Just wanted to post a brief reply. This time of year kicks my ass, so sorry that I'm glazing over about half the thread and not taking time to reply to more.
In a PM I just sent Ghost Hunter, I think I summed up my problem with what went on the other day pretty well, so I want to share it here. He was asking my thoughts on using actual anchored structures, for instance a POS, in such RP, as opposed to cloaking and doing so. My response was as follows:
Actually, I think that would be a very creative way to do it. What my complaint comes down to is the fact that there is literally nothing anyone can do about the RP besides spout off in local. When you're claiming to be using a starbase, for instance, if the empire loyalists want to come knock down your sandcastle, they literally can by reinforcing your POS.
At the end of the day, that's my bottom line--can the RP be somehow impacted by actions in space? Can someone who doesn't want to /sip in local still be a part of the action? Can they still have an impact on the outcome without having to spam emotes and robe-and-wizard hat in local?
I guarantee you that of the 30ish Rote Kapelle pilots we brought down, half of them would be itching to hop on the next Sansha invasion like a carebear would an officer spawn--IF our being there had somehow had an impact on the outcome of the event and they got to see that. As it was, I can tell you that the fact that our name made EVE News with the killing of that carrier got a lot of non-RP guys interested. As for measurable impact on the event? We kept the field clean of random ships, but frankly those ships would have died just as fast to the Sansha had they stuck around anyway--I know, because we lost one to them.
You're going to attract a fringe of EVE players by playing gi joe in local, but if you do that and allow for actual actions to play a role too, you'll find more and more people interested.
I get that for a lot of people, EVE isn't a PvP game (okay, no, I don't get that at all, but I'll overlook it for a moment). But for most people, EVE is a PvP game, and for RP, particularly RP supported by CCP employees or volunteers, to eschew any sort of actual PvP is going to simultaneously eschew large sections of the EVE memberbase.
Suffice to say using your POS or other in-space shootable structure as a prop in the RP is fantastic from where I'm sitting, because it makes me sit there and think "hmm, do I want to risk my fleet shooting it, does it fit our organization's RP to do so, etc". Which in turn adds immersion to the event. Playing /sip in local, on the other hand, destroys the immersion for those of us flying in circles next to the Sansha wondering where the other 50 people that are talking in local are if they're having such a big impact.