Honor among pirates!

Honor among Pirates. This is an interesting topic.
I think that we should look at the root word - Honor. Some definitions refer to receiving Honors; a role, title or priviledge given. The one that stood out to me was "Good name; reputation.
A source or cause of credit: was an honor to the profession. "
Being an honor to the profession of Piracy. To legitimize Piracy as a profession even. As Ander said, Keeping his word to do whatever he says he going to do is a good start. Maybe even expand that to say that you respect other peoples trust. If they entered a lowsec system they knew the risk. Your image and profile are easily accessable from local chat. Then, once you engaged they knew what was to happen next - a lost of isk. So when you say "30 mil or die" You become honorable, you give them a chance to help themselves and when you keep your word (either by letting them go, or killing them) you prove your honor.
Another way to keep piracy in higher standings is to choose targets well. If you see a newer player, warn them of the danger. They may honestly not know what they are getting themselves into. Now, if that person stays, keeps going, or talks tersely, then you again are proceeding with your honorable course by following through with your profession.
Standard'izing Piracy-Honor is something that should not be done though, because different people have different moral structures. But the root of this Honor seems to be honesty, and commitment to your chosen path. So to conclude:
Being a pirate is a choice just as being honorable in your profession is a choice, and so when you have your chosen target who also made the choice to fly in this area of space - Your Honor is wheather you choose to uphold your word and your values.

Wow that was well thought out and a perfect explenation. Thank you

Yeah, I wish all the pirates out there think like you lot do, it wasn't so for me yesterday. I guy named omega2 I think it was encountered me in Asabona, so I thought, fair play to ya. And well, after my initial retreat we talked a no fighting truce, and, me being me, gave him the benefit of the doubt. We'd spoken for about an hour, and we had a few meetings, non combat like, so I thought he was a man of his word.

However the next time we meet he has a mate in the system, so I say *Hey your buddies here* and they started talking in Dutch in local I think, I can;t speak it so I was clueless as to what they were saying, I bump into him again near the gate as I'm leaving *My danger feeling was tingling so I was going to exit* When I meet him again, him and his mate locked, scramed, nos'd and webbed me, I asked if I could pay for my life as I had made more than enough to cover the ships worth, but to no avail, was shot to shit in a minute or so.

Gives pirates a bad name.

Since there is no universal or official definition of honor, the best answer would be to *'Be true to your belief"*.

It means that once you have your definition of honor clear in your head, you try and never break your self instricted rules.

For example (I am not yet a true pirate but plan to be one), my definition of honor would be :
-Never log off while being hunted (or tagged)
-Do not use an alt for anything your pirate character can not do (be it making cash through using a miner alt or anything) --> if you decide to take the pirate way, you should take all the disadvantage that come with it (that is my personnal opinion).
...

The main thing is when come the hard days. If you absolutly need to break your own rules for something (big reward, geting away...), it is then that true honor can be shown. If you disregard your belief for conveniance then you have lost all honor (in my eyes). But if you keep your self instructed rules and do not break them, even if it costs you all you have, then you have your honor for yourself, and you can cherish that self respect you earned.

But keep in mind that honor is not something for other to decide what it is.
If you think that deceiving, liing, and cheating is your way, then hold dear to your principe and don't let anyone tell you what is right or wrong.

As others have already said, everyone's definition of honor will be different. You can only consider yourself honorable if you stick to your own beliefs. Once cannot judge others based on a standardized definition of honor untill there actually is one. One thing that can be said about honor as a whole though is that if you claim to be honorable or are expected by others to be then it is a big deal. Pirates that claim to be honorable who ransom someone and then blow up their ship after that person has paid the ransom will cause said person to become very angry at the pirate for considering themself honorable. Why? Because this pirate has failed meet the supposedly socially agreed upon definition of honor. But why is that such a big deal? Throughout history on earth honor has been meticulously described in strict codes to follow and breaking them could possibly mean having to take an honorable death and kill yourself. Why was honor such a coveted commodity that a samurai who lost it would die by their own sword? Why do we call a judge "Your Honor"? Because no matter what rule set you follow to achieve it, honor is your reputation. It is the mark of your personal integrity. It is that which you can take pride in. Supposedly without your honor you are nothing.

Honor is about remembering your roots. How did it feel to be a rookie? What ruined your day and what was simply a heart pounding event? Do you want to be remembered as violent and dangerous, even a liar, or do you want to be remembered as someone who's entire purpose was to destroy someone's limits of control and make them act in a way they wouldn't normally? Don't treat players like lesser people because it gives the society of EVE a bad image and it is far beyond human to deliberatly break someone into peices.

If I engage a rookie I am sure to destroy his courage, his hope, and his ship. Once into structure I teach them what went wrong, how to avoid a similar situation, and send them on their way... heart pounding. I remember what it was like to be a rookie. I had not yet learned about the dangers of low-sec and I felt invincible. If only someone had destroyed that illusion and taught me instead of ending weeks worth of work as a rookie and then only to leave local with them laughing. Nothing is done to help the EVE community as a whole when you act like that.

Be mean. Be evil. Be dark. Be bitter. You don't have to be truthful or caring, fair or happy. But don't be someone who ends up being the reason people snap. Teach them why, train them on why not, and help them learn to not take the game personally.

* If I engage a rookie I am sure to destroy his courage, his hope, and his severely injure his ship.

Wow, my comment is "extraordinary good".

Screw you all I am DA man see ? ^^

:D

In my honest opinion... If you say you are going to do something bad or good and then dont you go against your word which gives reason to doubt you in the future. If you intend to follow up on something, do it, dont pussyfoot around.

In terms of piracy not only does it make YOU look bad it makes ALL true pirates get a bad name. Imposters and players who act like pirates are the reason less and less people are paying ransoms and standing up to us! Due to some weak minded individuals who like to PAP (Pod after payment) we are losing our reputation as Pirates that we are a force to be reckoned with and that we will take your money, then kill you anyway.

This can be helped in some ways by sticking to our honorable code and keeping our word to the Nth degree and carrying on pirating in the ways we have since we began. Providing you were honorable from the start.

Anyone who does not follow some kind of code that honors their word and claims to be a pirate is not a pirate but an imposter who needs to be hunted down, podded, hunted down, podded and repeat.

-Xenios Alfar

What a crock of shit! You are engaged in a dishonourable profession, so all the crap above is nothing more than vain self-justification. I would hazzard a guess and say that most of you (i.e. pirates or pirate-acolytes) have some serious adequacy issues. More than likely just insecure control freaks in hiding.

For fucks sake, get over yourselves, it's just a game...

Noolgud Sneelgut. You say its just a game but you are saying all pirates have some kind of psycological problem. I do not believe when CCP came up with EVE they would have wanted to bring the image of Pirates with issues into it. Kindly stfu and get your own facts right before saying its just a game. I have a sneaking suspicion a pirate killed you because you were to much of a pikey to pay the ransom because you dont even have the ISK to afford a ship other than the starter one. So in reply to "For fucks sake, get over yourselves, its just a game..." A) You first. B) Quit Bitchin C) It's for FUCK sake btw not for fucks sake. Fuck you and have a nice day kthx bye! luv ya!!xx

Ha ha ha!! Hook, line, and sinker... :-)

Another thing is Honor between Pirates.

I fought against another Pirate and he lost the duell.
After that he returned with a bs and wanted to fight vs my interceptor again, but knowing it was suicide i refused and asked him if we could work together a bit and do a little patrol...

he agreed and i formed a gang with him... after i jumped to him (they had mega and vexor) he tried to kill me as i was very close to him and his friend... was webbed, scrambled and energy drained but i still manage to escape by slowly flying out of scramble range! i already though this would be my end but they were such idiots that they didnt manage to destroy my little ship.

this is what dishonor means to me cause i laid my life in their hands knowing that i could loose my ship and implants...

after some week a friend invited this pirate again to our gang and while hunting we had a officer spawn on scanner and killed it for some nice loot... as everybody was after the frigs i saw him just fly to the officer and kill him... i knew that he would do something stupid again and checked the can on a flyby while engaging the last frig... as expected he declared the 30 mill loot as "only crap" and tryed to trick us again...

i had to make a decision... at ss i had the chance to warp him into sentry death but i didnt do that because this would be the way how he acted...

after i told the other gang mates about the situation i talked to him and told him that he lost our trust and that we will never fly with him again... and i think in his little retardet mind something regretfully cried because he lost the last ones that were willed to fly with him...

Meh at the first trick he tried to play you, you should have set his standing to -5 or -10 and never worked with him anymore...preventing this sad loose of isk.

When you see some people break their words for so dumb things (first time), you can be hella sure they will do it again and for more important things...don't even bother giving him a second chance.

My 2mil isk.