Crime & Punishment

So,

I'm pretty sure this would be the correct place to post this.

First off, if you came expecting a rage thread about being blown up and a pirate lying through their teeth, I'm afraid you will be sorely disappointed.

This is actually quite the opposite.

This is a simple question to all of the pirates, victims of piracy, low-sec dwellers who have seen the pirate/victim banter in local, and just generally anyone with an opinion on the "honor" within EVE related to piracy/ganking/griefing.

I'll cut to the chase.

I've been reading various threads within C&P as well as other sub forums, and I am getting a sort of hypocritical and inconsistent viewpoint from the EVE population relating to what "honor" is in EVE concerning piracy/ransoms specifically.

CCP Falcon can be quoted shaming "dishonorable" piracy, in which the pirate does not honor a simple ship ransom, but then will post in heist threads congratulating the corp thief.

Popular/Well-known pilots from pirate alliances such as (just an example) Shadow Cartel can be found strongly disapproving/calling out pirates who blow up a ship after a ransom is already paid, but can then found mocking a "stupid" Indy pilot who just lost his Itty I/Badger to their 25 man camp with no chance of survival.

Now, as I said before, I have absolutely no problem, and actually encourage any sort of piracy in EVE because it is one of the most fun activities to partake in. However I am slightly confused on the aspect of how "honoring ransom" is such a huge " OMG NO HONOR UR NOT A REAL PIRATE U HAVE NO HONOR IN A SPACESHIP VIDEOGAME!!" freakout when it comes to this one specific aspect of piracy.

(no sarcasm)
Is it a business thing? Do other pirates really believe that if their pirate...er...competition.... doesn't honor ransoms that it will cut into their profits?

In modern day EVE, where people don't even bat an eye at a billion ISK exchanging hands, is ransoming income still actually used as a means to fuel an account/ship replacements?

It is just odd to me that we have these "white knight" pirates/mindset that think they can define piracy just because they perform it a certain way and attach "honor" onto situations that fit them, while disregarding it when it doesn't apply to their play style that day.

If blowing someone up after they paid a ransom to you while warp scrambled and helpless is not "honorable piracy", then neither is smartbombing on the exit gate of Amamake, getting close to a CEO just to steal 100B down the road, or recruiting a corpmate that flies shinies only to blow them up. So why do we pretend to ignore "honor" in those cases and just say the catchy "EVE is a hard backstabbing universe etc etc", but scream "NO HONOR URA FAKE PIR8!!!" when it comes to not honoring ship ransoms?

Honor =/= Being a pirate, and that's totally fine!, and also a great/enjoyable part about being the outlaw. I would like opinions please!

Yes you did, because you saw Shadow Cartel in it.

Some honor ransoms, some don't. I don't get the big mystery. If I personally offered someone a ransom to keep me from blowing up their ship, I'd honor it. But I love Psychotic Monk like a brother he doesn't know he has, and he'll ransom your ship, blow you up, and post your tears on his blog and I'm Ok with that too.

Pirates... do piratey things like lie, cheat, steal, kill.

Unfortunately, by this point, I didn't care about the chase.

'Old' school piracy (where you could actually make a business out of ransoming miners, haulers, etc) is dead and has been for quite a while.

It has been replaced by griefercorps who either threaten to wardec a mining/indy corp if they aren't paid, or they ask for the money after the wardec and they have disrupted the targets operations.

Most hisec non-combat corps either dock up or pay. A rare few fight, or hire mercs. Sometimes they even hire good mercs.....

1. Absolutely. It's a blast, and one of the main reasons I play EVE.

2. I have no idea from personal experience. But the server ticks one second at a time, so I'd assume if you were lucky when deactivating it and didn't alpha the ship, it could work.

yes, i received a 200mil pod ransom yesterday.

yes and no, you can blow up a ship and leave the pod to be ransomed, technically. However they will be close enough to jump out so its not really an option.

To answer the OP, honoring ransoms and 1v1's are not accepted across all groups. However, most long term lowsec organizations that typically affiliate themselves with piracy honor ransoms because we have a reputation of honoring them and profit from it.

The same goes for 1v1s, which again, most reputable lowsec organizations honor. We do so because it benefits our game style as well as our day to day play.

When comparing ransom honoring against gate camping or suicide ganking it isn't really a fair comparison. Ships are almost NEVER ransomed because it is more profitable to simply blow a loot pinata up and see what drops. PODS on the other hand are worth ransoming as usually there is not a direct profit that can be gained from killing pods.

Is gatecamping / smartbombing / hot dropping / ganking / blobbing / falconing / off grid boosting / scamming / market manipulation / general eve gameplay honorable? IDK, does it really matter? The whole thing about this e-honor of piracy is that many strive to uphold a reputation that gets them more good fights and nets a small profit from a situation where there typically is none.

Not honouring a ransom is shortsighted stupidity.

I always encourage people to honour ransoms, because it is more profitable in the long term.

Particularly in AWOX situations, where you might just be able to find someone still in space AFK in a Mackinaw after you ransom the corp Orca, and the reputation you got for letting the Orca go (for 400m or whatever you charge) stands you in good stead to get 150m out of the Mack pilot. Let them go, then demand 250m more to drop corp, and suddenly you are up 800m ISK as opposed to just 400m and a killmail.

Gotcha, and fully understood. It's the "pirate honor" concept that is lost on me.

I can completely get the business perspective.