An inquirer who doesn’t understand a lot—games, fantasy, reality, ethics, childhood—wrote “The Ethicist” (that’s “Prof. Appiah” to his friends) to settle a family dispute. He likes to play Monopoly with his family, but he has removed the card above from the “Community Chest” deck because he believes it is unethical. When that bank makes an error in your favor, you must give the money back, not spend it on Reading Railroad, he explains. The card teaches bad conduct.
Well, Prof. Appiah sagely points out, so does Monopoly, which encourages you to employ cut-throat tactics to drive your friends into bankruptcy. I would add that Risk teaches you to seek to take over the world by military force, Stratego encourages assassination, and poker requires lying. Even Scrabble includes approved cheating: if you can put down a fake word and not get challenged for it, that’s just good gamesmanship.
“The Ethicist” suggests that rather than burning the card, it would suffice to have a brief comment from a parent about how of course real life has different rules than games, and that when you’re not playing Monopoly, giving back the $200 is the ethical and civilized choice.
Personally, as a long-time games-lover, I find it useful to think of games as a fantasy, parallel universes, each with its own laws, rules and tradition, like Bizarro World. What is right in one won’t make sense in another, including the real world. I thought everyone understood that.
I guess not!
Ethics Alarms 
My favorite one happens in Clue, where you can win by incriminating yourself if that’s how the cards were dealt.
Oh, and of course there’s Secret Hitler, of which, the less is said, the better.
Yeah I take it back. It’s better to just sit on a bank error and wait for them to initiate the actual money changes. Feel free to notify them. But definitely don’t rely on the error as being yours.
Wait. The bank makes an error in my favor? Really? When?
jvb
Maybe back in the day…
In the modern era, the bank is going to discover its error and you will be found and the problem rectified. So just take the money back.
In fact, they’ll probably compound the error by taking back the $200 TWICE, leaving you to have to deal with customer service to convince them that they made an error.
Is this just from “Game World”? Oh no. This actually happened to me once when I wrote a check for a certain amount, but it mistakenly cleared at a different (much smaller) amount. When I called in to find out what what I need to do to fix this, they unexpectedly deducted the difference from my account, causing my account to be overdrawn and then hitting me with the associated fees for being overdrawn.
Remember: this was all because of THEIR error, not mine.
When I called in again to complain about THAT, they unceremoniously deducted the difference from my account AGAIN, which, this time at least, didn’t trigger another overdrawn problem because I’d prepared for that before calling.
I eventually got it all sorted out, and got by money back from the 2nd deduction and the putative fees, but only after a lot of time and energy wasted on something that never should have happened in the first place.
I also switched to a different bank a few months later.
–Dwayne
I bet he’s a fun guy. No contact sports either, right? No anything. Maybe should all sit in a circle and sing…
Diplomacy is excellent. It teaches that nations do not have friends. They only have interests that occasionally for a time align with other nations.
Should we even have to mention one of my high school favorites? I’m referring to Diplomacy, in which you will inevitably be stabbed in the back by every ally. The only question is when.
That game is beautiful, but the master stroke of it was in the naming.
John, Alex—I was literally five seconds from including Diplomacy in my list of games, but ultimately decided that I would have to take too much time explaining the rules. I think there are 7 great and essential board games: chess, Go, poker, Scrabble, bridge, Diplomacy, and Dungeons & Dragons. Each teaches invaluable skills and lessons. Diplomacy is the equal of any of them, and I’ve played many marathon games . Th from my teens until relatively recently. The problem is that, like poker (NOT “Hold ‘Em”) you need 7 players for the game to be at its best (one of its lessons is group dynamics). Also like poker, it seems to not appeal to many women, who don’t appreciate someone lying to their face and betraying them. I played with my wife exactly once, and she didn’t speak to me for a week…
My old Diplomacy set disappeared at some point during college or grad school. I got a new one several years ago, only to realize that I need a large group of friends who have time on their hands, and who are either unshakable or expendable.
I have a group of friends (in the order of 40) who get together once a year to do all this stuff we don’t have time for during the year. We have not played Diplomacy at our annual gathering yet, but it would not be out of line for these folks.
I just find it a little annoying that as a responsible adult I need to plan a year in advance for this sort of thing.
It’s a commitment! Those games can take days!
Well put.
My wife’s cousin and his wife and his two daughters came over and we played diplomacy.
2 guys and 4 women.
We didn’t even finish the second turn.
I used to play an online role playing game where one of my characters was a cleric. I played him as a devout follower of his god, offering prayers, sacrifices to his god, performing deeds and actions in his name.
So does that mean that I should be excommunicated from the Christian church? Will God strike me down if I pass through the door of his cathedral?
I don’t think so. Like an actor in a play or movie, I am playing a part and doing my best to be the best character that I can be.
If one is unable to understand this concept, perhaps games are not for you. To coin a phrase, what happens in a game, stays in the game.
p.s. For that matter, is it a sin for me not to use my real name when commenting on this blog? I certainly could, but have chosen not to.
Yes. Yes it is. From when or where Jack shall smite you is unknown, but it could be any time and any place. Prepare thyself!
At least I know I’m safe. { Sigh of relief }
–Dwayne
(I kid.)