What is love?

I think most people love what others do and say, or how other looks like because of physical attractiveness. It's hard to love someone for what he or she actualy IS. I mean : we are what we think, that's our very soul and there is no way to be sure to know what others think, except for living with them for a long time.

So, you can't love people that you really don't know. You will have to take a lot of time observing and discussing with someone else to get what is his or her real state of mind.

I think that Love as it is commonly mentioned, is like a bias. It's your heart feeling about the value of some one else. If you think that someone is ugly, you won't love that. If you think that someone is stupid, you won't love that. That's just a basic feeling. It's selfish and sometimes, it can be hypocrisy. For exemple, people often hate those with opposite interests. It is simply the expression of survival instinct.

In my opinion, True Love, as a virtue, should be disinterested. There is true love when someone is forgiving after being hurted or wounded. There is True Love when you are open minded and try to understand the points of view which are not your own. True Love implies that true lovers need to be receptive. Then, sometimes, the basic feeling, the survival instinct follows and you make very good friends or even more...

It's even more complicated in Novia. In Novia, I am Ribald Hornpipe. I play a role. I could be completely unvirtuous on Earth and try to stay virtuous on Novia. So, if you love someone in Novia, keep in mind that you could be disappointed with the alter-ego on Earth... or the opposite. You love the avatar, not the player, as long as you only know the avatar, not the player.

That's why, when someone is annoying me or do something that is wrong for me, I try to discuss and I fight against hate. Sometimes, I lose...

 

Isn't love also to accept differences between others and me?
Isn't love to try, what you've said above?
Learning to talk to each other without hate, also (s)he's another opinon - may be, also my opposite insults me ...

 

I think that's all what Love as a virtue is about, yes.

...And one can disagree. I'm fine with that.

 

Zhuangzi

 

Zhuangzi

 

The greeks had three definitions of Love, depending on context. I believe all three (and the "love" in topic here) are intentional and active. It is the intentional decision to value another person, their unique qualities and attributes and treasure that person with actions and words. It is independent of worth and recompense. Yes, it would be most often awkward and weird to voice that to another (much more comfortable to communicate by actions) but in my experience it is always valued and good when voiced by anyone. It is what we all want to hear the most, isn't it?

 

Love, like a river, will cut a new path
whenever it meets an obstacle.

- Crystal Middlemas -

 

问世间情是何物，直教生死相许。
O World! What is love? That makes these birds bond ’til death do they part.
天南地北双飞客，老翅几回寒暑。
From South to North together they flew, how many seasons have they been together?
欢乐趣，离别苦，就中更有痴儿女。
Happy together, and devastated when separated. Their devotion to each other surpasses even the most loving human couples.
君应有语，渺万里层云，千山暮雪，只影向谁去。
He must have realized only he is left to fly over those lonely thousands of miles of clouds and snowy mountains alone.

横汾路，寂寞当年箫鼓，荒烟依旧平楚。
招魂楚些何嗟及，山鬼暗啼风雨。
天也妒，未信与，莺儿燕子俱黄土。
千秋万古，为留待骚人，狂歌痛饮，来访雁邱处。

Couldn't resist.... but no idea what it means.

*edit. found a reasonable translation.

**Note: To understand this poem, you must understand the background story. While traveling to Bingzhou in 1205 AD, the poet met a hunter who told him an extraordinary story. One morning, while hunting, the hunter netted two wild geese. He killed one, but the other escaped the net. Surprisingly, the wild goose that escaped did not fly away. Instead, he stayed to mourn the loss of his mate, and later flew up high to crash to the ground, killing himself. The hunter’s story touched the poet’s heart and inspired him to write this poem.

 

I have no issue telling people I love them, and in fact there are several people in this community I genuinely feel that level of closeness with. I feel that here in the community there are those who have formed a kind of family that goes beyond just a game or a game series.

I think people should always feel free to express their appreciation of others. We have far too many these days that feel affection and compassion is some kind of a sign of weakness - especially among men in the US.

 

The moon dosen't have its own light baha

 

I admit it took me a long time even on here for people to accept that I LOVE old school roleplaying games... it was almost a fight in itself since it had been a long time since I had been judged so harshly and accused of wanting to split the playerbase because I had a different idea about "spiritual sucessor".

In fact all my arguments were ignored, and the threads became about me, about how its a mental problem to compare a game to a real relationship, etc... but its always been like this since we play on our dial up modems.

I'd be curious to understand when it became "uncool" to take a game seriously. Did it happen with WoW ? Sims ? when did it actually become a "point" to attack the player instead of their argument ?

"oh its just a game, man up"

"he catched the feelz, sign of weakness"

"stop crying"

"emotions are not efficient"

I actually have a wall of such one liners... keep it for posterity.

 

@WrathPhoenix

I have no qualms telling you I love you bro! Affection and compassion a weakness!? Only if you're a fool! We need to get together soon, my best to Jenny!

 

Love is being accepted even if you're a dumbass like me! ~TL~

 

The words kind of lose their meaning if it's overused but, still, it depends on the context and the language.

I'm the kind of person to believe that, if you have to clarify the meaning, then you're misusing the words and should probably use more accurate ones.

 

Well, well, well another thread to make history in the life and times of the Shroud of the Avatar Community. We are here to create a game that the world will just 'love' or at least enough of the world for the success of 5 episodes and possibly more to get all features we all want into the game. So there are many forms of love in my opinion and also many ways to love, as well as many stages of love. Some may say young love is the height of experience, which can bring the untamed emotions of jealousy, self worth questions, and much more to the surface which later can grow into a mature love. Ok ok I say love is many things to many people. I have loved reading the thoughts of this amazing community and I look forward to more