Capsuleers are not a threat to the empires in any shape of form.
CONCORD dictates completely how they interact with those outside of the capsuleer class.
That is one CONCORDs primary functions.
The power thing?
You have empires that have been taking advantage of the resource rush that has come with space exploration for centuries, for two thousand years in the case of the Empire.
The empires have colonized planets, built the infrastructures that exploit the capsuleers, they have populations in the trillions and what do capsuleers have?
Supercaps, space stations and POSes.
Which are all manned by the people recruited from the populations of the empires.
Try to fly your titan against the empires when your flight crew tells you to fuck off.
Try to use your POS without crew on your mining ship or the POS.
Same goes for your space stations.
Capsuleers have no loyalty of, or power over baseliners, which make everything that they use work.
Sure, your current crews might stick around during your uprising, but you would have no way to get new crew, without the infrastructure that the empires have to train and educate them.
I really need to eat my brekkies before reading these forums.
This is an argument for the ages and it really isn't new even if the trailer sort of brings it back to the fore again. I continue to disagree with Lallara's vision, which is ultimately based on what Lal wants for the game and not on what the game is actually telling him/us. Sorry dude, but that's how it is!
You say "capsuleers are not a threat to the empires in any shape of form"? Well, CCP has been saying the contrary for a long time and they are saying it again. If it hasn't become axiomatic then it should now as it is being reiterated into a defining vision for Eve development.
We can certainly talk about how much that is reflected in game, sure. Or "how much of a threat" in in-game terms. We'll end up talking a lot about what specific mechanics are there simply to facilitate gameplay on an OOC level and what are truly supposed to be representative of the setting. That's possibly an interesting discussion (but a ultimately a digression) and something that has been going on from the beginning, as well.
I also pretty much agree with Jade said here:
I see hi sec in a time of diminishing npc empire power (with the player led nullsec barbarians on the periphery) as being similar to the scenario described in Asimovs Foundation series. We as players are in a role with privileged insight and perception of the break up and fading out of imperial power but these things will take generations. In the Foundation books the average citizen of the galactic core had no idea the empire was a rotting corpse for hundreds of years while generals and warlords fought increasingly desperate campaigns on the frontiers. When it all came down might be analogous to concord shutting off their conflict limiters and all hispec becoming nullsec and the barbarians eating the corpse of the throneworlds , but that wouldn't ever actually happen within the lifespan of the game for obvious reasons.
I think that's pretty spot on.
However, speaking of my game experience, I never met an empire that could keep me down. Sure, I can't topple them or even unseat their sovereignty from a system, but I can keep doing my business without them really being a factor. I can run amok at will in at least low-security space. Capsuleer power is certainly not limitless, but it is vast. And it is growing. They have a great capacity for independent existence. All this certainly amounts to them being a threat.
Also, who says my ship crews have to come from the empires? They could come from 0.0 colonies. Neither do I subscribe to the idea that the empires could pull my plug and restrict me out of doing anything in game. I could be -10 with all empires and still keep on truckin' to a large extent.
But ultimately it comes down to Lallara's vision for Eve being different from mine. I'm just saying that Lal isn't listening to what CCP is saying.
