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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5585956" data-attributes="member: 18253">I think that's a fundamental philosophical distinction <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> For me, in the gaming world, alignment is about "why". As a ref, I can get inside the NPC's head and I know why they act. Alignment serves as a useful predictor/aid in determining their actions. They are good because they consider the well-being of others in their actions. In the real world, I can't actually get inside anyone else's head. Therefore, it is all about "what", i.e., their demonstrated behavior. There is no other way to judge someone else. Even if they claim they are telling you what is in their head, the act of telling you that is still 'action', not a link to what is really going on in their head anymore than how they otherwise act. Something to be considered as part of the sum of their actions. In both cases, it does raise interesting questions. Take an 'evil' person/NPC who never actually does anything evil. That is, his actions are all good. In the game world, is such a person really evil? I'd say, sure because he always has the potential to do something evil (and in game terms, maybe he is just in 'deep cover' until he commits the ultimate betrayal). But in real life, how can you call the person evil? You aren't in their head. You can only judge them by their actions. (And if you say, well, they were acting a little suspicious, well, that "acting suspicious" was still an action, i.e., an observed behavior you judged to be less than good.) Of course, in the game world, if the ref has someone act good for most of the game then suddenly commit an evil act, the players could rightly accuse the ref of having his NPC act out of character. In games and fiction, we expect past behavior to predict future behavior. Of course, we expect that in real life too but when it doesn't happen, we don't have a referee to go whining to <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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