Before I get to the heart of this, let me just say I've played almost every role in the game. I've learned how to expertly apply combat medicine as a Medic. I've experimented with things as a Spec. I've almost memorized every surgery as a Doctor (just don't ask me to make medicine) and have little difficulty with most engineering tasks or CIC duties. At the heart of it though, as many people probably know, I consider myself a PO main, even if I've only played a few rounds as PO in the last two weeks. Unfortunately, as a PO, I'm ashamed to say there's something that needs to be addressed.
Most POs are terrible.
Whether it be the bald POs that just need a hand and are willing to learn or the seeming veterans that continue to make bald mistakes, the majority of POs are terrible. I've seen rounds where the POs somehow get mauled on the first drop (I won't deny that this has happened to me on one occasion) and others where the POs are far too trigger happy with CAS. I've seen rounds where the POs leave all the doors unlocked and multiple wounded Marines get dragged off the dropship by a lone Xeno. I've seen a round where a PO deliberately launched Normandy down multiple times seemingly to allow the Xenos to hijack it when they weren't able to break through the FOB. I've even seen a round where someone burst on the Alamo... while it was on the ground and we spent more than three minutes begging the two POs to launch because we had wounded and dying waiting for medical treatment before then.
Sure, most of these things can be accidents, mistakes made by inexperience or just OOC exhaustion, but the simple fact is that POs have far more authority over who lives and dies than many people would like to think, especially when most CIC staff in most rounds are unwilling to intervene with more than a scolding for the POs, if that. I feel this is something that everyone needs to sit down and talk about seriously. Sometimes POs don't do these things because they're bald, overwhelmed, or even just tired. Perhaps, sometimes POs do these things because they choose to.
There's a joking claim someone made that the majority of PO players are people who were job banned from MP for griefing/soft griefing. When you stop to think about it, even if the cause isn't true, there's still validity to the statement. The PO role is one that's very easy to soft grief people with: the classic "five minute launch schedule" and "I only launch with authorization from CIC" POs or the ones that ignore the condition of the people on their ship when deciding when to launch. In the case of the "two POs let someone burst on Alamo by delaying" example above, the POs were even explicitly told by the XO that they had to launch more frequently after the fact. From that point on, they only launched when someone on board was starting to get aggravated at their delays.
I'm not saying the PO role needs to be whitelisted or given a soft whitelist. What I am saying is the role needs more accountability. There needs to be a discussion on if certain common bad PO actions should be considered griefing or otherwise ahelp worthy. There needs to be a discussion on if there's a point where certain actions cause too much of a disruption in the round to be left uncorrected. There needs to be a discussion on how bad POs are dealt with.
This is my stance on the subject. If you read the entire thing, thank you. If you have anything to say, please do so.
Originally Posted by FGRSentinel
