I am enjoying the game, except one thing in the story that keeps coming up and causes me cognitive dissonance. I am in the first system and it isn’t clear to me why we are not considered Pirates.

The characters are always saying stuff like “Don’t be a Pirate” or “Kill all the Pirates”. And then we do stuff like steal from factions/corporations that are neutral to us. Why doesn’t that cause us to be Pirates?

We literally accidentally kidnapped someone. I am so confused.

  •  millie   ( @millie@beehaw.org ) 
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    101 month ago

    Are you maybe a privateer?

    Privateers tended to obey a sovereign government and do all the pirate things, but directed it against the enemies of the country they were under the flag of rather than just at whoever. Privateers would sometimes become pirates, though. Basically, they’d just keep doing the same job, but for themselves.

    The distinction is largely one of who gets to make the rules and do the finger pointing.