jerdge

It's very funny that there are a lot of players that claim that war isn't expensive enough, and that brought us to this "stagnation" with dominant factions that can continue to keep others down with little effort. At the same time many others claim that war is too expensive, and that makes the leadership stay away from it, for fear of throwing away their work without much gain. Not only I am certain that it can't be both ways, but I actually think it's neither of the two... Most people have just ten minutes a day for CN, they joined some medium/big alliance and aren't active enough to keep their aid slots filled, let alone manage war against other nations. Add to this all those players that can't be on at updates, and you will understand why war isn't that popular in CN. The Board people are not the same of the Game people. I personally enjoy building my nation and not so much fighting wars and I don't find my CN to be any stagnating...

The current political landscape is far from being "won" by a single alliance. The second and third strongest alliances united (IRON and MCXA) would no doubt win over the first one (NPO) in case of an open conflict. The real dominating entity in CN is the BLOCK, not the alliance... And do you know a thing? Blocks (and alliances) are all but monolithic and eternal. We may claim that we're all having pure and innocent thoughts only, but in reality every major player in the Continuum has its agenda to ensure its own safety for the possibility moment in which the block will fracture; that moment may be very far in the future (I'm not in the know...) but admittedly it's wise to be prepared. Even single alliances aren't that solid, mainly because there's absolutely no in-game feature that really holds the nations together. The MCXA-TSO recent divide is just an example, and that same silent majority Bama was talking of is another factor of instability (or it can be, if properly exploited): most players are only vaguely loyal to their alliance and they can be induced to leave it. The Continuum's hegemony is political in nature, and the "right" political drives, if properly exploited by a determined and organized foe, have all the needed potential to topple it. On the other hand, no in-game feature can really act over the alliance politics, in the long period. They're just in disconnected realms... [Edit: improving a word]

I never enjoyed being in Pacifica (darn, they rejected my application!) However, I find it difficult to believe that any dissent is immediately and heavily ridiculed, censored and silenced. The NPO members would be leaving en masse if that was the case (you don't reach 900+ members by treating them badly). (I just realized that I definitely need to frequent more the NPO forums, by the way.)

This is the classy intervention of this discussion. I am very pleased to see it! Let's all please follow this advice (even if we're not all Pacificans, of course...)

What is this "OOC" you're all talking of, and don't you know that RL is a myth? I thought this discussion was about the Pacifican mistakes with Deal scammers, and how Pacifica would be repressing dissent... [ooc] Well said! I think that Doitzel already well defined the tactic problem as "character assassination": I concur that the usage of the "OOC card" reflects bad on those that use it and I add that it's also very poor gameplay. This thread has now been completely ruined by it... Maybe it's effective as a tactic after all, but again it's extremely poor as a way to counter an argument. [/ooc]

[ooc] In fact, I already got "my facts straight" before posting here. Not only Ragashingo cited other cases of people getting banned from GATO, but I checked a reliable source about this issue and I was confirmed that indeed GATO members had been banned from their forums for "having criticized the NPO". For the record, I don't have any trouble in believing you: Ragashingo just isn't the only case, probably. I also don't see what's wrong in my suggestion: to avoid expelling GATO-ers from their community, but rather to have them removed from the game (sub)forums only. Regardless of what happened this far a new policy could be implemented... Would you agree with that? [/ooc] [Edit: get=/=got]

(I wish the TWiP could be made shorter... The long OP with the 14 pages are not encouraging me to read everything... In fact, I read almost only the OP.) Congratulations to the editorial office for what is obviously a great success of public. Also congratulations to LordValentine for his comeback. ----- This threatening and sadistic attitude is unbecoming of someone that claims to be fighting against the Global Despots, and especially of you, Schattenmann. ----- [ooc] The problem of former GATO members that were banned from GATO forums and deprived of the whole access to them (spam/RL/misc sections as well) is very serious. Banning someone for game-related reasons only is IMHO problematic even when an Alliance is independent: it clearly becomes an unacceptable abuse when an Alliance is being held under a Viceroy. Some people seriously need to think of what they're doing and stop harming the RL communities of people they won over in this specific game: "Former Member" masks can be easily created and used and there's no excuse for not doing so. It's not a matter of "rights", but of fairness. [/ooc]

Congratulations on your 1000th day, Nintenderek: CN is much better with dedicated players that hold strong, no matter the trouble they go through. Keep it friendly, and best wishes for you to reach the 2000th day!

We at the MHA bothered sending you a lot of PMs and I am guilty of having participated in that. Although some may have been confusing to you, remind that we're not always perfectly coordinated, as we're not exactly in the same room, or on line and on IRC all the time. It seems that there has been some misunderstanding about your attempt to join the MHA. At first you attacked a Grämlin and you have been (correctly) identified as an enemy of the MHA; you must understand that your hostile military action against Ejayrazz demanded an immediate response in kind: nobody in this world would have asked you any question before engaging you. As I understand the situation, when your case was on the way of finding a semi-peaceful resolution you honestly tried to apply for membership. As your conflict wasn't over and your position was still very suspicious you again must understand that it was perfectly reasonable to think that you had simply just started to "ghost" the MHA Alliance Affiliation. The MHA War machine wasn't aware of my (anyway vague: see below) encouragement to you to apply, and especially no application of yours was (nor yet is) visible in our Gate of Entry. I think that that misunderstanding has also been cleared when you dropped our Alliance Affiliation, and I am happy it has. I anyway suggest that in the future you are very careful about adopting anybody's Alliance Affiliation without fully following the procedure they set for joining. (There are Alliances that just declare war for that.) Back to your possible participation in the MHA, consider that I intentionally didn't give you a step-by-step direction on what to do and I limited my encouragement at pointing you to our forums. Honestly, nobody needs completely passive fellows and you need to do your part if you want that we consider your membership worth it. In particular, instead of posting here repeated threads on the subject you probably should have used your time to read the few (and easily retrievable) instructions we have on the MHA forums about what one needs to do when applying at the MHA. Mind you: I don't have any issue with you posting here (you will be simply considered responsible for what you write, as we always are); I have an issue with you posting here while no trace of you is visible where it would be expected to be, were you to make an acceptable attempt at joining the MHA (i.e.: the MHA forums). Good luck with everything. [Edit: syntax/grammar]

I have read almost only the OP and I will address it only. (I'm sorry if the lack of time to read the whole thread makes me miss something.) Count da Silva, while I appreciate your effort to write a meaningful essay on the subject, I highly doubt that you are right. Your considerations can be resumed[1] with the following concepts: Improving the material conditions is the only/main goal one has (or should have). (A) Going against the superpowers will harm the material conditions of one's Nation. (B) Going against the superpowers is therefore wrong. (C) However, A is entirely subjective, and your attempt to derive "objective" conclusions from it is thus inherently arbitrary. Your method is that flawed that it isn't even needed to consider your content to say that you could be right only by chance. B is trivial in the short period and absolutely disproved by facts in the long period. If you were right the NPO, that some time in the past wasn't the global dominator, would have never become the leading Alliance of this world. (In fact, no change or shift of power would have ever been possible under your premises.) The necessary consequences of your theory are incompatible with the reality you are describing and in this case there's no possibility that you are right. About your "scientific" method: you introduced an axiom with A and an obvious falsity/borderline paradox with B; you then presented consequences (C) which correctness is impossible to derive from your premises. It's therefore evident that C is an article of faith, and as such out of the realm of scientific analysis. [1] Reference (I cut out all the rhetoric that hadn't a real meaning):

My .02 on PPF, GOONs (etc) being an "alliance" or not: the only objective definition of "alliance" is the hard in-game one... If you can see the alliance stats, that's an alliance (thus PPF and GOONS are alliances). Any other definition is perfectly fine but it's also subjective: we can be almost sure that there will always be somebody disagreeing with it. What probably counts here is what the creator of the thread had in mind, and as we see that PPF is listed...

How am I now supposed to choose the quote for a self-indulgent signature? *sobs*

I am actually in the MHA to ensure that the MHA isn't spying on the GSA. True story!

I actually did very little. Most of the praise musts go to The Grämlins' mercy, actually. Have you talked with Ejay already? He may also want to continue that war...

What I told you in my last in-game PM may work. The Grämlins are also informed of all that convo and you may even have a chance to get out of this. Please now don't waste my work with some silly post on these forums, would you?...

Not sad and necessary! Well done, NPO.

Did Andromeda reform? Or is their treaty wiki just obsolete?...

I have the feeling that arguing one against the other in this place is not what one would expect from former friends that are interested in repairing their relation. As I also have a good opinion of both RoK and TPF I attribute this behaviour to the anger of the moment, rather than to incompetency in diplomacy: I hope they will just stop discussing anything until their heads have cooled down. I'm sure that both would profit more from a renewed friendship (one day...), than from an open conflict that is becoming more and more embarassing at every post. (Excuse me for being this open in this public place, but I am not happy to see our friends fight one against the other like this...)

They won't be released: they will free themselves. Feel free to quote me on that.

You're one of the very few people I know that would be able to produce an enjoyable read out of the poor material you had: well written! (What's your answer to the request I made to you the last week, anyway?) Shhh! Don't reveal our secrets, you silly man!

This is a sad development, however I applaude the usage of diplomacy instead of military initiatives... May the next diplomatic meeting between RoK and TPF be friendly (instead of conflictual).

Thanks for your work, Aza! We Hitchhikers sure have a lot of work to do... Your post was admirable and I think you should continue to post like that (OOC). IC you're the "usual silly trolling" Pacifican, of course!

I thought the exact same thing... The world's about to end!

Congratulations! I love Article A, although naming it «establishment of capslock» would have been better...

60,000,000 isn't that much and I applaude GOD's restraint on that. On another note, at first I crazingly thought that 'KM' was Kristin Marie... (yeah, I also realized a moment later that it couldn't be her, thanks...)