There Is No Consent

Some believe that just by playing Eve Online, one consents to PvP.  I could only find two documents that one has to accept that would prevent you from playing the game, those are the EUL and the TOS.  No where could I find a statement that even resembled consenting to participating in PvP.  So if a player undocks his ship he hasn't consented to anything that involves your entertainment.

Eve online offers a lot of opportunity to PvP, it can happen anywhere.  But in my opinion a PvP game is just that, player versus player.  You gain resources, items, points, experience, or whatever other mechanic exists through defeating other players.  Prime examples of this involve League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counterstrike to give a few that I have played.  Eve Online is not like this, sure, it can offer its rewards in terms of bounties off of other players, the loot that they drop, or loyalty point gains in faction warfare.  But this isn't the sole method for gaining resources in New Eden and therefore only certain aspects of the game classify as PvP.

What Eve is, is a game that has PvP always enabled.  There exist areas of space where it is frowned upon, but it is not disabled.  Everyone has a chance to be shot at, anyone can be quickly pulled into this play-style even if they don't want to participate.  Such is the life in New Eden.  But just because you can force them into your play style, that doesn't mean they consented to it.  If CCP believed that by playing their game you consent to PvP, why do they have high and low sec?  (Why even have rat bounties, planetary interaction, mining, or industry when everything that is provided by these activities could be given through killing other players?)

It also doesn't say anywhere that CCP will utterly prevent PvP.  In high sec there exists a place of relative safety enforced by NPCs, even though you are in that type of environment there are no guarantees.  It is just an area of space that allows one to feel safer.  Now high sec isn't the only place one can feel safe, you have these areas in low and null sec as well.  Do you think a member of Goonswarm undocks in the middle of their staging system and has the fear of being insta-locked and blown up?  But just because there exists areas of relative safety, that doesn't mean you can't be dragged kicking and screaming into the play style of blown up spaceships.

The areas of low, null, and wormhole space tend to be fraught with constant PvP encounters.  Yet even entering these areas of space is not a consent of PvP.  There is just an increased likelihood of you being engaged by people who want to PvP.  I haven't run into a player wherein we sit down, have a cup of tea, and come to an agreement that I get to blow them up.  More often than not the process goes something like this:

He's still on d-scan....he's still there....

(leaves warp)

I see him, he's right there

(start lock)

lock faster, lock faster, darn it he's aligning

(lock achieved, warp disruption modules activated, and all guns begin firing)

MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

(Explosion, whether yours or theirs....there are pretty lights either way)

I am currently in the process of being a pirate.  People I come across will probably be engaged by me.  But I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that they have given permission to be attacked just by playing the game, or even by entering the less secure areas of space.  I am not entitled to their participation, just as they are not entitled to be exempt from my attentions.  There is no rule that says they can't escape.  

So people should focus less on whining to CCP and demanding that changes need to be made to force people to PvP.  From my short time actively trying to engage in PvP activities, there are quite a few people who are willing to take you up on that offer.  

Less QQ more Pew Pew!