The Inaugural Crushtania Blog

Entry posted by crushtania November 19, 2008

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I saw the "CN Blog Stars" post and I just had to have one. Just had to. I mean, it's not even a choice for me. CN and blogging? Combining my two loves (read: unhealthy obsessions) was something I once thought unpossible; now they have both feet firmly rooted within the realm of possibility. I almost feel dirty writing this; its kind of like dating two girls on the sly and combining them into one, gelatinous super-girlfriend, the likes of which would kick your arse if you even half-considered joining Facebook or Galava or something. I don't think I could join Galava because it would literally take too much time learning it.

I've been playing for two years now and the game still manages to amaze and surprise. When you're a n00b and sheltered from the "true dynamics" of the game, nation management takes precedence over all other things. Now when you've been playing for too long and starting to get a feel for the politics, micro-management isn't even a consideration any more. (I've been sitting on 30K for about six months now.) In the IRC, I've rarely heard veterans mention anything to do with their nation apart from asking for tech deals or trades if they've lost them to an inactive. Your playing of the game shifts from the hard-and-fast "game" (the actual Cybernations GUI) to the "game" that's created by the users; you and me. I plug in a set of parameters for others to react to and vice-versa; the game continues. The currency we use to goad one another to bend to our (collective) wills is the currency of NS - if I've got more, you do what I say. Well, not really. But the intricacies of the game need to be learned before one can start "playing it" properly.

If you were a foreign diplomat dispatched to Israel, you would learn the history, the individual characters of leaders, culture and the demographics of the place before you even thought about opening your mouth. Many a time I've seen n00bs say "We ShLD totes KILL teh ebil NPO, omgzZZZZ!" with nary a thought to the network of complex interconnections that would require untangling for any one person, alliance or even a cluster of them to even contemplate doing so. (Not that it can't be done; anything is possible in this game, after all there is no "one true" order.)

Its apparently how it works in the parallel universe some people refer to as IRL; but the lack of concrete evidence for it within Planet Bob makes the idea of such a three-dimensional, non-text based world absolutely fanciful.