My stance on the "AWAR"

For those of you that don't know, I am the leader of Expendables. Considering that I'm the leader of the largest and most influential kingdom yet to join this fight, I've been actively recruited by both sides since day 1. I will say that I've opened the discussion to a few key people that I trust greatly, so our stance isn't a totalitarian decision, although these words are my own.

I am making this post so that I don't have to continue to repeat myself to every kingdom that has PMed me both in game and on irc and hopefully to provide a path moving forward. Here's my official stance on this entire situation. My apologies if it's too long; there will be a TLDR at the end.

I have friends on both sides of the fight. I've played with flogger, prot and zara a lot and I consider them good friends outside of utopia. In Emeriti there is zauper, jwuzi and munk... 3 people that I've been in many wars with, lots of late nights, lots of frustration and lots of respect forged. I want to add that I'm thrilled that my friends in Emeriti had no part in this whatsoever. It really makes you proud when the people that you choose to associate with in life do the right thing.

I side with flogger on the issue. I sided with him the very first day it happened when he texted me with the info. I didn't even have to see the logs because I knew that he wouldn't waste my time and lie to me. What happened in Emeriti has no place in what I consider to be the right way to play utopia. It was a relatively small incident, but it could have been a lot worse if Emeriti had more friends. Imagine if it wasn't just bour's kingdom and flogger had to navigate through multiple kingdoms being controlled by 1 leadership council. That is inherently unfair to Beastblood and provides a monopoly in the game that makes for an unfair advantage. Couple that with the fact that the competition at the top is already at an all time low and Emeriti was the unanimous favorite to win this round, not only was their decision process bad but it was also extremely reckless.

Having said that, I disagree with dealbreaks in general. I have said over and over again in my career that I will not be a part of any dealbreak. Our word as players in a small community is all that we have. I had no knowledge that flogger was going to take action and although I was mildly amused when it happened, I immediately thought that it was a bad idea and cited that it looked like top kingdom play in general.

To me, what Emeriti did was a punk move and I can completely understand why flogger is pissed, but it's basically business as usual in the majority of top kingdoms. I'd be lying if I said that I haven't seen some form of this conversation in almost every kingdom that I've played with. The difference is that every time I hear it, I quickly reject it and force the author to either dismiss it or dismiss me. I don't think that it warrants a dealbreak. If Emeriti had any class, they would have ceded the land crown and gone to the war tier, but they did not and have shown a complete lack of class at every junction of this fight. There are leaders in Emeriti that I already had very little respect for, but there are two people that I highly respected prior to this that I lost a little respect for:

ASF: You're one of my oldest acquaintances in utopia dating back to when I played in Shadowlight and you were in Beauty, and you weren't involved in the conversation, and I'm not even certain if you have an account in Emeriti, but I think this was a good opportunity for you to step in and make things right and you failed to do it. I have since seen you make excuse after excuse instead of manning up and apologizing and working to resolve this fiasco. It wasn't your responsibility to do so, but at the same time you accepted responsibility when you made your very first post regarding the issue.

jdorje: I've always viewed you as one of the best silent players in the game. Not a lot of players know just how good you are because you don't talk a lot in the public eye. I think that after all of the rounds and all of the battles against really good kingdoms, you can understand just how little crowns mean anymore given the current playing field. I really would have liked to have seen you play the role that I would have played in this conversation i.e. "it's basically us vs BB this round. Let's win it fair because I want to compete against the best players at their best."

I will not be endorsing any side in this fight and will not be getting involved because I disagree with everything that has happened from both sides since 1 minute before that conversation started.

What I advise happens is that ASF and flogger sit down and have a conversation to resolve this without continuing the pissing contest because at the end of the day, at this stage in utopia, what truly matters is *real* competition and not the cluster**** that we're seeing right now. I will be completely willing to help mediate it. The gangbangs, side picking and razings have to end though.

TLDR: flogger is right, deal breaks are bad, end this now.

Good day

Noone cares what you think, noone sane atleast. :-)

Real competition.......that's comical. Thank you.

Well, I am sure someone cares. It was a reasonable read.

/me shrugs.

what will be will be,

It resembles cJ or ASF's posts, too much of a wall to climb and reading something days after the thing started just to state your not taking part is like "HEY LOOK AT ME", attention seeking much O_o

Aranfein, I think that your personal bias towards me is getting the best of you. I've stayed out of the forums since it has happened because of exactly the opposite of what you've just posted -- it's not about me. I feel that now is the time to end this and work towards a resolution, so I am breaking my silence. Feel free to continue to think that I am the bad guy though. Furthermore, if you came to utopia talk with the intention to not read text, why exactly are you here?

I mostly agree with Godly.

Personally I side with Emeriti, but TFC has decided to not take sides.

A lot of the things Godly touched on Havent been touched on as much in other threads, how reading those logs made it clear to me that I don't think the leaders of emeriti get just how watered down the game is and that acting with such a win at all costs mentality is completely unneccesary. I honestly thought you were better than that and I was wrong, so we simply felt the need to make a punishment. The weeks of diplo prior and publicly made it clear there'd be no reasonable punishment we voluntarily get into. So I'll throw a proposal out there:

That said, here's a proposal: both sides clearly won't agree to either side crowning. We'll agree not to war anyone rest of age and thus limits our growth and I guess you guys stay smaller.

Next age let's have 3 wars: One at yr3 at 40k acres. Winner of war #1 gets 5k acres + whatever acre gains from war advantage in war #2 at 75k acres in yr7. So if breakeven but we w/d you would be 80k to 75k. Same bonuses and benefits to winner of war #2 to be at 120k acres in yr11. spare the rest of the server from having to deal with the two most experienced kds on the server that managed to get 50% larger than everyone else in yr0 this past age, and we can take out having to worry about who's getting who to stall whom or who beats whom to the first farmwar. Numbers may change or acre size and amounts, but that concept is agreeable to me.

Sillies hasn't joined in the fight and probably out of respect for both sides wouldn't do so. How can you be the largest?

I can respect that, Godly.

Heiney, I wasn't referring to land size.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Godly

Heiney, I wasn't referring to land size.

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Goddamn pissing contest?

Thanks for the awesome post Godly

Godly, ive worked a lot behind the scene already to try and get people to stay out and to get them both to negotiate, i didnt feel the need to make a long wall text that most of all looks like an excuse from ASF or one of cJs "break downs".

The fact that its you doesnt change much apart from i find it funny that someone that spend most of last age bullying small ghettos into war and threatening them with PK if they didnt press the button, now talk about fairplay and mediation....

Ive read your stuff when your helping others (ghettos) grow etc. and i honestly think you do a great job, but doesnt change the fact that this post seems like a cry for attention when you could have easily attempted this in private, so no i dont give much for a wall of text based on being diplomatic when you far from have any of those qualities when it comes to your own goals.

I never said i came here to avoid reading others posts and i clearly state above that ive read yours by commenting on it.

I would really appreciate it if this thread isn't derailed by the peanut gallery. This post is meant to work towards a resolution and it has to be done publicly. All commentary with respect to my ethics and who I am as a person is legally allowed but unappreciated. You can make a separate "bash Godly" thread and have your fun there.

flogger, there are alternate proposals where both sides can continue to go after land crown this round. If you and ASF want to get together we can discuss them.