A Question To Neutral Alliances

[Bob Ilyani]

I know quite a few CN'ers pretty well, both in-game an in RL. Usually in the down points of the game (lack of war) I ask these people: What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to them? The vast majority of the time their responses are one of the following:

[quote]1. I like the war aspect of the game. Fighting other people's nations is fun!

2. The FA aspect of the game intrigues me. I like meeting people from other alliances and negotiating thing with them.

3. I like both![/quote]

Very few times do you see someone describing how much they love doing the math and creating spreadsheets for their Finance department, or sending out 250 Recruitment messages without a single reply.

So, it got me thinking: Neutral alliances don't have any war, that's why they are neutral. They aren't the most FA inclined either, treaties are an easy way to get into wars, and they don't like wars.

So, A question to all Neutral Alliances: [b]What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to you?[/b]

Edited February 14, 2011 by Bob Ilyani

[AntyCrist]

[quote name='Bob Ilyani' timestamp='1297727728' post='2633581']
I know quite a few CN'ers pretty well, both in-game an in RL. Usually in the down points of the game (lack of war) I ask these people: What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to them? The vast majority of the time their responses are one of the following:



Very few times do you see someone describing how much they love doing the math and creating spreadsheets for their Finance department, or sending out 250 Recruitment messages without a single reply.

So, it got me thinking: Neutral alliances don't have any war, that's why they are neutral. They aren't the most FA inclined either, treaties are an easy way to get into wars, and they don't like wars.

So, A question to all Neutral Alliances: [b]What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to you?[/b]
[/quote]
First divided loyalties (allies on opposite sides) lead to neutrality.
Personally I like the chess game: in this way most wars are counterproductive, but sometimes nesery.

Edited February 15, 2011 by AntyCrist

[King Wally]

I was actually instroduced to CN by a member of a Neutral AA and just auto joined them ending up in the end spending my first 3 months of CN life in neutrality so I have some idea how they tick.

They generally enjoy focusing on the micro-drama of running their own AA, infighting, elections, fighting off the odd rogue etc gets pumped up like our Global Wars do for us. They still have some brave members who like to fight however as a whole they are intimidated by the thought of walking headfirst into an alliance war. Because few have ever really fought a propper month long war there is an inherrant fear of loosing their pixels they have spent so long to build up.

THere's always exceptions though and I know I was in neutrality when Karma hit and 2 high profile members actually chose to temp join Ragnarok to get a shot at the NPO. In the end though neither came back and I went and followed them eventually.

Ive seen the life of neutrality and its got nothing on actually playing this game fully in a politicly active alliance. Sure I'd of got myslef some more pixels in neutrality but it would have been at the loss of nearly all my favourite memorys in CN so far.

[dy Cazaril]

[quote name='Bob Ilyani' timestamp='1297727728' post='2633581']
So, A question to all Neutral Alliances: [b]What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to you?[/b]
[/quote]

To be honest, part of it [b]is[/b] the economics. I do enjoy building a large and efficient nation. I also like the community and the people within the GPA; in that respect, I believe I'm no different from a member of any other alliance. As far as FA goes, even neutrals like to maintain good relations with the rest of Bob. Though we aren't out looking for treaty partners, we do still have a Foreign Affairs department, and I meet new people all the time.

As to war... to be honest, at the national level, war on Planet Bob is pretty boring (and if I have an itch for it, I can always scratch it on Planet Steve ). And at the alliance level, staying out of war can often be as interesting and challenging as getting into war.

Also, I prefer watching drama over creating it.

[Sulmar]

I feel like a lot of people on the OWF downplay the amount of satisfaction gained from actually just building a nation. Maybe that is because some of them don't care or whatever, but I know that I personally find the building of a nation efficiently to be a fairly interesting thing to do by itself. War and FA obviously help with the fun, but the whole reason people got involved in CN is to create nations. Most of us knew anything about the politics and war when we first started.

[Cerridwyn]

[quote name='Bob Ilyani' timestamp='1297727728' post='2633581']
So, A question to all Neutral Alliances: [b]What makes CN interesting and/or enjoyable to you?[/b]
[/quote]


[quote name='dy Cazaril' timestamp='1297736185' post='2633749']
To be honest, part of it [b]is[/b] the economics. I do enjoy building a large and efficient nation. I also like the community and the people within the GPA; in that respect, I believe I'm no different from a member of any other alliance. As far as FA goes, even neutrals like to maintain good relations with the rest of Bob. Though we aren't out looking for treaty partners, we do still have a Foreign Affairs department, and I meet new people all the time.

[/quote]

First I want to agree with Dy Cazaril in many ways. I got my start in an alliance that was not yet neutral. It became that way and I learned a lot about pixel management and nation growth. I started out running aid chains for an alliance that had about 10 big members and 100 small ones who all joined about the same time. Figuring it all out, and setting up that spread sheet was a pretty good experience. It helped me learned.

From there I went to a large sometimes sanctioned neutral where I learned about isolationism. I didn't like it one bit. So I founded my own. Neutral but not isolationist. And we do consider treaties - of friendship like our LoA with OBR or our sisterhood with AZN who is not neutral. We have embassies in other alliances and we have consulates in ours. Any of you are welcome to come and visit.

I don't see CN as a war game. I play those.. but elsewhere. I see it as a growth game. And I'm competing against no one but myself.

Neutrality is not everyone's game. Just like on that other planet we pretend does not exist, on Bob it's not for everyone, even those who respect it. I just know it is what is right for me and mine. Will I loose some as they grow bigger to less neutral alliances? Absolutely. Will I keep more than I loose? Absolutely!

Neutrality is about growth, rationality, honor. It's about community and friendship.

But mostly, it's about keeping my hands out of your politics and you keeping your hands out of mine.

[Alfred von Tirpitz]

I would think that being neutral, is a cause for much more exercise for the FA department. Neutrality is not an easy path to tread.

[Max Power]

I think it's a combination of all of the above. Dy Cazaril and Cerridwyn have very good points about the creation of a nation, and indeed, this game is so slow that it gets you kind of oddly excited when you push that next wonder button. (Stock Market today! Yay!) Meanwhile, the FA and war aspects aren't things I'd trade for anything. Getting to establish contacts with like-minded AAs and getting to blitz people are just as fun as giving your nation a new whatever-it-is. It's truly a game of both infra and war in that sense.

EDIT: Shouldn't this be in the OOC section?

Edited February 15, 2011 by Max Power

[jerdge]

I personally love the math and the spreadsheets, and the slow and steady building of my nation.

More in general, Neutrals truly need their FA departments, which require a lot of work and which can give a lot of satisfactions too.
Many of you treaty-hoarders are followers when it comes to FA and especially conflict (nothing bad if you chose it), while we have nobody else to follow. We sail with our own winds, and it's exciting.

[Prime minister Johns]

Personally I just love to watch the drama.
I came back to CN solely to have a forum account and access to the stats from the main site.
Everything else is of little to no interest to me and I keep my nation barely ticking over to facilitate me observing the world.

[White Chocolate]

Why would any leader want their people to suffer through a war?

(OOC: In other words, in order to role-play a nation like I want and have any interest in doing, the focus for me is staying OUT of most wars, only being willing to "sacrifice" Lander Clan's people in instances where the cause is great enough to do so. Those are few and far between - certainly not yearly or on a schedule like "lets have a war over the holiday...it's boring.)

Trying to stay out of war, especially when at least the vocal OWF members of our world are often pro war and the series of treaties are so thick that it's nearly impossible to stay out of a large war, is a challenge. More so than a war, in my opinion.

[Teddyyo]

Meh. Being without war is fun for a few months at a time. Then I'm like, "Dammit, I want a war."

[Iceknave]

I'm not in a neutral alliance, but for me, peace time's fun is teaching others about nation building and some of the other conversations that I've had with members in my alliance (things like debating what's the best wonder to get for my nation at this time, best wonder for someone else to get at this time, weird conversations, etc.), while war time introduces his own brand of fun (throwing nukes for the first time in a war is very entertaining for me). It's also enjoyable watching the successes of my comrades using strategies and tactics that I know, which I've passed on to them.

Only downer on war is it takes too long to build up, but eh, just builds up the blood thirsty and the rush whenever I do get to fight (also, it sucks not having enough money to fight, so peace is nice to build up some money and some non-bloat bulk). Plus, it's VERY exciting to see a war tactic/strategy work out brilliantly while working with another comrade.

The game itself is meh, a bit out dated, but really, it's the interaction with other people that make it fun and the game is a medium from which it happens from. That's what I'm here for, .

Edited February 16, 2011 by Iceknave

[Maelstrom Vortex]

I'm here for my bros and sisters.. the ones I never had growing up so met online that share a common interest.

[GetaBeer]

I play every round of CN:TE(so excited about new round) and I'm in WTF in CN:SE, KaBOOM best of both worlds. I stay because I genuinely like the people in my alliance and I have voice in all alliance decisions and we have bong nights on tuesday. But yes sometimes being in neutral alliance is like watching paint dry so please hurry and get TE up and running before have to paint more wallz.

[Scorponok]

I actually enjoy nation building, that's what lured me to CN. I got interested in the inner working of an alliance from ONOS and have been addicted ever since. I like the internal side and external side of running an alliance. I love the community and culture side of alliances.

My first alliance was Grey Council, so you can take it that I joined CN for nation building more than anything.

[Aeros]

Sure, war is fun, but its foolish to jump head first into a conflict that serves no strategic purpose. I know my own Alliance has taken some knocks over the course of this conflict because they decided not to activate their optional defense pacts. Fact is, I can understand the sentiment. War carries enormous cost and that cost needs to be justified. Be that Justification to deter aggression or else to gain strategic advantage. If the benefit for staying out of a conflict is greater then the benefit for joining it, I think the choice should be obvious.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Aeros

[Luckao]

The community. I've warred enough to know that I'm not missing out on much in terms of gameplay, and whilst I don't particularly cherish neutrality, GPA has plenty of good members.