Author Topic: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...  (Read 4272 times)

Gildre

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Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Topic Start: May 18, 2017, 01:48:45 AM »
I feel like this is a relatively serious issue on the EC that should be addressed.

Sometimes things just don't go your way.

It happens. I will start out by saying that Greater Xavax is hands down my favorite realm I have ever played in. Ever. In my time on BattleMaster. And you know what? Greater Xavax might lose the war and get wiped out.

And that is OK.

Why?

Bear with me here. We are playing a game, but that game also happens to be the best political sandbox/simulator I have ever come across. SO MUCH of this game is based on player interactions or is forged by players actions.

This is NOT, however, a movie or a linear RPG. The good guys (or your perception of who they are) might not win. Sometimes you don't win. Someone has to lose. You know how effing boring this game would be if realms never got destroyed or never lost wars? There would be no gamble, no risk, no realism. That victory you are struggling for? It is sweet because there is a real danger you might not ever taste it.

I have been hearing lots of terms like "metagaming" or "powergaming". Honestly, I hadn't heard of most of these before, I am not much of a gamer outside of BM. But it does frustrate me. It sounds like an excuse, something to blame when things just aren't going your way. Aside from multiple accounts and violations of the IR, its all legal baby. If you want to be ruthless and go to extremes, don't complain when others do it against you. If you want to be the noble and upstanding contender, don't complain when it is a long and difficult road.

Actually, just don't complain. The people who have built this game have put in insane amounts of time and effort for free. The players of the game put in considerable time to create the world as it is. This deserves some respect.

I wish more peoples gut reaction was "Damn we are getting messed up, but lets keep at it cause I LOVE THIS GAME". I am pretty sure it is a good feeling for the Dev Team when people love the game.

Inevitably, realms are going to get destroyed. If GX destroys Alara, I really hope those players don't quit the game. If Vix kills off GX, I really hope those players stick around. I had an old account, and was a member of Redspan when it got destroyed, and then Fontan. I really liked both those realms, and when Fontan got sacked, I rage quit. I didn't understand that things can't always go my way, and I didn't want my favorite realm to be destroyed. Then, six months later, I got curious about what was going on in BM and made a new account. You know what? The continents carried on, and I had missed so much stuff. I really only had myself to be mad at, and I realized something.

You get exactly how much you put into this game out of it.

So I will leave this rant with that sentiment.
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Malus

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #1: May 18, 2017, 02:14:27 AM »
I've never been a fan of 'wiping out' a realm. Smashing their army, see their council driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their peasants...sure. If you can beat them, then chances are you don't need all their regions.

Even if they are reduced to just a Capital and a few rurals, let them keep their lore/realm if players want to keep it. You don't have to own the whole map to win. Honestly, if a good realm is being snuffed out, everyone loses. Even the realm who conquers the map.
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Gildre

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #2: May 18, 2017, 02:36:59 AM »
First off, mad dope love to the Conan.

Second, I am not saying that every war needs to result in the destruction of a realm. I also don't like the idea of mega realms. What I am saying is don't blame the game/others if things aren't going your way, and do your part to make the game a great place to be a part of!
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McTang

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #3: May 18, 2017, 02:51:54 AM »
Love this post. It's about the journey, because, well... there is no destination. "Victory" is impossible when the world goes on forever, just like in the real world.

Wimpie

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #4: May 18, 2017, 11:59:24 AM »
I share your vision Gildre.
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Chenier

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #5: May 18, 2017, 01:13:35 PM »
I've never been a fan of 'wiping out' a realm. Smashing their army, see their council driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their peasants...sure. If you can beat them, then chances are you don't need all their regions.

Even if they are reduced to just a Capital and a few rurals, let them keep their lore/realm if players want to keep it. You don't have to own the whole map to win. Honestly, if a good realm is being snuffed out, everyone loses. Even the realm who conquers the map.

I wasn't a fan of every war needing to result in the utter annihilation of the enemy, every single time. I'm not a fan of the opposite solution some seem to advocate sometimes, in that realms should never be destroyed.

After all, a realm can be snuffed out without "killing" it, and often migrants can help bring new dynamics to other existing realms to make them more interesting. Depends a lot of the attitude of the losers, really. A once superpower that is reduced to its core but allowed to "live" might bleed out to death if it was filled with players who like the superpower aspect of it and end up disappointed with the lack of options their new weakened state allows. Just as a group of migrants might leave if their identity was too clung to the realm that they lost and they fail to bond with their new one.

There's no really simple rule to predict how things will turn out. Many losing realms have died in the past not because their enemies were not ready to negotiate, but because they weren't. Losing realms are notorious for expecting a peace agreement that leaves them better off than the state they are left in, forcing the invader to utterly destroy them to put an end to the war. There has also been at least a few cases where realms went back into war as soon as circumstances changed, even if the ink on their treaty was still fresh. A attacks B and wins, B accepts to peace, the next day A attacks C, B declares war on A. A prudent realm owes it to itself, if it wants to go wage war on other realms, to make sure that the realms it currently wages war with will not be able to easily backstab them at the first opportunity.
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Malus

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #6: May 18, 2017, 01:44:50 PM »
If a realm dies, I'd rather it be because it's full of afks or people aren't interested and are jumping ship. If 6 or 7 people want to have a two region realm entirely dependent on it's conqueror, then why not?
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JDodger

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #7: May 21, 2017, 06:32:10 PM »
Xavax is Xavax spelled backwards, but it is also a Phoenix-like chicken bird ...what comes first and what comes second?
By the way, would love to see you coordinate three realms without having an OOC teamspeak with everyone on it.

JDodger

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #8: May 21, 2017, 06:39:16 PM »
I am with you Gildre. If population remains steady or grows EC is potentially on a course for action that never stops. Even if realms die new realms will be born. Old realms with the resources will get new​ nobles to turn liquid assets into somethjmg more solid.

As for metagaming, if such accusations are ever pointed in my direction: only insofar as I view players with powerful characters as having a GM-like responsibility to drive action.

As for powergaming, frankly BM makes such a concept moot with the necessity of teamwork, you must elevate others to elevate yourself, bringing new opportunities to those who didn't have them before. So the pursuit of power given the objectives I habe outlined here is actually a good thing in BM. It drives the cycle.
By the way, would love to see you coordinate three realms without having an OOC teamspeak with everyone on it.

Ketchum

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #9: June 29, 2017, 02:45:14 AM »
I am with you Gildre. If population remains steady or grows EC is potentially on a course for action that never stops. Even if realms die new realms will be born. Old realms with the resources will get new​ nobles to turn liquid assets into somethjmg more solid.

As for metagaming, if such accusations are ever pointed in my direction: only insofar as I view players with powerful characters as having a GM-like responsibility to drive action.

As for powergaming, frankly BM makes such a concept moot with the necessity of teamwork, you must elevate others to elevate yourself, bringing new opportunities to those who didn't have them before. So the pursuit of power given the objectives I habe outlined here is actually a good thing in BM. It drives the cycle.
Agree... teamwork and make sure you keep the players interests. Reward the players well and reap the rewards ;D
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JDodger

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Re: Sometimes Things Just Don't Go Your Way...
« Reply #10: June 29, 2017, 04:20:06 AM »
 :-X

 8)
By the way, would love to see you coordinate three realms without having an OOC teamspeak with everyone on it.