Usefullness of trading factions. Or uselessness rather...

[fencore]

Mmh, the burden is on the trading faction to make their task appealing.

No, you're right, trading factions serve no inherent purpose for providing means by which to make credits faster than an indie. If you're looking to make money, about all a trading faction can give you is a list of routes that have been tried and documented if you don't know any for a particular area. Its the job of the faction to make trading appealing or rewarding in some manner, which is done via roleplay.

The reason for which to have a trading faction is to provide that InRP economic base through which a group can roleplay. OSI, IND, IC, Bowex, Gateway, Samura, Kishiro, et al represent groups that we can use to roleplay with other factions. Most people trade or mine to make credits, yeah. I trade and mine because I enjoy the interaction it creates. It's all about creating roleplay. Some people want a battleship to have fun. I don't. It's a matter of taste. Being in a trading faction helps to facilitate this. That's their purpose.

After all, this is a roleplay server.