For this second season (if that’s the term to use) of Byte-Sized Virtue, I want to take the episode structure in a bit of a different direction, at least in part. You’ll recall that for the Advent and Christmas season (2015-2016) season, I focused exclusively on the topic of Justice, and discussed the relationship between the virtue as it appears in the Ultima games and the real-world virtue that is its equivalent. And, to be fair, I’ll probably be doing some similar commentary for this second season; Chlorthos Dragon was interested in looking at the Principle of Love and the Virtue of Compassion.

However, I’ve also prepared a series of episodes — of which this is the first — which are in the form of a discussion between myself and a friend, Paul, whose philosophical musings I have consistently enjoyed and respected. And rather than talk about any specific Virtue or Principle from Ultima, or its real-world equivalent, we will be tackling a range of topics that…well, you’ll just have to listen, I suppose.

Listen to the Episode

In this first episode, for example, we discuss technology — and, in particular, video games — as being morally neutral tools, and how these tools can be used toward the good end of fostering and strengthening community. The initial discussion was spurred on by a short segment of this episode of Three Dogs North, a podcast I listen to frequently, in which there is a discussion about an Italian community that was drawn closer together through a Facebook group that a newly-arrived resident in the area set up.

Naturally, I draw a comparison to the Ultima Dragons out of this, and we go into some discussion of the Dragons as a group.