why do the phantoms not have a feedback thread?

[chovynz]

That illustrates my point perfectly. Why wouldn't you RP? Because you don't expect to get RP back. People seem, for some reason, to assume that it's the responsibility of the regular players to initiate the RP and provide the driving force for it, but I don't think that's true at all. The Phantoms have just as much responsibility as any other player to present RP (No, gaiz, 'RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIFE' or 'Tee hee! Wanna play?' and then shooting does not count as initiating RP unless the Terrorist ID is horrendously overvalued), and because of who they are (an organized group with a very, very exclusive ID), I think they have a greater responsibility than the average player to break the cycle.

People also seem to assume that their way is right, and nobody else has a right to attack them without their sayso. This is a mistake to think like this. You are not superman, you are not an untouchable. You can be killed in the most simplest, easiest way. And you have no control over who will kill you.

People expect to get killed by phantoms, because they misunderstand what RP is. They make out of game assumptions that "oh look a phantom' he's all about PEW PEW and going to kill me." Look at it like this... Someone is holding a gun at you, one foot away. He's hostile, and arrogant. You would be stupid to try to run. You would be stupid to smart mouth them. Unless you were confident of beating them, you would be stupid to try to disarm them.

Wouldn't you try to talk, to listen? I haven't seen the video as I'm unable to, but I've heard what people have said in this thread. I've heard both sides of the story, that has been posted.

Actually, for once, this type thread has brought some interesting things out.

How would Sirius know what the phantoms are? How would a Miner know what the phantoms are? Oh sure... the Freelancer Player knows who the phantoms are. But how would the characters themselves know? I said by Bar talks, space myths..."You don't believe it, until it happens to you". I think that's a valid way. I would expect that an old miner who's been around has heard the "stories", but dismiss them as crazy talk. Those stories would probably flood back when faced with an actual phantom, and he'd crap his pants.

On the other hand I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect the phantoms to pour out their life story, so that the character can now understand that he's in mortal danger.

So, maybe there's a way the phantoms can change, or a way that characters can change to expect stuff. I look at it like this.

The phantoms (ideally) only reflect what the player expects. It's pretty obvious when someone doesn't want to RP. Those get shot. There is no other method. You can't board ships, you can't actually kill someone, yo ucan't arrest them or capture their ships. There is RP, and there is PVP. You have no choice other than to talk or shoot. (Shooting involves running, since running is not talking. Running is valid RP, but it has to make sense. )

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Seek fun and you shall find it. Seek stuff to Q_Q about and you'll find that, too. I choose to have fun.