beetle, that's because there is no social structure that forces us to refrain from doing certain things, in AH.
We do what we want to do, and nobody stops at anything. In a large sense, it's the same thing as the recent ethical discussions concerning the internet culture of anonymity - some of us get to meet offline and deepen the experience from 'just another gamer' to 'a guy you've met'. You don't swear, spray, rely on incessant HO, rant, kill steal your friends. However, you do all those things against everyone else in the MA - while they talk, and communicate with us, they are still nothing but bunch of words and letters behind a certain game handle.
In this particular debate, I really view myself as a 3rd person - and in that sense, I really can't figure out everybody is obsessed with things like "honor".
I don't think this is just about the game, but more of what conveys our personal attitudes to someone else we meet in an online environment. Some people are exceptionally fair and polite to their personal friends, but are incredibly hostile and bi*chy against people who they do not really know. I've seen some respected 'ace' pilots being superbly polite and 'honorable' when they meet certain squad members, or certain people they acknowledge, and yet whine and moan and insult other people when they get shot down. I think that goes for each and every one of us - the fact that no matter what we have argued in this thread, we have contradicted our very own words more than once, while playing this game.
As for me, it really is a matter of curiosity - what comes natural and what not? I've been a vulcher and a vulchee, a spawn camper and a spawn campee, HOer and a HOee(although I don't think there's such difference in the case of HOs..) and etc etc.
Certain things of necessity I tend to keep - for instance of vulching, vulching is fun and profitable, but after a while, seeing the same guy up again and again, I tend to pity him a bit. I think I can find a certain point of self-control or consciousness where I recall that while in such competition all of us are here to enjoy this as a game, and probably the guy being vulched over and over are hurt in his ego or feelings or whatever. As long as I know he isn't much of a threat just getting up, I'll larry off grabbing more alt, try and intercept defenders from other bases and do a few good things for my countrymen.
Doesn't this kind of action come naturally? I've never thought of myself as goody-two-shoes, it's just what naturally follows during the course of battle in the MA - for me, that is. But sometimes seeing both sides so much centered on themselves - as one side is recklessly obsessive about killing things anyway they can, and the other side is also recklessly obsessive about bringing a Chivalric Code into the game - and showing so much hostility against each other, is really confusing.
Funny thing is, many of the people so harshly supporting the dog-eat-dog nature of MA in this thread, isn't like that at all in the MA. To be fair, I've also seen people who emphasize so much upon all the 'gentlemanly conducts' not being gentlemanly at all.
In that sense, I think the thread is getting over-heated
The MA is sometimes pleasant, sometimes not. But everybody walks the middle path in one way or another, and the hostility they portray in this thread is rarely so high in actual gaming in MA.
Maybe you guys should grab a breather and cool your heads a bit.
Just a suggestion. Everybody talks role of the macho hard-liner in the forums, but I don't doubt there's a certain level of consciousness and self control within everybody - at least to an extent.
