I find the biggest problem is adherence to Settings....
PlayerX: "I don't have to follow the law, I can duel in Hydlaa, they won't do anything and even so, what has the Octarchy done for me?"
Exactly the attitude, every psycho, NRA activist and afghanian warlord has. Why again, can't this be the choice of my role to play? Oh, btw. duelling in public places is/was not allowed in western societies for centuries - Nobody cared though. Ever read a book by Alexandre Dumas ("Three Musketeers" for example)? The adventures of Casanova? Maybe seen a western movie with a shoot out at high noon on main street? For historical reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel#Opposition_to_duellingAnd don't even get me started on bar brawls.
The world is not full of law abiding citizens and the Octarchy, though being powerful, does not have the means, modern police has to enforce the law. Besides, the ever so holy roleplay, which is hold in ever such high regard on this game has, by definition, something to do with character development. Character development may very well include conflict (in fact, it is the spice in an otherwise dull character). If my character was to encounter the murderer of my family in the tavern, boasting about how he dealt with my sister, you can count on me not asking him politely to step outside the city gates, so we can "discuss" the matter in a lawful manner. This would be outright silly, pointless in terms of roleplay and serve no purpose beyond satisfying the whims of some rule fetishists!
PlayerX: "Our guild comes from XYZFantasyland, where we run the place."
PlayerX: "I killed a great dragon, and wear it's tooth around my neck."
The fact, that dragons do not exist on planet earth did not keep the brothers Grimm from writing fairy tales about them. The fact, that nobody ever set foot on the moon till 1969 did not keep Jules Verne from writing a novel about it, almost 100 years earlier. The fact, that Bigfoot does not exist does not keep souvenir shops from peddling kitsch, supposedly made out of bigfoot bodyparts to tourists. In medieval times, it was en vogue to sell narwhal tooth as unicorn horn and chicken bones as relics from saints, nobody had ever heard about (at least not until the fat friar told the story, he just invented). Superstitious people attribute ever squeak in the middle of the night to a poltergeist and see phantoms in every blurry shape. Weather balloons turn into extraterrestrial spacecrafts and crop circles into messages from aliens, if mixed with a bit of media spin.
Hollywood even turned it into a whole industry to "go against the settings" of planet earth.
Heavens forbid, that we ever use our imagination, when roleplaying! The idea, that Player X could either be a complete lunatic, an honest, but gullable idiot or bullshitting the hell out of everyone for personal gains is obviously too far fetched.
The typical 'lol', 'lmao', 'brb'.... it's gotten to the point where I just mentally ignore them with ease. Seeing non-Settings RP just trashes my experience.
Something, that trashes my experience is, when someone forces me to step out of my role of being a complete lunatic, an honest, but gullable fool or bullshitting the hell out of everyone and I have to have an [ooc discussion of what narrow minded people consider to be acceptable and what not].
@Tuxide: I agree with your view, but the covenant is more about drawing a line, not about favouring one view over another. Distinguishing RP from non-RP properly.
@Happy: You've obviously never played D&D, Warhammer, or other games. Taking out the rules leaves everything absolutely open for abuse, godmodding and crap. It's like the concept of anarchy, it just cannot work because there's always a griefer.
The rules of (A)D&D and others are, that you throw a Dwhatever, add a bit of something and look the result up in table soandso. You might be surprised, that such rules exist in Planeshift in terms of game mechanics, enforcing pretty well, whether you hit something or not. The game mechanics, by the way, can or rather could be used to stop people from godmodding. Just make the whole world open PVP and I guarantee you, nobody will be godmodding a blade of the dragon slayer in my presence (at least not without that being put to the test).
It is actually your precious little covenant (which btw. was agreed upon in the same way, that it was agreed upon to build a bypass through Arthur Dents house: By only asking those who wanted it and ignoring the voices of those who didn't), which allows all kinds of crap, abuse and godmodding. It is the perfect excuse for people running around, bullying and threatening other people to "roleplay" (in which "roleplay" means "whatever I consider it to be"), demanding that they sheath their weapons in the city (sure thing, if there is an armed and dangerous guy walking down the street, the sanest thing to do is stepping up to him and demanding him to follow the law, which he is obviously ignoring on purpose for whatever reason) and generally educating people about what they think is good and right, but which they obviously never wasted much thought about.