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Would you consider this unethical?
Romulator Offline
Not Tech Support ;-)

Posts: 3,628
Threads: 63
Joined: Jan 2013
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#1
Would you consider this unethical?

Say I were to make a computer application which runs in the background.
This application would play a game for me.

In this game, something appears every time you take a step, and say if I want to find something in particular, I set up the application so that it will check for what I am looking for after every step, and then if what I want doesn't appear, it takes another step and looks. If it does find it, it sounds an alarm, which I then can take over, acquiring what I am looking for.

If it's a bit confusing -

BEGIN

Do Until search(item) = true
KeyPress() //Either left, up, right, down
Search(item)
if Search(item) = true then
Output Message("Found item")
end if
Loop

END

The application would stop after finding the item, awaiting for me to carry out the acquiring process.

Would you consider this to be unethical or unfair for others genuinely trying to find specific items?

Discord: Romulator#0001
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11-13-2014, 03:10 AM
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MrBehemoth Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 408
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Joined: Feb 2014
Reputation: 40
#2
RE: Would you consider this unethical?

That depends on a few things:

If you and other players paid to play this game, will taking the items stop or lower their enjoyment of the game and thereby it's value to them? Regardless of whether it cost money, would taking the items cause them distress either because they can no longer get them or because your advantage is reasonably upsetting to them? Does it in any way make you money which others are no longer able to earn through hard work? Would the found items subsequently be used in any way that would cause any of the above?

If the answers to any of these questions is "yes", then yes, I feel that would be unethical and akin to gold farming, which is not inherently bad, but I personally feel it's a moral minefield.

If all the answers are "no", well then I don't think you'd have an ethical problem as such. Depending on the game, the temperament and prior knowledge of the players, and the wording of the rules, it may or may not be classed as cheating. Cheating in a way that does not harm or take advantage of anyone, either financially, physically or emotionally, is not necessarily unethical (in the strictest use of the word).

But, and it's a big but, that's not to say that people wouldn't see it as "bad form" and get annoyed. For example, my young niece used to cheat at boardgames - it didn't hurt me so I didn't mind. If I were to cheat in sports, on the other hand, there is a potential for harm there: people get very emotional about it and I would be knowingly causing them distress. Maybe they had money riding on it, or maybe I did.

So yeah, it all depends on stuff.

11-13-2014, 04:18 AM
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