I share his thoughts on exactly how this decision contributes to the RP environment (or rather, doesn't). More specifically, the decision to sanction a player who was upset about being sneak attacked seems wrong to me. Don't misunderstand, I'm not defending his irritation or indignation, since death in this game has relatively few negative consequences. He probably should have handled it differently. But sanctioning a player for at least making an effort, regardless of his methods, to shed light on and/or uphold the server rules?
Furthermore, I intensely dislike the point made further down that thread where it is specifically stated that RP prior to PvP does not have any limitations or expectations whatsoever, and that an attack does not have to be declared. I understand the reasoning, of course, since in real life, the bad guys won't always give the good guys a shouted warning that they're going to shoot at them. But let's take a step back. In order to RP in Freelancer, you have to take your hand off of the mouse and throttle keys to type. Not everyone is a 200 WPM typist, and not everyone's first language is English, secondly. I've been the victim of this a number of times. If you're in a ship that relies on speed and maneuverability for defense rather than superior shielding or hull strength, if someone shoots at you while you're responding to something they asked or said, you're dead before you even realize you were fired upon, let alone before you can even have a prayer of getting out of the chat window, grabbing the controls, and dodging. Even worse, it elaborates that the RP prior to PvP doesn't even have to have anything to do with the attack. Again, this may have some merit in real life, but as much as I want to be immersed in as real an enviornment as possible, we do have to remember that this is in fact a computer game, and the general server rules should reflect that.
These decisions and precedents are actually detrimental to RP, as anyone familiar with such tactics will likely not bother to RP with anyone for fear of taking their hands away from their ship controls, or even approach other player ships at all. It makes RP essentially a deadly game of Hot Potato: whoever gets left holding the chat window when shots are fired likely winds up dead.
I'm not saying that PvP should be taken away, it's an integral part of the game. It's just that permitting these overtly underhanded tactics (and punishing those who report it) may very well be one of the contributing factors to the larger problem. I also want to point out that I am in no way pointing fingers at the admin team. I respect the job they do, and have first hand knowledge of the aggravation they have to put up with as I have been the equivalent of an admin on another game and server. It's a tough job, but constructive feedback is also how one gets better. I simply wanted to share my thoughts and reasoning, and will respect whatever decision is made whether I agree with it or not.