qz has also said EE is not a war game

true enough

but i suspect we disagree about the reasons that EE is not a war game
you believe in its natural state it is not a war game
i believe in its natural state that EE is a fantastic war game that has been warped out of all recognition by pro-netting rules

examples of pro-netting rules:
DR
SPY DR
artificial restrictions on the number of PS attacks
No drop land rule
limits on number of spy ops
limits on the nature and yield of spy ops

some of these rules have been around forever and may seem to be at the very heart of the game
for example without DR netting countries would have no protection and the game would devolve into...
into...
a war game

another example is the no drop land rule. If this rule were not in place the fastest closers in the game would be heavily teched LG countries
in order to prevent war countries from overwhelming netting countries we do not allow war countries to reach their full potential
it is not uncommon in express to get to 20 million jets, counting tech and gov type enhancements, and if not for the no drop land rule a big tech jet force would finish in the top ten
but would have to hit twenty or more netters in the closing hours,
such a concept is repugnant to the admins

ok, that is a choice made by those who run the servers.
there are rationalizations on why these rules are in place
but it is does not mean EE is not at its a heart a war game.
It simply means that under the current rule set and rationalizations, EE is an economic development game and not a war game.

It is as though someone made up rules restricting techers, farmers and cashers
suppose e.g. a rule saying one could not research more than 20 times in 24 hours, or could not cash more than five times a set,
EE would not be much of a netting game under those rules.
while the above restrictions seem arbitrary and capricious to us, they are no more arbitrary than the current restrictions on war countries to which we have become so accustomed that they seem natural and mandatory.

my point here is not to criticize the admins.
my point is merely to demonstrate that EE could be a great war game and could attract a lot of thougtful sophisticated war gamers

that is why i have said before and will say again, EE will take off when and only when players are able to host their own servers with their own rule sets selected off a dashboard.
war gamers should be able to host servers with war rules,
all xers could host servers where attacks are banned,
some could host clan servers,
hosts can select EE standard rules, swirve classic rules,
there can be short games, fast games, year long games, mano a mano games, king of the hill games, hosts should be able to select how often turns arrive, which rules appy, whether to allow bots, if so how many, the potential is limitless.
Each game could be tailored to suit its exact audience.

that is my vision for the future of this game

it may sound like that is a long way off, that it is impossible to do, but there are many examples of similar sites everycyberwhere

a classic example is bridgebaseonline.com
there anyone can host their own game, select their own rules, their own scoring system, invite who they want, ban their enemies, select how long the game will last, etc.
the dashboard is so easy to use a third grader could do it

you say well, BBO is different
tens of millions of people a year play that game, and spend billions of dollars a year all over the world to play it, its top players make millions of dollars a year
EE will never get there

no EE will not but there is no reason the site can not emulate BBO and offer its players a ton of playing options all selected off a dashboard by the host

i look forward to that day, i fervently hope we get there
until then i will keep playing express even though i dislike the game philosophy of the server's rule selecter.