Neutral Ground - an Open Discussion Thread

[Darkesia]

What is this "serious" of which you speak?

[Communist Eraser]

Am I the only one who uses this thread?

More generally, does everyone think they are self important and start a new thread instead of using the multiple existing threads on the issue?

I count 8 TSP Osiris threads

Updated for the Osiris situation. The news network one who think each article needs their own thread are the worst.

[The Bruce]

Am I the only one who uses this thread?

More generally, does everyone think they are self important and start a new thread instead of using the multiple existing threads on the issue?

I count 8 TSP Osiris threads

Updated for the Osiris situation. The news network one who think each article needs their own thread are the worst.

Given the highly political and personal nature of the "Gameplay" forum, players seek to control the conversation by making sure their thread of the latest crisis is started by their camp, to steer things where they want them to go. That and if you don't like how a thread is going, starting a new thread and getting traffic on it is a good way to bury opinions you don't share.

Since this thread doesn't have a message controlled (initiated) by one camp or the other, it doesn't get used much by either side. Plus, since it's an open discussion thread, it's also easy to hijack the conversation away from a topic, so there's no way to keep participants on message for what you want them to talk about. If someone wants to discuss the Osiris crisis, there's nothing to stop participants from dredging up past coups or invasions that have nothing to do with the Osiris crisis. Where this thread becomes popular, is when one party or another decide to broaden the crisis to this thread, because they've already run out of all imaginable ideas of new threads to start about the crisis. Usually though, by that time the crisis has abated.

[Daynor]

I agree with The Bruce's above sentiment. People want to control the scandal or issue at hand by getting their side in an OP. I've been guilty of that. This thread (because it lacks an OP) is therefore not where people take their scandals/issues. Which is okay, because then we'd have a lot going on in here running together. I like our current system, when we have some specific event to snark and troll at each other we make a new thread. When we don't we come here to snark and troll at each other more generally. - I kid. Kinda.

On to my point, is it just me or do the feeders and sinkers just seem more eventful lately? Beyond the recent few coups (Osiris, TWP, TSP, and then Osiris) we've seen GCRs grow closer in some cases and split in others. We've seen some pretty impressive political intrigue and manipulating in GCRs other than TNP. Do you agree? What do you think has caused it?

[Communist Eraser]

I agree with The Bruce's above sentiment. People want to control the scandal or issue at hand by getting their side in an OP. I've been guilty of that. This thread (because it lacks an OP) is therefore not where people take their scandals/issues. Which is okay, because then we'd have a lot going on in here running together. I like our current system, when we have some specific event to snark and troll at each other we make a new thread. When we don't we come here to snark and troll at each other more generally. - I kid. Kinda.

On to my point, is it just me or do the feeders and sinkers just seem more eventful lately? Beyond the recent few coups (Osiris, TWP, TSP, and then Osiris) we've seen GCRs grow closer in some cases and split in others. We've seen some pretty impressive political intrigue and manipulating in GCRs other than TNP. Do you agree? What do you think has caused it?

TBH, it isn't so bad, most seemed to have settled on 'On Osiris' as the discussion thread now. Unlike TSP's which had 2-3 main threads.

I agree Feeders that seem to become the centre of attention. Also interesting is people formerly from other areas (Milo RP, Douria WA) getting involved and being the movers and shakers of gameplay.

I also wish more people would use this thread.

[Eist]

If Douria was/is the face of the WA, then the WA must be in a very sorry state. Maybe one day he'll post before submission

[War Time Radio]

This 'lil war's gonna be a-ragin' for quite a spell. The soldiers out in the trenches ain't got nothin' to listen to but propaganda and ole' patriotic songs. Let's lighten up the mood shall we? War Time Radio is here to broadcast all to hits to the boys and girls on the frontlines!

Here's a 'lil number I think reflects how we all feel right 'bout now...

[Todd McCloud]

Can we mosey on down to the USO?

[Karpathos]

Can I request http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2rqUlYN1m8 with BoB as AMOM and 2 Chainz as Karpathos?

[Seirawan]

Frak has made the On Osiris thread completely boring, and about himself.

[The Bruce]

Frak has made the On Osiris thread completely boring, and about himself.

I thought the title of the Osiris thread was being used ironically or to funnel activity to a series of unrelated personal attacks.

[The Blaatschapen]

Frak has made the On Osiris thread completely boring, and about himself.

I thought the title of the Osiris thread was being used ironically or to funnel activity to a series of unrelated personal attacks.

Isn't that what most of these threads are nowadays about?

[Drop Your Pants]

Thats what Gameplay has been like for ages

[Communist Eraser]

Anyone surprised at the number of regions in the 20+ endo range that are completely unknown to gameplay? Regions in that range are certainly noteworthy enough that they'll qualify for an embassy in any of the feeders if they want it, but they just keep to themselves.

Many of them don't even have players that hang out here.

[Cerian Quilor]

I know what you're talking about. Some of them are psuedo-gameplay regions as well, in their own way.

I suspect that the next R/D political war will be over them.

[Avakael]

Anyone surprised at the number of regions in the 20+ endo range that are completely unknown to gameplay? Regions in that range are certainly noteworthy enough that they'll qualify for an embassy in any of the feeders if they want it, but they just keep to themselves.

Many of them don't even have players that hang out here.

I've considered that before, although only ever properly conducted that kind of contact on a small scale (IE pick one or two regions at the most and become good friends with them). The problem is that they all have different standards for foreign affairs; some stick up the ingame thing and wouldn't even dream of putting aside a whole forum for you, some assume an embassy is the same thing as an alliance, and so on. It can get messy, and that's before you consider the almost invariably unique levels of mixture between gameplay and roleplay in every region you come across.

[The Blaatschapen]

I know what you're talking about. Some of them are psuedo-gameplay regions as well, in their own way.

I suspect that the next R/D political war will be over them.

I don't suspect it at all. Many of those regions tend to keep to themselves, or play a vastly different Gameplay game. In other words, unless they become involved, they won't be interesting for either side. And if they're not interesting, they won't be fought over.

[Cerian Quilor]

They represent a resource neither side can ignore, as things get more heated.

With the UDL withdrawing from the GCRs in the post-Unibotian age, R/D will need a new political battleground.

[Belschaft]

They represent a resource neither side can ignore, as things get more heated.

With the UDL withdrawing from the GCRs in the post-Unibotian age, R/D will need a new political battleground.

UDL had already been forced out of the GCR's largely during the 'Unibotian age' via a mix of a GCR-ite reaction - AMOM was particularly prominent here - and the excesses of Unibot himself. Regardless, the entire enterprise was futile on Unibot's part. In the year and a half he ran UDL, he didn't turn a single GCR defender, those which developed active armies usually went with an independent alignment. The R/D 'political battleground' in the GCR's did nothing but waste Unibot's influence in that area, hurt the UDL's diplomatic relations, and give raiders propaganda they could use against the organisation.

When Uni started trying to influence the GCR's there was one defender GCR, and zero raider/independent ones. Today there is one defender GCR, and eight independent ones.

Long story short, trying to start an R/D political battleground is a bad idea.

[Idiotic Idioms]

Long story short, trying to start an R/D political battleground is a bad idea.

............Doesn't that battleground already exist? Like, for as long as people have been raiding/defending? Thought pretty sure that as soon as people started losing, they started taking an interest in the politics surrounding their actual battleground, creating the political battleground that is now being spoken of openly. If the R/D axis could get these regions on their side through conquest or talking, their numbers would be far more bolstered today than they are and those regions would not be as seemingly ignored as has been pointed out. The fact is that those regions are not ideal for recruitment to either the raider or defender side of the axis, because they stand on their own.

[Cerian Quilor]

They represent a resource neither side can ignore, as things get more heated.

With the UDL withdrawing from the GCRs in the post-Unibotian age, R/D will need a new political battleground.

UDL had already been forced out of the GCR's largely during the 'Unibotian age' via a mix of a GCR-ite reaction - AMOM was particularly prominent here - and the excesses of Unibot himself. Regardless, the entire enterprise was futile on Unibot's part. In the year and a half he ran UDL, he didn't turn a single GCR defender, those which developed active armies usually went with an independent alignment. The R/D 'political battleground' in the GCR's did nothing but waste Unibot's influence in that area, hurt the UDL's diplomatic relations, and give raiders propaganda they could use against the organisation.

When Uni started trying to influence the GCR's there was one defender GCR, and zero raider/independent ones. Today there is one defender GCR, and eight independent ones.

Long story short, trying to start an R/D political battleground is a bad idea.

I don't want to start it. I think its coming, one way or the other. And I agree, the UDL lost their project in the UDL before the passing of Uni, but the rise of Mahaj means that the UDL won't even try to get back in there.

R/D political battlegrounds will always come back, just because the battlefield rarely provides decisive victories.

[The Bruce]

They represent a resource neither side can ignore, as things get more heated.

With the UDL withdrawing from the GCRs in the post-Unibotian age, R/D will need a new political battleground.

UDL had already been forced out of the GCR's largely during the 'Unibotian age' via a mix of a GCR-ite reaction - AMOM was particularly prominent here - and the excesses of Unibot himself. Regardless, the entire enterprise was futile on Unibot's part. In the year and a half he ran UDL, he didn't turn a single GCR defender, those which developed active armies usually went with an independent alignment. The R/D 'political battleground' in the GCR's did nothing but waste Unibot's influence in that area, hurt the UDL's diplomatic relations, and give raiders propaganda they could use against the organisation.

When Uni started trying to influence the GCR's there was one defender GCR, and zero raider/independent ones. Today there is one defender GCR, and eight independent ones.

Long story short, trying to start an R/D political battleground is a bad idea.

I'm not certain that you could ever say that none of system created regions weren't/aren't in the invader camp. They've been a semi-retirement home for invaders for as long as there have been invaders. Invaders shaped the culture of the East Pacific and while it's become more than that, they've had strong invader sympathies for most of its history. Outside of the Rejected Realms, who bucked the trend with defenders seizing the delegacy to prevent the RR from becoming a con college for invaders, almost none of the feeders and sinkers haven't had a strong influence by invaders and retired invaders. Sure, most of these same players in significant positions in the GCR's are no longer region destroyers, but many still have their sympathies with the invader camp. Is Balder now free of influence from invaders or invader regions?

There's a reason why when Gatesville declared war against the North Pacific (2008), Gatesville immediately lost two of its founderless protectorates to invasion (forgetting that prominent members of the North Pacific region included people from Lone Wolves United and Taijitu). Gatesville managed to dig up one founder but I don't think they ever got the other protectorate back from the North Pacific. Declaring war on a region, with significantly experienced invaders among its most active members, before securing its own protectorates was not a shining moment of "gameplay" strategy by Gatesville. It wasn't long after this that Gatesville began their long decline and ceased to exist the following year.

What really got the invader hackles up in the system created regions, was that the the UDL were elbowing into their game of securing influence in the GCR's and doing it blatantly. They hadn't even had the decently of first semi-retiring or retiring from "gameplay." They also got other people's hackles up by subverting the regional governments, by establishing a separate entity within regions that weren't beholden to them.

[Cerian Quilor]

IIRC, wasn't more than one GCR in the ADN at one point?

[Kharkistania]

IIRC, wasn't more than one GCR in the ADN at one point?

It was before my time, but I think at least The Pacific and The North Pacific were ADN at one point.

[Jamie Anumia]

IIRC, wasn't more than one GCR in the ADN at one point?

Yes. TNP, TWP and TRR were all ADN.