Okay okay okay okay.
First off I am a new player (nine months or so). Eve is my first mmo and this is my first attempt at RP so let that color your interpretation of the following:
Eve is a pvp game.
No matter what you do or where you go you are subject to the will of other players. You can make friends, join corps or do 'safe' things but in the end, you WILL learn this lesson. If you do not they you have not played long enough.
RP is zero percent different. Zero. ZERO.
Let me tell you a story, I bumbled my way into RP when I mistakenly thought that RP and the Summit were synonymous with Faction warfare. I thought that is just how it was done. I played for a bit and literally made my character backstory when I found a 'group of Kameiras' in a shitty mission. That is how I made Aya. I started to act like I thought a Kameira should and I got shot the fuck down. I got mocked and ridiculed IC. I had to completely rethink my character from the very bottom. Why? Because I was flying a ship I could not afford to lose. What I did was the IC equivalent of undocking in a shitfit rifter, minmatar frigate to one and T1 guns, no prop mod etc…
I stated my opinion in the summit in contention to much older and well developed characters (I went Suspect/ attacked someone) and I got shot the hell down. TS-F, Ava, and many many others all jumped on to whore the KM. Because I brought a shitfit wolf with no prop mod to a group of people with Caps, T3's battleships, people who had literal Titans worth of IC knowledge experience and investment. I got fucking ReKt.
And I deserved it too. Looking back, I deserved ever single bit of it. I would have done the exact same thing to me. This is eve not my little pony.
So I started over, read the chrons, asked experienced players, put myself in a safer place, flew cheaper plotlines, ones I could afford to back out of.
I trained the skills, and now I can fly the fuck out of a goddamn Wolf, I can RP the fuck out of a angry Kameira named Ayallah. I have a Faction (corp), minmatar loyalist and nullsecer. I have experience in my Areas of expertise. I have respect that I have earned now. And more importantly I know what fights I can take. I know to not 1v1 Ava when it comes to how to minmatar. I know to not take my 'still' shitfit wolf to TS-F home system and tell them now to Sansha. Not unless I am cloned up and ready to lose a ship you know?
I do not think anyone can out Aya me anymore. No one says a damn thing about being a Kameira or being a Minmatar/brutor/belligerent to me. Why? Because I know that particular plot-line better than anyone. And the parts that I don't, I work with the people of my faction who do. I make up shit all the time about being a brutor and a kameira, outlandish things that are honestly further that I went even in the beginning. Difference is, I can back it up with experience and knowledge, with a believable story and people who will support it for one reason or the other. Even if it is because I am not worth the effort or they do not want to start a fight with me they might lose. Still counts. And the things I don't know? I rely on my faction, on the friends and more experienced people I know IC and OOC. I don't jump in and tell Ava fucking starfire how to sebiestor ...you dig? I follow her lead and in return I get the support from her when I say things about being Matari or Brutor. I got dangerous, earned the respect that I rely on to fly. Now, other people worry about me in local (making claims etc) now people ask me what nullsec or kameira-ness is like. Now, people do not argue with me or shoot me down. ...But if I take my ass to someone's home system (caldari rp/sansha rp/gallentean rp or what have you) I can get shot down too. Not my space, not what my ship can fight etc. Not checks my ass can cash.
There are two options, you can whine about it or you can HTFU and learn the PF, learn to fit your ship, learn how to play eve. EARN the respect. Or you can play a safe player, a high sec care bear equivalent. But you can and will get ganked just like people like me who stick my neck out on opinions every single day.
edit:[redacted] > it's called a reputation tank
Eve is a beautiful place. But beautiful like a jungle. And because I am feeling poetic, "If you aren't a predator then you better pray"
Because that is all that is stopping you from getting eaten.