CBs in CN.
Entry posted by Omniscient1
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So after NG's recent attack on SOS, I'm beginning to wonder if this is how the majority of CN wars will be kicked off from now on.
In the past, the CN community would look for legitimate reasons to start wars. Two sides would position themselves on the treaty web; usually, the larger side would then find some reason to declare on the smaller side and the war would start. These days CBs are harder to find. I would say partly because behavior that causes CBs is largely discouraged.
When Polar hit \m/ back in bi-Polar, although I didn't like Polar's attack I thought it was a good idea on the gameplay level. Someone with power was finally actually "doing something" about it. However, we can all see how that turned out for Polar. Some of that has to do with the way Polar conducted that war, but still now people are even less likely to "do something about it".
Spying used to be the classic CB that was almost always air tight, but these days that has changed. Spying is really a high risk/low reward operation, because you can usually get the info you want from the rumor mill anyway. Everyone out there wants to talk. It's just a matter of talking enough to get what you want.
Tech raids going wrong are usually solved peacefully (due to everyone being allied to everyone). In a slim case where they aren't it's usually the alliances with power who are tech raiding. Therefore, the war probably won't start. Rivalries from outside of CN, over OOC actions, and PZIng are highly discourage by the community to erupt in war. When we take away all those mentioned above, what are we left with as a CB? Do we have to now resort to the "I don't like you" CB to get war?
The most common complaint about using this type of CB (besides the basic political complaints about abuse of power) is that they add nothing to the politics of the game. In the past, I might have agreed with that statement, but these days alliances don't care about CBs anyway. You can absolutely hate the CB used and still roll with whoever your treaty partner is, because of the whole "friends > infra" philosophy. The XX crowd seemed to have done this last war.
In this most recent case of NG vs. SOS brigade, it's pretty obvious that both alliances have legitimate grudges against one another. Although, I personally would have rather them just swung it out when those grudges first appeared (treaty web be damned) at the very least this is a war started because of built up grudges over time. If we have to use the "because I want to" CB, I believe as a community this is probably the most responsible way to use it. We either need to do that, rethink what is a proper CB, or stop solving so many wars.
Not having war at all will likely stagnate our politics just as much as going to war for absolutely no reason at all.
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