Alright- So I went and played Ultima IV again – I still haven’t beaten it and don’t care if I ever do, video games – fah, who cares if you beat a video game? I like that one – did you know that Garriot made it because of a letter writing campaign from upset D&D mothers? They were mad about their kids playing these games – so he went and he made a game about being a good person, the best person, actually. A real shift from the games of the genre that are simply stated – genocide simulations. In the game you’re summoned to Brittannia so you can demonstrate and espouse the 8 virtues that Lord British has come up with – Humility, Compassion, Sacrifice, Honor, Valor, Justice, Honesty and Spirituality. A lot of it is hokey – Spirituality? Brittannia? Lord British… It’s cute and kind of dumb – but, there’s a germ of real virtue behind the all the thinking in the game. Anyhow – you play the game and the things you do bring you in line with these virtues – like, you can’t fight guys to the death, you let them run off, you have to meditate a lot and… solve puzzles in dungeons – it’s a game, it sometimes can’t hit what it aims for. Still – I like it, the idea behind it.
When you start out you’re in the real world and you go to a carnival and a gypsy asks you questions where you choose between the 2 of the 8 virtues and then you get assigned a character class based on them. If you choose honesty you’re a mage, and humility you’re a shepherd - just for example. Anyhow – I like that, I like a lot of what’s in there, but I think about what I can do with it. Make something for myself – and really there are resources out there to make something really ambitious – a video game even, but I don’t think I’m aiming at that. I’m thinking more about someone specific. I could come up with a setting and rules and run a game – but it wouldn’t be anything to the people I usually play with, they’re immune to these kinds of Aesops – I don’t even try to run a game about pursuing bushido codes or whatnot – I just demonstrate that with bare minutes of preparation I can come up with the weirdest ideas ever and then make them react to things. It’s not a deep experience, but it’s a fun one, very diverting. But then there’s someone who probably could stand to have some education in virtue, and who comes closest of anyone to taking the things I say and do as being divinely inspired. My kiddo. I figure, maybe it’s time I went all in and became a Dungeon Master Father. She’s curious about it, imaginative, interested in trying something out – I think maybe I can put together a virtue-reinforcing little interactive story for her.
Since I kind of thought of doing this, it stands to reason that I’m definitely going to do it- that’s just how I am, you understand, but details remain. So, for example – I need to think about the virtues that I think matter – maybe come up with a way of scoring them, maybe put together an idea of what tasks are going to be involved in becoming more attuned to one or the others and so on. So I have to set this up – before I get into thoughts about setting and so forth (old hat really, I can build a city on my daily commute, history, language, people, economies – all of it) but I want to think about what the virtues will be – and then come up with a cosmology that has some interrelationship with them.
So here’s where I’m starting – 3 classes of virtues, that for the sake of symmetry have a matching number of sub-virtues. The classes are based on how you think – internally, how you present yourself outwardly – attitude, you see, and what you actually do. So I want to get all Aesopy on this and come up with them. Probably I’ll have to come up with better correspondences between the individual virtues of each class – some way that they inter-relate.
So, first steps, I’m thinking I should put this up and out in case anyone has an opinion that can help me out – some other thing or some idea that I’m overstating. I want to help her out, you understand, help her to find the qualities in herself that she’s going to need in order to be a better, more solid person.
I was thinking of Aristotelian virtues, mainly – the idea that virtue is just being good at being a person, and a failure of human characteristics is what it means to be a bad person, lacking in virtue. I like that idea, just generally – I don’t apply it at all! Protestant upbringing you understand – the inner self is all that matters, the afterlife is the only real world and so on. Not my actual opinions, but if there’s someone who overcomes their childhood I haven’t met them. Still, I don’t know very well how to be a right person, but I understand that I have a responsibility, so I’m going to try and execute it using the powers that I have as best I’m able. One of the things I have is smart friends on the internet – what do you guys say?
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