Originally posted by iZarcon:
why are buyouts bad? i think they show good teamwork on a game that promotes team play.
Imagine, for the first time in your Earth career, that you're finally going to get a top 10 spot in Alliance. You've spent weeks perfecting your rep/farmer strat, you've sweated bullets when that certain other alliance started landtrading with your clanmates, you've coordinated with your clanmates when they should clear bushels, etc. You've sacrificed a bit more than you normally would for your country, and you're finally proud to have done it all on your own. Your country is the best you've ever given to this game. You're sitting pretty in 9th place, and you have a bit more cash on hand, and you and everyone else around you is cheering you on, confident that you'll end up with a top 10 spot.
After suppressing the gag reflex, imagine, on the last day of the set, that your nice and beautiful country is suddenly shoved out of the top 10 for good. Two countries from an alliance you either know is shady or participated in war that reset, have suddenly appeared in the top 10, squeezing your pride and joy out of the top 10. Spy ops on the offending countries show that they clearly had help, and lots of help, mostly due to the fact that they're ran by players who couldn't get a top 10 by themselves if their penis size depended on it.
Yes, your country has been sent to the pages of the "I almost had it" history book, by a tactic that promotes less skill than it takes to hit the ground after jumping off a cliff. You recall oil prices or tech prices skyrocketing a few days ago, and, with a burning sensation in your face (you perverts), you realize that, for all the skill you have and for all the time you spend in playing this game, you can still be bested by people, who spend hardly any time or have any skill whatsoever in this game, that simply had their buddies buy out whatever good they placed on the market, netting them a nice bank of cash in return.
Netting should take skill, and should reflect the skill of the individual, as well as that of the alliance. That last part is important. Any Joe Blow clan can put a single country or two in the top 10 if they have enough members willing to finish lower in the rankings by buying out parts of the market so one of their buddies can feel good about themselves. But that costs the entire alliance in statistics that reflect rather poorly on that alliance. Sure, they may have one or two guys in the top 10, but that ANW of theirs will clearly show everyone else that that alliance did little more than basically FA the guy to the top 10, and pushed a skilled player out.
