Quote:The indies are bigger than the clans, all they need is a reason to band together to make things far worse than they are now. Your "we can pvp whore you because we have more people" is providing them that. It's already happening. Soon faction pirates will be facing multiple BH BC's at once while lawful factions will get swarmed with huntresses and OC dessies.
This is already happening, but that's not to say that you are right. The point is: it is up to the factions in the end to set things right, like it or not. The factions are in contact with the forum community, they are the ones pushing for RP and good fun and the ones who will set the example to the indies. Humans are a social creature, they will attempt to follow the group that fits their ideas the most. Just look at Corsairs and all their factions; a lot of indies cooperate with them and listen to them because the Corsair factions set an example with their fighter aces and RP among other things. Now picture Omicron Gamma without factions and just indies in caps. Whomever new shows up there, it is clear to them immediately that they have nothing to look for in a fighter down there. You should thank the factions for playing their part.
Know also that there are bad apples in every apple basket, all you can do is throw these away or they will just move from affiliation to affiliation until they find one that isn't or can't be represented by a faction and has the largest amount of access to everywhere without being sanctioned (BHG). Why do you think no other faction with the exception of Corsairs has a capship concentration rivalling the BHG? Other factions that are quite visible are roleplaying centralisation, Corsairs and BHG are by their very nature quite decentralised hence it's hardest for them to accomplish much.
As to the misconception that RM are against all indies: it's absolute gobsh*te. RM have nothing against indies that do their roleplay homework in Rheinland. On the forums you will only see the heavy handed crackdowns, but try delving into it to see how ridiculous it is (a fleet of three Rheinland Battleships destroying everything they didn't like?) before they do something with the mess. It's one of the most visible examples of how faction control helps: Rheinland is (or rather was till 2 weeks ago, RM is a bit inactive now) RP land nowadays with both awesome lawfuls and awesome unlawfuls. Without RM what you would see is a mess of indies in Rheinland Battleships and Cruisers, because that's what they all want to fly. With their example set: voila, Rheinland is mostly OORP free.
Also the next time you see three pirate caps with no fighter support in Rheinland, send me a message and give me a few minutes. If they are Corsairs, the bomber wing will quickly deal with it. If Hessians (which would be surprising to me let me tell you, but if) they can be quickly ordered back to Omega's to come help us fight Corsairs.
