What Little Funcom Has Said
I did not do a search on the forums, so I may have missed something from Ragnar that would contradict my impressions. If anybody knows of one, give me a link, please?
I did go digging in the Funcom web site, including the news archives. (Thank you, Google.com, for helping.) Here are all the references to illegal drugs or stims that I found:
Official, Direct from Funcom:
AO Manual, Chapter 4, "Tir" - so good (and wrong) I have to quote it intact: "Tir is in a state of Anarchy. Nobody feels the need for institution, and nobody tries to force it upon anybody else. To a certain degree it seems to work. There are casinos, shops for illegal stims and a dedicated assassins guild. All the goods that could get you arrested anywhere else on Rubi-Ka, can be found here."
AO Manual, Chapter 6, "Fixer" - NPC fixer asks if you need any illegal stims.
Elena Oak profile - Elena is accused by an Omni-Pol officer of using stims, denies it.
Stories Submitted by Players, Accepted by Funcom:
Rubi-Ka Times, 18Jun02 and 23Jul02: Diamondcut and Insomnias convicted of murder and of "distribution of vast quantities of illegal stims," deported from Omni territory; described in later articles as "drug dealers." In a related article in the Voice of Freedom, they are described only as murderers.
Rubi-Ka Times, 27Jul02 - sensationalist article accuses Diamondcut and several guilds of pushing a drug called "White Trash." People advised to report dealers to the ICC.
Analysis:
I'm not sure I'd ever read their description of Tir, but yeah, the fixer section combined with the Elena Oak profile gave me the pretty clear impression that there are some kinds of stims that are illegal in Omni territory, but legal in Clan territory - for the simple reason that not much actually is illegal in Clan territory.
On the other hand, all of the stims in the game that actually do anything are also offered in OT Medical Supply sales terminals and by OT Pharmacists.
I have heard from multiple sources, including people in almost every guild named in that "White Trash" article, that the author has to have made it up out of whole cloth, without OOC asking any of those guilds if they were willing to play along. They were all pretty ticked off about it, too.
Ragnar has recently said in his weblog and a few threads that there are some pretty glaring errors in the backstory in the manual, and revising it is one of the things that's high on his to-do list.
So given that I've found people who are role-playing drug dealers, including friends of Diamondcut's, and that they're encouraging the "purple stims" angle, that's the one I want to go with, not that stupid (and not in the game) "White Trash" angle. And unless I hear otherwise, I'm assuming that unless the dealers get caught inside an Omni city, or by Omni agents outside a Clan city, they're safe as houses and could hand out the stuff on the streets if they wanted.
Anybody got any evidence to the contrary? Ragnar, am I right, or have I misread you? Have you had a change of mind?
Re: What Little Funcom Has Said
Quote:
Originally posted by Brad, STL/MO
So given that I've found people who are role-playing drug dealers, including friends of Diamondcut's, and that they're encouraging the "purple stims" angle, that's the one I want to go with, not that stupid (and not in the game) "White Trash" angle. And unless I hear otherwise, I'm assuming that unless the dealers get caught inside an Omni city, or by Omni agents outside a Clan city, they're safe as houses and could hand out the stuff on the streets if they wanted.
Anybody got any evidence to the contrary? Ragnar, am I right, or have I misread you? Have you had a change of mind?
Tricky issue, and one we should definitely clarify in the near future. For the time being, here's my input.
According to the Tir Accord - if I remember correctly - the entirety of Rubi-Ka is still under the primary jurisdiction of the Omni-Tek Corporation. The Council of Truth has been recognised as a governing body for the clans affiliated with it, and certain areas have been placed under CoT control and law.
However, in a situation where Omni-Pol needs to conduct an investigation, make arrests, or capture suspects, they can enter CoT-controlled areas - all they need to do is "inform" the Council of their actions.
This means that, if someone's selling illegal drugs - and yup, some drugs are bad, even in the future! - Omni-Pol can arrest them, wherever they may be, if the Corporation wants to.
In general, there are "galactic" laws that all corporations (and planets) need to follow, set down - in the case of corporate-run planets - by the ICC. These include heavy restrictions on drugs, especially nanobot enhanced "stims.
That's the issue in the broadest possible terms. If you need more details, let me know.
-Ragnar
