Brom
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Posted - 2003.12.12 18:21:00 -
[1]
I'd probably have become a pirate, except for one fact. I've been a reasonably successful pkiller in several games, starting with Ultima Online (Aquaman on Atlantic server :) ), and I know that to survive under less than ideal circumstances, it's always best to shoot first and dont bother with questions. I graduated from college, though, and got out in the real world. It's not that I dont enjoy killing people, but I just dont have the time anymore to powergame the way I used to, thus I have at least some respct for the amount of work people do on limited timeframes. I used to not have any perspective of why someone was so devastated when I stole their home or 100k in weapons/armor in UO, until I realized how hard it is for that person to get that when he's holding down an 8 to 5 job with 2-3 hours a night to play.
That's why I have a lot of respect for pirates who demand ransoms. I have only met ONE pirate who had the courtesy of demanding ransom, and I was so excited to meet such a kindred spirit that I paid him double what he demanded. It was a crime in the old west to rob someone, and you'd do a few weeks of jail time, but there's a VERY good reason why stealing someone's horse warranted a death sentence. It's a mildly hurtful thing to take someone's money, but when you go taking the tools of their trade, it's as bad as murder. Sure Eve's a game, but the same rules apply here. If you go blowing up someone's ship that's their sole source of income, your just stealing their horse.
Imperial age pirates in the carribean also werent totally heartless. Yes they would pillage a ship for any valuables it may contain, but almost universally, pirates would leave enough water and saltbiscuits on the ship for the crew to get back to a port. Very seldom did pirates kill the crew of a captured ship, much less sink it, because this would incur the wrath of other pirates. A pirate could only become so infamous before he was a mar on the profession itself, and other pirates would hunt him down. Blackbeard was one such pirate who gained a measure of infamy, and if the imperial fleet set to hunt him down hadn't have gotte him, the governor of Kingsport would have.
I wish there were more pirates like Drunkenmaster, who do this. That gives piracy some air of respectability as a business, rather than griefers out to make people's lives miserable for the sheer mischief of it. Sadly, that's seldom possible in an online game. Escapes are too easy to make, and people have the option to log off and hide away for hours. Whether ir be "Kal Ort Por" or "Warp Drive Active, it's all the same thing. There are also factors like widely varying levels of maturity among players, and as we all know, it only takes one trigger-happy high schooler shooting at an indy the moment it comes into view to spoil everyone's reputation.
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