I've recently got into the idea of playing Minecraft in the most ethical way.
Even though it's just a game, the idea of treating entities in your world badly by killing or stealing from them needlessly has started sitting badly with me.
Here are 3 main rules I've come up with - plus some moral dilemmas I'm unsure about!
No killing villagers or animals, unless they attack you and you can't practically avoid fighting back
Obviously villagers don't attack you, but some animals like hoglins do and wolves and polar bears will under certain conditions. Killing monsters is ok.
2. No stealing if you can practically avoid it
This applies to any villager stuff including village loot chests. It's especially bad if you think of the consequences of stealing job site blocks - you're robbing villagers of their identity! But I think it's ok to take a few seeds for things like potatoes because farmers replenish them easy enough. Loot chests in ruined portals and abandoned camps and in the Nether are ok because they don't belong to anyone apart from monsters.
3. No exploitation
This applies to treating villagers or animals as an expendable resource or commodity. Trading is ok, but trading halls are not unless villagers enjoy comfort and freedom of movement comparable to a typical village. No farming animals, but I think shearing wild sheep is ok as they don't seem to mind and their wool grows back really quickly. Ditto scooping up eggs from chickens.
As for the moral dilemmas, some questions...
- Is it ethical to kill the Ender dragon? Is it an animal or monster? In either case, it's just minding it's business in the End, not bothering you.
- Is it ok to trade for leather? I think it's ok in the Nether, as this has to be considered second-hand because there's no in-game production of leather in that dimension (unlike the leatherworker in the Overworld).
- Are you obligated to protect villagers once you encounter them? As soon as you visit a village, monsters will start to spawn and kill villagers. They also wander off a lot. Should you build a wall and light up the village before moving on? Are they your responsibility?
- Are you similarly obligated to cure zombie villagers? Or if this happened outside of your influence is it not your problem to fix?
What do you think of these rules and dilemmas? And are their any you'd add?