Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => EVE Character Development => Topic started by: Kaleigh Doyle on 20 Jun 2010, 21:39
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I have no idea where to put this, so feel free to move it to where you find this appropriate.
I find myself somewhat peeved as of late by the necessity for roleplayers to portray their characters out of pod as often as possible, be it hosting extravagant parties on luxurious getaway planets, dropping down to a dense jungle to hunt wild animals, or even get wasted at dive bars on remote stations. And granted, I'm one of the worst offenders of all time, but it strikes me in retrospect at how absurd it really is.
The recent Xenocracy chronicle is a prime example, in my eyes, of a "realistic" scenario a typical capsuleer might be involved in. A capsuleer trying to organize and manage an alliance's planetary industry isn't going to waste his time flying down to talk to ONE manager in PERSON, but I can guarantee you there are a plethora of roleplayers engaged in such a way.
The disconnect here, as I see it, is that people perceive being a capsule pilot as just a job rather than a lifestyle changing event. They still go home and sit down at a dinner table and eat a home cooked meal and go back out into space for another eight hours of murdering npcs or killing faction warfare enemies.
I really think this is devaluing a key pivotal impact of being a capsuleer and our innate connection to our vessels through the pod. Our perceptions change entirely when we’re direct linked to a vessel, a machine, with the sole purpose of responding instantly to menu-driven thought commands. Firing weaponry, managing energy usage, repair subsystems, translating in our brain the neural input of external stimulii from sensors and camera drones, all while monitoring communications channels and the local market.
Take this bombardment of information, the constant and instantaneous feedback from thought to output response, and repeat that for days and months at a time to the point where this becomes second nature. Suddenly you can understand WHY pilots are impatient, especially when forced to interact with people who have no grasp of this world they live in.
Now take that away and put them on the ground, outside their pod. Suddenly the stimulii is gone and they’re left with their own limbs. They can’t just think to get something done, now they actually have to incite a motor response that seems like second nature to us, but when you’re so connected to a machine that does it all for you, it has to be frustrating and foreign to be back in that environment. It feels uncomfortable and awkward…restrictive, and diminishing. It reminds the pilots of their frailty, and ultimately pushes them back to where they feel useful again…in their pods.
This reminds me a lot of today’s society and our addiction to information, the internet, and easily accessible communication tools that keep us constantly hooked on what’s happening next. Previous generations of people not invested in the culture of technology look on with concern and we get impatient with them when they try to use it because it comes as second nature to us and nearly impossible for them.
Which comes back to another point about characters meeting in person; there’s always this tendency to imagine our characters as actor-lookalikes (see that other thread) or models, etc., but how many really depict our characters with all those implants jutting from our heads? That’s not very sexy, is it?
All these reasons compounded lead me to believe that this need to roleplay out of our capsules is near immersion-breaking for me as a player and somewhat frustrating. For two capsuleers to meet out of pod would/should be, in my eyes, a very very rare event that in itself should say something about the encounter.
I realize most of you probably won’t share my viewpoint on this, and I’m sure you’ll all have plenty of reasons to justify your behavior (and you really don’t need to), and I certainly don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to tell you what to do, but I thought I’d share my perspective on the matter and maybe give you some food for thought.
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I really don't want to agree with you, I really want to be able to say, you're wrong its not like that, but that's because out of pod RPing is fun, it leads to more, I guess flexible interactions.
That said, you make a lot of really valid points, I don't want to agree with you, but I see where you are coming from
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This reminds me a lot of today’s society and our addiction to information, the internet, and easily accessible communication tools that keep us constantly hooked on what’s happening next. Previous generations of people not invested in the culture of technology look on with concern and we get impatient with them when they try to use it because it comes as second nature to us and nearly impossible for them.
Excellent analogy with information technology.
Frankly, I think it's just easier to roleplay people acting "normally" in a sci-fi setting than to really dive into the man-become-machine transhuman element of the capsuleer. We know the storylines, we can relate to the characters more, and its reliably fun to explore and expand upon the huge world of New Eden from a more conventional perspective.
Now, as I see it, there are two archetypes of pod pilot. One is as you describe, absorbed by the experience of being perceptually incarnated as a starship, while the other has used the training and status to elevate themselves militarily, financially, or whatever within the old paradigm. There are Omvistus capsuleers, frustrated with the "old world", its people, and technologies, but forced to deal with them still, and then there are Jacus Roden capsuleers, for whom the pod and the clone are a means to an end and just one part of their lives. The second type don't fly very often, but the more they do, the more they'll trend toward the first type.
Also, I'm starting to appreciate the complexity of the Xenocracy chron as the discussion continues. However, I'm unhappy that a lot of players (none here, really) seem to take it only at face value and read "rawr me capsuleer all ur planets r belong 2 me!" rather than interpret the points that you've brought out in your post, Kaleigh. Based on the replies in the official chron thread on the EVE-O forums, for many, Xenocracy seems to be about aiming large hybrid weapons at a planet and making yourself look and sound frightening and powerful over a viewscreen.
imo: "zomg planetary bombardment!!1" < "member of homo superior is forced to deal with the slow-witted monkeys again"
Ultimately, I think the disagreements over that chron stem from the fact that many in the RP community tend to play characters, as you complained, that resemble that second type of capsuleer I described above. The mundane, out-of-pod, and planet-bound things that fill a lot of RP and fanfic don't harmonize well with the subtler messages in Xenocracy (and your post) about capsuleer psychology, and many of us are resistant to compromise one with the other. (Not that anyone is required to do so.)
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Before I start, you had the balls to say something that is immersion-breaking, so let me take the moment to say that I find the disproportionately of space lesbians to be immersion-breaking too :D But anyway...
Like Ken said, your comparison with being connected and disconnected to the Internet is excellent. It now helps me understand what it would be like as a capsuleer, and a further point about immersion-breaking is how people behave as a capsuleer.
Though his actions offend many, Seriphyn is closer to what a capsuleer might be than others. Capsuleers are megalo and egomaniacs, should they not be? Seriphyn is aware of his power and uses it to, well, rather than serve the Federation as he should do, but rather, outlet rage and aggression to satisfy his own failings. Then there are capsuleers who go to bars and RP giant snuggle piles and teenage girls...and I'm left their gagging a bit from the corniness, heh.
Her Painted Selves (http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=05-08-08) portrays what I see to be a "good capsuleer" compared to the nastier ones, and is very much in line with how Seriphyn would interact personally with non-capsuleer. The pilot in that chron is a Federation loyalist but not directly tied to the Fed itself, much like us as RPers. He is portrayed as quite human and personable, so it's not like PF doesn't acknowledge our kind.
Consider that only 5% of EVE are RPers. 95% of the others are thus the capsuleers who never leave their pods, and are the Omvistus capsuleers. 5% are the ones who are Jacus Roden (and the teenage girl capsuleers*cough*)...when put into that perspective, is it still immersion-breaking?
Moreover, station RP is something. We all have dedicated areas on each station to capsuleers...I imagine if we RP'd anywhere else, there would be an issue with "ooo capsuleer!". The capsuleer in that chron, for example, used skin patches to hide this. Seriphyn wouldn't, though, given his status.
At the core of it, however, EVE is a great sci-fi universe that we want to explore in a conventional fashion. The whole capsuleer thing is viewed by many I think, as a hinderance and maybe even a ruiner of that.
Sorry for the disjointed post
EDIT: An extract from that chron
He'd stopped and was gesturing for her to take a seat in one of the leather couches. Leather, like wood, was a commodity on the stations and one she felt decidedly uncomfortable with, but the seat he was directing her to had a worn appearance and its leather surface had hairline cracks. "My favorite reading spot," he said.
Capsuleers like to sit out of their pod and read :3
She realized he was trying to help her feel relaxed and the small gesture set her at ease. She sat. "Is this someone's apartment?" she asked him. "Is it yours?"
He sat beside her, at a respectable distance. "Yes, it is. This is the entryway."
So, having those apartment channels for each of us isn't so bad.
"I had someone who clung to me. She did it for glory, me being a capsuleer, and even after I'd had my head scrambled by too many clonings in too little time, even when I made her life this absolute passive-aggressive hell, she still hung on. And eventually what was left of the love evaporated, because even as I wasn't the same person anymore, neither was she. The balance changed and she changed with it."
Capsuleers and love with non-capsuleers. He'd obviously need to not spend so much time in the pod for this...
He grinned slyly. "And heavens, you need makeup. Your cheeks are streaked with tears. You can't be seen like this; think what your husband would say!"
And he jokes and laugh! Heh.
But yes. Death to the teenage girl capsuleers.
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It's because secretly all us RPers want to do is play 'House' with our dolls. :D
But seriously, I consider everything I do ingame to be an IC action of some sort. Every time I undock my ship it's IC, and Kimochi will only be out of the pod and wandering around on a station if I'm docked up and unlikely to undock any time soon. For more mundane stuff like rearranging hangars or fitting starships, I play it as Kimochi issuing orders to her First Mate who then ensures those orders are carried out by the rest of her personnel.
It's slightly easier for me in a way as Kimochi is purely a combat pilot. She doesn't play with the market or get involved with PI (yet...) so she only really needs to get in her pod for combat ops and for the occasional logistics work. That means she has a fair bit of free time - no need to jack in if you are just going to sit around doing nothing right? That's the way I play things anyway.
I think the reason most people like to have their capsuleers disconnected from their pods for long periods of time, even if the player is undocked and mining or running missions or whathaveyou ingame stems from the feeling that it humanizes them and makes them easier to emphathize with. It's harder to connect to and feel empathy for a character who is little more than an organic CPU for their ships... There are exceptions of course, but I think that's the way the majority feel about it.
As an additional note, the Space Lesbians thing irritates me as well. Having very nearly fallen into that trap myself and having spent the lions share of the last year trying to distance myself from it I can honestly say I'm glad to count Kimochi among the game's celibate Capsuleers!
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I just think that the kinds of scenarios some characters put themselves into, such as flying down to a planet to join a firefight as a grunt on the weekends, strikes me as absurd. There are roughly 250,000 capsuleers to how many untold billions of people, hopefully no one would be ridiculous enough to risk themselves around the 'little people' any more than they had to. And that includes crew mingling; can we say spies/assassins?
I think with that isolation/paranoia, or rather the disparity between regular people and capsuleers is a natural inhibitor that would part the two classes and bring capsuleers somewhat closer together. At least they have something in common, even if they might not be able to trust one another.
I just see a trend amongst the players to portray their characters as normal people with being a pilot having such a minimal impact on their life that it makes me cringe.
As for space lesbians, there's a separate post about that. :P
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My views on this have evolved over time. The fiction and such I originally wrote for Casiella was a bit more kinetic, if you will. Running and jumping and flipping and all sorts of gymnastics to escape the Evil Bad Guys. As my understanding of the EVE universe has grown and as I've matured as a player, I tend to keep her behind security guards, in offices, or even in space.
Though the situations in which she doesn't have her guards around, or the opposition overcomes them, still provide plenty of tension and drama, at least for me. :)
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I just think that the kinds of scenarios some characters put themselves into, such as flying down to a planet to join a firefight as a grunt on the weekends, strikes me as absurd. There are roughly 250,000 capsuleers to how many untold billions of people, hopefully no one would be ridiculous enough to risk themselves around the 'little people' any more than they had to. And that includes crew mingling; can we say spies/assassins?
This is an interesting point. I think people confuse "ship captain" with "capsuleer", definitely. There are plot devices to alleviate this, for example, with Seriphyn's status in the FDU, his entire crew is thus drawn out directly from that body. But yes, if you just hire general hands, then it's an issue.
I think fiction has the capsule seperate from the ship upon docking, and you are ejected elsewhere ("the pod gantries). Which literally can mean that the ship is literally just a vessel, or suit of armour. Special "cross-capsule" vessels are required for one where you can eject onboard your ship.
It is my belief a lot of us just want to play a generic spacefarer in the rich universe of EVE, but are forced to behave in the way that CCP says. Her Painted Selves is a bit redeeming though, if anyone bothers to read my topic on it lol
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...characters with all those implants jutting from our heads? That’s not very sexy, is it?
(http://www.toomanymornings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/seven-of-nine.jpg)
I have less issues with metalic implants than the squishy ones :P
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Considering that when Incarna is released it solidifies the fact that capsuleers get out of the pod, get shitfaced and watch exotic dancers in some shady dive while they place the space age version of craps or WH40K. It gives you a body that resembles a normal human not one that has metal spikes on the head and huge cables hanging out of your ass.
As the chronicles have shown; not all capsuleers are data addicted instant gratification demigods who have said cables hanging out of their ass, some are more humane and thus we're given the tools to play house and Bob the Builder having a pint over at the Choo-Choo Lounge.
So, I think CCP is going more for the gods old take on with this. Take the gods of antiquity as an example. They're petty and fickle creatures with terrible powers and a terrifying visage. Yet they mingle with people, have relationships each other and with the little people. Some build cults of personality to veneer them. Piss them off and you have lightning bolts raining on your planet. Or as the case may be with some capsuleers, 425mm Rail gun raining antimatter.
Besides, not even bears rage all the time. They chillax and eat berries from time to time too.
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Space is boring.
Spaceships are boring too, after a while.
I mean, those of us who still have active accounts log in and see what we do in our spaceships every time we play Eve. Everyone knows what it's like. We've seen it. It's beautiful and empty and preposterous. Stuff dies in infeasible quantities and CONCORD are ridiculously overpowered and break immersion wherever they appear. Everything is mediated through interfaces, text, camera drones, pod. It's inhuman. It's hard to relate to. It's cool and all, but what happens in the places we don't get to see is inherently more interesting in terms of characterisation and human interaction. Anywhere but your ship, or your identikit hangar bay is a far richer source of inspiration for roleplay and more so for fiction.
The pod, as great as it is from a game mechanic point of view, is terrible for storytelling. It removes the captain-crew dynamic that would make for compelling characterisation and smooth exposition. It removes any sense of dramatic tension. There's not much at stake - least of all a captain's life - and we are all stupidly rich, so losing your stuff doesn't really cut it either.
Yeah. So I'm not at all surprised that people want to talk about anything but what happens in space. I'm not surprised that people want to roleplay their characters as people outside of the pod.
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As an additional note, the Space Lesbians thing irritates me as well. Having very nearly fallen into that trap myself and having spent the lions share of the last year trying to distance myself from it I can honestly say I'm glad to count Kimochi among the game's celibate Capsuleers!
Dear god it's hard to get away from that, I've used every plot device under the sun to get Repentence out... and it's not working. I'm pretty much giving up, that's just who she is, silly bitch... hopefully the latest plot thread might help. At least all my others are celibate psychos ¬¬
I think Seriphyn's point about the tiny minority of RPers is quite a good one, actually. And there's definitely an element of immersion breaking with how people play it, but I'm not sure it's as bad as all that, so long as people think a little about their characters.
Take Mortis, for example. He doesn't spend a huge amount of time in the pod, but that's mainly because of his scientific interests; hard to do experiments while hooked in. He's also rigged his helmet to constantly feed him information about his surroundings, so he's never quite out of contact.
Conversely, Elysa had an extremely tough military upbringing and served with the Caldari Navy for a while, and is very much a case of 'old habits die hard'.
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I know with my character's story arch, and quite a few other characters I know as well, the reason they do such things as walk on the Crystal Boulevard is that their stories are built around or incorporate the theme of trying to hold on to humanity in the face of so much inhumanity. I play it that way namely because I find stories about humans more interesting than stories about ships that talk.
Though, I will agree that some RP fare is sometimes hard to conceptualize, i.e. its hard to imagine a POD pilot really willingly going down to a planet and engaging in a fire fight ala Captain Kirk on an Away Team or something.
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The pod, as great as it is from a game mechanic point of view, is terrible for storytelling. It removes the captain-crew dynamic that would make for compelling characterisation and smooth exposition. It removes any sense of dramatic tension. There's not much at stake - least of all a captain's life - and we are all stupidly rich, so losing your stuff doesn't really cut it either.
This again and again.
I was going to start a thread entitled "Does the concept of the capsuleer hurt an otherwise compelling sci-fi universe?", but here we have it.
There are plenty of plot devices that could get around having the pod. We could just have been generic space ship captains, with the pod just being an escape pod instead. And the cloning lore can be modified to fit standard mortals.
The issue is that we can't play what we want to play in the EVE universe. We have to play what we want to play within set boundaries by CCP.
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I think both styles of RP are equally valid. As an example, let's look at real-life soldiers who go to war. They see (and sometimes do) unspeakable things. For a time they live a life that is completely foreign and unimaginable to those who have never been through it. And then they come home.
For some soldiers it's as if nothing ever happened. They pick up where they left off and life resumes. These would be the pod pilots who return planetside as often as possible and spend time with "the little people."
For others there is no going back. Even if they return physically, they are still there in their minds. Some find that they cannot adjust and become troubled and anti-social. Others return to the military and resume the combat life.
Saxon is the type to go back home. But there are risks involved in doing so. A small group of conspirators and I did a collaborative storyline a while back where Saxon's home was destroyed and he was kidnapped. Fortunately, he escaped, and his RP has changed to reflect a more weary and cautious personality on his part.
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So... lets talk about other infomorphs as well.
Frankly, capsuleers aren't it. DUST is coming and even though it is really just a respawn mechanic, it is cloning on "walking about" basis.
In theory, an industrial/trading character could potentially stay in one station just in his pod, and make billions. No threat of podding, none. These infomorphs literally could be working 8 to 4, having dinner with the family and then playing a very complicated game with the other informorph next door.
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The PF isn't consistent. Or rather, it's consistently inconsistent: "Xenocracy" and the Incarna trailer are the two primary sources that seem to suggest that (some) capsuleers don't "get out much."
Otherwise, there are capsuleers walking all over the chronicles, from Tibus Heth's background to the odd Federal function. Don't have time to look them up, presently. Planets are probably kind of rare. But, there's no reason you couldn't catch a shuttle down from the customs platform.
It seems to me that PF is trying to get a head start on the obvious question of why not everybody is going to be getting much use out of Incarna: those who don't are full-time eggers.
Probably, then, the correct answer is the most obvious one: glamorous walker-about-in-stations or permanent egg inhabitant, it's a matter of personal preference.
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The whole subject is a double edged blade in my opinion.
Even though there are some capsuleers that feel the need to rarely ever leave the capsule, there's a rich history of a lot of them doing so in prime fiction. Many corporate CEOs, officers and important dignitaries do so on a regular basis and personally I can see why.
It's not really that bad of a process to do so (it was explained in quite a lot of detail toward the back end of The Burning Life), and given the presence of soft-scan technology and insanely advanced medical processes, plus the social status of the capsuleer they remain insanely well protected from accidents and attempted ill will from anyone (the transition from the 'normal' decks of a space station to the capsuleer's domain and the insane security involved is also referenced in The Burning Life).
Money and power go hand in hand, and one thing always follows; expensive tastes. Capsuleers for the best part are egotistic, arrogant and look down on the 'little people' given their social status when it suits them, no matter how hard they try to be nice people.
The way I see it, is that the number of capsuleers in Eve stands at probably around 5 million, when you include all characters; alts, mains, the thousands of corporate officers, ISD members, high level agents and the like. Out of those 5 million, how many are roleplayers out of character? A few thousand. How many of those step out of capsule on a regular basis? It dwindles the numbers down to a TINY proportion, not even 0.000000000001% of the population of New Eden.
We might, as capsuleers see it as commonplace to see each other in a bar or whatever, we have separate areas of every station we choose to dock at, and we're generally segregated from the rest of the plebs who inhabit most stations. This works to the advantage of an egger who decides to get out of the capsule to conduct business. Very few things are as scary for the general population as meeting a capsuleer, a demi god with a corporate army and the most advanced technology in the cluster behind them. I should imagine that 99.99% of the time, business would go very smoothly for an egger with that kind of intimidation.
As for implants and everyone looking pretty, given the prevalence such advanced technology, and of equipment on the scale of nano-technology I've never seen any reason why implants have to be visible and covering a person's skin, face or eye. Some capsuleers might like it, for that extra look. Sure, interfaces such as the capsuleer's neural jack would be present, and visible unless covered with hair or synthetic skin.
I like that you've brought up such a fundamental subject and kicked off a debate about it to be honest. I think that both sides of the fence are valid viewpoints, and there's nothing to stop a capsuleers de-egging and stretching their legs if they want to.
I do agree however that it seems a bit silly that the average egger would regularly get involved in planetside management on a personal level, and fly down there just to see on person and have a meeting given the technology at their disposal. Sure, they'd check on things from time to time I guess, but nothing regular in my eyes. As for military actions on the ground, I can't see an egger getting involved with this kind of thing either, unless it was personal and they wanted to make a point.
As for planetside visits in general, a lot of eggers are born planetside, and I should imagine that every so often they'd get the urge to return and take a breath of fresh air and chill. Nostalgia very rarely fades.
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It's not really that bad of a process to do so (it was explained in quite a lot of detail toward the back end of The Burning Life)
Can someone please transcribe with a spoiler tag for the cheap and poor amongst us who are waiting for the paperback? I'd like to see this :)
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Why is no one paying attention to my points regarding Her Painted Selves lol?
But yeah, what Verone said is why I find the whole teenage girl, space lesbian thing REALLY immersion breaking.
And skin patches over neural sockets ftw...eh yeah
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waiting for the paperback
My copy is paperback... Not available yet where you're living, Havohej?
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I do agree however that it seems a bit silly that the average egger would regularly get involved in planetside management on a personal level, and fly down there just to see on person and have a meeting given the technology at their disposal. Sure, they'd check on things from time to time I guess, but nothing regular in my eyes. As for military actions on the ground, I can't see an egger getting involved with this kind of thing either, unless it was personal and they wanted to make a point.
Yeah, it does seem silly, but then so does flying on a private jet to a meeting with someone when you could just use the phone, email or video conferencing or w/e. It seems that however good the technology gets, people still put a lot of emphasis on doing business in person even if it is ludicrously expensive. People, eh. vOv
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I do agree however that it seems a bit silly that the average egger would regularly get involved in planetside management on a personal level, and fly down there just to see on person and have a meeting given the technology at their disposal. Sure, they'd check on things from time to time I guess, but nothing regular in my eyes. As for military actions on the ground, I can't see an egger getting involved with this kind of thing either, unless it was personal and they wanted to make a point.
Yeah, it does seem silly, but then so does flying on a private jet to a meeting with someone when you could just use the phone, email or video conferencing or w/e. It seems that however good the technology gets, people still put a lot of emphasis on doing business in person even if it is ludicrously expensive. People, eh. vOv
I've been to management courses which emphasise that a huge amount of information about what a person is thinking and how sincere they are is conveyed via body-language. That you can lose 50% of the information by calling someone on the phone instead of talking face to face, perhaps 80% via email.
In an environment with few legal sanctions for someone that rips you off, being able to meet someone face to face when deciding whether to trust them in a business deal might be surprisingly common. Especially if we have real-time video manipulation designed to hide "tells" and be bland.
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The justification for meeting someone, also, can be used within EVE devices. CONCORD monitors all FTL communications, right? You could even say that comms aren't secure, and that meeting face-to-face is far more safer.
EDIT: However, eliminating combat RP and relinquishing that to staff I think limits a lot of RP possibilities....just sitting around and talking...
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waiting for the paperback
My copy is paperback... Not available yet where you're living, Havohej?
Might be - I haven't checked. Empyrean Age took forever so I just figured Burning Life would, too
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EDIT: However, eliminating combat RP and relinquishing that to staff I think limits a lot of RP possibilities....just sitting around and talking...
Do you refer to in-space combat, or dirtside? Because I tend to think of generals of rank similar to Seriphyn's as directing combat, not getting out on the front lines and throwing ammo around themselves.
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EDIT: However, eliminating combat RP and relinquishing that to staff I think limits a lot of RP possibilities....just sitting around and talking...
Do you refer to in-space combat, or dirtside? Because I tend to think of generals of rank similar to Seriphyn's as directing combat, not getting out on the front lines and throwing ammo around themselves.
I heartily concur.
There's no reason, at all, to put a pod captain in the line of dirtside fire.
Mind you, that's not to say that a pod captain wouldn't be so gung-ho as to put himself in the line of fire anyway. You're a multimillionaire (at least) demigod privateer. Who, exactly, is going to tell you "no?"
The place where I feel the line is crossed is where said flyboy-turned-ground-pounder makes some claim to having a truly substantial effect on ground combat. The ground simply is not a capsuleer's strong suite. At most, a capsuleer might make a good officer-- interchangeable, however, with any number of other good officers, which, again, makes putting one on or near the planet-or-stationside front lines a foolish choice. Out-of-pod just is not where a capsuleer shines.
The fact that something is a foolish choice doesn't mean that it won't get made, mind you.
And even without that, there's nothing saying that "capsuleers never get in fights." Eve is the sort of universe where it behooves you to carry a sidearm....
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Heh, I leave this thread for a few days and it goes to Quebec, gets a tattoo and comes back with pink hair.
First of all, I never said pilots out of their pods was blasphemy. People tend to take the extremes and argue against them like it was my main point, and that is certainly NOT it. I can see many circumstances where pilots might interact out of pod, but much of what I see done is...well, immersion breaking for me. But whatever, it's just my opinion. I just discuss what I see and talk about what I want.
As for the bit about this:
The pod, as great as it is from a game mechanic point of view, is terrible for storytelling. It removes the captain-crew dynamic that would make for compelling characterisation and smooth exposition. It removes any sense of dramatic tension. There's not much at stake - least of all a captain's life - and we are all stupidly rich, so losing your stuff doesn't really cut it either.
...I disagree entirely. If anything I think it gives us an opportunity to approach a perspective that is innately outside our perspective, a concept for which roleplay was originally intended. Roleplay is about experiencing the different, and we shouldn't be afraid to tackle something just because it rests outside our comfort zone.
Popular roleplay concepts like White Wolf's Vampire series (space vampires, lol) has been exploring the concept of what makes us human (in nature) and how extraordinary circumstances gleans new perspective that many would consider 'inhuman' and alien. When you take away the natural limitations that define a human, despite their continuing habit to BE human, do they gradually accept their life as demi-god pilots with near limitless resources or try to retain their humanity, pretending that nothing has changed?
Personally, I find that kind of interaction interesting. What kind of impact does this 'alien' lifestyle have on ordinary people and how do they evolve as people (in mind and body)?
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I'm just going to stress that the various chrons about the pod implants themselves and the backstory surrounding them make it evident that long-term interfacing with the pod without breaks causes deliterious effects, especially nausea.
That might be something of merit to ponder as to why pilots spend time out of the pod.
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I'm just going to stress that the various chrons about the pod implants themselves and the backstory surrounding them make it evident that long-term interfacing with the pod without breaks causes deliterious effects, especially nausea.
That might be something of merit to ponder as to why pilots spend time out of the pod.
And here I thought that was just CCP's way of telling us it's healthy to take a break and get some fresh air once in a while :P
I'd agree with what Kaleigh says, but no matter what mess pods do to a persons head, I think there's still too much instinct in a human and their desire to meet and greet where necessary and walk around. They did it before they were pilots and old habits die hard.
On the space-lesbian note, it might be a good pointer that Kaleigh is Gallente for one thing...
Secondly, I'm sure sex and sexual orientation is something that needs to be looked at more. Do pilots distance themselves from the physical act because they prefer the use of machines and tools? Or is that area just an inherently tough place to RP responsibly? Does fantisizing it make it easier to do? And just what situation is sexuality at 24 odd thousand years in the future?
Topic split on that?