JohnKirk

GATO Attempted to start my own alliance- Banned for unrelated reasons Returned, VE for a while, quit cn Several small alliances, most notably the Order of the Gryphon. quit cn. A few feeble attempts at returning and joining non-major alliances for about a week before going inactive MK

Our hero

Now we have a party.

Welcome back?

[quote name='Omniscient1' timestamp='1339729691' post='2984290'] Dave has a convo with Rota. CSN puts Dave on ZI list. MK accepts Dave knowing he's on CSN's ZI list. CSN gov contacted MK. Argument over whether Dave spied or not ensued. MK then launched attacks on CSN. [/quote] You're forgetting when CSN nuked dave. That's important too.

Let's kill each other like God intended.

I mean Liberalism in terms of International theory, which is different from the standard social definition of liberalism.

Author's note: Woo! I'm blogging again! I'll post when I feel the need to rant/extol virtues/whatever. Thanks for reading! Since I've returned to CN, I've seen quite a few references to real life ideas of international political theory. I the Roq debacle, I heard Hobbes ideas thrown around, and a few months ago a serious discussion on realism in Cybernations took place. I am a poli-sci major in real life, so I inherently find this stuff fascinating. However, after some thought, I'm ready to give my two cents on the subject. Firstly, one of the great strengths about CN is it's remarkably intricate political system. With it's many conflicts, rivalries, and all manner of political maneuvering. But the truly interesting thing about this is that there are many parallels in CN politics to real world international theory. It's interesting to say the least, but don't go writing your term paper on CN just yet. I find that although there is a place for using some manner of international relations theory in CN, it does not fit tit for tat in it's entirely. Example number one: The absence of liberalism. Students of IR are well aware of the competing philosophies of realism and liberalism. For those who aren't versed in this, A quick overview is that realism says that states will always go for what benefits themselves in the immediate term. Liberalism adversely encourages cooperation among states to further the goals of the world as a whole, generally speaking. The problem lies that there are very few ways for an alliance to behave in a liberal manner. Part of this can be attributed to a combination of the fact that Cybernations is in fact, a game, and the goal of a game is to win, or be dominant. Cooperation for the good of the world is nonexistent as it should be. There are no incentives for alliances to resolve conflicts among each other because in the end, all we lose are pixels and war is kind of fun. No real lives are on the line of course and there is no "bigger world" alliances have to live in and deal with repercussions of their actions (With the exception of World Radiation, which has all but been ignored) with the exception of retaliation by another alliance. Which leads back to realism. A state (alliance) according to realism should have no concern for morals or ethics, only to ensure a better place for themselves as an alliances. Even further, the technical liberal tenants, such as foreign aid, NGO's such as the U.N., and economic interdependence can't apply to the game by limit of the games mechanics. In short, there is only really one way to behave according to IR theory, and that is through realism and only realism. Even realism can't apply in full as even realists like to avoid war if possible, but for CN, the only purpose our nations exist is for use in war, unless you get satisfaction out of building and building and building which is rare in and of itself. The presence of only one pseudo-theory in existence makes real world political situations and cybernations events for all intents and purposes incomparable. The second point I would like to make is the game's limitations on democracy in cybernations. I've been hearing a lot of Hobbes thrown around lately and the merits of authoritarian systems of government. Again it doesn't apply 100%. The biggest flaw of democracy is that it is slow to make decisions. In CN, where an alliance can be demolished over the course of an update, it is difficult to have a democracy respond in time, hence the presence of authoritarian systems in CN, who have no need to go through a democratic process to make snap decisions. This benefit is nice for CN, but if you tend to try an authoritarian system in real life, you run into things like civil liberties, property rights, and other things enlightenment thinkers would have demanded. These are a non-factor in CN as you are not born into your alliance, you pick it voluntarily. By joining an alliance you surrender your delegate your sovereignty to an alliance who in theory, you should be content with their government leaders and choices. Authoritarianism, regardless if elected or appointed survives by the consent of the alliance for they have no reason to dispute it. If they don't like an alliance, they can just leave. So in short, for CN, Authoritarianism is fine and dandy, but don't go voting for the facist party in your next election if you really want life to be awesome. Please excuse any errors, I'm a bit tired and will proofread later. Any questions or discussions are welcome.

Heh, I'm honestly happy that grenval stuck around that much longer. He was generally an all around good guy.

[quote name='Rayvon' timestamp='1329505875' post='2922710'] We don't want their broken technologies or counterfit Dongs [/quote] Our dongs are the finest dongs

I've been out of the loop (Read: haven't cared)But the amount of butthurt is glorious. Please keep this thread going at all costs.

Waaay back when, I left GATO following the GARO incident. People thought this was a big deal.

I'm reminded of the old days when I was relevant. Keep on truckin' cohorts.

I'm interested but it might be not feasible anymore. It seems that most new alliances never get off the ground fully or if you join an established alliance, it's harder to pierce the hierarchy some alliance have had in place for years. But still, such classes could be of use. Do you have any grand visions for this program and the type of people it will produce?

If the INC defeated GATO in the first ever alliance war in CN history. Oh Lawd. It scares me thinking about it.

"White Christmas" is a favorite of mine. In addition to any of the songs sun by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. The Temptations version of "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" is pretty catchy too. I can't say I have a least favorite, but I kind of feel "Santa Baby" is far too seductive to be on a standard Christmas track, however the song is catchy.

[quote name='GeorgeWBush' timestamp='1291503869' post='2530332'] THATS IT! I HAVE CLOSED ALL MY TRADE PORTS MY DEFCON AND THREAT LEVEL ARE GOING TO BE AT THE MAX. NO MORE MR NICE GUY! [/quote] Oh lord, we're done for. Still spots in the bunker for a select few.

I think you need a bigger signature after signing posts

Moving purely to blog form. Just did a repost of my old threads, which are now dead.

Good OP. Sadly, some of us just don't get that what OP said should be pretty much common sense. Honestly, Use the same manners you would at a normal gathering with real people. Life gets better that way.

So instead of cluttering the OWF with my near incoherent thoughts, I have decided to move completely to the blogging realm. Please feel free to add this blog to your favorites, because... well... it would be lovely. All of the old entries have been put up as well, and I promise to try to be more regular in my postings.

So, I guess I haven't posted in a month which is really quite lame, espically considering that my whole goal was to consistently post so I could remain active in the game. Well $%&@ son. Anyway, I guess a reason for my hiatus is a combination of real life and a frustration with one of the major functions of this game. Trading, more specifically, setting up a trade circle, and even more specifically, setting up a trade circle with morons. Early in my nation's life, I was offered a good deal of 3 million for a steady trade deal. Money for something I need? Don't mind if I do. Anyhow said nation offered to set up a trade circle soon after. Great! I thought, but then I quickly learned an sad fact of life of CN, anyone with half decent resources has an IQ of a local chimp. So a couple people are on board with it. Good news, Then we get to the last couple and thats where we get a kink in the road. Several guys back out, so I am waiting for these to be arranged, meanwhile turning down trades from my own alliance members, random nations etc. I promised to be in this circle and I intend to do as such. All seems well and merry as the last two partners pull in and everything works out fine. $%&@ that, nothing ever works out fine. The first guy never accepts my trade and will go inactive tommorow, except for the fact he seems to have accepted trades for everyone else. But hey, !@#$ happens move on. The other guy is where my blood begins to boil. He flat out rejects my trade. Okay, I think, there must be some miscommunication here. I ask for the organizer of the circle to clear it up and resend the trade. Rejected again. I'm pissed at this point. So, I send a message asking what gives, and I get the response "I don't need your resources" What. Either one of two things have happened, The organizer never contacted holdouts one and two to let them know that I was in the circle, or this guy doesn't know how a trade circle works, and yet its strange that both trade rejector and the organizer have full sets of trades. *nerdrage* No more mister nice b. I hereby intend to go ahead and be a dick about this and cancel all related trades and start from scratch. I deal with morons enough in real life, I don't need it here. So in conclusion, Anyone need Cattle and Uranium, I only ask that it works out for some bonus resources and that you have basic motor skills. Many Thanks, b

After my return to Cybernations, I have found an alliance to settle down in and enjoy myself for a bit. With the stress reduction of "Not fearing for being raided into dust" gone, I've had a chance to look at the current situation of Cybernations in the political sense. Actually that is a lie. I haven't at all. Part of it has been my own real life obligations, which go something like this: Me:"Alright, class is done, now I can write a bit for that article thing I was going to do for this online game!" Roommate: "Guess who just got Fallout: New Vegas!" Me: "Whelp" Additionally, another issue I've had in posting this is the fact that even though it has been ten days, My original thread is still on the front page. In the Cybernations I remember, The thread would have been buried to the deep nether regions of the forum. To put it simply cybernations, This is a problem and a big one at that. Gentlemen, We are suffering from Stagnation *Cue evil music* When I saw stagnation I mean it in both the physical sense as in the number of nations, and the political sense. I feel this has happened for a number of reasons. The MDP Web Cybernations has always had a very unique system of politics. In must other games, no real sense of politics exists in those game at all. Often you will find alliances declaring war on each other just for the sake of doing it. CN was really the first game I knew that developed an almost real world sense of political intrigue and the ones that tried to create this system often had alliances with names such as "New Pacific Order Lunar Colony" (Note: I don't remember if NPO did have a spin off alliance in the other game. Please don't hurt me.)The ensuing political situations, with the more treaties and all that other good stuff, would become over time a double edged sword. While this is by far the most unique and attractive feature of CN, it also creates its biggest problem. With people trying to protect their nations from total destruction and thus preventing their alliances in taking the "$%&@ it. time for war!" approach, this creates peace. Peace is fine and dandy in real life, but in Cybernations, peace involves buying infrastructure and waiting around for the next war. Heck, even with the approach of not collecting taxes for as long as possible means that people do not need to log on for nearly a month if they don't want to. Any activity that has you standing around doing nothing is not fun, which means people leaving the game when they don't care enough to remember what day they are supposed to collect taxes. The only thing that has been done to shake up the boredom is by a universal acceptance of tech raiding which a good portion of the community fought tooth and nail to prevent. And yet, this leads to the next issue. Tech Raiding I can almost be certain that someone who did not read the rest of this paragraph will come here and post something about who I'm a pixel lover and need to be relieved of my tech or whatever degrading stuff they feel like saying. But the rampant nature of Raiding has only added to the stagnation of the game. So look at my scenario. I joined the game and one of the first things on my agenda was to look for an alliance to join in order to not get raided into rage quit. Which is in effect similar to earning protection from your local mafia boss or joining a prison gang. If you don't enjoy being, err... "pillaged" you need to do this quickly. This becomes even more devastating when a small possibly promising alliance is raided because they are lower than the internationally accepted size, which is continually rising. Yes! cry more tears for the fallen! But the problem here is that new players are immediately put into the system of standing around and waiting for the next war as referred to in the last section. Whether they like it or not. They also are much quicker to realize "This !@#$ is boring" and move on elsewhere. A lot of the bigger alliances who were pushing towards 1000 members not too long ago are nearly half that size now and I think this issue can be attributed to this core problems. Sisyphean Nature of The Game For those who don't want to Wikipedia it, Sisyphus is the guy who was punished by being forced to push a rock up an mountain for all eternity. It's not a hard metaphor to imagine in context for a new nation. Typically, one joins a game in order to have fun, but to achieve certain goals in their game. or as the About Cyber Nations screen puts it "...grow your nation and improve your status in the world." Good luck with that one chumps. It an eternal rat race for someone who wants to have the biggest nation. It takes an incredible amount of time to get to the upper echelon of the game through physical means, which usually is tied in with your political weight. All the while avoiding the losing end of the next big war. So in order to reach the top 5% of the game and be able to buy Nukes without the Manhattan project. You need around 82000 strength. I have gained 2000 strength over the course of twenty days. ignoring the fact that strength gain slows over time and assuming I continued at the same rate (Which is unrealistic to begin with)which is 130. Division says it will take 630 days for me to reach the top 5%. Assuming I don't either get rolled, nobody else in the game grows at all, and my attention span lasts that long which given my previous history, is doubtful. People can nearly graduate from a community college in that time frame and it will most certainly take longer than that. The oldest nation in CN, at an incredible 1751 days as of this post, is at a mere 57,439.328 NS. I assuming this nation has seem some rough days, but for playing four years and not getting into the top 5% is pretty discouraging for little old me. And the most major recent feature to come out in CN are the Moon and Mars bases. Essentially toys to give bigger nations an even larger advantage and give them more toys to play with. A nation with 100 strength, being techraided, and can't even get a full set of trades is pretty quick to say "$%&@ this !@#$" and every time that happens CN dies a little. *emo* In conclusion, there are without a doubt some major fundamental problems with the game. Yet I feel bad for simply putting out these ideas and not offering a solution. Truth of the matter is I don't certainly have one. If it were that simple it would have been done a long time ago. I would like to see the game mechanics reworked a bit so it encourages people to stay with the game. I also feel that the current game would need a total overhaul. So essentially, I'm calling for CN 2. But, we are all aware how well this worked for the other game where a fair number of alliances came from. So err, shoot. Happy Halloween Guys.

Well Cybernations. You have done it again. After yet another hiatus, I have returned to let this game suck my life away. I for one am looking forward to it. Now, you maybe wondering "Who the hell are you?" "Where you ever actually at one point relevant?" "What type of toppings do I want on my pizza?" To answer those questions, I am &*&^yb, no I was never relevant, and sausage, pepperoni and jalapeños. Trust me on the last one, and I bet your local pizza place has a special. But the answer to the first question isn't exactly correct. I started playing a while ago. To give you an idea of the time span, my first nation was made as a freshman in high school, now I am a sophomore in college. Every time I go on hiatus, some combination of boredom and love for my first real addiction brings me back. My recent tenure was a few months ago, where pretty much my only intention was to troll and make an ass of myself. It became apparent that I was not very good at it and I really didn't want to bother with the whole going to war and such deal, so I left. So I return and I will be trying a different approach. I will be trying my hardest to become into the whole political in crowdwhile still keeping my sanity, something I very much failed during my first play through. Now instead of making asinine comments on issues that I really no nothing about, I will be keeping several threads on my thoughts during my umpteenth restart which I hope come across as humorous to the general community. If not... whelp. So here it begins. The inaugural issue of "A Moment with b." Feel free to imagine me sitting on a fancy chair, wearing a silk bathrobe, holding a pipe in my hand, and with violins in the background. Oh, Cybernations, how I love thee. I love thee so much that yet again I return to the create a nation screen. Oh, the nostalgia of it all. I remember a world of my youth, were GATO and NPO were treaty partners there was no such thing as a trade screen, and warfare was a matter of sending troops against each other and hope the god of war liked you today. It seems all so primitive. But yet, as I return, it all comes back to me. Nation name, a location on a map that really doesn't impact anything. Currency (which my nation will make use of the Dong, what else would be and option :3). Monarchy to get the all powerful +1 happiness bonus. And at that point everything was merry and the nation of Woolawakka was born. And then something happened that made me smile in nostalgia. Oh the mighty alliances and the idea of recruiting meat shields. Yes, it was just a bad as I left. It took two minutes of nations existence to receive a recruitment message. Props to L Ray of the United Purple Nations for being on the ball. If any members of UPN read this, give him or her a pat on the back for me. As I write this 7 more messages have desired my services, including one which promised "cuddling and Beer" Well !@#$ son, how can I turn that down? I expect when I wake up tomorrow, my inbox to be raided in the night and filled to the brim of copy pasted messages. It feels good being wanted. I guess I will have to make a choice eventually, I guess if you really want to recruit me, by all means. I then turned my attention to the alliance screen to get a quick rundown of the political setting. Needless to say, I was nicely surprised by some of the names I saw. 1.MHA - These guys always had their stuff toghether. I always figured they would reach the top eventually. 2.NPO - You have to hand it to them. When the world is pissed off at them (which it usually is) and the inevitable MDP explosions happen, NPO still finds a way to the highest ranks. Enjoy my virtual fist bump. 3.GPA - I actually thought you guys disbanded long ago. Couldn't have been more wrong. You guys must have awesome forums in order for it to keep it together without doing that whole war thing. 4.NpO - Good bunch of people. I look forward to see how the relationship between them and their capital P brethren have been getting along. 5.Sparta - I have a feeling a certain Frank Miller movie is the catalyst for your success, but who am I to judge. Props. 6.Fark - I remember these guys having a rough road to alliance ship, my regards for your perseverance. 7.WTF - Can't say I know much about you guys. 8.MK - See the above. 9.VE - During my previous misadventures, I was a member of VE for a good time, See things are still looking good. 10. The Legion - Nice to see another alliance that is in the "Older than dirt" category hold it together. assorted praises for these guys. I expect things to be interesting. Ding! Another recruitment message. Well, I guess I can conclude my musings. Feel free to tell me praises, argue about politics, or berate me for being an attention whore. Toodles, b

[quote name='Sandwich Controversy' timestamp='1288583477' post='2498706'] Have you considered making a blog instead? [/quote] Just gauging to see how many people care. Then I'll move into blog form. Which will happen shortly.