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<blockquote data-quote="drquestion" data-source="post: 379477" data-attributes="member: 5810">Hello, everyone.&nbsp; This is an interesting topic that you've raised Sigil.If I may (and I apologize if someone has already said this - I came to this thread kind of late and, although I looked over the posts, I didn't read each of them closely), I'd like to attempt to augment Sigil's distinction between &quot;vile&quot; and &quot;mature&quot; by drawing a distinction between &quot;vile&quot; acts and &quot;vile&quot; people.Torture, for example, is pretty much unambiguously a vile act, something that all of us would consider to be contrary to our ethics.&nbsp; On the other hand, people who are not necessarily vile or evil people will, under certain circumstances, torture others.&nbsp; So, one hallmark of a &quot;mature&quot; game is that vile acts are not necessarily committed by vile people.In addition, even those people whom we would consider to be &quot;vile&quot; are not acting in such a manner at all times.&nbsp; Unless he suffers from some kind of psychological malady, a person, even one who is completely immoral, is unlikely to commit any seriously vile or evil act without a very good reason, and without some mechanism of either escaping the blame for or justifying his act.&nbsp; This is simply because no society is likely to tolerate people acting in an extremely anti-social manner.&nbsp; Even a ruler is likely to face revolt if he wantonly murders people for no particular reason.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, I would say that a second hallmark of a mature game is that even vile people act in a largely rational manner, unless they are completely unhinged.drquestion</blockquote>

[QUOTE="drquestion, post: 379477, member: 5810"] Hello, everyone. This is an interesting topic that you've raised Sigil. If I may (and I apologize if someone has already said this - I came to this thread kind of late and, although I looked over the posts, I didn't read each of them closely), I'd like to attempt to augment Sigil's distinction between "vile" and "mature" by drawing a distinction between "vile" acts and "vile" people. Torture, for example, is pretty much unambiguously a vile act, something that all of us would consider to be contrary to our ethics. On the other hand, people who are not necessarily vile or evil people will, under certain circumstances, torture others. So, one hallmark of a "mature" game is that vile acts are not necessarily committed by vile people. In addition, even those people whom we would consider to be "vile" are not acting in such a manner at all times. Unless he suffers from some kind of psychological malady, a person, even one who is completely immoral, is unlikely to commit any seriously vile or evil act without a very good reason, and without some mechanism of either escaping the blame for or justifying his act. This is simply because no society is likely to tolerate people acting in an extremely anti-social manner. Even a ruler is likely to face revolt if he wantonly murders people for no particular reason. So, I would say that a second hallmark of a mature game is that even vile people act in a largely rational manner, unless they are completely unhinged. drquestion [/QUOTE]

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