I find that EVE doesn't really promote roleplay for some reason. In fact, a lot of players seem to look down on it. I don't understand why. Is it a lot of fun pretending that you are moving around the computer animated simulation of a spaceship, making and losing pretend money?
CCP and Eve have always had a weird stance on RP, quite opposed to other MMOs. Other MMOs usually try to include at least a bit of RP into their game, by making stuff like RP servers at a bare minimum, and some go as far as to make some animations a bit like dev actors in Eve. Not much mind you, but some include tools and RP props here and there.
And then you have Eve, which has never really claimed the RPG part of the MMORPG title, but at the same time created an incredibly deep lore that has no equal in the MMO milieu, except maybe for MMOs created out of famous licenses that already have a huge lore (Star Wars, Warhammer, etc). I think they never really tried to tie both their game with the universe, and considered their lore to be something besides, good stories illustrating their universe, but not really included in the life of their capsule players.
I think there is another limitation in that a lot of people (myself included ) don't read up enough on the chronicles and the PF to engage in meaningful EVE RP. I had a Tavern channel once called 'Jita Cantina', and the only customer I had ended up blowing up part of the wall with his blaster pistol. I suppose it was fun and imaginative, but there was nothing else to go on really. No story line.
I didn't read them all. Maybe half of them (the ones that I got interested in), which is already something I guess, but over 6 years of time it's not much per day as a ratio actually.
I don't think chronicles now are the primary lore material, and certainly not the most accessible as well. Half of them are chronicles like "the precious tableau" which do barely make sense or are so obscure in their meaning, or just so specific that they will never really make you learn something about the universe.
Even that Black Mountain series was extremely obscure and over its 10 chronicles, you actually learn 90% of the stuff you would like to learn on SoCT in the 9th chronicle which is a documentary that actually explains. As for Sanctuary, you learn barely a thing about them even if they are like half of the story protagonists. The rest is... well, obscure. It's a nice series, but it's not very instructive.
The chronicles that are actually the most informative are the oldest ones actually, that were presented as summaries about sub factions or entities (CONCORD, etc). Those are real infodumps, but were very short since they were among the first writings about the eve universe. Now you just have to open the eve wiki to find all of that writing down here. And much more.
Actually I think that all the core articles on evelopedia are actually where you want to look at when you want to know more about PF. Chronicles are either a good complement (chained to the sky, that kind of chronicle), or just artistic licence (the precious tableau, etc), or somewhere in between.
I wonder if something could be done with the 'walking in stations' animation which seems kind of useless ATM. Before the feature was added, I had imagined something like a boardroom where everyone could meet their corp-mates face to face. Apparently though, we are all alone and can't leave the room because of a contamination risk. If you were looking for a 'Sims' type of game, this would be the place for it.
I'm pretty sure they gave up on WiS especially because their tech is not able to handle several avatars at the same place at a time.
EDIT: @Lyn
You do realize the very first point in your linked post. Point 1). Makes it exclusive to returning players. Aka Veterans right?
Wasn't the point you were all making that veterans do nothing to improve the situation and spend their time complaining ? Wasn't point 1) about making them moving their asses to actually do something ?
You don't find your character enforcing their will upon others to be RP? Facing or dealing out consequences for words and actions? I think Eve may very well be the only MMO out there that actually promote RP by marrying PF and game mechanics so tightly together. Whether they identify themselves as roleplayers or not, pretty much everyone out there can be interacted with and taken as an IC interaction.
Every damn player in Eve doing their thing fits within the universe and setting, be it the jita scammer, the nullsec empire builder, the FW pilot orbiting buttons or just trawling for kills, through RvB staging battles for the shits and giggles. They're all IC actions of a capsuleer doing their thing.
I have exactly zero need to interact with someone in local if I'm hunting or being hunted by them. I have a war cry button and it's F1 through F4, depending on my ship and setup. I've got a death cry too, which is spamming my pod escape. Until I see a fighter pilot or ship captain in our times yell "HAVE AT THEE, CUR!" over comms in real life, I'll stick to mine.
You find that shooting down capsuleers in space prove something or enforce your will upon them ? I have always had a difficult time with that notion I have to admit. Especially since none of our actions have any meaning on the universe of New Eden itself since CCP carefully kept us separated from the NPC lore. We spend our time shooting the hell out of each other in an enclosed environment.
Well, maybe I got tainted by my character views, or maybe the contrary, or maybe both, but what if you shoot someone down ? He will just come back and the only thing you will have achieved is to make the character angrier.
I don't find the link between words and action in this game, unless you are playing the hormone usual boast "i'm stronger than you and you will end up on my killboard yarr". How does shooting someone down makes you right about a point you made on the IGS, or where ever else ? That concept is completely alien to me.
The only situation were I can actually imagine that ingame actions can have meaning is when both parties of RPers are understanding each other with a clear cut storyline involved where people shoot down a tower or whatever, and make up stuff about what it implies for their crews, planets, factions, etc.