astronaut jones space adventures

And OBM. You still owe me a cookie.

And OBM. You still owe me a cookie.

Kaitlink stuck up for me a lot while I was in MA and generally !@#$@#$ around. Mila stuck her neck out for me and got me into CSN after they initially balked at allowing me to join. iFOK is the one alliance that actually helped my nation grow.

And yeah, I'll give you a cookie anyway

For those that, like myself, have only ever been in one alliance... I'd say much..if not all, is owed. All my pixels are belong to RoK. I do my part in defense of my brethren and Rok's allies and that should even the debt a little.

A mention should be made of my trade partners, but that situation is of mutual benefit and not in the realm of owing or not owing.

It would be unreasonable to expect to maintain a running tally of exactly what is owed... but their being able to count on me to defend their interests matters to me.

i think alliances hope that you make friends inside their alliance and want you to defend your friends to ZI.

thats my .02

i do agree with a lot of what you said here

i think alliances hope that you make friends inside their alliance and want you to defend your friends to ZI.

thats my .02

i do agree with a lot of what you said here

I understand that friendship is to be taken into account, but I'm taking a very narrow view here. There are intangibles to being in any alliance which would draw people to that specific alliance above all others, but I still think these are questions that anyone can ask and ask themselves.

For those that, like myself, have only ever been in one alliance... I'd say much..if not all, is owed. All my pixels are belong to RoK. I do my part in defense of my brethren and Rok's allies and that should even the debt a little.

A mention should be made of my trade partners, but that situation is of mutual benefit and not in the realm of owing or not owing.

It would be unreasonable to expect to maintain a running tally of exactly what is owed... but their being able to count on me to defend their interests matters to me.

Well, I'm asking something that's actually fairly narrow in scope. I'm looking at the individual, and the notion that the individual owes something to the alliance from day one, which I'm just not convinced of. The alliance should serve the members, rather than the members serve it, in my view.

The alliance should serve the members, rather than the members serve it, in my view.

i like your view, but do such AAs exist? (is iFOK one if they do?)

i have always been big on earning trust in alliances so i can get in the political aspect of the game but thats not how alliance generally work, or at least the 1s ive been a part of.

do you have a solution or are you just trying to get the point across?

An alliance typically exists for the benefit of its members, for mutual protection against clear and present threats. Through this common goal friendships are made and communities develop. Someone has to take on the responsibility of making the important decisions and vital daily operations in order for it to be effective. Should the members grow complacent then they will be ill prepared to deal with any threats. If others are more eager to take up the reins of power for the betterment of the whole then I see nothing inherently wrong with others sitting in the background, provided if the time comes where you must defend a fellow member you do so. Quietly leaving after having done nothing openly and actively is perfectly acceptable provided you have held that willing mindset. That alone is a payment to the cause, the purpose your alliance has thus no debt remains upon your departure unless you explicitly stated one such as owing money to a bank. Anything beyond the original purpose of the alliance which your bring is merely a bonus given to the whole and it ends when ever you wish it to. To my knowledge virtually every alliance in this game only operates here even if members come from elsewhere. Once an alliance becomes a community which operates wings in different games then there might be more required of its members and that merely depends upon the conditions of your joining.

I owe nothing.

An alliance typically exists for the benefit of its members, for mutual protection against clear and present threats. Through this common goal friendships are made and communities develop. Someone has to take on the responsibility of making the important decisions and vital daily operations in order for it to be effective. Should the members grow complacent then they will be ill prepared to deal with any threats. If others are more eager to take up the reins of power for the betterment of the whole then I see nothing inherently wrong with others sitting in the background, provided if the time comes where you must defend a fellow member you do so. Quietly leaving after having done nothing openly and actively is perfectly acceptable provided you have held that willing mindset. That alone is a payment to the cause, the purpose your alliance has thus no debt remains upon your departure unless you explicitly stated one such as owing money to a bank. Anything beyond the original purpose of the alliance which your bring is merely a bonus given to the whole and it ends when ever you wish it to. To my knowledge virtually every alliance in this game only operates here even if members come from elsewhere. Once an alliance becomes a community which operates wings in different games then there might be more required of its members and that merely depends upon the conditions of your joining.

I owe nothing.

I like you. I agree with everything you've said, and I too, owe nothing.

I think the main reason you see this sort of thinking is due to an adoption of Kennedy's famous saying:

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

In this case, it becomes

"Ask not what your alliance affiliation can do for you - ask what you can do for your alliance affiliation."

While I can understand the feeling that you don't owe your alliance anything and that it is presumptuous of your alliance to expect you to devote yourself to their causes and needs, I will point out that without this sort of feeling of doing what you can for your alliance, even if they haven't provided you with everything you ever wanted, the alliance will never be the very best that it could be.

For example, look at financial aid to smaller nations. This is only possible by larger nations giving aid to these smaller nations. If these larger nations worked on the principle of "I'll give back only what I owe", the financial structure would fail as soon as more new nations enter than there are nations that originally got aid. This applies to wars as well - if nations only fought in wars to serve out what they "owe", many nations would find that their alliance mates would not be able to protect them. In order to have the alliance benefits that help the member, another member has to give up something. If an alliance is made up of members who will work for the alliance, giving aid and fighting defensive wars even if they received little from their alliance, it allows the alliance to give more of the services to other members than would be possible otherwise.

In my honest opinion, anyone who works on this basis of only returning what is owed will not be able to improve the alliance itself and the benefits it provides.

While I can understand the feeling that you don't owe your alliance anything and that it is presumptuous of your alliance to expect you to devote yourself to their causes and needs, I will point out that without this sort of feeling of doing what you can for your alliance, even if they haven't provided you with everything you ever wanted, the alliance will never be the very best that it could be.

There's a difference between believing yourself to have a debt (the question of this blog) and being unwilling to assist when it's believed to be necessary or just where possible.