Whenever a non-roleplayer spies/awoxes/scams, you see a lot of threads in places like Crime and Punishment that outs all of that player's alts. I'm not sure why a roleplayer who conducts such activities should receive any sort of special protection simply on the basis that they roleplay.
I bolded and underlined the question I think is at the heart of your post. The short answer is "No"; if you steal actual, mechanical assets, you have engaged in a form of meta gameplay that is inherently deceptive and untrustworthy. If a roleplayer pulls a heist off on one character, reasonably speaking I shouldn't trust other characters played by the same player with assets either. It is the player who engaged in the meta gameplay, not the character. That's not to say the player is some sort of foul, evil person, but it simply wouldn't be wise to give them access to valuables anymore.
Hmm, I kinda see EVE as a poker game: deception is expected, even among friends you can trust IRL.
I can understand the OOC name and shame, but I'd hate it if Ché loses all IC credibility just because there's OOC knowledge that his player has a spy/thief alt. To me, it feels like a char not getting into TS-F because the player also plays an mission alt that does incursions, or a Matari char not getting into TLF because the player also has an Amarr Holder char. Or Ché not walking into somewhere because I see, OOC, that Ava is there waiting to punch Ché in the nards.
I would prefer it if the RP community people trusted I can keep my characters seperated until proven otherwise.
What does it matter if it's "actual, mechanical assets" instead of an IC secret or asset. Why is it not ok if someone steals "a mere 2 billion", when it is ok if someone reveals character X's big dark secret, or abucts her daughter to sell as a slave? I can blow up all your ships and crew and all will be well with The RP Community, but steal one, and I'm out?
As someone whose interactions are 99% IC when logged in, I don't see why I couldn't RP a spy/thief without metagaming, but then again, I never tried it yet, so I guess there are some things I have not thought about?
Is there no spy/counterspy/sabotage thing going on in FW RP corps or other RP enemies?
So...is Ché's trustworthiness affected now you folks know that I, the player, am cool with the spy/thief thing?
It is perfectly fine to have characters backstabbing each other through corp heists with a lot of valuable casualties. I don't think a lot of us hold grudges against the act in itself nor against the IC side of it.
The issue I take though, is on the OOC level. Your analogy with poker is an interesting one and I think it may be one of the best ways to play the game and not to take things too seriously. However I still think the analogy falls short since even in Poker, you know that the other players are your enemies and not your friends, and you generally don't start using friendship, trust, and feelings to make your way to their bank account.
Also, stealing assets in eve is not only stealing virtual useless things, it is also stealing the time and effort that the person spent to gather them, and it can even be measured in real life money thanks to plexes. It's fine and all, but again on the OOC relationship level, it can hurt.
Declaring on an open forum that you have one spy/thief alt, or are brewing one for such purpose wasn't the smartest thing to do to begin with. It has left a permanent mark on your shirt now.
Honestly, I don't think anyone has to wet his shirt over Che's declaration. It's not if anyone who's not declaring that he's got a spy/thief alt is any less suspicious.
Suspicious yes. Doesn't mean that everybody does it.... does it ? I hope not...
The same way that everyone IRL can be suspected to deal in crime at night, does not mean that everyone does.
Here's an interesting thought. Could you corpthieve via RP without breaking OOC trust?
If someone came to you and said, "here's what I'm trying to RP, here's what I've done, here's the reasons"... and you thought it was reasonable and well done... would you RP them thieving from your corp? Give them assets?
Maybe I would but it's easy to say now, but if it happened to me I can't say that I would not hesitate, depending on the amounts involved. It's so much valuable time spent in farming that it would certainly hurt...
But if I can get good RP out of it, why not. It's like investing in it. I have already done that in contests and events in the past, so why not here too ? And if it's given to a fellow RPer, all the better, it's not falling into unknown hands.
