since it has degraded into an //ooc debate. - a few things...
naming:
pointing out at the "BOUNTY hunters" does not go too far. - actually, the BHG are the mercenaries and the mercenaries / freelancers are the bounty hunters when it comes to their role. - merceanries / freelancers take up "on-the-spot-deals" to satisfy their short term needs. - some of them bunched up together ( formed mercenary clans ) to achieve more lasting contracts.
in a way - that is what the BHG did. - only it was the NPCs that did it. they bunched up together and formed the guild. as a guild, they are not too much after the little deal about the crook anymore, but they are doing ..... *drum roll* the more lasting contracts, like assisting in the protection of house space. - that is why you find BHGs at jumpholes rather than police - but in house space. - all those wings of BHGs are not doing the personal bounty, - it is more - they get some shabby wages and a provision for each criminal they catch. but they are not studying the newsletter about criminals all over sirius and head from liberty to rheinland to kusari to bretonia to catch someone. they stay at their designated space.
so the LPI bounty is actually what the BHG is supposed to do. - they catch criminals for a small fee in a specific space. they are not so much going after "one special person" as any other faction ( remember - HEAD hunting is what NPC missions are when they ask for a specific person to be caught or killed ).
about the role and its attitudes towards the guild:
i would be glad if people differentiated more between what they want as a player and what they want as a character ingame. - a character ingame would be delighted to see a guildship around, ( unless he is doing something wrong ) - BHG ships never attack a lawful ( let aside obvious game engine problems with pilots / caught criminals ) - that is mostly, cause they follow the very same scripts as the NPC police. - but if we take NPC behaviour as a base of what we RP, then the hysteria about the BHG is nothing i see based in RP, but only in a PLAYERS wish to get rid of them.. which, in some cases, i can understand - but that should be discussed other than like that. ( in terms of an ooRP violation and a report if a BHG acts well outside its parameters - just like any other faction )
So sometimes, it feels like players want to punish the BHG for something - when it should be the characters determining the RP. i already wrote it in the alaska thread and i repeat it again. - i am sure the navy would like nothing more than to ban all BHGs out of alaska. - ( inchar and out-of-char )
but the BHG are in alaska, they did not break a liberty law ( RP law ) by doing so, cause they came form a place that the navy did not know about ( minor JH ).
banning the BHG would have been totally ooRP. opening fire on them would have been ooRP, too. why is that so? - if i was the navy, and out of the nebula came 3 different signals... one nomad, one order and one BHG. i would be utterly delighted to know that the BHG is maybe not on my side, - but most certainly not against me.
i can still see the players *wishing* to fire on the BHG rather than the order or the nomads. - just like the order likes to fire on the BHG more than the nomads. - its some sort of "educational measures* - of thinking of punishing the BHG for things they do by firing on them - even when the RP suggests to do something different.
result:
the problem with the game is - that the BHG has no way to punish the goverment in the way they would do if it was a REAL simulation with all complexity. - in such a case, the BHG would say "alright then, you don t want us - we leave" - and they would leave ... and liberty would be overrun by pirates that crawled out of their jumpholes ( that the navy does not know about ( again, the CHARs don t know about it, while the players do ) ) they would overwhelm the borderstations easily and would have a much easier stand against the lawfuls.
the BHG ingame does not have these powers cause the engine does not provide us with enough feedback about a force missing. - its like the zoners power. which lays in supporting materials ( essential materials ) to the unlawfuls. - the unlawfuls would die ( literally ) if the zoners would not assist them. - yet, they cannot play that trump.
if would be nice when more roleplay was done inchar and not influenced much by what the players want. i can see where its coming from when liberty wants to ban all BHG warships. - but i daresay that its rather a players wish than a RP wish. if everyone stuck to their RP, those warships would never mean any danger. - to in inChar, we have to assume that everyone sticks to their RP. - we cannot justify a faction by what a few do, but must assess a faction by what it is meant to be.
warships of the BHG will not fulfil a contract in the houses. thats a matter of fact. they will not hunt criminals, nor will they sign up into military operations that are house business. BUT they are allowed to fly there. - their operational space is the omicrons. but that doesn t mean they cannot travel into the coreworlds. they can chill out there, resupply and exchange the latest news. - their crew might want to have a rest on Cortez or Manhatten, while the ship is moored. - there is no RP problem with that at all.