Jade Constantine
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Posted - 2003.10.07 14:44:00 -
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Edited by: Jade Constantine on 07/10/2003 14:48:01
Agent Shield,
A lot of it comes down to the terms for ending hostilities; most specifically the presence of achievable war aims.
In the Taggart case (to which I think you refer first); that corporation really did get seriously hurt in the Venal war, both in theatre, in empire space, and in the arena of hearts and minds and internal morale. And in the end, surrender or no surrender, the terms of the ceasefire were such that a massive majority of NVA war aims were satisfied and the gesture of contrition was sufficient to win the support of a majority of the NVA corporate council.
The truth of this is that the only way you can kill a corporation in this game is to literally drive the players in that corporation to quit or de-align themselves from you enemy. Some of this comes from direct application of destructive engagement, some of it from public relations pressure, and some from simply denying access to the way these chaps want to play the game.
Its hard ball, and its hard to keep up for a long time. You need to be pretty merciless and resolved to keep on going until the enemy c-r-a-c-k-s. (WTF? ... huh huh she said c-r-a-c-k-s !*? very beavis and buthead ed!)
But I think you also need to be watching for the gestures of surrender and broken spirit in the foe. If you have any pretence of fighting a ôjustö war then you have to remain open to the possibility of genuine contrition on the part of the enemy, because continuing to flog a dead horse will eventually turn you into what you despise I think. But boy, itÆs a difficult line to judge.
In the Taggart case I think the NVA council were spot on and responded entirely appropriately to GunnyPÆs declaration. All NVA war aims were met; the Taggart war declarations were gone, RagnarÆs territorial ambition was gone, the murder bounties were gone, the pirate alliance was gone, Ragnar himself was gone, and at the end of it GunnyP recognised the authority and claim of the NVA.
Put simply, the ceasefire proposal from Taggart was so good there was no need for a formal surrender. And this does make a salient and useful example for other enemies in the future, saying literally; ôwe will not humiliate you if you come to terms without wriggling.ö
ItÆs important that, it shows us as reasonable foes that will not go psycho and resort to adolescent revenge kicks when we are winning. It holds out the possibility for continued existence beyond the current conflicts, and it encourages people to look at the long game.
The other example here, M3G4 and Biomass;
Well it took us a while to get M3G4 to meet the terms of surrender but they did in the end. Sure we could just say ônever forgetö and keep chasing them, but letÆs face it; there are bigger fish to fry and corporations that we are not formally at war with that we hate far more.
If M3G4 are as good as their current word then fine, if not, well, itÆll be back to business as usual; in reality we lose nothing much.
There were consequences to the war for M3G4 (even beyond the asset stripping) and now they are not allowed in the territory of the NVA for ordinary business. They didnÆt get away freely, and have paid a price for their engagement.
Re Biomass, since these chaps left a pirate group and pledged piracy again and have continued hostilities against the NVA they are still on KOS, and nothing has changed. In effect the war against M3G4 has moved on to name Biomass the primary agents, and this is all right and proper.
But back briefly to your original questions and sentiments about people and corporations being forgiven and getting away with punishment.
I have absolutely no problem with delivering arbitrary justice to those who earned hatred for actions. Jericho, for example, maintains a list of names (-20 standing) for anyone who has ever destroyed one of our ships. The only way off the list is to pay full compensation; either that, or accept that some day in the future a Jericho battleship will blast your own ship to bits in loose accounting for past sins. ThatÆs only fair.
But of course the lowest of the low are corp thieves à these are the guys that I would never forgive. We have a list of names there too, and these guys may as well be Doomheim recycling vat fodder for all their chances of gaining forgiveness and future trust.
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