In defense of the Blood Raiders though, I do think that they are doing some of the best (or only) RP in EVE at the moment. Naupilius is spending a lot of his own time and ISK to provide content such as placing 'easter egg' towers, simply to give other people the opportunity to shoot these towers down. Synthetic Cultist is doing her (it's?) part in providing story lore content in the summit. A lot of work and creative thinking went into the RP that these players are doing. The downside of this is that they all seem fractured and dissenting, despite Omir Sarikusa's efforts to unite them.
They are far from the only people doing RP.
As far as game mechanics, I have wondered about adding a 'War cry' and a 'Death cry' to a character's creation sheet. The war cry would be a pre-chosen sentence delivered as soon as the first shots were fired, and the Death cry an EVE mail once a pod has been ruptured. This would add a lot to the roleplaying experience.
I don't think it would. Stock, automated phrases are not roleplay. Roleplay is deliberate interaction, the back and forth of action and reaction. In such a case as a fight, roleplay is inherent in what ships people fly, how they approach and act in the battle, and how they choose, directly, to open or end it. It will also be partially built on what they choose to say, such as local taunts (PIE fleets for example frequently quotes Scripture when the enemy is choosing not to engage, as a way of hopefully taunting them. It's not just RPers that do this as it happens all the time with OOC smacktalk as well, and that in itself is a form of RP).
Either way I would consider the vast majority of RP to happen
outside of battles. Battles are battles and their purpose is in that limited capacity. They are useful for demonstrating a character's commitment to fight for their beliefs but ultimately most interaction rests in the spaces
between battles. Sometimes that is local smack, but it is more often dialogue in The Summit, on the official RP forum, or in private conversations between characters or in the various other RP channels and establishments. The interactions in these mediums fosters relations and can lead to or be spawned off the battles, or not be related at all as having a battle is not at all necessary for RP.
RP needs a balance of interactive activities and in-game space activities. But the moment it becomes automated, it is no longer RP, just two-dimensional cariactures in a video game. it is for this same reason that I also dislike characters who have been created solely to be stock mouthpieces for their faction, without any consideration for the actual character itself. I, for one, want to immerse myself in a real universe populated by real people with real beliefs, emotions, and interactions.
As far as all this talk against faction loyalist RP? Different flavors. For me, independent, freelancer, pirate RP is about as dull as it gets. You have no purpose, no drive, no structure. There is no want or conflict in that kind of RP because by its nature you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. And when you have that kind of freedom, there no longer becomes any reason to do anything. Yes, you can build something, you can create your own goals, but for me the capacity to build something means little if there is no reason to build it beyond what reasoning you invent to give it purpose.
Loyalist RP provides a framework for a character. It provides a structure to guide their actions, as well as conflict in that what that character wants or how they act may or may not mesh with the structure and they must try to deal with this in some way. Limitations and restrictions on a character create conflict, and conflict is what drives a story. I'm glad to have limitations. I'm glad to have a structure. I'm glad that my character has a purpose to try and fulfill, and that there are roadblocks on the way of that. And no, this purpose is not such two-dimensional goals such as 'defeat the Republic and win the war'. Yes, that can't be acheived within mechanics, and yes that is dull. Any two-dimensional and uninspired RP is dull. Purpose, for any of the factions, is what is determined by that faction's
culture, its
beliefs, and where RP lies is in how how these cultures and beliefs interact or clash against the individual wills of the people who uphold them.
When you remove all of that, what are you left with? What is the point of a blank slate that has nothing to guide its motivations and no purpose to fulfill? For me, independent RP is that. There's just no point to it for me. Essentially, I for one prefer and need a
collectivist angle in my RP, and so loyalist RP is by far more interesting to me than independent RP.