Ironically, I think its peoples selfish motives that will make them act selflessly and help others. Even 'The Hound' (from GoT) could be selfless.

The potential to gain a contact, a community member, some fame, some reputation, some alignment, some story points, some information, some loot or just a straight up excuse to 'skill' to help you reach those master ranks will make even the most griefy/troll/selfish people consider helping others. It's all about contracts from your perspective, and about contract completions from their perspective. Keep the contracts producing and people will come to you. Work/Jobs are always in huge demand.

I've committed myself very firmly in my Dras Alchemist intents, and as such I see myself helping others as need be.

I do however wish to practice the Al'tifali faith and believe that balance will be an important thing. As such my Alchemical pursuits may be more than just healing salves and fertilizers and may veer toward less morally correct options as well.

That being said, I fully intend to be a benefactor to all people I come across in game as much as possible. I personally believe what goes around does in fact come around, and I wish to sow my field with crop I'd want to harvest.

Posted By Labbe at 5:40 PM - Fri Nov 30 2018

As such my Alchemical pursuits may be more than just healing salves and fertilizers and may veer toward less morally correct options as well.

It's all about finding a... balanced lifestyle. ;)

Sometimes its a good idea to give a passing by bounty hunter some poison coatings... and any favours to The Waerd are a favour to their entire family...

Posted By Sagan at 12:02 AM - Fri Nov 30

It's all about finding a... balanced lifestyle. ;)

Sometimes its a good idea to give a passing by bounty hunter some poison coatings... and any favours to The Waerd are a favour to their entire family...

Sagan gets it!

Sometimes to be a good person you have to get your hands dirty :P

i used to think I should try to be nice and do things that are nice for people

later I realised that I should try instead to be good and do what helps people

and later that it is too situational to blanky assume one thing is always good and another is bad and the best you can do is balance.

I will help as many people as I can, but to create you must destroy

Being part of an out-of-character community in CoE is actually part of my planned in-character gameplay here. As Sagan points out nicely, most motives for people to help out people aren't altruistic. I tend to help out with issues whenever I feel it will serve my own gameplay purposes, and when I feel my efforts may make a positive difference. That is valid now, and I'm sure it will also be valid in-game when I'm fully immersed in my characters. I feel that this is partly a subconscious motivator, but I do notice it determines the priorities I set and can affect the council I give. Nobody's perfectly objective, unless utterly freed of interests. grins

Nonetheless I do experience some form of altruistic behaviour as well, and that is driven by other motives. I consciously help the CoE communities I am in because I enjoy: acting in supporting and guiding/advisory roles; the company of most people I chose to cuddle up with most (the Duchy and Kingdom I joined); the opportunity to make others see upsides of downsides / improvement options when they are blinded by mutter / alternatives when they feel left with no choice; to get some thanks and compliments every now and then to feed my ego. I guess those will also be valid for my characters. When acting out a character role, I tend to stick to myself. I know I'm not a method actor, and I am quite certain most players aren't either.