I think it interesting all three of your options end up in explosions
Especially considering how rarely explosions actually seem to happen when RPers are involved (at least in my experience).
If you're not going to fire spaceship layz0rs at each other, why EVE and not pen/paper?
e.g. in the last Doll War, my opposition engaged while outmatched (1 cruiser + punisher vs my cruiser) and I engaged outnumbered (retribution vs 3 punishers. I lost, but killed 2 punishers + 1 pod).
it seems other people wouldn't fight those, and would have just spun in station instead. so why EVE and not paper?
I'm not exactly sure why the idea people try to perpetuate the idea that people that roleplay are less inclined to be interested in pvp in EVE. Personally, I want some meaning to my gameplay, hence why I pursue roleplay to add a level of immersion that justifies character behavior in-game.
The problem that I have with a majority of conflicts between RP entities in EVE are that they appear to be artificially inspired, or in other words a "war and pvp first, justify it later" approach. I mean, hey, it's a game, you do what you like, but that doesn't get
me engaged as a player to jump into a conflict when my character is scratching their head wondering wtf is going on. Furthermore, I think the perception of war is skewed by the real world in a sense that wars can be won by obliterating your enemy, conquering their land, and hearing the lamentations of their women. In New Eden, we have CONCORD mediating our wars with an artificially infinite number of people ready to fight at our disposal, and the pilots themselves can never die. So your alternatives are left with destroying their POS structures and forcing your enemy to remain docked until their corp disperses or you claim victory with a lot of chest beating and killboard stat-flexing. When a majority of the RP community base their roleplay on ideological and racial boundaries, this becomes absurd to me because I'm just seeing an endless murder fest with no goal or purpose.
Another area where the immersion busts for me is the matter of location. I can see a reason for Freedom fighters to want to stop the Amarrians from expanding in Providence, but many of the conflicts I see (and have been apart of) involve enemies on the other side of the map that have exactly ZERO impact on my character. At least in 0.0, there's SOME justification for war; resources are up for grabs and territory has some worth to be defended, but there's nothing in EMPIRE space you can't get in the Federation that you could in the State (other than agents). So while my character may be ideologically opposed to yours (say, Nola supporting the Sansha cause), declaring war on me when you're 40+ jumps from my current docked location gives me absolutely no justification for coming after you. I can replace ships and manpower. How is this hindering my cause? What do I stand to gain by exploding your punisher?
*flex*So again, as a roleplayer,
meaning is important to me. It's why I got into RP to begin with.