Decommissioned But Clever Anti-Phantom Rant

[Derkylos]

Remember this: Spaceship game.

Which is exactly why any action taken by any player on the server should be intended to improve the gaming experience of not only themselves, but as many other players as possible. Taking actions that make other players feel bad "because my character is a nasty guy" does not cut it. In RP, my character does not care for the feelings of his/her enemies, they are irrelevant. However, I, as a player, care for the enjoyment of my opponents as much as for my own.

Sure, we all like to win, we all like seeing that battleship blow up...but what about the guy flying the battleship? Wouldn't he like to see those bombers blow up, once in a while? No, I'm not saying fly like an incompetent, just bear in mind that, behind that ship on the other end of your guns is another player, who has logged into this virtual world to enjoy themselves by doing something they cannot do in real life.

Whilst we still have tradeships which cannot effectively defend themselves from pirates and pirates whose sole purpose appears to be the destruction of traders, we will see threads like this, be they presented from a "morals" point of view, or a simple "pirate killed me, pirates suck" point of view, and I will render them my full support.

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[worldstrider]

Understood and sorry it bugged you.

You said:

there was no way to talk my way out of getting destroyed

When I did sales, you always hear, "There is no such thing as no." Salesmen who came back without the cash and started making excuses--they were broke, the economy, etc.--were reminded by the sales manager that such things had nothing to do with whether or not they convinced the person what they had was worth buying--the fact was, they hadn't and that's what the sales manager would point out.

My guess (and I may be wrong as I wasn't there) is that you approached the Phantom the same way a salesmen approached his manager after missing a deal which is verbalizing, "Its not my fault and its not fair."

That's not role play--that was a pre-play of the post here.

Did your character fall on his knees and with tears beg for his life offering to do anything the Phantom asked? Did he offer to serve them and spy or betray someone? I'm betting he didn't.

It's not impossible, you just gave the wrong pitch and lost the sale.

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[Eppy]

That was the best disguise for a Phantom bash ever.

Now, I'm not their biggest fan, but still... LOLEPPYDIED.

I'm glad that you at least agree that it was clever. It is not a case, however, of LOLEPPYDIED. I think, if anybody bothered to read what I'm saying, that they might accept that there's something wrong here, and that, simply because the player in question is a Phantom, he is allowed to deny me of play. I am indeed bashing the Phantoms, and when I, one of the Phantom's oldest supporters ever since the validity of their RP came into question, start bashing the Phantoms maybe somebody's going to notice that something's wrong. This is what I've learned in school (so blame the government of Michigan, not me), and I choose to apply that knowledge to a real situation relevant to my interests, which, as I understand it, is the point. I've been denying this for so long, and it finally hit home (yet the fifth time I've been destroyed by a Phantom since I started playing here, I think) that this isn't right.

EDIT: Tink, I'm not trying to sell anything, and quite frankly, falling to my knees and begging to serve the Phantom would not only most likely have done nothing, it would have been Out of Roleplay. The captain and most of the bridge crew of that ship have huge egos. They don't beg. They don't know how. By begging for my life and entering service to the Phantoms I would have gone against everything my character(s) is/are based on.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[bluntpencil2001]

I'm the opposite.

I'm not a fan of the whole monolithic evil thing, really... it strikes me as unrealistic.

However, there are a lot of examples of such unrealistic political evil in fiction, so that's okay, I guess, with the Phantoms.

Here's the rub:

Bad guys are bad. Phantoms die a lot too. You don't see them whinging with references to Descartes, Marx, Plato or Jose Cuervo Especial when they lose.

You could have avoided it by being in a different system. Or begging, maybe. If you didn't beg, it's the crew's fault. If it's ooRP for you to beg, it's ooRP for Phantoms to be anything but evil.

Nae joy.

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[Cellulanus]

Fascinating... I shall observe this thread most diligently as it will most likely aid me in my endeavorers to determine the overall mindsets and the thought processes of people.

[pchwang]

Tink, I'm not trying to sell anything, and quite frankly, falling to my knees and begging to serve the Phantom would not only most likely have done nothing, it would have been Out of Roleplay. The captain and most of the bridge crew of that ship have huge egos. They don't beg. They don't know how. By begging for my life and entering service to the Phantoms I would have gone against everything my character(s) is/are based on.

Wait, let me get this straight:

Your characters have huge egos, and they would never surrender to someone like a Phantom, and you're pissed that they got blown up?

It sounds rather inRP for them to get blown up rather than to surrender.

So, why are you angry? You RPed it correctly. Your bitching is rather OORP considering your characters' RP.

What I see the problem as here is not hedonism or selfish RP, or forcing you into a specific route of RP... it's your inability to adapt your RP to other situations. And that, sir, happens to everyone at some point in time - to me, to pirates, to the Phantoms. It's just that there's no need to deflect that problem onto others.

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[7:42:05 PM][6:51:36 PM] Igor (Smokey): btw terry
[6:51:48 PM] Terrance Cooper: Ye?
[6:52:00 PM] Igor (Smokey): nothin
[6:52:03 PM] Igor (Smokey): just sayin btw
[6:52:05 PM] Terrance Cooper: <_<

Johnny_Haas: you shot anti criuse speed rockets!!!
Johnny_Haas: but why????
Johnny_Haas: ??
Johnny_Haas: why you shoot criuse speed rockets?

[worldstrider]

Wait, let me get this straight:

Your characters have huge egos, and they would never surrender to someone like a Phantom, and you're pissed that they got blown up?

It sounds rather inRP for them to get blown up rather than to surrender.

So, why are you angry? You RPed it correctly. Your bitching is rather OORP considering your characters' RP.

What I see the problem as here is not hedonism or selfish RP, or forcing you into a specific route of RP... it's your inability to adapt your RP to other situations. And that, sir, happens to everyone at some point in time - to me, to pirates, to the Phantoms. It's just that there's no need to deflect that problem onto others.

Stole the words out of my mouth you devil! EVERYTHING IS SALES--there are just those who know it and those who don't. You did chose the role play and like that of the Phantoms, it forces you into a position where options are limited. You are a victim of the very rp you decry them for--inflexible with death as a consequence. Just the way it is--sort of like getting pirated.

As to bending so someone else can win--sort of like playing chess and underplaying so the other person can win. They learn nothing. If you are up against a weaker ego in rp, you can try to "help" but no one should "have to die" so the other person feels better. By that I mean if they have the means to win, they should be able to and if they chose to be softer then its fine but they certainly don't have to "get killed" so someone else has fun. What's ironic is the level of play we are talking about here is the level of play an adult has with a small child--not competition and a match of skill and wits between adults. I taught even my children to play chess by beating them but stopping along the way and showing them how I was and teaching them how to stop me from doing it...but never by "throwing the game".

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[Elsdragon]

Everybody Loves to hate someone. Its a fact of life. I love to hate QCP. But their is the fact that RP must be flexible, to an extent.Remeber the oak, and the catail.

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No longer a slave to the man!

[n00bl3t]

n00bl3t may or may not agree, depending on the text that may or may not have been contained in the original post.

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Anything I say is not intended as offensive, and to try and deliberately misinterpret it as such would be an attempt at trolling via misrepresentation.

It's not a conspiracy, it's localised bias. They're not intelligent enough to form a conspiracy.

[BaconSoda]

He was a phantom. He wanted to 'play' with me and the 1600 people on board (They look like such excellent playmates, he said). He fired multiple supernovas into my shields, not only lowering them to less than fifty percent but removing them entirely and causing hull damage, which certainly constitutes an attack under the rules. You engaged me, and do you know what that tells me, when your ID explicitly forbids you from demanding credits or cargo? That you have no intention of further textual RP. You are going to blow me up whether I like it or not, and that is my cue to stop trying to provide you textual RP and run for my life, which is what any sane person is going to RP when they know they have no chance of survival. You're entirely correct - this IS a bitch post. I'm bitching because I got blown up and I wasn't given a way out, providing a fix for another player entirely at my expense. There was no pirate to pay, and there was no way to talk my way out of getting destroyed, and I think that's just dumb. I've tried to RP characters like that three times, and you know what? It doesn't work. They don't go anywhere. They get fixed in a rut. They go out and do the same thing, every time, and it doesn't give anybody anything but death. So, how do I deal? I try to express my issue in accepted academic terms and say why I think that it is freaking stupid that I got blown up, and how it pertains to gameplay as a whole.

Now this is nothing but libel. Plain and simple libel. I reduced your shields to nothing, yes, and I even stated that, but I did not attack your hull until you started to run. I did not come with the intention of ruining your day. I did not even come with the complete intention of destroying you. At the end of the day, yes, 90% of the traders we see get destroyed, but that is because they refuse to Roleplay with us. That is precisely what you did.

There is one way to get away from the Phantoms you didn't realize: Roleplaying with us. I pride myself as being called the most vocal of Phantoms, and the one who has "Restored my faith in the Phantoms" (JakeSG said that), there are many things you could have done to get away. I even posted one example. You chose the least likely one. I'm sorry that you think you are so cheated out of your game, Eppy, but, the only person who cheated you is yourself.

It's not impossible, you just gave the wrong pitch and lost the sale.

Exactly. There are many things you could have done that would have yielded your character's life. You said it yourself, there is no way to monetarily gain anything as a Phantom. The only thing we could gain is RP. It seems to be the only thing you didn't think of.

I'm glad that you at least agree that it was clever. It is not a case, however, of LOLEPPYDIED. I think, if anybody bothered to read what I'm saying, that they might accept that there's something wrong here, and that, simply because the player in question is a Phantom, he is allowed to deny me of play. I am indeed bashing the Phantoms, and when I, one of the Phantom's oldest supporters ever since the validity of their RP came into question, start bashing the Phantoms maybe somebody's going to notice that something's wrong. This is what I've learned in school (so blame the government of Michigan, not me), and I choose to apply that knowledge to a real situation relevant to my interests, which, as I understand it, is the point. I've been denying this for so long, and it finally hit home (yet the fifth time I've been destroyed by a Phantom since I started playing here, I think) that this isn't right.

EDIT: Tink, I'm not trying to sell anything, and quite frankly, falling to my knees and begging to serve the Phantom would not only most likely have done nothing, it would have been Out of Roleplay. The captain and most of the bridge crew of that ship have huge egos. They don't beg. They don't know how. By begging for my life and entering service to the Phantoms I would have gone against everything my character(s) is/are based on.

Eppy, Blunt is one of my deepest enemies here because of our QCP/AFA contention, if he is supporting me, something has to be flawed (By your logic, at least - a logic I find very sound, but incorrect in this situation). I am also a Michigander (Michiganian, person from Michigan, whatever you want to call us), and I do not think that we, the Phantoms, exhibit signs of Ethical Hedonism (My god, the number of people who will laugh at that statement - laugh, but it is the truth). After your death, Kane and I spent a good deal of time chatting with the RM about Schatten (Which we didn't know about). I could even go as far as to say that you, in thinking your egotistic RP above my frightening terrorist RP, were exhibiting signs of Ethical Hedonism, however, I do not think so. We only shared an interaction in which you did what your character would do and lost. All there really is to do is to develop our characters from these interactions.

EDIT: No, no. Put the first post back. It had a valid point, only put into the wrong light. I believe that Ethical Hedonism is displayed a lot on this server, only, not this time...

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[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.