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Twain Game profile

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May 27th 2010, 13:15:56

100%, fluffes.

Of course, I taught U.S. History for a year, so I'd hope I could get 100%.

Twain Game profile

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May 27th 2010, 12:42:15

A cookie.

Twain Game profile

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May 25th 2010, 20:36:59

Of course, the Kermit countries aren't the ones doing the obnoxious landgrabs, at least from what I've seen.

Twain Game profile

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May 25th 2010, 19:44:39

Yeah. I remember killing at lot of "Kermit" countries.

Who'd we war? UofT, SYN and 0ne, right? Or was 0ne already dead by the time we warred?

They weren't UofT countries, so they've got to be either former SYN people or whatever the other clan we fought was.

Twain Game profile

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May 25th 2010, 17:55:40

Depends on what you want to do:

If you want to net, your best options (In no particular order)

PANLV - Quiet netters. About 150 countries so far, which puts them as one of the bigger clans, but not the biggest.

SOTA - Even quieter netters. Only about 30 countries. Looks like it's just 2 members right now, which means they could certainly use some help there. It's certainly a possible situation where you could help build something.

LaE - The biggest "netting" clan, although I know there was talk they'd war. If you're interested in them for netting, you might want to get a contact from them to find out what their plans are.

Dynasty - Another quiet netting clan, looks like 2 members as well, but Dynasty has a very good pedigree and often puts up some very good top countries that should offer at least moderately good tag protection.



Warring clans:

NBK or Asylum: The two biggest clans, and they've had quite a grudge match going the last two resets. As an outsider, it wouldn't shock me to see the two clans go to war for the third time in three resets, which should ensure you all the kill targets you want if it happens. Of course, once again, I'm saying that as an outsider, and have zero idea of what their plans are.

FoCuS: Some of the best killing pedigree here, and they're big enough that they should be able to hang with anyone in a war. With a couple more members, they could even step up into the category of size that NBK and Asylum are in.

IMP: Wouldn't be my top choice, but IMP does have pretty good warring ability and the numbers to put on a good show against almost anyone.

Those are probably your best options. I believe Asylum is actually turning away members right now though due to their size, so that might limit your options.

Twain Game profile

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May 24th 2010, 21:22:03

NOW3P: I'm a little disappointed. I was REALLY hoping you guys made that a real link. :)

Twain Game profile

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May 23rd 2010, 13:37:20

Good question. Think it'll be the country that just happened to get the same number assigned to it as the country from last set that put the goods out on the market?

One of us could get a fun little cash infusion if those jets get bought.

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 20:32:48

Good call, JAT. I don't have a twitter account, but @Twainthetwit is pretty good.

Sadly, I'm not that interesting though, so I'd probably not have many followers. :(

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 20:31:25

too bad all those FFAFTW's don't count individually.

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 18:17:51

raz: I also see pick-up basketball games as "just a game" but it doesn't mean I don't use some sense of sportsmanship when I play.

Of course, I'm just a twit.

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 17:13:13

see raz? If I didn't butt in on your recruitment thread, this would be even closer.

You're welcome. :)

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 17:12:18

raz: Sure, it's a recruitment thread, but....

1) It's on FFAT, therefore it's public. Next time I start a thread on FFAT, feel free to jump in.

2) You're the one who originally posted the news hit showing the kill. Heck, I wouldn't have even known it happened otherwise.

Either way, I've said my piece and I'm over it, so feel free to respond if you want.

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 13:03:02

raz: Never claimed to be somebody in this game. I also don't find fault in attacking someone for your reasons.

I find fault in doing it approximately an hour before the end of the set.

I do enjoy how my post is me acting like a child though, when you're the one who posted the witty retort of "Lick my b4lls wanker."

You do what you want in this game raz. I've currently got no plans to fight with you into the next set, but I still hold to the fact that it was cowardly. If you want to come after me for that, have fun.

And Svejk, raz, kemo and anyone else that was in TSE: Congrats on a nice set. Very impressive ANW and TNW.

Twain Game profile

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May 21st 2010, 1:51:09

Well, as havoc said, you still had the #1 ranking considering you have to make top 25 in Membership to count towards the others. Besides, your main concern seems to be that his other countries were left in LaE, but here's a couple fun facts:

1) It still, of course, averaged his country out to an ANW based on 10 countries, so in actuality, if he would have tagged 9 more countries, his ANW would have gone up, not down.

2) He left LaE when the cheating bombshell was put out there. He wasn't just doing it to "steal" #1 ANW.

But way to show everyone that you're a complete and total coward. After all, if you weren't, you wouldn't have hit him in the last hour.

Seems you're mostly just jealous that someone outdid you, especially the way you were sending me messages once I established TIE for the last few weeks. I'd have to imagine if I had out-averaged you, some of your missiles would have come my way too.

Regardless of whether the last part is true, way to show FFAT how spineless you are to hit right before the set ends when you actually have countries worth defending and an honorable clan backing you.

Twain Game profile

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May 19th 2010, 12:22:17

Missiles, Dragon, not contacts.

That's the solution to your problems.

Twain Game profile

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May 19th 2010, 12:20:53

White Sox = Win.
Red Sox = Lose.

That is all.

Twain Game profile

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May 19th 2010, 12:17:43

FFA sucks, eh?

Yeah, well.....

SO DOES YOUR FACE!!!

Twain Game profile

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May 19th 2010, 0:31:48

I'm with Dragon, personally. 15 is enough for me. Heck, I probably only play 15 because I know I can play that many to be on equal ground with everyone else.

If there was no limit, I'd probably play less.

I think I shared this anecdote previously, but my last school gave every teacher 180 sick days a year, which coincidentally is the number of days we teach.

The concept was that if you put a reachable limit, like 10 sick days, people will use them all. If you give people 180, they'll probably only use them when they're actually sick, not when they're in the last month of school and they've got 2 days left and just feel like staying home.

I think the same concept might apply to the limit.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong, and without a limit, we might see everyone playing 30, 50, 100 countries.

Twain Game profile

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May 13th 2010, 21:03:43

It's a new dance craze

*start grooving*
Do the pact! Do the pact! Do the pact! Do the pact!

Twain Game profile

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May 13th 2010, 12:32:48

You thank me in a way that seems like its supposed to be a guilt trip, especially with your "holier than thou" speech before it.

The point, to repeat myself for the last time, is that most of your ideas aren't meant to prevent/punish cheating in the game, but rather to punish LaE.

My other point is, the admins have stated from time to time that they don't read every post on this board, and I believe it was specifically Pangaea who said he was going to stay off this particular board for awhile to make sure he didn't get drawn into the politics, therefore, you also have chosen the wrong forum to bring up your ideas.

If you actually want to be part of the solution, kudos to you. Broaden your scope to cheating in general instead of just having a hardon for LaE. In addition, email your ideas to the game admins instead of posting them here.

If you're willing to do both of those things, I hope you stay, because the game needs as many honest players as possible, and despite your frustration and anger with LaE, I doubt in any way that you're cheating.

However, if you would like to remain your same self-righteous, "I Hate LaE" self, I, for one, won't be sad to see when your posts fall off the bottom of the list of threads.

Twain Game profile

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May 13th 2010, 2:10:12

Sandman: I've never cheated.

If I stayed in LaE, should I be punished?

What about if a new member joins LaE who's never played FFA before? Should they be punished?

Rules like what you're suggesting and what gregg often suggests punish the innocent along with the guilty.

I fully agree that cheating can endanger the game. However, most of us aren't going to leave because IMP or LaE or any other clan ran a few extra countries and got busted for it.

If game administrators start punishing the innocent along with the guilty and I start having my countries deleted for legal play because I decide to login to my countries at work during my break, I'm not going to keep playing.

If game administrators start punishing entire clans for the actions of one person or start forcing clans that had some level of previous cheating to play by special rules, they'll be entering the politics of the game, which they've explicitly stated they don't want to do. Furthermore, once the admins start stepping into politics, it cases into doubt every decision they make.

I have faith that the admins will continue to do a good job, and that they, considering they're the ones putting in time and money to rebuild this game, will consider the ramifications of their actions before they impose any steps that would enter them into the political realm of the game.

Twain Game profile

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May 12th 2010, 23:17:59

gregg: Your ideas are short-sighted because they don't attack cheating--they attack LaE. Other clans have been caught cheating as well. IMP had deletions early and PANLV apparently had some too.

However, all your plans are about LaE.

In addition, your ideas are based around ideas like limited a clan to 80%, which would mean LaE could still cheat and be ok, they'd simply have to cheat 20% less, or that any tag with LaE in it should be limited, which would simply mean they'd change tags to "Legends" or something else.

It's obvious the axe your grinding has little to do with cheating in general, but entirely to do with LaE. Attack cheating in general and maybe people will take your fervor seriously. Come up with ideas that are actually applicable in the long run and maybe people will take your ideas seriously.

Right now, you're doing neither.

Twain Game profile

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May 12th 2010, 22:05:00

Did it occur to you that it's not your responsibility, nor the responsibility of anyone who regularly posts on this board?

If you have these suggestions and you're honestly trying to help, send your suggestions to the administrators via email.

Of course, if your REAL motive is simply to try to get your own name out there and to try to keep trolling about LaE, keep it up, but you're quickly getting to the point where the only reason people click on your threads is to make fun of you for posting silly, short-sighted ideas.

Twain Game profile

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May 12th 2010, 22:01:16

As one of the members that left, I would say two things:

1) I'm with kemo on the main aspect. If the mods have access to your site and think you're good, then I'm happy.

2) Don't worry about building our trust. Build the trust of those that are IN LaE. I know my main reason for leaving was the trust issue, feeling like I was lied to when I was very publicly defending the alliance (I'm not down with the cheating either, but if the big'uns in charge had just come out and said, "yeah, we cheated, we got caught, we'll behave now" then I would have stayed). I believe several others would echo the same sentiment.

Good luck rebuilding. I hope you guys come back big and bad (but legal as well!)

Twain Game profile

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May 12th 2010, 21:54:09

Here's an idea gregg, since you seem to have such a problem with LaE.

Next set, make some countries, maybe recruit some people, and declare war on LaE.

In the meanwhile, realize that the mods, nor anyone else here, care what you think they should do. The moderators/administrators of this game are not going to punish a tag, nor should they. If they're going to punish anyone, it should be individual players, and for the time being, they have, by deleting the offending countries.

If they continue to cheat, the admins will probably do whatever they can to ban the players.

But your suggestions are silly, and unless your goal is simply to see how many responses you can get on threads you started, then whatever it is you're trying to do, you're failing badly at it.

Twain Game profile

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May 11th 2010, 21:26:38

Titanium: To be fair, if you're implying that LaE had 400-500 illegal countries, that's inaccurate.

I can name 5-6 players off the top of my head that I know left, and that was just who's posted publicly on FFAT. The deletions were significant, but I'd guess they're closer to 200 countries than the 400-500 they've dropped.

Of course, if you're not implying that all 400-500 were illegal countries, disregard this.

Twain Game profile

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May 11th 2010, 17:57:54

gregg and anyone else naysaying: I've left LaE, so I'm not just cheerleading for my own clan, but I would hope that you would give them a chance to prove themselves as either good leaders or cheaters before continuing to attack them.

Thunder and co. may very well keep the status quo and there may be more cheating, but they could just as easily turn this around and make LaE into a powerful legitimate clan, as I still would like to believe it was during the first reset (hope I'm not being naive on that one).

The people who cheated are not leading, and two of them aren't even with the clan anymore from what mrford and others are saying.

Let's give them a chance. Don't assume LaE cannot be saved until we see continued cheating.

Twain Game profile

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May 10th 2010, 0:45:19

Sorry to see that ICe Man. I was hoping to see you rebuild LaE without the illegitimate countries.

Twain Game profile

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May 9th 2010, 16:55:25

gregg: Sure, parity is good for the game, but I don't think it's the role of the admins to be involved in forcing parity. In fact, I agree with their current stance so far which is to do everything they can do stay out of the politics of the game as much as possible.

And let's clarify my earlier example.

Clan A has 400 countries one set. They have 1,000 the next set.

If you catch them and say: "Ok, as your punishment, you can only be 80% of your previous size" then you're telling them it's ok to cheat, as long as they cheat LESS.

The admins are doing exactly what they should be doing. Players who cheat should have their countries deleted. If the cheating becomes habitual and continues multiple sets, then admins should look into banning those players.

As it is now, Blake, Juggs, DM and llaar were involved in cheating, so they got exactly what they deserved. The offending countries were deleted. That's as far as it should go for now.

If they continue to cheat in future resets, that's when you talk about banning them from the game.

Remember, when you're trying to come up with ways to handle cheating, you have to consider certain things:
1) What fixes the problem in the short term?
2) What's reasonable?
3) What's enforceable?

It's simply not enforceable to say those 4 people will never be allowed to play on the same alliance again without putting far too much work on the admins, as that would be a rule that would simply have WAY too many ways to get around it.

What's reasonable? What I stated above. Deletion the first time up to bans for multiple instances from the same person.

What fixes the problem in the short term? Deletion. LaE is now back down to earth (pun unintended) when it comes to country numbers. Part of this is the deletions and part of this is the group of players that left due to the problems. LaE is still the biggest, but in one sense they deserve to be. I'll still reiterate what I said when I was part of LaE. Their member list is extensive and most of those members login regularly. If everyone on the LaE website played 15, they could have had 700-800 countries legitimately.

Obviously from what's come out, that wasn't the case, but if the admins are satisfied that the remaining countries are clean and there really is that much activity on their boards, the "punishment" fits.

From here on out, the admins' role should be to sit back and wait to catch the next instance of cheating, not to make a witch hunt out of the last instance just because it was on a larger scale than many other people who got deleted.

Twain Game profile

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May 9th 2010, 12:45:25

Sorry gregg, this makes absolutely zero sense.

If they're not cheating, there should be no penalty for cheating. EE admins aren't concerned about server parity, nor should they be. The reasons for such policies in pro and college sports leagues is to make their television contracts more marketable so TV stations, leagues, teams and (in pro sports) even players can make more money. After all, if the Patriots won 10 Super Bowls in a row, there would be a decline in NFL viewership.

Furthermore, it doesn't even make sense if someone IS cheating. Clan A has 1,000 countries and were caught cheating. So the next set they can have 800? If they had to cheat to get 1,000 countries, don't you think they probably would have to cheat to get 800?

Furthermore, in some cases it's not the leadership but a rogue member that cheats. If that rogue member leaves, should the clan be punished for a person having 30 countries instead of 15?

That's like when a coach brings sanctions down on a school and jets for a new (and often better) job. If it's the coach that screwed up, it makes no sense for the school to get punished and the coach to get a better job at a different school where he faces no sanctions/penalties.

If you're just trying to stir up discussion, you'll probably get your wish, but if you're trying to actually come up with real policies that would be good for this game, modeling it after the NCAA, which has some of the most ridiculous and unfair rules of any institution of its size, is probably not the way to go.

Twain Game profile

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May 9th 2010, 3:26:11

does he allow touching? Or is it hands behind your head/at your sides?

Twain Game profile

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May 9th 2010, 2:48:22

I don't know that *we* can do anything.

However, the interesting thing is, just like hackers will learn and try to come up with new methods of getting around security, the admins will hopefully learn and find ways of preventing each type of hack.

I'm far from an expert on either side of this argument, but hopefully the admins are able to find ways to detect this new type of cheating.

In the meanwhile, I'm not sure most of the other ideas are all that sounds. If the admins wanted to ban the 4 players in question, that's their prerogative, but putting a cap on an alliance? It's still possible with their member pool that the 500 or so countries LaE had the previous set might have been legitimate countries. Is that too big? Are AoDT and NBK too big? Is 1,000 the limit? What if the game grows back to its prime? What if a clan ends up with 80 members (not unheard of considering the size of alliance/ec clans). At 10 per, that'd be 800. At 15 per, that's 1200.

Should a clan be punished for being good at recruiting?

Twain Game profile

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May 9th 2010, 2:31:57

Thanks Billyjoe. Let me know how things go for you.

Your new home is on my short list of places for next set.

To the rest of you, thanks for your offers. I definitely have a few ideas of places I'm considering. I would appreciate that if you do intend to try to recruit me that you keep my tag out of your news for the rest of this set. :)

Twain Game profile

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May 8th 2010, 19:28:23

trainboy: It'll just be a temp tag for this set, but if you want to join me in tag TIE, I'd be happy to send you tag/pass :)

Like I said, I'm just running this tag until end of set, then joining an established clan.

Twain Game profile

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May 8th 2010, 14:53:46

My 14 countries will be tagged TIE for the remainder of the set. I'll be doing no landgrabs on anyone and just playing my turns quietly unless provoked.

I'd appreciate NAP status from major clans, but I'm not naive enough to think everyone will give them to me.

I will be looking for a new alliance for next reset. I'm open for war or netgaining. If we've dealt with each other in the past, then I'm way more likely to take your recruitment seriously.

Twain Game profile

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May 8th 2010, 14:24:18

To second BJ's post, thanks for the information.

Twain Game profile

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May 6th 2010, 21:51:27

I could see running more than 15 if I knew there was going to be an OoP war, but I wouldn't keep em going after they started dying/the war ended.

I think the current 15 (or 16 if they decide to go that route) is perfectly fine for the vast majority of us that play this game.

I'd probably still try it if it became unlimited, but as I said, unless it was for an OoP war and I knew the countries wouldn't last long, I'd never play more than 15.

Of course, I also kind of wonder if some of us only run 15 because we know that's the limit. If FFA here or in the old E:2025 never had a limit, it's possible most people might run less. It's sort of like at the last school I taught at, the union and administration agreed to give teachers a full year's worth of sick days (180) because they figured there were people who would use all 10 or so we'd normally get because it was a "use em or lose em" idea, but if they just gave us 180, it'd never be a spot where someone had 2-3 days left at the end of the year and just decided to casually call in sick.

Of course, I could be wrong on that. If they made it unlimited, you might see numbers explode into the 10's of thousands with even fewer actual players here....

Twain Game profile

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May 6th 2010, 21:42:14

I mean the 700-800 countries we had this time.

Like I said above--show me credible proof of LaE cheating and I'm out of there. All I know is that I look on the website and I see tremendous activity. I also see many of the same names posting here.

Is it possible LaE's leadership is pulling some tricks to cheat and some of us like BJ, Rats and myself don't realize it? Sure.

However, considering how many people I see both here and on the site posting constantly, we certainly have the numbers to have 700+ countries if most of us are running 15. If I thought there was institutional-level cheating going on at LaE, I'd be talking to one of the other clans, whether it be PAN or ESD for next set, looking for a new home.

With that, I'm getting tired of getting involved in this discussion. If there's any evidence unearthed, I'll stick to my word and leave LaE, otherwise I'm going to assume that this is just backlash/jealousy due to the fact that we're the big clan on the server, and I'll be checking out of this thread and the other "LaE cheated/did not cheat" threads.

Have fun with your discussions.

Edited By: Twain on May 6th 2010, 21:55:59

Twain Game profile

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May 6th 2010, 21:27:32

Some Guy: You do realize that's how many actual legal systems are run, right? At least in the United States, if cops illegally search a car and find evidence of a crime, the evidence is thrown out.

So if you're using the analogy of the dead bodies thing, that doesn't work.

Of course, I realize the admins of this game aren't subject to the same types of laws concerning investigating, and besides that, when people sign up for this game, they are giving permission for admins to look at much of the information that would be used to ascertain if they were cheating. Therefore, it's ENTIRELY different from someone hacking into a site and finding any type of evidence.

Lastly, there's been no evidence posted publicly that would refute the story told by LaE leadership, which is that people sent desired usernames/passwords to DM on BoxCar, someone hacked our BoxCar and used that information to get access to both our new EZClone site and, in cases of players that had the same passwords for both EE and BoxCar, logged in to their accounts and therefore put them in suspicion of cheating.

So ultimately Some Guy, if you're going to make insulting statements like "Do you live under power lines?" you might want to make sure you actually can formulate a logical argument first.

Twain Game profile

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May 6th 2010, 18:57:27

I'll make the same commitment Billyjoe did.

So you have two high profile players and me, a lesser profile player, willing to quit LaE.

All you have to do is prove it to us.

Of course, as I'm sure I speak for BJ and RaTS too, I'm moreso expecting you to just make silly threats and accusations and fail to actually post any real proof.

Meanwhile, we in LaE will rebuild and have another 700-800 legit countries next reset.

Twain Game profile

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May 4th 2010, 17:20:02

Good luck staying out of the fray Fb. Just try to realize that, as people before said, some people don't read the boards, and even those that do could easily miss one thread if they're not super-active on the boards.

As long as the big clans are noticing your thread and are willing to help out, even if it's a LaE country or some other big clan, I'm sure most of the big clans are willing to make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

Twain Game profile

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May 4th 2010, 17:16:18

Favorite Dragon memory: You played with us in TIE one set (that was also a quiet hush hush, I wasn't supposed to tell thing) and I remember playing in a big poker tourney (on PokerRoom) with you and some other guy whose name I don't recall that, at the time, was way better than either of us.

Somehow, between insane luck and showing the most patience I've ever had, I outlasted both of you and actually got like 21st out of 600 or so. I remember lording that over the other dude pretty much the rest of the time he played in TIE. Of course, you were about as new to online poker as I was back then, so I didn't necessarily pick on you about it. :)

Twain Game profile

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May 3rd 2010, 13:15:34

I was guessing you were UofT. You got two of mine earlier this set. In our mini-war, you put up far more of a fight than either SoV or SYN, so I'll commend you for that.

Twain Game profile

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May 3rd 2010, 13:06:44

I think your numbers may be off, as our site only has 15 total kills on us....

However, whether your numbers are right or not: Thanks! I've been bored just cashing turns on my killers. Now you've given me and a few of the other killers something to do. Everything left on our kill list is sitting at like 200k or less and none of us are small enough to kill those.

I certainly hope your countries are actually big enough to kill.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 28th 2010, 12:37:16

True jager. But you always want to cuddle for a half hour afterwards.

Blake's just happy when you drop a finski on the dresser and walk out the door right away.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 22nd 2010, 0:54:01

of course, on the other side, think of how fun it'd be to try to figure out who netted a bunch of money and grab them right after they have an obnoxious amount of stuff sell.

Think of the money you'd grab if someone's sitting with 20B in cash in their country.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 22nd 2010, 0:52:53

I kinda like the 2B bug.

I think it's kinda fun to have a few built-in traps that could catch you and screw you over if you're not careful--like if you put your entire stockpile at $60 and the market gets bought out and you don't know it--should've been more careful.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 20th 2010, 23:26:07

Granted, I'm sure I don't speak for everyone, but leaving FFA isn't necessary. Just avoid the political FFAT side of the game moreso.

When I used to lead a clan and therefore had to play a major role in dealing with people on FFAT, I took the game a lot more seriously and I got burned out after awhile.

Since then, I stop back every now and again and play either a country in 1a or a few in FFA and generally try to avoid the political aspects of FFAT, just basically hanging out and seeing what's going on without getting myself emotionally attached, and I'm having fun with the game.

In short, I hope you reconsider and stay. Just remember that sometime's it's not a majority opinion but simply a loud minority.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 20th 2010, 20:51:03

Pot, meet kettle.

Twain Game profile

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Apr 19th 2010, 22:00:34

I bet even more money that RaTS doesn't really care what you think, Some Guy.