What do you think of the "selfishness" vs "selflessness" of the Classes? I know Thieves get a bad rep for being seen as completely selfish (and I can understand why!) but I don't think most people really understand the difference between selfish and "selfish". Care to elaborate to everyone (including me) what that means?

Selfish vs Selfless is usually seen by people as an inherent sort of bad vs good, but that really is not the case, and I think a good example of this divide is Jane. Jane, when Jake made himself oblivious to her obvious crush on him, was shoved into a very Passive role by him- She was the one receiving all the baggage from Dirk and Jake being awkward dumbasses and not being able to talk stuff out properly, and this really takes a huge toll on her. She is their friend, she cares about them and loves them deeply! But having them nagging about romantic issues over and over and over drains her until she eventually explodes.

The Selfish vs Selfless divide’s way of working is pretty much the same as the Extrovert vs Introvert, people have a lot of false conceptions and ideas of what means to be an Extrovert or an Introvert, but it doesn’t necessarily relate to how much someone enjoys to meet new people or do stuff with others, but rather how they feel about it. Introverts feel drained by long periods of interaction with others and need to recharge, while Extroverts feel drained when not socially interacting- Note this is all a gross oversimplification, but it works for this example.

As such, just like Extroversion and Introversion, it’s not like Active Classes are only out for themselves and Passive Classes only care about others, but it denotes a tendency and a preference. Jane can definitely be Selfless, but she NEEDS attention and care to herself to be functional. It’s ‘Her first, Others second’, not because she’s bad, but because unless she’s in tip-top shape, she’ll bottle stuff up and end up exploding on everyone. Of course this means that most people who are 100% out for themselves and are Selfish in the bad way ARE Active Classes, which leaves this bad taste of what Active Classes may generally be. But that doesn’t make ALL Active Classes selfish in the bad way. Meanwhile, Passive Classes can also be Selfish and take care of themselves, and in fact, this is the crux of a lot of Passive Players, that they don’t care ENOUGH about themselves. Roxy herself mentions it, how she’s way too selfless to the point of putting her friends before herself, and that causes conflict with her! John ends up depressed and with nothing to do because he’s been a very reactive character through all of the story- There’s these big schemes and plans made around him and he’s led by people to fix other people’s problems and make people happy! But look at him after the game, and even during the 3-year trip- Once he loses the purpose of aiding others, he doesn’t have anything to do with himself, and spirals into inaction and depression. Neither out-for-themselves Active Classes, nor disregard-themselves Passive Classes are good, but the one extreme with Active Classes are seen as more morally wrong, while the other extreme with Passive Classes are seen as Tragic, creating this unfair divide.

Pair with it the Role of STEALING, and you have a molotov cocktail of misunderstanding and gray morality. Thieves Steal for Their Benefit, so Rogues are immediately seen as having the moral high ground over them because of their Robin-Hood-esque disposition. However, consider, a malicious Rogue infiltrated as a spy in some organization, taking information and data from them to offer to their superiors, very subservient to their bosses and working restlessly, vs a benevolent Thief who’s suffered a great loss because of the Rogue’s organization, and is out for personal revenge to take down their evil plans by any means necessary. Active Classes are more self-driven, yeah, but that doesn’t affect the morality of their actions. Thieves and Rogues take- If they take from you, regardless of the alignment, you’re going to feel like the two of them are bad. If they take from a common enemy, you’re going to feel like the two are good.

In a fatalistic reality where everything seems predetermined, a lot of people, specially those with Passive Dispositions, easily fall prey to complacency and inaction. And while they have a good deal of grey morality in their characters, it takes two Thieves working in tandem to actually move the masses against Lord English. That is the power of an Active Class’ drive, sometimes when everything is stagnant and no one seems to make the first move, it’s important to acknowledge those who actually speak out and say “No, this is wrong”, and state their own values against the world oppressing them.