What virtues should make up a real life Avatar?

I just watched the movie Allegiant from the Divergent series. In the movie, there are five factions, each faction is devoted to an ideal. The five factions are Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), Erudite (the intelligent/knowledgeable), Abnegation (the selfless), and Candor (the honest). The "Divergent" person is supposed to embody all five of these ideals.

This made me think of the Eight Virtues (Compassion, Sacrifice, Honesty, Humility, Spirituality, Honor, Valor, Justice) which make up Avatarhood. They provide a beautiful philosophical background for an engaging game world, but what of real life? Is there such a thing as Avatarhood for Real Life?

I claim that the idea of Avatarhood applies to Real Life, and that each one of us can attain Avatarhood in Real Life just as we can attain them in the Game. But here is the question: WHAT ARE THE VIRTUES THAT COMPRISE THE REAL LIFE AVATARHOOD?

I hope this discussion will be illuminating for me as well as for others, as we are all on a personal journey to become a Real Life Avatar, a positive force for making this world a better place.

Please tell us

1. A virtue that you think should be one of the Virtues of a Real Life Avatar.

2. Why that is

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I will contribute the first virtue that comes to mind:

1. I think HARD WORK should be one of the Virtues of a Real Life Avatar. (I don't know why it is not in one of the Eight Virtues in the game.)

2. I have seen many people who worked hard, and these people made life better for themselves, their families and others. Real life examples of people who have this virtue include Portalarium employees, whom by all accounts worked very hard to bring us a better game, and as a result are monetarily and emotionally supported by us.

Now, it's your turn to name a virtue (and why it should be one of the virtues of a Real Life Avatar).

 

Hard work is not a virtue, it's a consequence of Sacrifice and Honor. Anyone, who has these two virtues would work hard to support themselves and their families. There is called self-reliance that a lot of people miss today. They'd rather depend on welfare program, or on their parents kindness, or take advantage of people who have virtues, or social system they live in.

 

hard work? are you sure you weren't watching some propaganda film from the 50's? This planet is 5% actual farm work and 90% busywork crap jobs to keep people from revolting. so here's a list of virtues:
Respect, tolerance, faith, faithfulness, empathy, and follow-through. Three of these virtues the Dev's could have used about october of last year ;(

The Hendoman

 

Integrity would be the virtue I choose, because I feel if you don't have integrity what good are yah?

 

Hard work would be "Diligence", which was a Gargish virtue and one of the seven virtues in Catholicism

Also could also be covered by 'Discipline' in the Ophidian virtues.

 

Nobility of the heart, for in that heart lays the strength to build new worlds, to uphold the downtrodden and over looked. That heart could look into the eyes of absolute defeat and still encourage hope for another tomorrow.

 

You forgot the malicious Virtue. ..........

 

Hehe, surprised noone thought of Patience, one of the hidden virtues

 

Aren't the original Virtues introduced in U4 applicable to real life already? Anything I can think of can fit in U4's Virtues...

Patience fits in: Compassion, Spirituality or Sacrifice.

 

Yes I guess it fits in spirituality and sacrifice... when applied to the self, there is another kind of patience that is timeless and outward bound

I guess you could call it tolerance and diligence, too.

 

Wow! I forgot all about that, @redfish. Yes, the word "Diligence" sounds so much better than "hard work". You know, knowing this is one of their respected virtues made me like the Gargoyles so much better.

I can see how Sacrifice and Honor together would lead to "hard work" or "diligence". Thank you, @Andrew Silverston. That's very illuminating.

@Leelu, yes, I agree "Nobility of the Heart" should be a virtue of a Real Life Avatar. Nobility of the Heart as you describe it seems to be a combination of Compassion and Courage? By the way, your words are very poetic. Are you a poet or a writer in real life?

Integrity. Yes. Absolutely, @Ice Queen. By the way, is Integrity the same thing as Honesty?

@Ahuaeynjgkxs, thanks for bringing up "Patience". I love this one.

@The Hendoman, you don't think "hardwork" or "diligence" is a virtue? But you mentioned "follow-through" as a virtue. Doesn't that require hard work or diligence?

I'm loving the various Avatar's inputs, by the way. Most illuminating! For instance, one of the things I've noticed as a result of this discussion is that many virtues can combine and mix with other, or turn into each other (@Leelu can put it into better words than I can), and they somehow reshape into a new form. I'm on the edge of figuring something philosophical out, but I'm not sure exactly what it is yet...

 

Compassion is the virtue I seem to always follow in games and in life and it seems when there are questions inreguards to the virtue system I always seem to come out with compassion as my answer

Justice is another virtue I like to strive for though the concepts of justice can sometimes be miscrude

ive never really been one for honor as it can easily be perverted

honesty - well I do try to strive for this but sometimes being too honest can also hurt people

sacrifice - I think ive had to sacrifice enough throughout my lifetime so I tend not to hold this one to close to me

humility - this one I try and follow as being humble is always a good trait

valor - again can be peverted like honor

Spirituality - I have my beliefs but I don't persue them as strong as some do

Empathy is a good one and I do follow that most times unknowingly

 

It's a bit more than just being honest for me. I know some people that are honest but not necessarily a person of integrity.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. It is generally a personal choice to uphold oneself to consistent moral and ethical standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity

 

Indeed integrity is more complex since you have to learn the ethical dilemmas and the moral hygiene of the time. Being honest is pretty straightforward saying the truth

What about perseverance ? I guess it fits in Valor and Spirituality, but true perseverance is quite the virtue.

Nothing is impossible, even a Siege Perilous server !!! ._.

 

Of these (Compassion, Sacrifice, Honesty, Humility, Spirituality, Honor, Valor, Justice) I'll say..

Justice
Humility
Compassion

Seem to be the ones that would end up being embodied through the actions of the U4 Avatar translated into RL. Spirituality, Honor, Valor, Sacrifice are all consequences or results of acting in accordance with the above, imo.
Specifically, because IRL, Injustice, Pride, and Apathy seem to be the easiest/common/most frequent things people demonstrate through inaction. At least, that's been my observation so far.

 

I know what you mean. Every virtue can be perverted, and people treated this way (myself included) can shy away from the virtue itself when in actual fact we only dislike the perverted version of it.

Personally, I was confused about honesty for a long time because honesty can be used to hurt people, then I realized that honesty ITSELF was not the problem. The INCORRECT METHOD used to convey an honest fact was the problem. For example, I can give you a bar of gold. Generally, a bar of gold would be considered valuable, but if I throw that bar of gold in your face, it would then hurt a lot. In fact, if I try to give that bar of gold to you as a gift by throwing it in your face, you will probably got mad at me and refuse it, despite how valuable it is. In this case, the problem is not with the gold. The problem is with the way I conveyed the gold.

For example, if I tell someone that he really did a bad job at cleaning the bathroom, chances are he would get somewhat upset. He may even refuse to admit that he did anything wrong. Now, I could conclude that he cannot take Honesty and that he refuses to acknowledge the Truth. On the other hand, if I say, "you did well with cleaning the sink, but if you also do blah and blah when you clean the bathtub, then the result will be totally awesome," chance are he will gladly correct his bathroom cleaning technique. Notice I am being completely honest with him, too, but I didn't make him wrong.

 

Patience.

 

@Truthveyor

You can throw a bar of gold at my face if I get to keep it... year's been rough, I'd have prefered a bar in the face at least it hurts only a little while

 

Ha ha.

Talking about this makes me realize that Honesty can be used to hurt when it's disproportionately focused on the negative. News reporters do this a lot when they want to distort facts to suit a particular story. They give 90% of the news article to one side of the opinion, and gives 10% to the other side--the result is a distorted piece that strongly favors one side. This news reporter may have reported "facts" in his story, but because the "facts" all focused on one side of the issue, the readers are actually led to an incorrect conclusion by the "facts". This is actually a perversion of Honesty.

People do this to each other, too. Point out 10 wrong things about anyone, and you'll make that person rather unhappy, especially if the 10 wrong things are all facts. (No one is perfect, so if we try, we can always find 10 or more things wrong with anyone.) Focusing on the negative things about anyone, even if the negatives things are all true, provides a dishonest picture of the person. The Honest thing to do is to not leave out the positive while pointing out the negative. And there are SO MANY positive things about people they are absolutely amazing when you stop to think about it sometimes! True Honesty must not only focus on the negative, but be honest about the positive, too.

I love philosophical discussions of this sort because it challenges me to dig down into why and how life works, so I almost always come up with some good realizations about life.

 

Bernie Sanders ? X-D

Very much agree that being honest about the positive is often harder, like in social situations when we assume the receiving person has already enough confidence and doesn't need the extra compliment. We keep it in often too when we *assume* (key word) people are going to think we are doing it to flatter and get special treatment.

We assume a lot of things that often aren't truth... so I guess clairvoyance (or vision) might be a virtue that fits in spirituality and humility.