Zoners - why they do exist?

[n00bl3t]

I love these threads. Exceptional.

But he's not entirely wrong though. Zoner ID/RP is barely used competently, and as I said in an earlier post they were intended to remain background NPCs. There's certainly some good RP out there (I hope) but most of my experiences with Zoners has been negative.

I am actually extremely pleased that in recent updates we finally have infocards denouncing the utter rubbish that is Zoner unity or Zoners having any sort of real power in Sirius. Hopefully it'll lead to less players being blinded by fallacy and playing the role as they should be.

Just wanted to run the idea of not shooting everything that doesn't kowtow to you as a potential basis for roleplay interactions. Might help. Maybe your reputation on the characters you're playing precedes you. Just an idea. Maybe.

ZonerZonerZoner has existed since like 2007 (technically, probably around 2009 with the [A] drama I guess), so what you're actually saying is there have never been good Zoners? Somehow I doubt that's what you mean, but it is literally impossible to play a canon lore friendly Zoner in-game, because as I said before, they barely count as traders. People go to them and not vice versa. If people were to play them entirely straight, they'd have nothing to do in-game; just like IC.

Also, another thing I find funny is that people usually cite Zoner drama as being started by indies that were acting improperly. This was generally completely untrue. Usually the only time there'd be a drama big enough for anyone to care about, it was because a Zoner faction had done something, or an indy that was a representative of an entire Freeport (consequently with the backing of whichever Zoner governing body/factions were around at the time). People can differentiate and know when a character/group is important enough to cause drama over.

There has been plenty of indy Zoner abuse though, and that generally occured after the drama cycle had begun. See: official factions fouling up relations with the Corsairs, and then indy Nephs raiding Gamma with the Order. Indy abuse and the ID being blatantly overpowered compared to corporate groups was also the reason the ZoI rules were severely nerfed as well. I wouldn't blame indies acting badly for instigating Zoner drama though.

2007? Anyone want to remember far back to Asgard Warriors time? Imagine that being judged by current forum standards.

Having said that, I just wanted to say that it's hard to roleplay with "yalalala jihad" and pew pew for Skype-buddy OoRP hatred. It's just difficult. It could have been handled better, but looking at one side in isolation isn't probably the best way to go about it. Everyone chants Zonerzonerzoner and conspir[A]cy as a result though, and that along with the bias against Zoner players on the forums means it's unlikely that the situation will ever be viewed impartially.

It looks strange to explain the behavior, habits and conduct of a bunch who left houses because of all the corporate control, government corruption and all the bureaucracy coming with the system through the example of a faction ending up as just another off-house megacorporation. But hey, that's just me, if others can retain their credibility while arguing this way, good for them.[/color][/align]

Let's not beat around the bush. When Zoner trade was nerfed via ID restrictions so they couldn't land on house bases to purposely neutralise them for the benefit of house corporation factions at the detriment of Zoner factions, OSI retained the ability to trade within house space with 5k transports.

It was designed as a neutrality powertrader faction with a forum presence to make it seem more legitimate and verbose members who could talk themselves out of being considered in the same vein as independents neutrality trading with the Zoner ID.