Xyno
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Posted - 2005.01.24 17:48:00 -
[1]
I like pirates who are mature and interesting. As a newbie trader (12 days now) I tend to be in big slow ships with little weapons and armor. I am also more than willing to hit <0.5 space to make a good trade.
I had one time (at about 6 days old) when I just jumped into a 0.3 system with my brand new badger and was sitting by the Stargate looking at the market window trying to figure out what station I was going to make a sale at. (Stupid I know. Hey I am a newbie.) Once my gate cloak faded Kyogen Steiner (who was parked by the gate) had my shields, armor and a quarter of my hull gone in 4 seconds. He also tossed on a warp scrambler.
Fortunately, I had done a bit of reading up and instead of cargo expanders in my badger I had two warp stabilizers. I was able to warp to a nearby station before his next volley hit. I made a comment in local "Ouch that really hurt. :-)". Kyogen responded by congratulating me on the good escape and we started a nice conversation about the dangers of 0.3 space, what cargo I was carrying, and the value of warp stabilizers. We parted paths with a mutual wish of "good luck to you in our next encounter".
I didn't know enough about how to check information on someone so I don't know what his security standing was or what corp he was. But from our conversation he was clearly a dedicated pirate.
So what did I, as the newbie, think of this encounter (my first player pirate)? I loved it. I was already getting a bit bored with Eve and my trading. Pick up cargo, undock, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, dock, sell cargo, undock, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, dock, pick up cargo..... You get the picture. After the attack by Kyogen I sat up out of my "slowly getting bored with game" stupor and said "wait a minute this is getting interesting".
PvP and piracy adds a whole dimension of challenge to the game. Unlike computer guided rats, player pirates think, plan, and adapt. And if you want to survive you need to do the same. That is what I play this game for. If I want to do meaningless repetitive things to have my meanless numbers (ISK account balance) go up without any challenge or risk I have plenty of games that I can do that on (and they don't require an internet connection or a monthly fee). I want depth, challenge and risk!!! Player pirates provide that and encounters with them can be very enjoyable.
Now I don't like the stupid low brow pirate players who spam local with smak talk, pointless gloating and incomprehensible lingo. But I don't like carebear players who do the same. I want interesting and intelligent fellow players whether they are companions or adversaries.
I have been spending time in Jan (0.4) space and had to deal with a bunch of F.O.E. people gate ganking. It was so interesting to see gankee's (people who got ganked) whining and moaning. These people would spam local with their complaints and threats "I am going to go get my bs and kick your a$$ etc." People were so upset that they lost their ship, modules and cargo to pirates. I kept silent but I wanted to say "Uh Hello??? That is what pirates do."
Meanwhile I continued on running my agent missions out of Jan without a problem. I didn't have a pass, I didn't pay ransom, I didn't whine to the pirates, what I did do was take the pirates presence as an opportunity to think and strategize. I knew that I could jump into Jan through the pirate blockage because the jump cloak would protect me in the short time it would take me to warp to my home station. But if I wanted to leave Jan through the blockade I needed to take either of two approaches. I needed to not let the autopilot just pick a route that included the camped gate (I went into the map and chose an alternate but slight longer route that would get me to my mission system). Or I could make a bookmark behind the camped stargate so that I could warp directly to it and jump (obviously I would need to do that when the pirates were not around). Also I knew that while some weapon mods or cargo expanders would have been nice, I had to be smart and stick with the warp stabilizers.
So the point of this long example is, we need to stop whining about player pirates. They are worthy adversaries that make this game interesting for the rest of us. The silly and rude ones should get what they deserve (silence so that you don't reward their rudeness with a response.. that and a cruise missile across their bridge). The mature and polite ones you should salute and then take the opportunity to think and see how you can avoid, trick or defeat them.
So after that long response Vampire, this newbie can sum up his feelings by saying that if you are a pirate like Kyogen Steiner then it would be an honor to run from (often), fight with (occasionally), defeat (hopefully) and die (hopefully not very often) to you. 
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