Does it sound silly, perhaps even frightening?
To the fair minded, maybe, not to us though.
Given the role that pirates will play in Dual Universe, there is bound to be a certain stigma and how the words "trust" and "pirate" are never used by the in the same sentence unless preceded by the word "never".
While our aim isn't to reverse this stigma entirely, Eyes and Ears might prove to be an interesting "odd job" for those who consider themselves pirates and dabble in the role, yet want to tread between good and not necessarily evil play styles without having to revert to a separate account or character.
Another benefit to having pirates affiliated with us (in name only) is location, location, location. Often players most in need of a rescue would find themselves far from civilization, it just so happens to be that pirates enjoy being far from civilization, so they are an interesting prospect to consider among our ranks.
A more subjective benefit for a pirate to join exists in the profit potential. Smash and grab is fun in and of itself, but now your friends have left a player, perhaps a hauler, stranded or even dead all together. Now, they and their organization are more risk averse to the region which could lead to many things. Armored convoys, loot less decoys, or a halt to traffic entirely, not to mention people are out to get you and you also have to split the loot among greedy clan mates.
By becoming a rescuer and helping that stranded hauler, traffic would still flow through the region, which can still be picked off when you are not rescuing others, but travelers will see that there is some good mixed in with the bad on their trade route, so at least they won't opt to nix the region entirely. Furthermore, the income generated by your rescues is yours and yours alone and who knows, a grateful survivor might add a toss you a token of appreciation.
The rewards might be smaller, but they are more assured and will last longer over time which means they could meet or even exceed your earnings as a pirate if you're busy enough.
However, lets not forget how this aspect of "good pirates" working alongside us might affect the reputation and standing of Eyes & Ears as a whole.
As a singularly driven organization we aim to please, to the utmost extent of our ability, everyone we provide our services to. While we are the only organization of our kind, we hope to have a high reputation among the community that expects us to go the distance to help bring them back from the edge.
Foul play among our organization is not something that will be tolerated. If a pirate wants to steal something from someone, law enforcement is not our duty, so we will not stop them. If someone on our organization, say a rescuer, wants to steal something while on a rescue mission, that will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken to return the stolen goods to the victim, and if need be, the accused will be dealt with properly, and terminated if need be.
Just so we are clear, however, here is a more simplified way of thinking.
You are a pirate and a rescuer. When you are not rescuing, feel free to loot and plunder all you want. When you are working as a rescuer and operating under our name, you will not steal from from or otherwise bring harm to those that you are supposed to be helping.
Since we care about our public image, any incident of piracy under our name will put all known pirates under intense internal scrutiny which could lead to their termination as well.
What the now jobless pirates do to the instigator that cost them their job, would be better left unsaid.
Do you want to be that person?