The five stages of CN

[Ogaden]

I am interested to see how others see the stages.

 

1) Ignorance

 

The most blissful stage of CN, the one that is the filled with the most starry-eyed optimism, is blissful ignorance of how CN and this planet's political system actually works.  You actually debate things as if things haven't already been decided months beforehand.  You argue causes for war, treaty cancellations and various other events as though the reasons given are the actual reasons, and not just an in-character fig leaf over your political realignment.  You basically don't get it.  You are in denial and you don't even know it, possibly from ignorance or a deliberate desire not to accept reality.  Some posters are not capable of moving beyond this stage due to being too dumb, too noob or too blind.

 

2) Anger

 

The stage in which many posters remain in for years.  You finally get it, but you don't like it.  Oh the hypocrisy, oh the nefarious deals made in back rooms.  Rage upon the forums with your walls of text!  Your impotent fury will be heard!  Posters and/or politicians incapable of actually arranging the demise of their enemies in the dark smoke filled IRC backchans of the seedy underbelly of this planet tend to go back to this well often to vent their frustrations, preventing them from moving on.

 

3) Scheming

 

You finally get it, and hey, isn't it fun to sit around with a bunch of Machiavellian sociopaths and plot the wreck and ruin of those jerks who did exactly what you're doing now to you while you were all dumb and/or noob.  Revenge is a dish best served cold, iced cold, muahaha!  Who's laughing now, NPO/DoomHouse/MK/etc

 

4) Apathy

 

Your enemies were all nuked into oblivion years ago, you find it hard to care anymore.  You realize all that was keeping you going was your desire for vengeance.  You're still a damn good scheming jerk though, so why not kick around people you find tiresome, preferably alliances that oversample people from stages 1 and 2 who keep posting retarded diatribes on the forums.

 

5) Inactivity

 

You just plain don't care anymore.  You start to forget to log in every day, then you start forgetting to check the boards, your IRC nick expires and you don't notice. Finally people have to start sending you emails to collect taxes.  Eventually you will just ignore these and let your nation delete.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Ogaden

[berbers]

Stage 3 is my favourite so far :D

[Omniscient1]

I think I hit 3 before 2. Is something wrong with me?

[Neo Uruk]

Everyone is stage 1

[Rush Sykes]

3 and 4 tend to happen rather close together, as you realize only 5 or 6 power players are really the ones scheming, and you are either just blindly following , or waiting for the shoe to drop. It is funny how many small players actually think they are scheming, when in fact, they are being manipulated. I dont begrudge this. I have done my fair share of manipulating(and to be fair, Ive been manipulated too.) But in order to be a TRUE schemer, you need to be in a position of serious global relevance (and these spots are reserved for leadership in about 5 or 6 key alliances, and they have been, and always will be, the same 5 or 6 key alliances. Never has a new one moved in. So that brings us (and I truly mean this as no offense to Omni or Berbers  who may or may not have seriously associated themselves with being schemers at some time, or at present) to Omni and Berbers, who think they are in 3.. when in reality, they are in 1. The truth is... if you are not in NPO, NpO, TOP, MK, or Umbrella (and GOD and RoK back in the day).. you are not scheming, you are just being part of someone else's machinations while being allowed to think you have some control.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Rush Sykes

[wes the wise]

Is it possible to be in more than one of these stages at once?

[Prodigal Moon]

I think the stages are pretty spot on. Personally, I'd say I jumped from Stage 2 to a brief period of Stage 3 leading up to Karma (Blackstone Collusion what what!), came to the realization that Rush described, and then drifted into Stage 4/5. I haven't fully embraced Stage 5 because of a small, misplaced hope that I might someday ascend to relevance and move backwards to Stage 2/legit Stage 3.

[Opaque]

Completely accurate I think, even more so with Rush's modifications.

[Malik Shabazz]

I jump through 1-5 at will lol.

[CubaQuerida]

I think militarily I'm a 4 but politically I'm a 1. Who's got time for anger, just declare first and let the nukes do your talking. Things get pretty interesting with 35k tech.

[HalfEmpty]

It is obvious many sessions are going to be required, code this 300,  Border Personality Disorder and come back tomorrow.

[Omniscient1]

3 and 4 tend to happen rather close together, as you realize only 5 or 6 power players are really the ones scheming, and you are either just blindly following , or waiting for the shoe to drop. It is funny how many small players actually think they are scheming, when in fact, they are being manipulated. I dont begrudge this. I have done my fair share of manipulating(and to be fair, Ive been manipulated too.) But in order to be a TRUE schemer, you need to be in a position of serious global relevance (and these spots are reserved for leadership in about 5 or 6 key alliances, and they have been, and always will be, the same 5 or 6 key alliances. Never has a new one moved in. So that brings us (and I truly mean this as no offense to Omni or Berbers  who may or may not have seriously associated themselves with being schemers at some time, or at present) to Omni and Berbers, who think they are in 3.. when in reality, they are in 1. The truth is... if you are not in NPO, NpO, TOP, MK, or Umbrella (and GOD and RoK back in the day).. you are not scheming, you are just being part of someone else's machinations while being allowed to think you have some control.

I think the point is the mindset and not the actions, but I'm def inbetween 4 or 5 now. I certainly went from "omg this all matters so much" to "it only matters if you say it huddled up with important people" to "fuck this game and how it's run". Then finally to "meh don't care".

[mythicknight]

I've been shifting between 4 and 5 for years now.

[SoADarthCyfe6]

I'm not going to lie, this is a pretty dismal and grim way to look at things. There is far more to playing the game then just this, and I'm sure some of the puppet masters of today will even agree with what I am saying. There's an awful lot of negativity about this game and it's pretty wide-spread as well. It's literally causing the game to become worse. Negativity is like a disease, it's contagious and the more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more you embrace it, the more it becomes. However, Positivity is the same way. Both have a direct correlation over activity as well. Proof of this lies in what the "becoming" sphere is now-a-days and their emergence as a new and machine moving sphere. Many people tell me how they feel so much more revitalized and how they love the game again, like they once used too. It's a positive environment and it's changing the game. People should really follow their example in those regards.

Just my thoughts.

Edited September 5, 2013 by SoADarthCyfe6

[Incitatus]

Nailed it.

[Dcrews]

The truth is... if you are not in NPO, NpO, TOP or Umbrella (and GOD and RoK back in the day along with MK before Dave).. you are not scheming, you are just being part of someone else's machinations while being allowed to think you have some control.

Fixed.

I also think its safe to say anything sort of mind control, there is no means to guarantee an alliance or person is unquestionably under your control. With that in mind each alliance leader can in fact scheme and have their schemes be significant to some degree. It might not be on the same scale but it certainly isn't insignificant enough not to take into account at all.

[King Wally]

LOL Ogaden you actually pretty well nailed this.

 

I think I'm sliding between 3 and 4 at present. I need someone to actually do something to motivate me to sit firmly back in #3 again otherwise I may well just end up settling into 4 which is fine and all but probably not as much excitement and as you say is a slippery slope toward the dreaded stage 5 :awesome:

[Duke Nukem]

When I think of stage one, a good many current posters come to mind. That being said, about 75% of CN is in stage four or five.

[Robster83]

Fairly accurate. Great post!

[Ardus]

My last 5 years of CN has been riding a sine wave ranging from 3 to 5, with the occasional outlyer in 1 just because it's fun to go summon the olden days in an argument.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Ardus

[CheeKy]

I believe everybody goes through stage one but some go to stage 5 almost immediatly, while others walk a different path. To be really honest, the anger stage can be added to any stage, since most of the people are angry at another alliance at any given time. 

 

The rest really depends on the alliance you are in, what kind of person you are etc. This is a decent list imo but every person has its own.

[IYIyTh]

Most never get out of 1

[Ascended Dio]

uhhhh i dont see one for me

[JoshuaR]

I think I skipped over anger, but only kind-of. There's still an annoyance not to see, say, negotiations and such done in public in closed RP rather than in the surrender/talks channels. I think that'd be far more fun.

[AirMe]

Pretty much this for the last year.

 

I've been shifting between 4 and 5 for years now.

Edited September 6, 2013 by AirMe