Here's to the Initiative

[Mogar]

[quote name='Lamuella' timestamp='1299539341' post='2655861']
now now, I know we're having a lot of fun here, but let's not say anything silly.
[/quote]
Being friends as opposed to simply allying to try to rule the game always had a better appeal to me.

[Doitzel]

[quote name='Mogar' timestamp='1299539249' post='2655859']
The League/AEGIS > WUT
[/quote]
Statistically, yeah! That was the beauty of it.

[Mogar]

[quote name='Doitzel' timestamp='1299540352' post='2655878']
Statistically, yeah! That was the beauty of it.
[/quote]
our leadership was too pansy to actually go weapons free. (no offense pansy)

[Denial]

[quote name='Mogar' timestamp='1299540434' post='2655879']
our leadership was too pansy to actually go weapons free. (no offense pansy)
[/quote]
Hey, not all of us were.

[Owned-You]

[font="Tahoma"]Fun times.[/font]

[Epiphanus]

[quote name='Denial' timestamp='1299544571' post='2655961']
Hey, not all of us were.
[/quote]
Oh Legion. Failed 4 years ago, nothing has changed.

[TheEraser]

blocs almost always suck.

But if you want to go down the road you're travelling BLEU was the best bloc to grace this game. Not only was it, for the most part, based on mutual friendship and the common purpose of uniting the blue team, it could dominate anyone at any time. Though it did have one of the uglier demises of the blocs that have come and gone...

[Ardus]

[quote name='Mogar' timestamp='1299539523' post='2655866']
Being friends as opposed to simply allying to try to rule the game always had a better appeal to me.
[/quote]


[quote name='captain america' timestamp='1299548166' post='2656037']
blocs almost always suck.But if you want to go down the road you're travelling BLEU was the best bloc to grace this game. Not only was it, for the most part, based on mutual friendship and the common purpose of uniting the blue team, it could dominate anyone at any time. Though it did have one of the uglier demises of the blocs that have come and gone...
[/quote]
Y'all crazy. Blocs are structures designed to collect and tighten power. They inevitably magnify disputes and differences. For a bloc to be effective, it has to be comprised of people willing to overlook those differences in favor of the common goal. That's what made WUT so legendary--it was comprised of extraordinarily diverse alliances and, despite enormous differences, conquered a statistically superior foe through wit and coordination. AEGIS was a title tossed on a gaggle of people staring at annihilation because they'd blinked in the staring contest that was GWII, not some cohesive drum circle. BLEU couldn't come close to dominating "anyone at any time", as evidenced by its political and military defeats.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Ardus

[Zero-One]

[quote name='captain america' timestamp='1299548166' post='2656037']
blocs almost always suck.

But if you want to go down the road you're travelling BLEU was the best bloc to grace this game. Not only was it, for the most part, based on mutual friendship and the common purpose of uniting the blue team, it could dominate anyone at any time. Though it did have one of the uglier demises of the blocs that have come and gone...
[/quote]

Who are you trying to fool? BLEU was a terrible bloc

[Chief Savage Man]

[quote name='Tygaland' timestamp='1299534166' post='2655756']
That and Chief Sausage Man's premature evaluation over Doomhouse.
[/quote]

It was tongue-in-cheek. Not all of us take ourselves as seriously as you do, Mr. Tyga.

[Shodemofi-NPO]

It sure was fun.

*raises glass*

[Denial]

As the person that coined the name Aegis - mostly for convenience, as that ridiculous coalition had no name and it was too difficult to keep typing out the involved alliances - do me a favour and everyone stop typing it as if it's an acronym.

[Duncan King]

[quote name='blueski' timestamp='1299534595' post='2655764']
Q was around for months before WoTC.
[/quote]
I know, I was there for the founding announcements. The opening negotiations were in October and November of 2007 and the pin was pulled on it in early December 2007.

Q was created by TOP and NPO and consisted of the alliances from both sides of the UJW that they respected. It came to power between UJP war and WoTC. As I said, the dates are approximate because it's possible that the power structures inherent to Q existed before the DoE or that they finally consolidated their power and control several months after founding. WoTC was important for the bloc's power as it was when Q formally took out BLEU, the last real antithesis of their power.

[Tequila Mockingbird]

It was pretty fun for us Pacificans.

[Cataduanes]

And horrible for the rest of us who were not tied to the Initiative.

[lamuella]

[quote name='Denial' timestamp='1299578888' post='2656572']
As the person that coined the name Aegis - mostly for convenience, as that ridiculous coalition had no name and it was too difficult to keep typing out the involved alliances - do me a favour and everyone stop typing it as if it's an acronym.
[/quote]

You missed off the W.

[AAAAAAAAAAGGGG]

The Initiative did so well until everyone died.

[Cager]

GW2 and GW3 were the best period the game hands down. Two relatively even sides, who don't like each other, both want the other to burn. Yeah you can't get that now, not without the massive MDP web.

[Feanor Noldorin]

[quote name='Ardus' timestamp='1299548739' post='2656054']
That's what made WUT so legendary--it was comprised of extraordinarily diverse alliances and, despite enormous differences, conquered a statistically superior foe through wit and coordination.
[/quote]
Ardus nailed it.

The Continuum, Pandora, SuperFriends, CnG, Citadel, ect.. are all unique in their own way but the Initiative and the alliances that made it up were legendary.

[berbers]

[quote name='Cataduanes' timestamp='1299591056' post='2656650']
And horrible for the rest of us who were not tied to the Initiative.
[/quote]

Well you made up for lost time by getting nice and snug in the middle of the opressive power base this time around.

[Ranoik]

Remember Shark Week? God that was funny.

[Tygaland]

[quote name='Chief Savage Man' timestamp='1299571174' post='2656527']
It was tongue-in-cheek. Not all of us take ourselves as seriously as you do, Mr. Tyga.
[/quote]

Indeed, my levels of seriousness are at critical levels. Without light-hearted folk like yourself pointing this out for me from time to time, I'd have probably had a stroke by now. You are a lifesaver!

[Doitzel]

[quote name='Ardus' timestamp='1299548739' post='2656054']
Y'all crazy. Blocs are structures designed to collect and tighten power. They inevitably magnify disputes and differences. For a bloc to be effective, it has to be comprised of people willing to overlook those differences in favor of the common goal. That's what made WUT so legendary--it was comprised of extraordinarily diverse alliances and, despite enormous differences, conquered a statistically superior foe through wit and coordination.
[/quote]

That was the beauty of it. A lot of people think of WUT and think [i]past[/i] the wars, when the alliances really got too big for the britches. It was the many months prior to that which were incredibly fun and dynamic, with simmering resentment from the Great War combined with the introduction of a ton of new players on the Orders' side. The cold war between them was tense and WUT did not have the upper-hand on paper. I remember a few people in NPO were quite opposed to sparking the war in Jan. 07 because they didn't think we could win.

Blocs since then have been more about securing political dominance and overwhelming force then simply crushing their enemies. There hasn't been real bloc vs. bloc parity since 2007. That's largely due to the diaspora that's occurred over the years -- the treaty web is so complicated and there are so many alliances with half as many people in the game. WUT is something that can never happen again, but the legacy is the many political and military precedents that were set.

[quote name='Duncan King' timestamp='1299580685' post='2656582']
I know, I was there for the founding announcements. The opening negotiations were in October and November of 2007 and the pin was pulled on it in early December 2007.

Q was created by TOP and NPO and consisted of the alliances from both sides of the UJW that they respected. It came to power between UJP war and WoTC. As I said, the dates are approximate because it's possible that the power structures inherent to Q existed before the DoE or that they finally consolidated their power and control several months after founding. WoTC was important for the bloc's power as it was when Q formally took out BLEU, the last real antithesis of their power.
[/quote]

The Continuum was a purely reactionary bloc. They had absolutely no uniting purpose except fear. They existed solely as a check on Polar's power and died when BLEU and co. were knocked off the top. That death just happened to be very drawn out; it was a warm security blanket that they clung to for dear life, but it was inevitably superseded by more contemporary relationships.

[Xiphosis]

[quote name='Doitzel' timestamp='1299540352' post='2655878']
Statistically, yeah! That was the beauty of it.
[/quote]

Hahaha, exactly.

[Mogar]

[quote name='Cager' timestamp='1299607024' post='2656816']
GW2 and GW3 were the best period the game hands down. Two relatively even sides, who don't like each other, both want the other to burn. Yeah you can't get that now, not without the massive MDP web.
[/quote]
If only the sides fought with all the alliances in GW2 and didn't wait around for WUT to be too large for us to defeat in GW3.