Embargoes

[Xoria]

What is the point of an embargo? In real life the point is to cause damage to your opponent. Since Freelancer's game mechanics are unaffected by who is transporting x cargo to y location, this is less relevant to us. The main point of an embargo in Freelancer must then be the creation of additional roleplaying opportunities. Depending on the way they are constructed, embargoes may enhance roleplaying, or it may eliminate it entirely.

Someone explain how the current Liberty embargo creates additional roleplaying opportunities when the sole practical effect of the embargo's success is the complete and total elimination of all roleplaying opportunities involving traders navigating between Rheinland and Liberty.

When such cannot be done (and it never has been), then the conclusions are inescapable :
The current Liberty embargo benefits only one group : Liberty lawfuls who want to blow up transports.

It harms the unlawfuls who will consequently have far fewer traders to pirate in between Liberty and Rheinland.

It harms the Rheinland lawfuls who will consequently have far fewer traders leaving Liberty for Rheinland or Rheinland for Liberty whom they might themselves interact with.

It harms other traders in Liberty who will consequently have less protection from pirates elsewhere in Liberty because of the Liberty lawfuls' overemphasis on Texas, and as a corollary, every other system in Liberty is similarly harmed by this overemphasis.

It harms the Liberty lawful factions themselves, by encouraging overly belligerent, abusive, and intolerant attitudes on the part of Liberty lawful characters, as evidenced here, and here, and thus turns Liberty lawful factions into a further object of scorn and ridicule.

The current terms of Liberty's embargo destroy far more roleplaying opportunities than they create, and they do so to the benefit of a tiny minority while imposing their harms on the majority.

The Liberty embargo should be amended to fall into line with the embargos enforced by the other Houses, which create roleplaying opportunities for every faction affected by them, which the Liberty embargo currently fails to do.

Imports brought to your House by neutral or friendly traders from your enemy House should be welcomed, while exports from your House to your enemy House should be interdicted (unless the cargo is people or humanitarian supplies). Blanket bans on trade discourage the creation of roleplaying opportunities, and are ultimately destructive to server gameplay.

Bretonian corporations smuggling Rheinland-produced commodities into Liberty is a roleplay that should be heartily encouraged by Liberty, not punished. That benefits every faction involved in the Liberty-Rheinland conflict, while the current embargo benefits only a tiny minority while harming everyone else.

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