Role of Neutrals

[_______________Elria]

If I post more about this, I suppose it will be on the board linked by Dr Tiny.

One last thing though...

Originally posted by Soyuz
Besides, who says all the faction players are actively political, and that all neutrals aren't? I should imagine that there are a great many Omni employees who are simply taking the path of least resistance, for instance. Similarly, while a clanner may claim political status because of his opposition to Omni Tech, a neutral might make the same claim based on his mistrust of both the warring factions.

See? We're more political than you are

Nice try
But refusal is not enough for politics. A Clanner is not just opposed to OT, (s)he supports an alternative way of governing RK. You know... policies... for a (supposedly) better RK.
Same thing for the opposite side: what makes OT is not just the opposition to the Clans.

[Maximilian]

-> Elria, thanks for pointing me (us) to the important line in log (towers change the gas level).

But, for a long time there has not been a good discussion about Neutrals and their role on Rubi-Ka, I have to and I want to disagree in some of your points.

Originally posted by Elria
But refusal is not enough for politics ...

Exactly this attitude brought up the 'problems' we have now. A larger number of players than expected (by Gaute) simply 'refused' to leave neutrality. As we heared in several comments and statements, neutrality was never intended to be that 'important'. At some time even Gaute made/promised 'concessions' - which we still have to wait wait for (another story).

If we want to do the dangerous step to look to RL:

A number of political parties (in my country) have funded exclusively on protest. This is nothing that will keep you in charge forever - but it is a rather good starting point. (We might discuss this elsewhere)

As I see it today in AO: the Neutrals are those, that don't like either factions - whatever the reasoning might be. Due to the current game mechanics the danger of having 80% of neutral mercenaries is denied (and hopefully will stay like this).

Actually, the only person you can really trust (besides guild members) is a neutral in a 25% area.

My personal guess for motivation (no offense, just an impression):
Omni: Equipment (I have an Omni Engineer ...)
Clan: We are the good!
Neutrals: Let's look?! (My first char, August 2001 - still neutral)

So long,

Max(imilian)

[coldwarkid]

I think that the definition of what is or is not "political" is getting us sidetracked from the business of inconsistency when it comes to neutrals in the 25% zones, but anyway...

Saying that a person is not political because they do not belong to a political organisation is akin to saying that a person is not religious because they do not belong to an organised church. A person may hold deep-seated political beliefs, but belong to no political organisation because one does not exist that espouses their beliefs. That individual is perforce "neutral" even though they may be actively political in guild life, for instance.

You can make the argument that Omni-Tech and the Clans are political organisations, but you can't argue that any individual is or is not political on the grounds of their membership or non-membership of either of these organisations.


The inconsistency issue is more important. Either neutral aren't political, in which case they should not con as hostile, or they are, in which case they should be able to attack faction characters. The argument that neutrals should simply stay out of 25% zones is facile and simplistic, since a high proportion of neutral missions are in the 25% zones. As I've said before, I'd rather have a mission to a 0% zone than a 25% zone, since my chances of survival are actually higher there.

Cheers,

~R~

[Jujuwalker]

This issue will be discussed, amongs other things, in the tuesday 20th neutral coalition meeting.

Check out the storyline/rp forums for times/dates/locations. In game calls on all OCC channels and neutral shopping channel will be done.

-Juju the friendly p-e

[Snuble]

Never discuss politics with french people