[JonnyBGood]

I've probably got a different conception of what fencing is to most people to be honest. I think of PA as a game you can play in two ways, you're either idle and don't do much and don't really give a **** what happens or you play for a particular purpose. More generally you can also not really know what you're doing but that really falls under the first category. I respect core galaxies because they're out to strengthen the alliance they're playing for and that's their purpose. A lot of other galaxies are played by people who fall into the first category (or more specifically the part of it where they don't really know what they're doing). The problem I have with the rest of the playerbase is that they do know what they're doing, they know how pa is played and what they choose to give a **** about is either individual accomplishment or the accomplishment of a few friends. On an even more basic level it's about minimising effort. I don't think a lot of people want to play a tough round, they just want to idle through and end up winning, engage in a bout of mutual back-slapping about how great they are and buddypack again for r62.

These aims are not pursued in an honest manner though (I use the term honest fairly loosely and I don't mean it as as much of a slight as it might sound). You have people scattered across different alliances whose primary loyalty is not to that group, although on the surface they'll claim that it is. Instead their loyalty is to their select group of friends. They're really just in those alliances because it's better to be in an alliance than not in terms of their planets. The alliances are used and then discarded if there's a better option out there. Realistically they just don't give a ****.

This is part of what I see as a fairly systemic problem in PA where the game isn't played with any particular goal in mind. At times it seems like people are simply going through the motions and are pretty much just waiting for the next round to start so they can do it all over again. You can see this reflected in the attitude of most people towards winning and going for the win. On some levels winning has become devalued. There have been a lot of rounds of PA and most of the people at the top have won (alliance wise) at least a couple of times. Most people left playing the game who care have shown that they can win and largely they just want to avoid the hard grind that winning sometimes is. Why put in the effort again? I should know, I've been there as much as anyone and it really can be ****ing appalling when the only question facing you is whether or not the other side can get enough planets involved hitting you to slow you down.

Long-term, as in beyond this round, I reckon the game is too stagnant as it is. Nothing seems to happen that hasn't happened before and the reality of how boring this is is the main reason why people don't get more involved. Hopefully pateam will step in and change something fundamental, abolish alliances, abolish galaxies, change the terms on which we decide who wins the round and refresh the game. Unfortunately none of them will ever read this post because, let's be honest, they're as much affected by the malaise that's running through this game as anyone. Even worse none of them play the game or think much about improving it so in all likelihood we'll have another few rounds as dry as every recent round has been. Something to look forward to there.