getting back on course or keeping it...

[lousal]

along with yesterdays event of the choice of a new leading member of the disco community ( admin choice ) - came something that kind of disturbed me

it was not directly related to it - but influenced by this event... when a key member of the community in a skype channel mentioned that from his/her point of view "the official zoner factions ruined the faction"
this is probably the utmost serious crizisism one can do about the works of a faction - uttered by a key member of he community - it is something that MUST be addressed.
the following lines are taken out of the entire discussion ( too long to display ) - but they display how i perceived them:

[12:30:17 AM] : I think the zoner factions have screwed up the zoners.
[12:30:44 AM] : I annoyed that they took a fun faction to play and added a lot of politics.
[12:31:59 AM] : Actually there were many indies who just wanted to play the old fashioned non factionalised zoners.


i have deleted the name, cause it is of no concern here.
coming from a key member - that is such a serious comment that it needs to be clarified.
have the zoner factions screwed up? - maybe all 3 or some or only one zoner faction(s) have an idea of the roleplay that is so far off that the faction really got twisted... it is hard to spot such things as they come creepingly slowly into play and you wont notice it until its too late.
what i d like people to comment on is:

1) have zoner factions screwed up?

2) what EXACTLY have they done wrongly?

3) if so ... what should be done to better things?

( 4) how would a perfect inRP reaction would have looked like in last years events ( which is why we still argue about it ) ) <--- only if you do know the background
keep in mind that this is a serious discussion, ANY attempt of trolling or making fun of it shall be purged

some facts about Zoner RP:
1. vanilla FL is indicating that the Zoners are strongly cooperating although they always try to avoid interference with Non-Zoners
2. common Disco RP was that the Corsairs are highly depending on Zoner food supplies, which might be different to some vanilla quotes, but which was certainly being reflected by the in-game activities like the fact that almost nobody but Zoners delivered food to crete over a longer period
3. feedback from the dev team included the inablility of Corsairs to take Theta

a sequence of rp decision making should be obvious for the sake of a playable environment:
1. everything covered by the dev team has to be accepted as campain setting. devs spreading information about rp are responsible for the impact it has on the individual rp. also as a side note, admins who are not devs have to accept these rp settings as well.
2. aspects not covered by item 1, including contradicting dev statements, have to be solved by the vanilla compaign settings
3. innovative expansions have to be settled by all involved parties. unilateral decisions who are being enforced by sheer player numbers, strategical occupation of advantegous rp posisions (as mulit-faction leading, peseudo-alliance orchestration) has to be considered powergaming

some facts about the RP developments between Zoners and Corsairs, including ooc behaviour, which is an important example why this community is failing at accepting Zoner RP; it might seem to be off-topic but in fact this important example bears all structural similarities to all other issues with Zoner RP:

the Corsair dependence of food was neglected, which was reflected by intentional neglection of initiated forum RP (ZTC and OSI addressing the Corsair Elders). on that escalation level, at least two official Zoner factions trying to induce forum RP with at least three official Corsair groups, can easily be regarded as denial of RP, and if you want to call it "RP disruption".

instead of an according RP response:
- a generic group, called the [A]narchists, was supported and officially justified by leading players of Corsair factions as logical and reasonable RP, thus neglecting the initial cause of the logical reaction of Zoners.
- Corsair factions openly siding with an arch-enemy, the Guild Core, against Zoners justified by the unilateral decision of forging a Non Aggression Pact. this NAP started out as legitime RP decision but went foul when it was applied as a justification for Corsair and Core players to attack Zoners, thus crossing the border from a non-aggression aggrement to a real and active alliance. neither dev statements were approving this, nor were there any technical means (like ID and IFF adjustments) imposed to the game mechanics
- the major RP weakness of Corsairs being food dependent was eliminated by RP abuse using stratically advantegeous role impersonations, such as leading Corsair players being part of the IND and the AFA, including some frenzied forum work to pervert facts and forge new ones
- cap raids in Theta and bombarding of FP9 despite the lack of any player resistence to cover the forged facts


the final attempt to acquit the Corsair players from the stains of using ooc means only and forge their RP to explore arbitrary and uncontested possibilities was a way to spread the lie that the Zoner factions are ruining the Zoner NPC faction. it is not the primary and abstract focus in this topic but the inherent correlation of this blame was reflected in endless forum discussions between Zoner and Corsair players who were merely demanding a different role play (sure, fitting their very own interests and again trying to acquit their roles from their own inabilities) that was not conforming to the more elaborated RP ideas and approaches by the Zoner factions. Finally it was put as the non-conformance of Zoner Factions to something that was never defined before, Zoner Role Play, which was just another perversion of facts as the Zoner players had to face in every serious escalation.

in fact the ruin of Zoner Role Play is nothing but a myth:
- no NPC faction has official groups that are permanently trying to enoucrage the role play of independent players so much as the TAZ, OSI or Croners do
- any political role play is mostly caused by dragging the Zoners into diplomatic issues based on the fact that almost nobody can stand the fact the Zoner characters are rather indifferent, as one aspect of neutrality, and often careless regarding the interests of one single group, as another aspect of their neutrality. Zoner characters have to act politcally on every level of their existence in order to deflect the permanent blames being thrown at them
- no independent Zoner is being molested by official faction
- Zoner factions are maintaining a constant quality of RP, and inRP decisions, which is serving as an example, but not an exclusive one

conclusion:
the reasons to neglect, deny, confront or oppose Zoner RP is mostly based on OOC reasons like
"Why am I not able to play like I did 100 years ago?"
"Zoners have to be passive victims"
"Zoners should ... Zoners should not ..."

But any details in this thread or any other of the numerous threads before will not solve anything of the Zoner RP issues. They are originating from the inablility of Non-Zoner players to adopt to a role play that is not dominated by pvp skills, thus subject to many definitory problems. In addition the Zoner player base is permanently discussing RP variations, basic alterations, and final definition, certainly not by neglecting Zoner Independents, which is just another hint on the immanent problem of this variable and undefined NPC faction.

I am still missing the logically necessary question:
"Should the Zoner NPC Faction have any official factions at all?"

A simple "no" would solve all of the stupid and ignorant crap we've seen for about 12 months now, while a simple "yes" should actually silence all those who are bored enough to question the RP work of the Zoner faction.

Now, I suggest to the Devs to elaborate and publish a playable and complete RP definition because it is annoying to repeat oneself over and over gain. Reinventing the wheel is an endeavor for notoriously unsatisfied people, and actually only a waste of time.

If nobody can provide an uncontested definition of Zoner Role Play I suggest that the Admins are disbanding the official Zoner factions and interdicting any attempt to create Zoner groups of any kind. A tag forbiddance would be a neat implementation.

If both cannot be achieved for any reasons I would actually like to suggest to mind your own business and stop double standards, or to cooperate with the Zoner Factions because the players of these are competent and experienced enough to know where the Zoner RP starts, and where it ends.