"What's in it for the trader?" - Dumbest question ever? Yeah, I want to start a new thread about this.
Whenever "honest piracy" or something in that vein is discussed, this question always comes up. It's one of the dumbest phrases there is.
"
What's in it for the trader?" -
HUH? It's like asking why Doom has monsters.
Pirates must exist for the same reasons enemies exist in almost all other games. Every empire trade builder has an enemy empire, enemy economy simulation has an enemy corporation. And even in the 80s ELITE games you had the darn pirates.
So: What's in it for the trader -
the game itself is in it! As a trader, you're part of the pirate-trader-bounty hunter food chain, deal with it. It's part of the genre. Without any obstacles, the game falls apart. Of course, a trader should be able to fight back and have protection, but not by blocking pirates outright, but by hiring escorts, flying in safe sectors, able to hire bounty hunters, a better insurance system and so on. Of course, devs need to put real effort into these mechanisms and it would probably fall apart anyway due the P2P architecture anyway. But that's a whole other issue.
I agree that it might be a weird question, because in real life, when you are a victim of crime, there will never be anything in it for the victim either.
In the context of a game it might not be a weird question, especially when PvP is concerned.
But in games all participants will only interact if they feel they all enjoy the proceedings.
Piracy in ED between humans is a bit difficult:
- There is a lot at stake. Traders put a lot of time and effort and game credits in their game occupation. When things go south they might loose a lot.
- There is a disparity between both participants. Traders are much more vulnerable, less combat ready than their opponents the pirates.
Because of this traders tend to feel shortchanged and they very often feel like they are just content for the pirate.
For them there's no reward, not even a chance of victory other than perhaps a successful escape.
- Because humans are humans pirates are not trusted. A pirating NPC will follow the programmed rules no matter what. A human pirate can betray the rule of conduct on a whim.
An NPC pirate has no emotions and will never gloat, never delight in the suffering of it's victims. Humans are different and gloating can be humiliating and also quite disgusting.
I have watched many videos of well known self professed pirates, but also pk's and to me it is clear that very often it is much more than just playing a game, or making the game more exciting.
Many people definitely delight in frustrating their victims.
I am not a pirate myself, but the phrase makes my blood boil. Same with the whole crime morality play that this forum is full of: "Crime doesn't pay in the real world, why should it here? Pirates are criminals and bla bla bla".. OH MY GOD! People, you're playing a darn video game! If a pirate shoots your pixel ship it's no less of a "crime" than farting.
The phrase "crime doesn't pay" is a misguided one. Crime very often does pay!
But in real life the consequences for the criminal are more serious, if he gets caught, than in Elite.
Having only a very low bounty on you head for one measly week for killing a player is ridiculous and the bounty for piracy is virtually non existent.
Law enforcement is mostly local. There's no Interpol or something like that. ED needs an anti-crime system that ramps up.
Pirates are not perpretators and traders aren't victims, but simple opposing teams in a video game.
I disagree about "simply being opposing teams". It's armed to the teeth wolves against virtually defenseless sheep.
Traders are a very weak team and even after the fact they can't do anything.
They cannot put bounties on someones head.
They cannot hire NPC protection (not everyone is playing with friends).
They cannot call for the police when they get attacked.
The only thing they can try is fleeing.
And the traders could actually be more powerful than the pirates (more money for escorts, trade guilds etc) it's just that the game mechanics are incredibly lousy implemented for MMO space trader two years into release.
The game definitely needs more mechanics in this regard.
I at least would like to see:
- hireable npc escorts,
- a distress call option that warns the police in case of piracy or other acts of aggression (should not work in anarchy systems),
- an option to put a bounty on someones head, but only if he has pirated a player or killed a player,
- a declaration-of-piracy mechanic
- a more pronounced difference between secure systems and anarchy systems
- The possibility for players (with multiple PK's) to become wanted in the entire territory of the Powers (depending on where they made their kills) and one step up is becoming wanted in the entire territory of the large factions (Feds, Imps, Alliance) (also depending on where they killed other players).
Carefully planning trade runs to avoid pirates, hiring other players/NPCs for escorts and so on would be the "WHAT'S IN IT FOR THE TRADER". (ACTUAL GAMEPLAY!) But by blocking piracy, it allows the devs to be lazy and continue to serve the traders the most boring trading game ever: Watching at a black screen without any challenge.
I do not believe the devs want to block piracy.
Whether traders consider trading boring is not up to you. If they like to trade without getting pirated by other players than that is their business. They could play Solo to avoid humans entirely, but if they play in open then they take the risk and should not complain about others role playing piracy.
I agree real role playing pirates do enrich the game. That is why even I, being a soloist, always play in Open... for now. The human factor adds a bit of spice to the game.
As far as piracy by humans is concerned the thing is that every single time I personally have been attacked by another player no piracy demands were made.
They were always pure acts of aggression. I am starting to wonder whether the number of role playing serial killer players isn't much larger than the actual number of role playing pirate players.
