From Uncle's Lap #4: Cloud Skipper

[Spaceman Thrax]

Nobody with a good drink ever needs to be justified.

Quote

 

Why did replying to this idea appeal to you?

 

Despite the existence of the OWF and many related Discord channels, representation from the common player is still quite small. Many players are too confined within their own alliance and have their government speak for them. There's this phenomenon in psychology called "groupthink". It's when the desire for conformity and order causes people to act irrational or contrary to their beliefs. Too many people are stuck in their groupthink condition, and naturally I feel like being able to speak privately and anonymously could solve this problem.

 

How would you describe your in-game political outlook?

 

Things seem different from about a year ago. But that's fine. I like change, for better or worse. That's what makes this entire game more exciting. It sounds a bit cheesy, but I have plenty of hope for the future. Probably doesn't seem that way though, since I have plenty of things to criticize.

 

What is an ideal state for this game to be in, in your opinion?

 

More spheres, more competition. I believe most people feel the same way. Syndisphere vs. ParaCov, IQ, or whatever sphere it is...it's just getting so damn boring. There needs to be more action in the smaller spheres and unaligned or paperless alliances. It's also a bit irritating since several alliances keep excessively signing up treaties and protectorates. I think that's the exactly what's wrong with the current status quo. It's an impossible scenario, but if it was up to me, most alliance shouldn't be able to sign more than three treaties and protectorates total. I actually hold more respect for the alliances that go paperless.

 

How would you describe the general state of the game right now (mechanically and/or politically)? Do you have thoughts on the end of the last major war?

 

Alex has basically stopped giving a shit about the game. He doesn't bother too much to fix issues unless it's completely game-breaking, and even then that might go unnoticed for days or even weeks. He's basically lazier than Valve on TF2. Politically, we might experience some change for once; some people have left while others have joined, new alliances are emerging while older ones are switching around their gov.

 

(Update on above opinion after Infra/Resource updates) So, after the recent update, Alex has finally made a move to change how improvements worked in the game, for better or worse. Needless to say, the game needed change but the change itself was not ideal; it may have patched one problem (low market prices) but created another. What I do like is that is encourages somewhat different builds; before, builds were static and linear, but after the update people now have to make more complex decisions on how to balance out their resource production, pollution, and slots. However, the update has also negatively affected low tier nations, where they have less infra to adapt to those changes and have their income severely cut. My opinion on the update is mixed. I also heard that Alex did it even when after talking privately to each alliance leader, who unanimously opposed the update. It's a bit amusing to see the salt fest afterwards, though.

 

Go through as much of the main alliance list as you please and give your opinions on each AA. If you can, try to provide at least one positive and at least one negative for each.

 

TKR: I'm honestly not the biggest fan of them. Lordship is a nice guy, but overall the alliance just looks like they want to be the big guys. Compared to most other Syndisphere alliances they really don't stand out as much.

Pantheon: Yui is very kind and likable, and I would like to say under-appreciated. Her presence has largely been ignored during the war despite playing an significant role, and after this war, Pantheon is able to prove that they are definitely no one to mess around with.

KT: I'm actually very impressed with how quickly it has grown recently. It has a lot of potential and its members are growing, though the alliance is still untested for war. Thalmor is a great leader, though that whole mess that is IG had put a small stain on their record. I'm very interested to see what would happen to them in the future, especially when they face their first war. Right now they're a bit of a wild card.

t$: Not too much to say about them. They did fairly well even after getting dogpiled during the war. I don't know too much about Jessica, to be quite honest, though she seems to be a smart and competent leader.

NPO: They have done fairly well for the losing side for the recent war, despite initially being accused of under-committing for their allies, but if Roq didn't come off as a salty, stubborn loser people would respect NPO more. I have nothing against how they run their econ, just the PR they show to others. They shouldn't focus on their tier cohesion, but rather their coordination and communication with their allies.

BK: It's turned very ugly. It's lost it's memetic and comedic charm and their FA is god awful. A huge issue they have is how anti-OWF their members are; most of them refuse to browse the OWF or even other alliance channels and that's what ends up hurting them. Whenever they actually post it's either shitting on their allies or former allies and it's no wonder it gets a bad rap now. It needs change, but that change would be difficult. Some of their old timers such as Yoso and Strum have no interest in continuing to play. Their gov needs to learn from their mistakes, or it'll just keep on repeating.

Zodiac: They were a bit quiet during the war and while they just as well as NPO did they didn't quite stand out. It's a huge shame, since they have a pretty cool theme and plenty of experienced and strong members. Rose: That huge gov and theme overhaul has sure done them good. They did extremely well in this recent war despite being picked on by BK at first and their shitposting is top notch.

Hogwarts + tC: I'm a bit biased, but I don't like whale/ high tier alliances too much. I feel like the whole game just becomes incredibly boring after 20 cities and it's just making money, money, money, and maybe build a bank while you're at it. Super bland. If I got to that point I'll just delete and make a new nation. The same goes for tC.

tCW: I don't know about them too much either, but they were impressive during the war and they may prove to be a reliable Syndisphere alliance. Besides some of their gov such as Justin and Kalev though, most of their members don't talk very much and I would like to see how they are.

Mensa: They still don't disappoint. They're very strong and coordination fighters and it takes a lot of effort to bring even one of their members down. They give the impression of being the "bored" fighters though.

Lordy: They're actually a fairly good alliance and they did decent during the war, but all people see on the front is Kastor, the shitty FA and troll. I've met several of their gov and members and they all turn out to be pretty cool people. It's just unfortunate that they're hidden under the shadow of Kastor.

UPN: They've only gotten attention after IQ did the mistake of shitting on them for surrendering early. It'll take a lot of effort for them to be relevant and taken seriously again.

CS: At their low point. Their FA is terrible but didn't take nearly as bad of a hit as BK, though it isn't saying much. Their performance and stats during the war were rather poor and they'll need major change to get back on their toes.

GotG: They didn't do very well during the war and their coup really put the alliance at a low point, but recently they have done a theme change which I believe is for the better. They made the right choice of leaving the old and battered name of VE behind.

Arrgh: I actually respect them a lot. They give a finger to the status quo and unlike many people actually have fun playing in their own style. And they're paperless, which gives them bonus points. Also, they're the only ones who appreciate baseball. Sad.

Ragnarok + House Stark + R&R: It was really IQ's fault for pushing the Spectrum bloc away from them, but I found it a bit disappointing that they decided to consolidate onto Syndisphere. They aren't Syndisphere but they're leaning very hard into supporting them. I honestly hoped that they could become a significant third bloc that didn't have to support any side. On the other hand, House Stark has some very intelligent people, whether it's RPing, working with spreadsheets, or posting on the OWF.

CoS + RW: If you're still paperless that means you're pure. Please do something so you can end our suffering.

 

Is there an alliance or player that you think deserves more respect/recognition, that you may be unable to express from your current political position? Explain.

 

Aristodemus. Besides the mystery of his true identity ( or by the extremely improbable circumstance that he is actually a new player ), he is very well-spoken and may prove to be an important asset to KT.

Dubayoo / Argotitian. He gets plenty of hate on the OWF, but that mostly stems from his ignorance and nothing else. Besides that he's actually a pretty nice guy and is surprisingly experienced at baseball, considering he's the most successful OBL player yet. Good god, the guy can make millions off it in a day.

 

Who are you favorite and least favorite players? Why? What makes a good or bad player?

 

My favorite player and the kind of player I can truly respect is one who can actually have fun playing the game and isn't afraid to burn some pixels to do so. Far too many people whine about how P&W is boring and whatnot and do literally nothing about it. That's a good example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Get off your ass and do something about it.

 

If you could change one thing about the game, what would it be?

 

Make baseball profitable again. It's so broken. The red button is crap compared to pressing the blue one ten times, the captcha is annoying as hell, and only seven players bat. And add blackjack and poker, too.

 

 

Many thanks to my latest interviewee! I enjoyed our chat and was grateful for the insight.

 

I'm likely to put this project on a bit of a hiatus as I've been busy and some of the responses have aged in the time since I received them. If you've replied and your heart will explode if your response isn't posted, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise I'm probably on to the next scheme.

[Insert Name Here]

Nice interview! And yes, please add poker to the games.

[Buorhann]

Not a terrible interview.

[Kastor]

Anneal really throwing shade at BK.

[Doktor Avalanche]

11 hours ago, Spaceman Thrax said:

Hogwarts + tC: I'm a bit biased, but I don't like whale/ high tier alliances too much. I feel like the whole game just becomes incredibly boring after 20 cities and it's just making money, money, money, and maybe build a bank while you're at it. Super bland. If I got to that point I'll just delete and make a new nation. The same goes for tC.

All depends on how one plays the game. C'est la vie.

[Cypher]

On 31/07/2017 at 8:33 PM, Spaceman Thrax said:

Ragnarok + House Stark + R&R: It was really IQ's fault for pushing the Spectrum bloc away from them, but I found it a bit disappointing that they decided to consolidate onto Syndisphere. They aren't Syndisphere but they're leaning very hard into supporting them. I honestly hoped that they could become a significant third bloc that didn't have to support any side. On the other hand, House Stark has some very intelligent people, whether it's RPing, working with spreadsheets, or posting on the OWF.

I'd argue it was IQ's lack of action that pushed Spectrum further away from them. From them coincidentally forgetting to tell their allies about the war they were about to start to actually not requesting Spectrum's support and a whole host of things in between. If either of those two happened, along with other stuff, Spectrum would pretty much be on a much different road as to what it is right now. Going back to your Syndisphere comments, I still wholly believe Spectrum is its own thing (none of that sphere bullshit) and it probably will remain its own thing for a long time. 

 

Thanks for the HS comments though <3

Edited August 2, 2017 by Cypher

[Kurdanak]

On 7/31/2017 at 3:33 PM, Spaceman Thrax said:

Rose: That huge gov and theme overhaul has sure done them good. They did extremely well in this recent war despite being picked on by BK at first and their shitposting is top notch.

The only alliance recognition that truly matters. <3

Edited August 17, 2017 by Kurdanak