I've always advocated for the forced in-RP engagement rules - because it works both ways:
- it doesn't allow anyone to kill anyone without actual reason and a warning;
- it also clearly indicates that you WILL be engaged so no matter how much you do or don't like it, you sign yourself for it;
- these in-RP rules also mean that not every engagement must end in death, as usually someone's agenda can be satisfied by other means (dropped cargo, revealed information etc.).
There should be no other modes but Open for this to work (technical and design problems aside). We should all be in the same open world, with strictly regulated and checked-upon engagement rules.
And it's fun! I've been playing Disco Freelancer for years and despite always avoiding PvP in other games, I actually enjoyed Disco's player interactions.
I'm bad at PvP and more often than not, I got my thrusters handed to me but it was FUN because I knew the guy at the providing end of the lazor is not just trying to make my life miserable, but he's RPing a pirate. There's a logical, in-RP justification for his actions. Tomorrow, he'll switch characters and we'll be both patrolling as police officers - and we'll still have fun doing so.
There was a clear distinction between in-RP behavior still governed by rules, and a real player that could've had chars from both sides of the coin (bad or good) and we all knew it thanks to clearly defined rules and community strictly following them. Actual griefers / deliberate rule breakers were dealt with quickly and harshly and there was no ill intention of screwing someone's fun. Not in the long run - just until Admin's swift hand of justice punished the offender, with the most notorious ending up being banned.
This, in turn, created a community that had fun together and enjoyed interacting with each other, greatly enriching the experience.
ED chose the anarchy way of doing things and results can be seen since day one - if this thread, and the ongoing battle between carebears and griefers (simplification intentional) doesn't prove it, then I don't know what does.
I'll be honest: the complete lack of any rules, in the ill-conceived spirit of "playing your own way", was the biggest disappointment when the game launched, at least to me personally.
I was hoping for just as refined RP experience as with Disco Freelancer, but Frontier chose otherwise.
Was it good or bad, doesn't matter as it's all subjective. But the creation of Mobius clearly shows what some players think about complete lack of rules governing player interactions.
TL;DR: You can't put players in a game with no rules whatsoever, and expect it to somehow pan out, which this thread (and many others) confirm.
![[VR] DDM_Reaper20](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/44/44021.jpg?1588332101){kind=avatar}
