Torture in Warcraft

[ralphmelton]

In World of Warcraft, my main character has gotten into a quest that involves torturing enemy combatants. (The quest is "The Power of Poison", on the quest chain that you get from choosing the Brewery option in the Spires of Arak.)

I object to torture. I think that the CIA's use of torture is a national disgrace. I don't want to do this quest.

Unfortunately, this quest is required for the achievement that would unlock flying in Draenor. I would like to fly in Draenor.

I filed a ticket requesting to get my quest progress reset, so that I could choose the smuggler's den option instead of the brewery option. I got a reply from a GM that sympathized with my aversion to torture, but said that the GMs did not have the power to do such a reset for me.

So I have three options to choose from:
1. Do the torture quest.
2. Do all the substantial work for that achievement (i.e., most of the quests in the expansion) on another character.
3. Never fly in Draenor.

I won't say I'm not tempted by option #1. I am tempted. It would be a lot of work to do everything on another character, and I do want to fly.

I am tempted to rationalize #1 by saying that it's just characters in a video game. But the reward is just an advantage in a video game. If I want the CIA to have the honor to avoid torture when real lives are at stake, shouldn't I avoid fictional torture for a fictional convenience?

I keep thinking about the Milgram experiment. I would like to think that if I were one of the subjects in the Milgram experiment, I would have the courage to defy the experimenter's orders... but I don't feel any certainty.

This is not a post about how noble and good I am. This is a post about the temptations of evil, even if the evil is minor and easily rationalized. And I might yet succumb to that temptation.

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

Huh. They had another one back during the Northshield campaign, as part of the Kirin Tor rep progression - The Art of Pursuasion (http://wowwiki.wikia.com/Quest:The_Art_of_Persuasion), halfway through the Amber Ledge quest chain. You didn't get a choice there, either, which I remember pissing me off.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Yes. That one's particularly repugnant because it says "Our code of conduct forbids us from torturing prisoners - so here, you do it."

At that time, I held my nose and did that quest, because I wanted the Loremaster achievement. But the revelations about the CIA's use of torture have intensified my opposition to torture. I feel ashamed of doing that quest.

As with that WotLK quest, I feel that I didn't get a choice in Spires of Arak; when I chose to make a brewery, I didn't know that there would be torture involved.

As a counterpoint: Khadgar ends up torturing a prisoner in the legendary quest chain, and Cordana Felsong denounces him for it and he acknowledges the ethical lapse. I was glad to see that condemnation of torture done by good guys.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the one in Northrend, and I don't like this one either. I particularly object to the lack of choice we have in the matter now.

I want to not do it, I also don't really want to do all the work again to get an alt the achievement instead. I want to fly, so I'm likely to hold my nose and do it, unhappily.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Yeaah, that one was particularly idiotic.
I only did it on my first character; the subsequent ones avoided the chain entirely and found other ways (friends, free-flying, summons) to get the flight point in Coldarra.

[cellio]

Ugh. I would not want to do that quest either. Nor can I say with any certainty that I wouldn't rationalize it away as "just a game and not real". I can delude myself all I want that it's harmless, but the people in Milgram were real, normal people just like me, and being ok with the big shock started with being ok with the tiny little one. :-( I take it there's no path of appeal beyond the GMs who already responded?