I can be plenty judgmental, And my empathy is reserved for people who aren't slavers of the Matari.
Did I say or imply otherwise? (Also: the people who ARE slavers, or pro-slavery, for the Matari are a kind of select group these days.)
But I'm also pragmatic. Does it serve my interests to insult publicly someone who could potentially shoot at the people I want shot, even if they are a decadent cultural imperialist Gallente? No? Then let's not tell them. Can I have any appreciable impact on the potential target of a war dec? No? Then is there a point in throwing one?
"Pragmatic" is in the eye of the beholder. In your position, is it appropriate to be shooting at culturally-imperialist Gallente? Probably not, or not yet. If the Amarr and Caldari weren't around, that might change things, but as it is you have more immediate concerns. But what about the Caldari, who aid and abet the Imperial machine, even as they outlaw slavery themselves? What about the "neutrals" who talk out both sides of their faces and do all manner of business that profits the Amarr, willfully ignorant of their role in supporting the Empire?
From certain angles, particularly the protectionist, traditionalist angle, these are as much enemies as the Amarr themselves-- and might be greater threats. What's more, larger targets could be seen, pragmatically, as forces that must be opposed for the sake of the homeland (whatever that might be), even if they cannot easily be overcome; the alternative, from this perspective, is honorless surrender.
Let me be clear: the Minmatar/Amarr front is in better shape, RP conflict-wise, than others (always has been), and I regard EM, PIE, U'K and so on as role models in setting up sustained RP warfare. Even that fire, however, seems to want a fresh armload of dry kindling, and a few logs, at least from the Amarr side, and maybe someone to blow onto the coals.
As for the rest of us, we probably need all that, plus a bunch of newspaper and a match.
There does seem to be a lot of that about, but I don't think I'd include myself in that number.
To the degree that's true, you're less the subject of these remarks than an example of what we need more of.
And, from experience, once you start avoiding slavers, and then people who sleep with slavers by choice, and people who don't see a problem going to balls put on by slavers... Well, you start having a shortage of people to RP with.
Aye, there's the rub. 'Course, it need not actually inhibit RP. Forum wrangling and so on aside, some of the most fun you (or I, at least) can have in a "bar" or wherever entails trying to win over sworn enemies, or else to weaken their morale and compromise their resolve.
In Neverwinter Nights online RP, I used to play a tiny, weak, fragile, pretty, obviously evil, but just as obviously tormented and near-helpless, character. She was an enslaved minion to a much more powerful demonic entity, and carefully calculated to push every chivalrous button the good-aligned PC's possessed: paladin-bait. This was a blast, playing on heroes' empathy and desire to "save" my hapless, literally damned character while making a strong case for the philosophy of Chaotic Evil as, in fact, the "true" path (to wit, "That the strong rule and the weak suffer is a rule of all lands in all times. We just don't try to pretend otherwise").
Tempting heroes is FUN.
Also, for the record, 4th Ed's revision of demons into mindless killing machines is the most stupidly-boring waste....
Anyhow. The above is impossible to pull off in Eve, of course, where weakness inspires scorn instead of pity, and also more morally unambiguous than I like these days. Still, playing a diametrically-opposed, but chatty, character is a perfectly good way to get some excellent RP in.
And I don't really blame people for choosing to have people to RP with over being justifiably judgmental, especially if they don't have a corp or alliance with enough ambient RP to get them their fix if they don't.
Of course not. Nor do I. In fact, my own character, in her own way, has historically been a voice for moderation with regard to virtually everybody but Sansha's Nation.
I don't "blame" anybody. I just see a problem, widely recognized as a real problem, and suggest a fix. Where the fix works, that's good. Where it isn't needed, that's fine.
... So, if you don't need it, then, as Aria would put it, these words are not meant for you.
Author
Topic: Let there be WAR! (Read 15216 times)