Friday 10 October 2008

Moral dilemma

I found myself pretty much in control of Ladistier for most of this afternoon. It was seriously quiet, hardly anyone online, and I drifted randomly in my recon for lack of anything better to do while I worked semi-afk on a sig commission.

A change on the overview caught my eye; I watched as the second of two Gallente faction plexes popped open. The larger of these would admit my ship, so I checked Local. One pilot, looked like an alt, FW corp... in a vigil. She was in the smaller plex, and I found myself wracked with indecision.

Should I go wait within the larger deadspace for the unsuspecting frigate? Should I wait til I knew it was in the larger deadspace?

A scattered trickle of neutral pilots and isk farmers passed through the system whilst I debated my options. The vigil moved to the larger plex and the system went quiet again.

It was the proverbial sitting duck. I could wipe the poor thing out in an eyeblink, without breaking a sweat. Should I?

In the end, no faction-warfare vigil graces our killboards. I could not bring myself to go after it. I can tell most of you are facepalming just now in disbelief; Mynxee did when I told her. How could I have turned it DOWN? Easy target, next to no risk... WTF?!

There is a big difference, I feel, between having an advantage over your opponent and punching someone you've tied to a chair. Had I been in something frigate-sized, or a tech-1 cruiser, I wouldn't have felt nearly so conflicted. But a recon killing a frigate would have been akin to kicking a puppy, and I just... couldn't do it.

Anyone else ever hit that snag? Where do you draw the line between having the upper hand and holding all the cards?

3 comments:

Spectre said...

You lack the killer instinct a pirate requires. Moral's are for carebears. Kicking puppies IS FUN!

/me facepalms

Carole Pivarnik said...

I'm so over the ethical dilemma of such things. I've been killed so many times by being outgunned that I'll take my opportunities to even up the universal karmic balance where I can get them. Besides, as I said in chat earlier, if I don't start killing every damn thing I can, my losses are going to put my points on the killboard into the negative. I.Really.Suck.At.Piracy.

I suggest that you get out there and die a few times, so you can get into the same pissed-off bloodlust that clouds the brains of the rest of us!

Ivanneth Maethor said...

Mynxee - I used to have some serious bloodlust issues going on. Ask Matthias next time you see him in the Hellcats channel. A few months ago, I don't think I'd have hesitated to lurk just within the larger deadspace waiting for the vigil to come to me.

Meh.

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