Imperial Slaves - A Proposition

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To OP as far as I know slave trade is illegal in every civilised systems. Imperial slaves are more like indentured servants. And, well galaxy and even human settled space is large and despite what ever superpowers like not fully governable. In those kind of situations historically slavery has always risen its ugly head. Regardless of its legality or lack of it. Even nowadays slavery exists on fringe of civilisation while it IS universally illegal.
 
Its why I feel FD did a great job with the power and superpowers regards background in ED. No one is really 'the good guy'.
Yes. They probably went a little too far the other way, in that you have to look fairly hard to find the good sides of any of them, and most of the best supported player groups are independent of the lot.

Needs a bit more of the public works "soft power" to be shown, perhaps, as the actual Romans did a lot of:
Tacitus said:
And so the population was gradually led into the demoralizing temptation of arcades, baths and sumptuous banquets. The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as 'civilization', when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement.
 
Yes. They probably went a little too far the other way, in that you have to look fairly hard to find the good sides of any of them, and most of the best supported player groups are independent of the lot.

Needs a bit more of the public works "soft power" to be shown, perhaps, as the actual Romans did a lot of:
I actually like the fact everyone is morally ambiguous, for me its much more accessible than say WH40K which dials up the hopelessness to, well, 40K really :D The bigger issue I think in ED is that people don't really think too hard about the lore, and that the lore is not applied as strongly as it should. If it was, you might get different outcomes to things like CGs.

Its why I kind of want EDs thin veneer of civilization to get an almighty smack and see how players react when things change.
 
Ok Cmdrs,

have done a test and ran 728t of meat puppets on the most profitable route according to EDDB.

I only made 1.9 Million? I make five times more from running human faeces on my reliable three hop route.

If Fdev do not increase the size of the pay from running meat puppets around, they may as well get rid of it.

1.9 Million, pah!

Tatty bye old bean
 
Since this is new information, I'll say this: if the developer's intent was to foster debate through their game, they messed up. Is anyone here arguing for slavery? No, they are just arguing that the lore should be preserved and I should go play something else and shut up about it. That's the opposite of debate.
This is a false argument. The original post is about the removal of imperial slavery from the game. Not the ethics of it. I do actually support the principal concept of imperial slavery both in game and real life.

1 IS as indentured servitude has been successfully implimented in ancient cultures such the Hebrews.

2 as it is descibed in Elite it does not violate human rights because A) it's done in a voluntary basis B) the slaves have rights and are not considered property. C) they can appeal to the court system if they are being mistreated D) it is not based on any ethnic or cultural background

3 I believe the welfare system is almost the equivalent of modern day slavery. It cripples entire demographics of people and it's been well documented that it's extremely difficult to get off of it once one gets on it. Indentured servitude for alot of people would be a far more enticing option if it were available because you are guaranteed to be debt free at the end of your term.

4 the crux of your argument rests on the idea that people mimic in game what they fantasize about IRL. That's absurd. There are more factors at play that you ignore such as the Role Play factor. Also others have pointed out that we commit murder and sell drugs etc etc and you just brushbit off but no. Those points are valid. I don't fantasize about going on a murder spree but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy combat in a game. Nor do I think stealing is ok but I like piracy in game.
 
You are trying to use semantics to mischaracterize my statements.
You keep repeating that, while that's not the case. Your statement was:

You can Roleplay as a space cowboy, illicit hauler, smuggler, renegade, vigilante, black-hat, griefer, ganker, noob hunter, or what have you.
But you can not roleplay a slaver.
Which clearly indicates that you're using "roleplaying" in a wrong sense, or you don't understand what roleplaying is, so I was trying to explain the difference.
Because, as I said earlier, you can actually roleplay "slaver", but it's the way you play that can earn you the title of "ganker" or "noob hunter", as those things have absolutely nothing to do with roleplaying.
You can call it "semantics" but it's important distinction.

My understanding was that a ganker is anyone that interdicts and kills an unsuspecting CMDR.
The numbers involved and so forth are inconsequential in my understanding.

To say one chooses to play the role of a pirate mercilessly and indiscriminately interdicting and killing CMDRs is the same statement I have been trying to make bar the term "ganker".
Your understanding of "ganker" is also rather wrong, although maybe generally more accepted. The clue is in the name : group of players "gangs up on" someone. There's no need to invent new name for someone who simply attacks someone else.
 
I'd like to suggest a pro-active retcon to have all the guns in Odyssey digitally replaced with walkie-talkies and for all the the NPCs to be replaced with Ewoks...
digitally replaced with ewoks.jpg

It does amuse when people like to appear offended on other peoples behalf...
 
I totally agree with your assertions on RP, but one thing I've noticed throughout the years, is if you don't know (or ignore) the motivations of an RP mocking ganker type of person in a game and purely view them through their character's actions, they sometimes create some of the most convincing characters you'll meet, which I find interesting.
Agreed - For those reasons if I meet some griefer (by that I mean f.ex someone who tries to ram me in a station) or some PvP eager player(s) spewing nonsense over comms for my immersion sake I just treat them as Reaver kind of crazies ;)
 
D) it is not based on any ethnic or cultural background
Slavery doesnt need to be based on any background, ethnicity or culture. It often is a certain demographic who are targeted at a certain time but its not specific.

A, B & C I could argue in lore hoe effective the controls or checks and balances actually are and how easy it is as a slave to report abuse.

A specifically I would question how voluntary it is, whats the alternative available? Its not as if they can get a job and pay off the debt is it?
I believe the welfare system is almost the equivalent of modern day slavery

I think it comes closer to Indentured Servitude, you have no control over your life and they beat you down but you can get out of the system eventually, but depends on the system I suppose.
 
This is a false argument. The original post is about the removal of imperial slavery from the game. Not the ethics of it. I do actually support the principal concept of imperial slavery both in game and real life.

1 IS as indentured servitude has been successfully implimented in ancient cultures such the Hebrews.

2 as it is descibed in Elite it does not violate human rights because A) it's done in a voluntary basis B) the slaves have rights and are not considered property. C) they can appeal to the court system if they are being mistreated D) it is not based on any ethnic or cultural background

3 I believe the welfare system is almost the equivalent of modern day slavery. It cripples entire demographics of people and it's been well documented that it's extremely difficult to get off of it once one gets on it. Indentured servitude for alot of people would be a far more enticing option if it were available because you are guaranteed to be debt free at the end of your term.

4 the crux of your argument rests on the idea that people mimic in game what they fantasize about IRL. That's absurd. There are more factors at play that you ignore such as the Role Play factor. Also others have pointed out that we commit murder and sell drugs etc etc and you just brushbit off but no. Those points are valid. I don't fantasize about going on a murder spree but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy combat in a game. Nor do I think stealing is ok but I like piracy in game.
An unpaid intern is current example of a socially acceptable indentured servant.

I’m also reminded of my youth, when I snuck out of church to go throw rocks at cars on a nearby highway and broke the windshield on a farmer’s truck, I avoided legal punishment by spending several weekends scooping biowaste for the man until my debt was paid. I went on to work for him for a wage once I was old enough to legally do so (quite the irony). It was a good experience that helped turn me into a better person.

edit: in hindsight
 
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Slavery doesnt need to be based on any background, ethnicity or culture. It often is a certain demographic who are targeted at a certain time but its not specific.
No it doesn't and I'm not suggesting it's the sole reason but if say the empire just decided to round up every Marlinist they could find and out them into slavery then it strongly suggests it's not a voluntary process
A, B & C I could argue in lore hoe effective the controls or checks and balances actually are and how easy it is as a slave to report abuse.
Elite Lore strongly says that the system is abused in some areas. That I won't argue with because it is in keeping with the general theme of the game that no one system or person is truly all good. In principle I think it's a good idea.
A specifically I would question how voluntary it is, whats the alternative available? Its not as if they can get a job and pay off the debt is it?
I actually think they do have jobs but it's the lavish lifestyle imperials live that puts them into debt. The lore doesn't flesh this part out too well so this is half me speculating based on some partial evidence. I think if they lived a more modest /financiallly conservative lifestyle the majority probably wouldn't have a problem. Again that's just me speculating as we don't really know the financial habits of the average imperial citizen.
I think it comes closer to Indentured Servitude, you have no control over your life and they beat you down but you can get out of the system eventually, but depends on the system I suppose.
No indentured servitude implies you do have to work whereas on welfare you do nothing at all. IRL it takes about 3 months worth of money to get off of it yet your not allowed to work while on it. On top of that the person looses their ability to be productive over time. Someone who can build furniture gets laid off and goes in welfare. After 2 years they can't do their job anymore or at least with far less proficiency than before.

Personally I think a system that incorporates a Ballance of both would be ideal.
 

Just out of curiosity... what's your point here? For me up to now it merely seems being a duck for the sake of being a duck. No insult intended to oldduck...

Mind you, i am mostly undecided about the thread itself. On one hand, i would understand the point of why a game might not want to support slavery. On the other hand, as murder and piracy also are supported, slavery is merely one more aspect to this, and merely part of the games design.

Compared to some other things possible in this game, slavery might actually be a "lesser" point, especially in the form of Imperial Slaves.

So in the end, i am quite indifferent to the topic of the thread. I do see a point of being able to act being criminal scum inside the game world. I don't see as much reason for doing so in a games forum, though.
 
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Its why I feel FD did a great job with the power and superpowers regards background in ED. No one is really 'the good guy'.

Yes. They probably went a little too far the other way, in that you have to look fairly hard to find the good sides of any of them, and most of the best supported player groups are independent of the lot.

Too many shades of brown and no mechanisms to paint them red.
 
Elite Dangerous is rated USK 12. The USK, for Germany, is one of the most strict age rating systems in the world. If the way ED depicts slave trading and human trafficking was found harmful to youth development, the game would be banned in Germany.
 
Ok Cmdrs,

have done a test and ran 728t of meat puppets on the most profitable route according to EDDB.

I only made 1.9 Million? I make five times more from running human faeces on my reliable three hop route.

If Fdev do not increase the size of the pay from running meat puppets around, they may as well get rid of it.

1.9 Million, pah!

Tatty bye old bean
As with much of the criminal gameplay I'm more than happy for a zero to be added to profits- however I'd also argue that you need to have anti-slavery groups getting a tip off about what you're doing and trying to report you to authorities in any lawful system. The upshot of being reported carrying slaves would mean you couldn't dock in that system or black markets wouldn't deal with you because your cargo was 'hot'.
 
As with much of the criminal gameplay I'm more than happy for a zero to be added to profits- however I'd also argue that you need to have anti-slavery groups getting a tip off about what you're doing and trying to report you to authorities in any lawful system. The upshot of being reported carrying slaves would mean you couldn't dock in that system or black markets wouldn't deal with you because your cargo was 'hot'.

Good idea.

It would certainly open up game play a bit and lead to some very interesting PvP, what what

The rewards should definitely be higher but as you state, so should the risk.
 
An unpaid intern is current example of a socially acceptable indentured servant.
I did wonder if the OP was a unpaid intern for a clickbait games 'zine, but then I was called out for making insinuations about people so i wont be doing that again obvs, but it would make a lot of sense if the OP was themselves suffering from modern indentured servitude, and rather than really accept they were being exploited rather than 'living their dream', they externalised their cognitive dissonance into trying to free imaginary others from indentured servitude instead, in ED. And while the OP cant be bothered to look into doing it using game mechanics, they can try to mount a campaign to overturn the game itself on the forum. Which is ambitious, and lazy, which again sounds exactly like an intern. So maybe there'd be some truth in it, if I was insinuating it which I wasnt, or trying to remote-psychoanalyse someone which I wouldnt. ofc.

Panda The Gray said:
My understanding was that a ganker is anyone that interdicts and kills an unsuspecting CMDR.
The numbers involved and so forth are inconsequential in my understanding.
Oh, so I have been ganked. I was running dissidents to Polevnic in a shieldless cutter & got jumped when I was unsuspecting & not paying attention. At the time I thought that was my fault, but now I realise I was ganked, and now I feel empowered, and a victim, instead of just careless, which is a less enjoyable feeling. Furthermore, I realise it was classic self-blame in victimhood that made me feel responsible for my own ganking. What I really needed, wasn't to actually pay attention, but therapy, so I could move on and not blame myself for being attacked. So thankyou for providing that for me. Now I can really go back to that event that id previously forgotten about, in order to move back, and then on again, but this time without learning anything from the experience. Where's Qbit at? Ive got some abuser-confrontation empowerment thing to do. o7
 
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OP - get a grip - playing computer games doesn't make you more likely to become a slave trader IRL and E : D doesn't glamorise a dark and terrible act of humanity. Learn to separate fact and fiction.

Generally I liked the oolite "illegal goods tweak" for handling slaves where you could scoop an escape pod and either sell them on as a slave or free them, with the chance that the freed slave would benefit or hinder you later in the game. At the moment they're just a normal commodity which would be better with a bit more depth added.
 
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