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[Makkal]

I am curious to your thoughts on this position : All roleplay is by its nature consensual...

Rather true. You can't force someone to RP or RP in a way you like.

... and non-consensual actions / disruptive interventions can be ignored entirely.

I'd have no problem ignoring them.

[Ciarente]

My initial reading would be that they were calling you on fantasy roleplay, and giving you the option of joining the community norms.

Norms...in this community?
...

Chances are, if I ask 10 other people what the "community norm" is, I'll get at least 12 opinions :9.

Agreed. It's been my experience that every player has a point where 'if it happens in game, it happens' breaks down: maybe it's rescuing the damn damsel for the 1,000th time, maybe it's the fact that the chargen treats the different races as different species who never, ever interbreed, maybe it's the nonsensical NPC corps, or the eternally suicidal NPC belt rats, or the magically reappearing veldspar in every belt, or DT, or aggression mechanics, or alts, or the comparative size of ship models, or ...

And it's also been my experience that many players consider their own exceptions to the 'if it happens in game, it happens' rule to be basic, obvious common sense and community norms, and everybody else's to be immersion-breaking.

EVE has often contradictory PF, nonsensical game-mechanics, illogical behaviour by NPCs both small (belt rats) and large (Sansha incursions, anyone?). Every RPer integrates them as best they can and as much as they can, and with some points of difference from everyone else. 

The way you treat those differences is entirely up to you: curbstomp the other player with game mechanics, play along, change the subject, ignore them.  But it is your choice, not an unbreakable law of RP.

[Matariki Rain]

If someone tells me that something that I can see in-game isn't correct, I'm not blocking when I question it: I'm grounding our play in our shared world.

They might then go "Yes, and... it's some stupid CONCORD regulation" or "Yes, and... *wide-eyed stare* let me find a new corp: I didn't realise that would happen to my licence when I left".

The responsibility rests with them to present a reason why the public, shared information is, in that instance, not to be taken at face value.

[Halete]

I think we're working towards a point where we're roughly saying:

-Every time we invent something non-canon but plausible, we should attempt to collaborate and ground our RP
-Conversely, anything shown by in-game mechanics shouldn't be simply ignored. It's down to the player to color outside of the lines

... Which I think works best, really. "Why is CONCORD registering you as a criminal?" "WHAT? NO" is bad form. It's also one of the first things we're taught in improvisational drama. Don't block, work with it.

This isn't aimed at you by the way, Makkal, it's more of a general statement.

[Syylara/Yaansu]

Developing creative explanations for plausible, but not canonical (though also not anti-canonical) inconsistencies certainly advances the opportunity for more collaboration and can be an opportunity for the player to elaborate on attributes of their character.

Unfortunately since these kinds of inconsistencies are often brought up as a "gotcha" by characters in an antagonistic relationship, the response is likely to be more along the lines of "No, you're just a filthy liar, what are you hiding from us? SEE EVERYONE, THIS PILOT CLEARLY CAN'T BE TRUSTED!!!" rather than "oh, terribly sorry for the confusion, thanks for clearing that up.  That database error must be terribly frustrating!"

I agree there are certainly areas of gameplay where you shouldn't bend things recklessly.  However, in most any game I've played in I consider dev-imposed activities involving mindless repetition to be rather off-limits.  In this game I consider running missions or other activities that are totally limited to interaction with NPCs to be akin to farming dailies for gold or grinding raids for gear in order to "keep up with the Joneses."  That's different than say, participating in Faction Warfare while posturing on the IGS, then a year later trying to hand-wave it all aside.  But, in line with what was said above about everyone having their own "comfort zone" and assuming it is "the norm" I don't presume to impose my definitions on others.

Especially with the way the last few years have gone where "official" storyline lore has slowed to a crawl, discouraging RP that isn't outright contradictory just seems ultimately self-defeating.

[Merdaneth]

There is a big difference between ignoring in-game realities (like being a member of the Ministry of War) and denying them.

Ignoring them (and the RP people make with them) doesn't get you into trouble, denying them will because a denial is directly attacking the other player's interpretation of the EVE world. Ignoring them leaves the other player's image intact.

If you feel uncomfortable ignoring something, just contact the other player OOC and tell them you don't feel comfortable RP-ing with that subject...

[lallara zhuul]

...
Especially with the way the last few years have gone where "official" storyline lore has slowed to a crawl, discouraging RP that isn't outright contradictory just seems ultimately self-defeating.

The official storyline has always been dead slow and it always has moved forward in leaps.

That is why most of the long time RPers have leaned towards RP that is personal and 'realistic' instead of something that is contradictory to the status quo of New Eden.

I believe that is where the current depth of the Minmatar/Amarrian player created culture has come from.

From slow development that is almost glacial, co-operation and the consensus of the masses through small stories within the lines.

I believe that that it is also one of the reasons why the Minmatar/Amarrian RP circles are quite exclusive.

They have created something sustainable and entertaining to them, therefore there is a tendency to not to embrace every new player with the next new and best thing (that they have seen a hundred times) where that new player wants to be entertained instead of finding the entertainment within their own roleplay.

There is a lot of bi-polar behaviour exhibited by roleplayers, ADHD as well, there are some telltale signs of drama queens/llamas and if you exhibit any of those signs usually it means that you will never roleplay with the kind of roleplayer that has spent years building the story of their own character through small choices and encounters.

This is EVE, you protect yourself and your own first.

The fun is waaaaaay down the line.

[Graanvlokkie]

I am under the impression that role-play in EVE and what actually happens 'in-space' is growing further apart. Judging from the Intergalactic Summit forum, but also the IC channels, role-players seem to play and exist largely in their own little RP-bubble. A bubble were important galaxy-spanning events like the Goonswarm LP scam, Hulkageddon or even the Goonswarm-Star Fraction mutual ally war-dec don't exist or are simply ignored and hardly mentioned in-character.

How can people talk about their hairstyles, the latest relationships and not mention such things at all unless they consciously choose to not make such events part of their RP. Does it mean that such events simply don't exist within their RP-bubble? Are they discarded as to 'gamist' and therefore having no place in their RP world?

I got the feeling that more and more players separate their play in 'EVE the game' from their play in 'EVE world', and and can happily play a Amarr loyalist who's gameplay is supported by regular donations of isk from an alt enrolled in the TLF.

By separating my 'Eve the Game' from my play in the 'Eve World', I can ignore galaxy defining moments and large events like those the OP mentions which I have no part in.

This enables me pretend that my RP corp, that has only me and my alts, are doing amazing galaxy altering in space conquests, without having to face the reality that I am only in high sec running level four missions with my alt for a faction that I hate IC, by acknowledging the existence of entities that actually impact the galaxy and other capsuleers living in it.

The truth of my in-space actions goes against all of my channel RP and stories that I have written and crafted.

:sarcasm: