[no players] Warsighs of the Newb: An Experiment in Lurking.

[MindyMcCready]

I disagree. For an extreme example, if WilliamLP states that he intends to invade Kuro, it isn't spoilerish to ask how many units will be in the capital - it is something he will have obviously have considered, and is the obvious target of any such attack, even though he didn't mention it. The same case applies here, he has not mentioned opponents, but that doesn't mean he hasn't considered them. Therefore, the issue lies not in assuming that a player has considered something, as there are cases where that is appropriate and obvious, but whether the assumption is valid. In this case, I felt that it was sufficiently obvious thing for him to have considered.
What would be inappropriate would be, in the hypothetically extreme example, to ask whether Kuro had rifling yet, as it would be leading WilliamLP to consider something he hadn't nessecarily. What would have been inappropriate for me to say would be something along the lines of how close are his opponents to Democracy, or how big a benefit would denying SoL to his opponents be.

Going with Noble on this one. You're spectulating on what he may, or may not have considered.

I don't doubt that you made Retep reconsider his path. When someone's on the margin a small suggestion like that will influence the game. Even if you only made him look more closely at when Wetbandit could land democracy that could have an impact. Wetbandit, for example, may have or may land a GE and could beat Retep to the SOL under the right conditions.

But also on your WLP defense; is it also ok to ask how many units may be in another city that can be rushed in? Surely WLP has considered that as well but not posted it?

Ask for them to post more details.

[Old Harry]

As Wetbandit is the only one who hasn't suggested calling this game does he get to be the winner?

[NobleHelium]

This game is pretty much in a state of groupthink where everyone thinks everyone else wants to keep playing but nobody actually wants to keep playing. It should be called as a draw. We should probably intervene soon.

[NobleHelium]

Okay, I guess I was wrong and wetbandit is in fact still interested in winning the game. When you read the same sentiment from almost every thread it blends together...not to mention that his thread is very aimless and rarely gets updated.

[Commodore]

[MindyMcCready]

Wow, what's up with that? Since when do lurkers decide when the game is to end?

Boldly going for a cultural that somebody had to interfer with,....WLP reasonably happy to play on in peace for ever,...Wetbandit gearing up for war,....Oxy and Molach relatively easy pickings for the superpowers,...Retep wanting to punish WLP's overly pacifist nature,....rare opportunity to see modern naval & airpower warfare.

[Bobchillingworth]

Since FFH PBEM XV.


Look, when you start seeing posts like

Final naming scheme will be a mixture of streets in Stockholm and different syndromes, because I continue to spend way too much time on this game.

I was suppose to lunch my preemptive attack this turn but I miss the last turn so...whatever
I don't know the others and I don't sure if I should post in the Tech thread but I'm ready to concede to wetbandit.

Any chance retep declares war on someone this turn whenever he gets around to playing? He's waited half a week to play after complaining about people not playing in the tech thread. If he isn't trying to play after anyone in particular (and we're down to William and retep now) then clearly he is tired of playing in this game....

We'd have to play more turns to report more. This game is dying a slow death of holiday boredom. I haven't missed reporting any turns, there just haven't been any. As for a specific date... Hopefully before someone kills us or lands a spaceship, although neither are as likely as the game ending in concession first.

Has anyone taken a concession count yet? I'm willing to end this as soon as we have a majority, plurality, or even enough of a quorum to take a nonbinding vote. After the break I just don't care anymore and want to do something else other than play this game out. I don't really care who we concede to, though if I remember right retep is winning....

This raises the question of what's next in this game.

High level options:

[...]

- Offer in thread to concede the space race to Retep. Get some of my life back, if Bandit is along with this.

[...]

I really don't have a read on who in this game is still having fun, especially Bandit and Boldly. Oxy and Sutt, and maybe Molach, would probably be keen to move on. Honestly, if Bandit and co. really wanted this game to be over I would probably seriously consider calling it, as wimpy a move as that would be with a land and power lead.

And two of the players stopped updating months ago (one of whom now appears to now be AWOL), you get the impression that, hey, maybe these people would be happier if they stopped playing a game which all but one of the active updaters has indicated is burdensome or at the least passive and boring for them.


So please cut it out with the backseat hand-wringing. Nobody is compelling anybody to stop playing, we're just gently suggesting players have a discussion about a draw which multiple people mentioned considering in their spoiler threads but were afraid to bring up with their competitors. If they actually want to keep playing, fine, fantastic, but I'm not going to be silent when real people are wasting real time just because I want lurk a potential modern-era conflict.

[Jowy]

TBH this is Civ4 for me. Late game has always been shit. I never finish games even in SP.

[Qgqqqqq]

No you made the right decision Bob, pretty well every thread receiving updates had mentioned concession, even the game leaders, so it was a question that needed to be asked. Sure the game might still be good to watch, but these games aren't about the lurkers.

[MindyMcCready]

And,...the players decided to keep playing. I guess we can just call that a mistaken impression and I can continue to enjoy sharing the backseat with you.