kingzog

A job well done. Kudos on your victory.

Fark has always been that alliance of middle-aged uncles who think they're funny. This is pretty much 'peak clever' from them. Careful, I hear they've got your nose.

Well now, this was even less exciting than the Rebillon.

And the wind whispered, "Methrage…."

As a bearded mooch (much beloved by people without actual life experience) once noted, great personages tend to occur, in a sense, twice: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. Sponge's re-appearance would add a third category: the complete waste of goddamn time.

The political-military climate under which I joined the GPA has ceased to exist. During GW3, as a member of The Legion (lol), I had the distinction of being the first person in that conflict to be attacked by a nuclear rogue. (Remember those?) I was never all that interested in nation-building, so I joined an alliance where I hoped it might be possible to engage in the more (intra-alliance) political aspects of the game rather than mere pixel-bashing. Eventually I was sent as the Ambassador to Norden Verein, got along well with Martens and the rest is history.... I do recall thinking that Kristin Marie was treated quite poorly, but I don't remember details for some reason. (Just the feeling, if that makes sense.) And April went off to die in GOONS I think? Ahh memories.

FYI, I was also a member of the GPA. KM and April were by far my favorite members at the time.

I haven't thought much about GOONS since 2007 or 2008. They seemed nice. (Fun fact: NoV nearly joined the UjP.)

I have belonged to three of those alliances and led one of them. You are most welcome. I really did try. Since there's really no other place to put this, a brief commentary on unintended consequences. Some will remember the great debate about the GRL, its removal, and associated environmental effects. The intent was to create a situation wherein the use of nukes would have devastating effects for all nations, perhaps serving as a kind of brake on their use. Of course, this never happened. Instead, my new nation (my umpteenth, I believe) is at 4,100 infra, has a full suite of happiness inducing improvements, two Wonders, and a population that is indifferent and an environment that is catastrophic. As a result, I am barely able to pay my bills each day. I don't particularly care, mind you. I'm not here to 'grow my nation' or engage in any of the kind of idiotic flexing I see from time to time. I sell tech and send PMs to friends. But if I were a new nation actually trying to make a go of it, I'd be frustrated as hell and would have quit long ago. The hill that one must climb to build a nation is far steeper than it was just a few years ago, and the rewards (?) are few to non-existent.

In the history of CN, this has happened many times. Speaking to an example I got to see up close.... With the extermination of NoV, we learned that it's OK to attack players in-game over what they do outside the game, up to posting pictures, identifying them by name, saying where they live, etc. We also learned that, contrary to the CN ToS, personal property can be held hostage as happened to the owner of NoV's forum, who was told by Slayer (whose fondness, incidentally, for young people led to the end of his policing career) to delete it or be responsible for the destruction of dozens of nations. That was a decade ago, and nothing ever improved here. The rules do not apply to a select group, and they never have. I mentioned the cheating ring FAN uncovered earlier. Nothing was ever done about that, either. It couldn't possibly have been because a certain player who was up to his neck in cheating was also a Mod at the time. Nah....that would make too much sense. Honestly, why would anyone want to save the garbage pile otherwise known as CN? Let it burn.

53 here. None of us is getting any younger With respect to my late 20's comment, I was thinking specifically of the kid who founded Nueva Vida when he was 13 or 14. The typical CNer circa 2006, however, was about a decade older,I think.

FTFY, friend. Hate to see you sell yourself short.

Well put. I keep considering that the very youngest CN players I knew in 2006 are now in their late 20's. An average, college-aged player from 2006 is creeping up on 40. The 'external distractions' facing long-time players now are things like families, children and businesses, as opposed to final exams or finding that first post-graduation job. EDIT: Even the Mods are too busy to pay attention most of the time. Once upon a time a person who posted without having a nation would find themselves banned within minutes.

Agreed. Working with him -- albeit briefly -- was one of the few highlights of my CN career.

Even fewer want to.

*waves* A few of us are just waiting for the lights to be switched off.

All things must pass.

I think that going forward, all threads should reflect the demographic changes forced upon us by the sheer passage of time. A hidden sub-text to the conversation, if you will. We're discussing foreign affairs but what we're ACTUALLY talking about is how we as nation rulers literally manage to get enough sleep each night, what with all of the soul-crushing realizations that come with middle age.

The beautiful part was the way everyone thought of them as some great, huge unknown. A lot of alliances were tied to them at one time or another. And then they turned out to be the most inactive people ever. The night they were attacked, we tried to find out what the hell was going on because my (then) alliance was allied to them. We waited the amount necessary to cancel our treaty before it dawned on us that they were never going to get back to us, so we considered our deal null. It was weeks -- and I do mean weeks -- later that their great leader finally messaged us. My weirdest experience in FA damage control. But there was literally nothing else to do. If they'd said all the spying charges were BS we would have been happy to fight. Instead, we got silence. It turned out to all be true, but we found out when everyone else did and after the mea culpa we got from Terry. Got flak for sitting on my hands, but I wasn't about to push my face into a buzzsaw for someone who wouldn't even take my calls. /derail Yes, smash things! Go <checks thread title> oh....I only sort of know what's going on, honestly. The world is stupid and awful. Sadly, given the sorry state of my nation all I can do is watch it burn. Anyway, yes, smash things!

Thanks! Now, let's see....historically, bloated alliances that were found to be utterly useless, collapsing with the weakest shove. Hmmm.... My personal favorite of all time is probably the Illuminati.

The bit about NoR abandoning DT is true, but not for the reason suggested. The sad reality is that NoR's Kaiser at the time had basically 'checked out' of CN and couldn't be bothered maintaining friendships and, well, it showed. Also, I think this may be a record in terms of forum necromancy.

It's remarkable to see someone with zero sense of history repeatedly trying to pull the "Who are you?" card. And, speaking from the peanut gallery, it seems every person he's pulled this nonsense on could say, with some justification, "I was greater than you could ever hope to be, you medium-sized fish in a minuscule pond."

*shuts down monitoring stations* I'm sorry, what failed test?

Eating is awesome, but tyranny has its moments. Mebbe combine the two? Oh wait....that would just make you an unbearable restaurant patron. On a more serious note, do you have any goals that you would like to share with the group? I mean, beyond punishing the usurpers for stealing your flag.

Everybody has been aligned with everybody else at some time or another.