Domestic abuse are those universal patterns. It’s why we can categorize them as domestic abuse. There are markers for domestic abuse that allow people to identify such a case.
You don’t know how most people actually play the game. What you’re doing is projecting your own preference and preconceptions on undocumented majority. Also, whether it’s majority or minority, it doesn’t really matter. Appeal to majority is a logical fallacy.
Sure, we can make a poll to see how people play their prefect. Projecting my preference? You think being successful at their goal, especially one that the players can choose, isn’t something to be expected on players? It’s absurd to think that it’s somehow irrational to expect that other players want their prefect to do well at their ambitions. Appeal to majority is the belief that something is factual if most people think it is factual in a case where belief is not relevant. That does not apply here. The point was about how people will want to play their prefect so it’s absolutely in line that what the majority thinks matters.
You have ignored in your argument that a self-serving Prefect doesn’t have to assist the ailing Empress and her daughter in a manner a morally upright person would, but they can instead use the given tasks as opportunities to form their own personal alliances and power base. Such prefect isn’t “taking care” of those characters, but using them to accumulate personal power, potentially to the point of usurping the throne.
Afterwards we have switched to a tangent you started, that the game prefers morally upright Prefect because “it wouldn’t make sense to be asshole to Augusta or Julia”. But not only this is quite misleading, as it pairs self-serving with asshole and morally upright with nice, the entire justification is basically your own expectation that the game will eventually punish asshole Prefect for being asshole to Augusta and/or Julia “because it’d make sense”. Unfortunately, until the game actually does such a thing – as it currently does not – this is only a conjecture and as such doesn’t really support your original argument.
How am I ignoring how that caring for a Julia and Augusta doesn’t have to be something only a morally upright prefect can do, when that is exactly my point? It’s literally in the quotes. The very act of caring will be more aligned with a morally upright prefect because such action is associated with being prosocial and empathetic. The motive could be selfish but that doesn’t change the fact that those narrative elements will be more resonant and impactful to a player who is genuinely doing those things because, I don’t know if you forgot, humans are emotional beings that interface with the people and experience around them.
It shifted around the topic of a sensible prefect not being an asshole to Julia and Augusta because you think that being an asshole prefect to the people in power totally makes sense even if you’re playing as a self-serving prefect who is trying to succeed. Do you play a game with no foresight with your actions? You think players don’t think how their actions will have consequences? Even if the game doesn’t punish being an asshole to Julia and Augusta, it’s still totally rational to expect that lowering your relationship points with them will lead to negative results. And this will inform players on how they will act with their prefect.
