Because of my "near death," I missed out on the whole "hacking" and "droptricking" debate over at MFO. But there was an interesting sideline to the debate that I wanted to spend my two cents on. Clan AU has taken some heat over the misguided actions of AU_Kop which allegedly consist of both of the above mentioned activities. In defending his clan, our good buddy niDe had this to say:

Now, some remarks have been made about AU clan. If those people honestly think that one persons actions speaks for the whole clan, then they are easily deceived. AU doesn't condone hacking, drop tricking or excessive smack talking. Now we know kOp has had trouble with drop tricking and smack talking in the past and really these issues are rather trivial. A lot of people don't like kOp and are surely going to use this "hacking" incident as ammunition against him. But you cannot control a persons free will.

No, you can't control a person's free will, but you can control whether they are part of your clan or not. It's true that one person's actions don't speak for the clan, however, when a member violates the generally accepted standards of the community, the clan's response does. Whether we like it or not, in the RON community, clan tags are like brandnames, just like Ford, Apple, and Microsoft. Membership in a clan signifies something -- its reputation -- intended or not. Since there is generally some official or unofficial screening criteria to join a clan (e.g., skill level, location, etiquette, friends, etc.) you can generalize about the entire clan based on who gets accepted and how strictly they adhere to their criteria. And despite clan members' pleading to not diss the clan because of member x, people will naturally associate the behavior of member x with the expected behavior of members y and z. This is only natural. If Ford Tauruses all started randomly exploding, people would obviously stop buying Tauruses. But they would also think twice before buying any other Ford because all Fords would start to gain a bad reputation.

So while a clan may not be able to control the actions of a particular player, it can control its member roster. Clans with "problem" players need to consider whether they value having a certain member more than having a good reputation in the gaming community. The actions a clan takes to resolve breaches of community trust go a long way to cementing that reputation, whether for good or ill. Dissenting members are left with the decision whether to accept their new reputation or leave the clan.

On the specific incidents mentioned above we can't comment much, other than to wish good judgment on Clan AU.

UPDATE: Memento manages to publicly shame me, and he didn't even need to play Maya! Prior to me writing this post, AU had already taken action on this matter -- and I missed the post! D'oh! Well, at least it's good to see that Memento agrees with me :-)
posted by Tim at 11:14 PM

... or at least read this site (since we read 'em for ya). In a (boring) cheat accusation refutation thread, there's this interesting tidbit about building hitpoints. Rhonok posts:

... there are six reasons for a building's hitpoints to increase suddenly - temple built, religion researched, construction researched, age to III or VI, 5th/10th building completed, or temple of tikal built.

Nice tip.
posted by Tim at 9:26 PM

The winners of the MFO 2vs2 tourney were announced:

Offressor & PCA_Frogman took first place
2nd -- nydar & _Roosevelt_
3rd & 4th -- BC_Goofy_dk/BC_Karniv0r_swe -- TWC_GoOeYBaG_/TWC_Mulfar

Congrats to everyone. And thanks to MFO and BHG!
posted by Tim at 9:20 PM

niDe finally posted his version of the Spanish SCI2 starting strategy. This is worth looking at because: 1) niDe is one of the finest players around and 2) he has brutalized me (and many others) with this build before. To do this properly, you really have to follow his advice closely. It's easy to mismange your ruins and fall behind. He's got a sample game to download here.
posted by Tim at 8:50 PM

If you've noticed my absence from the "scene" you might have just assumed I've been on vacation. I am, but I'm not having a Merry Christmas. I got the flu and have been deathly sick all week. Haven't even gotten on the comp to read the news ... or see if Phunky posted any more new gripes.

Poor Blood.
posted by Tim at 8:48 PM