Matthijs

Yes, we've been hearing a lot of this: by winning the war, Karma will ruin everything, the world will be a engulfed in chaos with all the evil alliances being resurrected, such horrible concepts as "lulz" and tech raiding, etc. Just like in the bad old days, before the noble, good alliances died for our sins by cynically isolating and backstabbing their own allies one by one. Enough of this. The "hegemony" has been around for a long time, and done a good job, but apparently people want to try something new now. A bit more dignity in defeat would be appropriate.

Maybe you should not have gone public with this. It's only negative attention for all sides in this. But here we are. My NPO membership was a long time ago, but I've had nothing but good memories from it. Of course, things may have changed since then. But when I read the posts of someone like Loucifer, if all the leadership is like that, it can't be bad at all. I'm not a big fan of the mentality of "you should follow all orders, even unreasonable ones, or you're a traitor" or whatever. But I find it hard to take this seriously.

Funny that NSO are being criticised for doing the exact opposite of the treaty web and bloc formation that causes world wars in the first place. I'd rather have a close alliance with only an optional defence/aggression clause, than an MADP ally who bails on me as soon as things get too hot. Something which many alliances on the "hegemony" side of things are famous for, incidentally. Some people suggest that a win for Karma would lead to either anarchic chaos or jackbooted fascism (or both, that's called doublespeak) in international relations. But it seems more likely that there will be a more voluntary level of cooperation. Or, as an old Hollandian saying goes: "Rather a good neighbour than a distant friend." Happened before.

He's a good objectivist, if he can wriggle his way out of this war, it means that he's better than us peasants... moreso! Anyway, just fight it out and wait for surrender terms like the rest of us plebs.

Why do people even care about hitting "prominent" people like Dilber? Zomg, Dilber lost NS, let's all laugh at Dilber. I'm on the other side this time, but Dilber has always been one of the most decent people in CN. Which is more than many can say. Have some damn respect. I also agree with peterson's sig:

Yes, but he was also the leader of one of those aforementioned 5-member alliances. I don't exactly remember what had happened, but things certainly didn't progress after I basically snubbed him in a PM, saying that we didn't care enough to have extensive talks.

Would you believe me if I said that I remember you too? Lots of cool people were in \m/, many are still around, which is great.

Well, the biggest obstacles to a merger were the biggest egos: myself and that Lunar guy. I'm not sure if the latter stuck around for the merger, but I certainly didn't, and maybe that just cleared the condition for it to go through. As for my plans, well, I'm enjoying the alliance I'm in now. So I'll just stick it out, build my nation, do some tech dealing, etc.

Well, wasn't Popular Front the one where all the left alliances were supposed to have merger discussions and the like? I didn't mind the idea itself at the time, but I wanted the alliances to have proportionate representation, so that our plans would not be halted by 5-member alliances. But in retrospect, it was naive to think that I could monopolise the left. Most of the ICP's members didn't want to be a monopoly, they wanted to be reunited with their comrades, regardless of whether that would put them on the anti-NPO side or in a neutral position. So at that point, I bowed out and joined the NPO, just in time to get my butt kicked in GW1. Strangely enough, I don't remember that one. Couldn't stand the both of you, though.

There is nothing wrong with grudges in game, just like there's nothing wrong with any emotion derived from any game. If you get your kicks out of that one moment where you have cleared all the conditions that are needed to finally mastermind a decisive blow against some sort of coward or opportunist, that's fine. There are, of course, also times when you need to take a step back. When you look for pictures or real life information on people to make fun of them in the game, that sort of thing. I'm not even talking about the kids who post porn on the forums or something, trolling is a different game altogether after all. But you do have to wonder about people who wish to ruin another person by beating them in a game, especially when that person likely doesn't care. And if you use information about people such as jobs, handicaps, sexual assault history, etc., just for an online game, there's a serious problem.

I almost forgot, but as of two days ago, I've been in this game for 3 years. I've never built up a particularly strong nation, or made it very high up, but I've certainly always had a lot of fun at it. Things seem less interesting now, but maybe that's just a matter of viewing the past through rose-tinted glasses. I'm a lot less active now, but who knows what's to come next? In any case, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. From getting started in the ICSN, where I quickly learned how petty politicking worked, which led me to form the ICP, which was briefly sanctioned. This is often forgotten, as the ICP is seen as a bit of a sad joke nowadays, with ill-considered participations in war, and several reincarnations created by opportunists. But long before that happened, I had already left for the NPO, where I remained for GWI and the cold war leading up to GW2. Just before that, I joined \m/, where I had the most fun. Went into retirement in the summer of 2007, came out of it briefly last year, and now I'm at RAD. What next?

You guys still exist? Awesome, I didn't know. Congratulations!

Congratulations! An interesting life on CN, to say the least. Personally, I dread the 23rd of March, when I have my own 3-year anniversary. What am I going to say???

It might very well be. A good argument against talking about your battle prowess on the forums.

With the NPO for the GPW. Didn't exactly go out in a blaze of glory. I had no idea how to fight properly, and I mostly just joined NPO to take revenge on some guy in a CoaLUEtion alliance. So I deployed lots of soldiers and tanks, and then just attacked. I was really surprised when almost all my soldiers died in the first attack and the guy anarchied me. :lol: I then basically went on the defensive when LUE nations also joined in on the party. My nation was already underdeveloped and crap anyway, so rebuilding after the war was done with one aid package. In GW2, I was with >_<, which was later named \m/ of course. I remember the first day being a little chaotic, because we were supposed to attack a specific alliance, but unsure which. So in the end it was like: "Okay, just attack LUE then." By then, there was some sort of mechanism in the game where if you deployed a very specific amount of soldiers (a certain percentage of the opponent's defenders, IIRC), then you'd basically always win. I remember this war fondly, because we kicked so much $@!. I made some dumb mistakes, but I had a lot of fun, especially because of this way of attacking (which our enemies didn't seem to know) and complete air superiority (we knew how to clear out enemy fighters properly, and that only a few bombers were needed to do maximum damage). Still with \m/ in GW3. We were asked to attack GATO this time, which went well. I think this was the war where I fought against Esau of Isaac, whom I believe had some sort of position in GATO, and also usually made pretty good forum posts, so there was some mutual respect. I think I anarchied him quickly, but he would keep popping back up just when I was fighting other people. The war was more drawn-out, and less light-hearted because there were lots of betrayals, strong contempt for some alliances (GATO were the "Worst Alliance Ever" and Legion were "meat shields") and some disgusting incidents. Yeah, I saw some of it. Not pretty. I remember you, I was wondering if you still played. I think we once tag-teamed some poor !@#$%^&, but I'm not sure. If we did, it probably wasn't enjoyable for them. Refresh my memory, what did he do again?