Gentlemen,
I waited for this turn to end to discuss something, as it is not against
someone personally. The turnaround in our game is very slow. In 1.5 real
life years, we played 2.5 gaming years. I was initially hoping that in
another year or so this game would finish so that we can play a new one
(Empires in Harms which is even better). No chance in hell this will
happen, in fact it is more likely that the game will take 6-7 real life
years to finish, assuming it finishes at all.
Someone privately commented to me that since the game has no deadlines, it
is easy to leave it aside for later. Let me answer this point in public.
The game does not have strict deadlines* on the assumption that everyone,
when it is his turn, will submit immediately as soon as he has free time
for himself available*. Usually, everyone has even an hour a day for
himself. When this is not possible, he can post the next day. Or even the
day after because he waited for a reply from allies or something. But
several days or even a week of delay should not normally happen*.*If there
are special circumstances (traveling, family, job etc) that will keep us
away for more than 3 days to post a turn, all we have to do is inform the
list about it in advance. Austria/Russia/Spain usually post on the same day
or the next one, it is not like the game needs hours of thought. Most of
the times, we develop our turns even while everyone else is playing.
In addition to the above and equally important, certain decisions can take
only 5 minutes. I cannot understand why we need to wait 3 days for a chit,
or 1 day to reply whether a garrison surrenders or not. It was a
requirement at the start of the game, that players joining will have easy
and fast access to email. So that when someone sees a question for him, he
should reply immediately. Logging in, replying to something unrelated but
leaving gaming questions directed to you answered, *when the entire
game* *waits
for you in order to continue*, is bordering rudeness.
All in all, I have had complains about the speed of the game, and players
who consider dropping out just for that: small decisions that take a
ridiculous amount of time to reply. I started this game to play with
friends. If people start dropping out because they feel their time is not
being respected, and delays happening are due to indifference,* I am not
searching for new players once again,* I will drop out as well.
I know it is only a game and real life takes precedence blah blah but this
is the same for all; it is also game where we all know each other
personally (except Tiron, who is however, very reliable and probably the
only normal person among us :) ) so we need *not* try to exploit the
patience of our fellow friends, unless there is a real reason of course.
I will not be coming back to this issue, we are all large children here.
But I would hate to see drop outs without even a warning and then have some
people wondering "but why???". Now we are warned. No need for anyone to
reply either. This is something that I felt it needed to be said, how we
proceed next is up to each of us.
Cheers,
Makis
