Hello, Im here to talk about PvP because my brain is huge [citation needed] I wanted to take a moment to pour some gasoline on the fire talk about the idea of PvP in Star Citizen. We all have our ideas of what we want Star Citizen to be. Some want to be the prototypical space trucker, a bonafide bezosian box bringer. Others want to be a dashing racer, pushing their ship and skills to the limit to be the very best like no one ever was. Others want to be scoundrels, the smugglers and pirates that are so pervasive in our favorite sci-fi media. And some people just want to ruin everyone's day, engaging in wanton destruction or murder for no reason other than to get a laugh. In the comprehensive and wonderful fictional universe CIG is building most of us have a place-- but can you guess which of these is the odd one out? Now CIG has built a pretty great mechanical foundation with their game. You'll be hard pressed to find a game where its more fun to fly and fight in spacecraft than this one. Combat and PvP are absolutely fun and even integral parts of the game -- but that doesn't mean it should be omnipresent. As it stands right now [and I know, this is subject to change, bear with me] if you're doing almost anything in game, there is always a looming threat from other players. Even if you get through an entire gameplay session without being jumped by players, the entire time the possibility can and should be bouncing around in your head. The ever-looming threat other players violent whims pose alters the way you interact with the game on a fundamental level. And what does that do? It shatters immersion. In any of the beloved sci-fi settings we hold dear, how often are the characters at threat of random unsolicited violence? In almost all instances they are either actively choosing to engage in dangerous activity, or they are all but completely safe. The same holds true IRL too if you want to follow the line of reasoning to that point. But in these stories, conflict and combat still happen, its necessary. Star Wars isn't Star Wars without the, well, W- fights. But, 99% of the time there is combat or conflicts, parties involved are typically engaging in activity that directly results or leads to conflict. The key here is agency and reason on both sides of the conflict. Often, agency and reason boil down to a conflict of factions, of groups that are at odds for one reason or another. That said, the systems aren't really present in the current state of the game to provide a whole lot of context to conflict. Player Killing of random people 'just because' only happens because there's no consequences or meaning. Imo, this is pretty detrimental to the overall game. Without reason and meaning for actions and conflict, player interactions quickly degrade immersion and take you out of the game world. The pervasive threat of senseless violence is not immersive. Not even to mention that its just not fun to get set back like that. That said, this all should and likely will be addressed by the game as time goes and CIG has communicated as much. Anyways tl:dr an unavoidable and pervasive threat of senseless violence is bad, murder hobo-ing is cringe and should be abolished -- but none of the systems meant to give player conflict meaning, reason, or consequences really exist yet so everyone should probably chill lol. o7