The game got to be too much of a grind to sustain the low numbers. There was no such thing as a single set war over an in-game conflict, instead we had set after set of grudge wars that were driven by personality conflicts. "I hate you so my clan is going to OOP FS you every set until the end of time" became the primary driver of wars.

Meanwhile netting became more and more static and formulaic without any dynamic interaction. The days of the Tyr-techers clawing for land and fending off retals became let's all just play all-x fascist farmers and be safe.

There is a mathematical principle known as 'gamblers ruin' that implies that once a population drops below a given threshold that extinction is inevitable. We reached that point and the mods introduced bots to counter it, but the bots didn't counteract the underlying problems that caused the population drop. The game declined organically because it got old and tired and nobody really wanted to play anymore. By the end I was playing the forums much harder than I played the game and by the start of COVID even the forums were no longer any fun.

TL;DR the game has far outlived it's projected life expectancy, it's time to let the sand cover the solar panels and let it rest.

R3t4rd3d

Has anyone else seen Pang's OnlyFans?

Well fluff . . . whos car are we gonna take?

So is this actually a thing again?

The fluff are you doing back here my brother?

Floyd, Zen, MrFord, Red-X and Murf . . . It's apparently 2002 all over again. Just waiting on Elky and Shammy to have a quorum

You seem to think that we have forgotten that Laf are the most recalcitrant cheaters in the game and have been for their entire existence. From Gambino to Clear to H4X0r to Turtle Crawler you guys have never been able to tolerate competition without seeking an unfair advantage. Perhaps Laf is guilty, perhaps they are not, but the days of giving Laf the benefit of the doubt ended a decade ago. Laf have proven time and time again that they WILL go that far.

Where didn't I play is probably more doable . . . I started back when you had to put your tag in your username before Mehul added a column for clans. (Bring Back Random!)

FFS that was 1997

I would actually make a country and come back for the Skynet wars. The internal politics and intrigue on the human side would be fun. Make it so.

7000

6999 forum posts

Why would you want to burden yourself with the ramblings of a grumpy old man every month? I wonder what would have a higher failure rate, the 10 year old email list or the nearly 20 year old phone list? Remember when phone companies wouldn't let you keep your phone number?

I actually have the PDM email list from circa 2012 or so, I'd consider trading it for some 4k goat porn or possibly an intake manifold for a 1995 Jeep Cherokee. Jokes aside, I talk to a lot of PDM folks at least monthly, I assure you none of us have much interest in ever playing this game again.

Its been 2 months and 6 days since Sov quit in disgrace after getting busted for cheating

If I'd known how the set was going to go, I sure wouldn't have played a commie. Always happy to see Villains pick up a win

The surge is on because everyone that is eligible to get vaccinated isn't getting vaccinated. Period, end of story. The surge is almost exclusively hitting the unvaccinated portion of our population.

Galleri, I'm sorry your MIL got sick, I hope she's getting better. You know as well as I do though that one example is like the story of granny smoking til she was 95 proving cigarettes aren't bad for you. Let me ask you, does she regret getting vaccinated?

A tale of two Americas:

https://theconversation.com/...eflect-this-divide-164460

Let me guess, this is the part where I say yes (which I will) and you tell us a story about your brothers hairdressers cousin that got the vaccine and died right? And your second hand anecdotal story is supposed to refute literally thousands of scientists and doctors opinions because you're going to yell louder than me?

I don't know your brothers hairdressers cousin or KoH's nurse friends, but I do know this guy.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/...ine-question-16002140.php

I have drank beer on his back porch many times. He says y'all are full of fluff and advised my family to get vaccinated, which we did back in March.

I wish I was surprised by the scientific illiteracy in this country but sadly I'm not any more.

I love ya bro, but you're an idiot on this. Vaccinated people aren't dying or even needing to be hospitalized. Don't listen to me, don't listen to Tucker Carlson, or Fauchi, or anybody on TV - just ask YOUR doctor if he/she is vaccinated and thinks you should be. Maybe hearing it from a real human with a real medical degree will convince you.

The politicization of vaccines is probably the most embarrassing thing this country has done in my lifetime (and I was alive for the end of the Vietnam war). If everybody believed like you do, we'd still have polio and smallpox. Surely you are smarter than Jenny McCarthy KoH, go get your fluffing shot.

There is no doubt that the US is facing the worst inflation we've seen in a generation. I have several large projects on hold because material prices are so high that they cannot be done on budgets they were easily under just a year ago. I loathed Trump and I always will, but washington's notion of just printing money and giving it away to buy votes is going just as predicted by de Tocqueville 180 years ago.

I'm proud of you Dale, this time a year ago we were all pretty worried about you. Geologists just get tougher the older they get

76 days since Sov got busted for cheating and he's nowhere to be seen

Fixed that for you.

You know as well as I do that if netters start getting blind sided set after set that we'd shed numbers faster than Derrick could type up a quick 1,000 word post.

Besides, the notion that you could save up for a blind-side FS with this few clans and players is laughable. "Oh look, Sof hasn't grabbed any bots for 50+ hours, I wonder why?"

I remember when literacy used to be a part of this game, but apparently being able to read is optional now.

There 120 humans left on the server. ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY. If Sof and Mercs decide they are warring netters every set, then 2/3 of the server will be at war every set. We've already seen what endless server wars do to numbers, I'm not sure what you guys are going on about.



This isn't Earth2025, it never was and it never will be. Its an online social club for a handful of Gen-X trolls that have an extra 5 minutes to fluff around during the day. If I started having to camp IRC ready to wall for hours each day I'd roll up the tent and leave just like 99,880 other players did.

Listen here whippersnapper . . .

Remember when there were more than 3 clans with more than 10 members? Remember when 1/3 of the players weren't suiciders? Right now we have two options for a "surprise buttseks" war - Laf vs Sof and Mercs OR Sof and Mercs vs Laf. There are 121 players tagged, you might as well sit around wishing for a return of the horse and buggy. Sometimes I wonder if Pang is doing us a favor or torturing us for amusement by keeping this thing going.

probably both

69 days since Sov quit after getting busted for cheating

Might be your best theme set in over a year

+1

Its now been over a month since Sov got caught cheating and subsequently quit the game after having his mod status stripped from him. Its a shame he didn't get caught cheating before he drove so many players away from the game

Actually we all figure you are a suicider looking for a place to camp out until you strike

WTFBBQ, smikke is still around?

The real question is:

If you jumped off of a bridge first, do you have any friends that would go with you?

I forgot to buy Military Tech, cost myself $6 a bushel. A fitting way to end the last set of Team I guess

SOv hasn't posted since June 4, about the time he got stripped of mod status for cheating. Guess the game isn't as much fun when you have to play by the rules like us peasants

Sov is a lapdog that cheats for his masters

Xyle is a cheater

Well done and honor to Omega

https://www.earthempires.com/...munity-50094?t=1620340233

ICYMI

Says the guy that been sitting on the porch barking at everyone for all 80 years

Lebron ain't going anywhere, the Lakers just need a decent guard. MJ will always be the GOAT. Karl liked 'em young. Jimmy Kimmel has never been funny, Carolla carried that show with his Brawny Paper Towel shirts.

This is not as fun a way to earn my bonus as trolling Sov for cheating, but it'll do

Who the fluff still says emo in 2021? At least Dark Morbid and Turtle Crawler had the decency to go away after they got busted cheating.

Defrock, verb (past defrocked) : deprive (someone) of professional status or membership of a prestigious group

"Only after he was defrocked did the disgraced priest finally attempt to engage with the parish he had betrayed"

bru mostly just breaks all of the ladies hearts

Yep, I thought we had you but alas you guys pulled a rabbit out of the hat once again and smoked us. I don't mind losing to Villains though, you guys are a class act

Don't be that guy that forgets to destock

How in 2021 is it that we have a mod that doesn't understand alliance politics? We haven't added anybody new to this game in a decade. AT has NEVER been about the Alliance server, its been about posting in the only forum that anybody reads. We have more idiotic pointless sub-forums than we do players. How about instead of deleting literally the only user content in the game you guys maybe delete some of the inane sub-forums.

If we only had three forums - Game Talk, General Talk, and B&S we'd probably be better off and maybe even more active. As it stands, moving a thread to General is as good as deleting it because nobody ever reads it but the mods.

Hell even the poster child for window licking crack babies - Mickster - didn't delete casual chat from AT.