage, nothing to complain about I consider the eight virtues a really good life philosophy to follow (no excuses, no trying to dismiss bad events as some sort of superior being's plan, just good ethics to think about). Learning about the Fellowship in U7 from a young age allowed me to be wary of any group promising fulfillment by following a specific person, a specific preacher's opinion or any organisation that encourages to make payments as part of worship. So IMO organised religion and computer games don't gel with me but as people have said above if its not pushed, forced or preached on people in public then I likely don't have a problem with it.