I have been watching the forums for years and rarely comment-- but in the case of the same comments permeating this forum over and over i feel a response is in order--
blah blah blah rest of quote
I appreciate this post because I think I gained some clarity from it. It really does take many types of people to make the world go round.
I'll use gold with the best of them. I won't mortgage my house for it, but I've been known to spend a good bit on the game. It's become required through the years and helps when I want to be lazy or keep up with others. However, my gold use comes matched with equal or better skill... but the growth of gold has limited the skill growth for many players. Add the bully mentality of fighting with the majority of the server on one side, and you have many players who really aren't that good, and others who are lazy, "winning" due to sheer ability to mass produce more troops. A good game should require skill and effort, and grep used to do that. So yes, gold has changed the game. I've played since the beginning and the skill level of most big players has dropped dramatically in recent years. I challenge anyone to find a true grep vet who disagrees with that statement.
If we didn't have the mass hugging, it would be easier to kill off the gold users who have limited skills... and force them to learn to raise their level of gameplay... like we did years ago. But now they hide in alliances like poopstan's with too much group firepower to be touched.
When I was 10 years old I cheated at Monopoly. I quickly realized that wasn't much fun, because there was no challenge in getting the win. I think that's a key difference in our arguments out here... players like poopstan, Erik, and Kron seem to find fun in different ways than I do. I'm not judging that, just saying it isn't for me, and wishing I could play on a server with more like-minded people.
For me the fun is in fighting a battle with unknown outcome, trying to outsmart your enemies and work harder for the win. Using skill, not size. I LOVE to fight, and I love being an underdog... but only if I'm fighting someone who likes a fair fight. The players "complaining" are really complaining that we can't have a world limited to people who find fun that same way. So how about we pick a world that the rest of you stay out of?
EN99 was that way for a long time (most of the major huggers were not there), and it was a lot of fun. It was a true four horse game going into WW's. I sent a fair number of people thank you notes there for some epic fights and great gameplay... and a few others notes of extreme disappointment when they gave up the fun fight and merged for the easy win. It's just not what I find fun, and you won't find me on that side of the game in any world. Not wrong, just different. That's not a win to me. If I could only play in worlds where I'd be promised enemies I could respect like that, I'd be back in a second.
And I DID post a top 12 yesterday. Not many commented on it because there's nothing really to say. From what I've heard, most people feel a little embarrassed to be part of it, and the true warriors have moved on out of disinterest. So I don't expect many comments.
I was only here post-VM to stay a few extra days and see what domination looked like when it started. Then thought I'd stick around because it was fun defending alone. But I'm rimming myself today... starting with "Baby Hugs"-- a city I lifted off Black Dawn this morning when:
TWO TOP TEN PLAYERS on the server lined up attacks to take it from a guy with 12 cities
and
66M in points across Golden and TBG have been joint-OPing Black Dawn (9M in points) for two days now
Yes, TBG will get Baby Hugs, because nobody I would hand it to could likely keep it in that area, but I'm going to let a more appropriately-sized player who revolted it take it. I wouldn't find it fun at all to be on either side of the "fighting" going on right now-- because it's not fighting. It's just slaughter. I assumed most people disliked this type of "fight", but from poop's post, I guess that's really a lot more fun for them than I thought.
There are many ways you could still attack the smaller alliances at this stage of the game and make it fun for both sides (in my opinion)... but this is not it. The Top 2 hold the mass to get the win; there is no need to go to war in this fashion. Calling that fun doesn't compute in my mind.
Poop's comment-- that people should just send more attacks and defense to find out how fun it is-- rings pretty hollow to me. I think his team should've been doing that in October. Or maybe even now, to like-sized opponents. I haven't seen a lick of real fighting from that whole team. Their big BP increases came from picking up Avengers players. (At least Goldens had a couple of skirmishes along the way.)
How do I, a player who actively played only a month in this world, have more BP than several people sitting in the winning coalition?
So I agree that we disagree, and I thank poop for helping me recognize that we all define FUN differently. Now I just need to go hang out with people I find fun.
Once I'm done rimming myself, LOL.