Giving away one code for the newly released point & click adventure game The Samaritan Paradox.

In order to participate, please:

1. Specify that you're in
2. Share with us a personal story about good samaritanism on your part. It doesn't have to be a heroic story but it has to be yours and true. The story I find the most enlightening will win the game.
Helping your landlady carry out the trash may not be quite original enough but if you write about how you smuggled truckloads of twinkies into North Korea then you better back it up with proof, out of fairness to the other participants.

Deadline: Sunday April 27th, 20:00 CET (Central European Time)


A little backstory about this giveaway: (optional read, don't worry)

The title of this adventure game refers to the Good Samaritan paradox, an example of standard deontic logic which I only vaguely remember from philosophy class in high school many years ago. I was never any good at this mathematical logic stuff and I think it's way too advanced for a mandatory high school course. I wish we had learned more technical practical skills such as how to fix a car etc but the only school in my hometown was a humanist gymnasium with a strong focus on the liberal arts. I can translate Latin tombstones now which (in theory) is a useful skill to impress people at parties but don’t ask me to perform any do-it-yourself kind of tasks on your house/vehicle.

Our philosophy teacher was very nice but had an extremely boring way of teaching. When we descended into the depths of deontic logic, virtually everyone inescapable descended into deep sleep. I tried to combat the boredom best I could by participating even though I didn’t understand a thing. But if there’s one thing I learned in high school, it’s how to ‘talk out of your ass’, a highly useful skill especially during oral exams but also at any social gathering.
By preventing the classroom from falling into a complete & deadly teacher monologue, I was able to be a good Samaritan to both my fellow students and the teacher, even though my motivations were entirely selfish - I simply didn’t want to fall asleep in those uncomfortably hard chairs. But in order to have a chance to be a good Samaritan and help out, the class had to be boring in the first place. Hence we have a classic example of a Good Samaritan Paradox.

For a more recent example, the other day I was waiting in line at the train station’s supermarket and when the guy in front of me was up, they suddenly close that register. The guy (your regular grumpy dude in his mid 50s) angrily left the shop, leaving behind a can of beer which he intended to buy but had no time to since he had to catch a train. I switched to the next line and thought maybe I should pick up the guy’s beer and see if I pass by him on my way out, maybe he would still be there. But as I was contemplating the chances of successfully completing such a mission, it was my turn and I didn’t pick up the beer. On my way out of the station, I walked into the guy again – he had missed his train. And now he didn’t even have a beer. Had I bought the beer, I probably wouldn’t have found him but that’s uncertain. He already smelled of alcohol so no big deal, but I felt sorry for him having to wait an hour for the next train so I thought, instead of going home to ‘stay a while and listen’ to Deckard Cain in Diablo 2, I might as well stay a while and listen to this random stranger. Talking to random people may seem like a waste of time but sometimes you learn interesting things and in this case, I just felt like making up for another person’s misfortune. We ended up talking about civilian helicopter operations in the Alps, more dramatic than anything old Deckard tells you for sure. Again, an example of a Good Samaritan paradox. In order for me to help this guy bridge the waiting time, he had to miss the train in the first place.

Which brings us back to the game: You, as the main character named Ord, must help someone but in order to help her, she must have a problem first. This is the simple premise but it gets deeper than that. The game has many moral and philosophical aspect that give food for thought even after completion so it has more to offer than just solving the object based puzzles.

But enough of my own stories, I want to hear yours now. Keep in mind that you can win an awesome adventure game, and even though I only have one code anyone’s contributions are appreciated, thanks!

Nice giveaway and I am in, since this game went to my wishlist the moment I read the description and I would love to have a chance to play it, being a huge adventure fan.
Also a nice idea to involve samaritanism, since this is something not often talked about and it fits the topic well of course.
Oh, and talking to strangers certainly is no waste of time, some of my most interesting conversations.

I have nothing too altruistic to share, except perhaps one thing:
I live in a big village/small town in Germany, near the Alps, with about 30.000 residents, a few of them being homeless. It is not too common around here, since Germany has a good and helpful social system, but some people end up on the street for many reasons anyway. Those people usually sit in front of one of the supermarkets around here and beg for money, well, you know what I mean.
Whenever I see them I feel sorry and feel the urge to help them, but I do not want to give them money, because I fear they will buy alcohol or other drugs, so when buying my stuff I tend to buy some additional food and something to drink, water or juice, and gift it to them.
I know this is not much help and not very original or something, but it makes me feel good and makes these people smile, so I am glad and will continue to do so.

One instance that immediately comes to mind:

I was going to town one day and after passing a truck on the side of the road I saw a tire still rolling down the road (I shit you not -- it was almost comical). I pulled over and picked up the tire and headed back towards the truck to return it and assist if possible. It was an elderly man in his seventies and the tire had come off of his pig trailer.

I offered to give him a hand and noticed all he had was a little bottle jack to raise the trailer. I pulled out the floor jack my boss had given me rather recently at the time, telling him that the bottle jack was not sufficient to use on the shoulder of the road and the trailer could fall off the jack and crush one of us. To make a long story short(er), I helped put the tire back on and followed him on his trip home to assure he would have no more trouble with it and went about my errands thereafter.

I stopped because I imagined my father, about the same age, being the same situation. That and it seemed like the right thing to do.

Not in, but I may enter for another entrant if permitted.

Cool giveaway, I'm in.

One day I was walking to my brother's house, I heard a distant whining noise - I looked across the other side of the street and saw a young unknown kid hunched over his bicycle awkwardly. I crossed the street, and as I came up to him I saw what the problem was: somehow the kid managed to get his leg stuck in his bike pedal (non-freestyle bike). I picked up the back of the bike allowing his leg to go freely, asked him if he was okay, and he went on his way.

Another good one: So many years ago around the time that AvP came out on DVD, my sister-in-law was working at a nursing home, she knew I was the "go to" guy for movie information, anyway she was telling me that apparently a man in the nursing home was going on and on about how much he wanted to see AvP and she asked me where she could get ahold of the VHS movie, as they didn't have DVDs in the nursing home at the time. We looked online and couldn't find any information on the VHS release of the movie, and no local stores carried one either as VHS was being completely phased out at the time. I took it upon myself to record the DVD to a VHS tape and pass it along to her, apparently he was so excited that the nurses could hear him all the way down the hall cheering and jumping around the room as he was watching it. I never met him and have no idea who the old guy was, but thinking about it still brings a smile to my face lol...

Yes, you can absolutely enter for someone else, only the stories must be your own. What the winner will do with the code is entirely up to him/her.

Thanks for participating everyone so far!

Ah, I think me helping elderly people cross the street, catch the bus and get items from a high spot in the supermarket won´t cut it then :P

I am in, but I know I wont win and here is why

Am I a good Samaritan? No.
I am so bad I in fact left a friend at the side of the road when his car broke down. I just got out and walked off.
After two hours when I finally had walked back to my parents house I told my dad that my friend had broken down before having something to eat and watching TV.
My dad was kind enough to give his car a tow back to his house, but I did not help in any way.

Looking back at it now I always remind myself that should the shit ever hit the fan I can always rely on myself at least to get to safety.

Thought you were going to conclude with: "I always regretted doing this"...

I've heard good things about this game, so I'd like to be in.

As for my personal story, it took place last year in summer, and is somewhat similar to yours (involving a drink). I had bought a nice chilled coke and had sat down to drink it when I saw another guy passing, all sweaty and grumpy. In the spur of the moment (and not entirely sure he'd accept..would you accept a drink from a strange? :D) I offered the bottle to him. He took it happily and drunk about half of it before giving it back to me.
I guess it is a paradox too (as you explained it) because he had to be grumpy and sweaty for my good deed to work?

Also relating to to adventure games, in true adventure game fashion, when I was passing nearby a few weeks later, he saw me and called me to his shop. Turns out he was a tailor. He had made a cap out of leftover material for a dress, which he then gifted to me :D.

Unfortunately, while I smiled and wore it (as best I could) and left, the cap is kinda small for my head (I've got a pretty big head), so again, in adventure game fashion, I think my next step is finding a smaller-headed person to give it to to solve the puzzle :D.

One more day to go with this giveaway, thanks for all the contributions so far!

There's still time until Sunday 20:00 Central European Time to participate.

Would selling your car, living room furniture, all tools out of garage, and more stuff to help pay for a relatives rent so they are not kicked out be considered Samaritan?
Or is it only considered for strangers?

Either way, my home is now void of all furniture cept my pc desk, my bed, and my dressor, and my garage is nearly empty.

Count me in. Thank you for the chance.

I admire your honesty. Hard to find people nowadays who aren't two faced like you... I'd rather have you as a friend than someone who pretends to the type of person who always has my back and then...shit hits the fan and he's busy playing World Of Warcraft.

You guys are definitely outperforming me with your good deeds, all I did today way clean the staircase of my apartment building (4 floors). I ran into my landlady after shopping for groceries and she asked me for help since she wasn't feeling well - quite visibly, so not pretending out of laziness.
It's funny that I saw her because I just had a dream this night in which my landlady climbed onto my balcony from an apartment next to mine and tried to infiltrate my lair, in true Gemini Rue fashion. No it's not what you think, my landlady is 20 years older than me and not part of any adult fantasies of mine. I think she was trying to spy on me in my dream which may be a sign of mild paranoia. Justified paranoia, as RL people have been wondering where I am lately.

As I was cleaning, the thought crept into my mind that what I was doing here was 10$ worth of work, given that it took me 30 minutes and an absolute low end hourly wage is around 20$ here. Might sound like more than other countries but considering the exorbitantly high cost of living, it's not much at all.
After I finished cleaning, my landlady tried to offer me 10$. Really, weird, because I've helped her out before and she usually bakes me a cake / offers me a home made meal or something, it's as if my impure thoughts about money had materialized into reality.

I politely declined the offer even though she was insistent. I suggested that I'd eat one of the chocolate rabbits instead, the ones she had placed all over the windowsills in the staircase. This is Switzerland so chocolate is everywhere, even in staircases. If I would accept money, it would convert me from a Samaritan to a cleaning maid. I have respect for cleaning maids but I like the good feeling when you help out for free. I could desperately need the money though, my financial situation isn't good at all, in fact that's why I can only gift one game. Wish I could buy The Samaritan Paradox for everyone, I really do.

I have always considered myself "mostly honest" and the closest living embodiment of true neutral I can be.
As to being a friend, well given I do things like that apparently a little too often. I still have a small number of friends, (I can count them on one hand), and that particular friend and I are still talking after nearly 20 years. So I personally feel things are just fine.
I have been to all three of his children's christenings, his wedding (against the wishes of his wife) and even a few of the children's birthdays and Christmases. Not bad for someone who tries to avoid others.


Funny story from another friends wedding I am happy to share.
I got so bored during the wind up to the ceremony I had to sneak out with the aforementioned friend. We found ourselves a pub nearby and drunk to the happy couple. I think he informed them not to expect us back.
After a few hours of enjoying ourselves while our friend locked away his life we made our way to the reception at the local village hall, where I promptly found all of the nice treats from the buffet meal and a nice seat in a corner.
I took basically all I could carry and ducked out only to be "found" by a bridesmaid who thought I was a shy wall flower and not the only person there actually trying to avoid contact with other humans. Even my friends wives parents knew I was there in a purely supportive role, from as far away as I could find.
The bridesmaid and I spent a few hours talking and although she abruptly walked off at one point, I had been enjoying her company up until then.

I was though, such a good friend that I helped finish off all the food and drink I could. So much in fact the next morning I felt like a new born foal trying to walk I was soooooo drunk (one of the last times I drunk incidentally). I was even one of the last to leave that night.

Although that friends new wife thought little of my actions, apparently I was meant to get along with the bridesmaid, not be myself. She did happen to love (because I let her choose) the baby pram and the cot I bought them to be a fitting start with their new family and new home. I did the same thing for each of my friends when they started their families.
She though did not and still does not, enjoy me referring to the wedding as "the / "that shotgun event", nor when I pointed out if they had avoided the wedding how much more of a deposit they would have had for their house and to have bought baby things with anyway.
Logical thought just seems to bypass most women.