Farewell

[Freyr Oakenshield]

I just wanted to say that I'm quitting this forum for good.

I've just posted a thread about the game Power and Revolution and the thread was closed since this is allegedly a political game...

Well, I suppose, Erik Rutins et. al, you can also close most other threads about wargames on this forum, since they also involve politics; there is no warfare without politics, unless you only want us to discuss things like the size of the hexes on the gameboard. If so, then I don't know what you have this forum for then...

Some time ago (Dec, 2018), there was this scandal in the Apple's store when one of the Matrix/Slitherine games - Afghanistan '11 - was removed. In the words of Iain McNeil: "Apple have just pulled Afghanistan '11 from the app store because its got "people from a specific government or other real entity as the enemies". You mean like every realistic game ever.... and people wonder why we don't do iOS anymore" (Twitter). Well, I didn't realise then that stupidity would come here to this forum as well - that you would adopt nonsensical rules banning legitimate discussions about wargames. What you've done here is just like what Apple did with your game back then...

So, farewell! I quit as a protest against stupidity and nonsence. I might still appear on some game-related forums now and then, but never here.

Oh, and Erik, you can also close this thread since, clearly, it's about politics....

[MrRoadrunner]

You should have just left.

RR

[RangerJoe]

Maybe just quit your account for good.

[wodin]

Hmmmm..seems an over reaction to me. Though I also think as the thread was about a GAME, which is one of many political sim games, I think maybe locking thread was an over reaction aswell.

Saying that surely there is so much more to chat about than depressing real life things.

[Erik Rutins]

Well, I took a look at the game and its entire focus appears to be current politics, pandemics and all. Discussing current politics has been against the rules of this forum for 15+ years. We tried it the other way at the start and it resulted in too many flame wars, too much need for moderation and thus too much time both taken away from staff who should be working on games and also too much division among the community.

The fact is our society is much more polarized and politicized now than it was then. My recent responses in the delta variant thread (which due to work I unfortunately didn't even see until it had run its course for a couple of days) seem to have been also seen as taking a political stand, when I expressed my personal opinion that the vaccines are safe and offered to discuss it via PM with anyone who disagreed. I see information that could save the lives of our community, when posted with factual citations and references as not political. Debatable on the merits, sure, but not political.

I realize some folks disagree and that my view on that has caused some to see me as political. Everyone who lives in this world and keeps up with events is political to some degree, and I'm not immune to biases or mistaken opinions, but I exercise all the care I can to avoid being political in my moderation. Threads are locked based on the rules, not on a moderator's opinions.

Really, I'm rooting for us all here, regardless of politics, against a virus that is real and dangerous. I can't express how much I wish good health and a great year to everyone on this forum and their families. I'm happy via PM or e-mail to share the basis for my opinions as far as the virus and the vaccines, but all I'd really like is for folks to try to keep debates here factual and specific rather than political and emotional. That delta variant thread could have remained open if it had stuck to that kind of debate, but realistically that was probably too much to hope for.

Discussing a game that is in its very subject about current politics though was never going to work out here. That's different from historical wargames where war and politics of course interrelate.

Regards,

- Erik

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Hmmmm..seems an over reaction to me. Though I also think as the thread was about a GAME, which is one of many political sim games, I think maybe locking thread was an over reaction aswell.

Saying that surely there is so much more to chat about than depressing real life things.

Here are some:

[Greybriar]

ORIGINAL: Freyr Oakenshield

I just wanted to say that I'm quitting this forum for good....

Goodbye and good luck, Freyr.

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: Freyr Oakenshield

I've just posted a thread about the game Power and Revolution and the thread was closed since this is allegedly a political game...

I guess in a broad sense Black Sea is that. Anyway, good luck. [;)]

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Lobster
I guess in a broad sense Black Sea is that.

Some of the Command expansions also deal with current political situations as a pretext for conflict scenarios. Frankly, that was a challenge that we did discuss internally as far as how to handle that in forum discussions, but it's also still a modern wargame that deals with a military conflict rather than a game that appears to be specifically and only about current politics, like the one linked above. I haven't played it, but that's certainly what the description seems to indicate.

[Freyr Oakenshield]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Well, I took a look at the game and its entire focus appears to be current politics, pandemics and all. Discussing current politics has been against the rules of this forum for 15+ years. We tried it the other way at the start and it resulted in too many flame wars, too much need for moderation and thus too much time both taken away from staff who should be working on games and also too much division among the community.

The fact is our society is much more polarized and politicized now than it was then. My recent responses in the delta variant thread (which due to work I unfortunately didn't even see until it had run its course for a couple of days) seem to have been also seen as taking a political stand, when I expressed my personal opinion that the vaccines are safe and offered to discuss it via PM with anyone who disagreed. I see information that could save the lives of our community, when posted with factual citations and references as not political. Debatable on the merits, sure, but not political.

I realize some folks disagree and that my view on that has caused some to see me as political. Everyone who lives in this world and keeps up with events is political to some degree, and I'm not immune to biases or mistaken opinions, but I exercise all the care I can to avoid being political in my moderation. Threads are locked based on the rules, not on a moderator's opinions.

Really, I'm rooting for us all here, regardless of politics, against a virus that is real and dangerous. I can't express how much I wish good health and a great year to everyone on this forum and their families. I'm happy via PM or e-mail to share the basis for my opinions as far as the virus and the vaccines, but all I'd really like is for folks to try to keep debates here factual and specific rather than political and emotional. That delta variant thread could have remained open if it had stuck to that kind of debate, but realistically that was probably too much to hope for.

Discussing a game that is in its very subject about current politics though was never going to work out here. That's different from historical wargames where war and politics of course interrelate.

Regards,

- Erik

Ok, I accept that explanation, sound.

Also...,

I was moved to tears by these two guys:

ORIGINAL: Greybriar

ORIGINAL: Freyr Oakenshield

I just wanted to say that I'm quitting this forum for good....

Goodbye and good luck, Freyr.

and

ORIGINAL: Lobster

ORIGINAL: Freyr Oakenshield

I've just posted a thread about the game Power and Revolution and the thread was closed since this is allegedly a political game...

I guess in a broad sense Black Sea is that. Anyway, good luck. [;)]

So..., I simply can't leave! Where else would I find such heartfelt sympathy and camaraderie? [8|]

[IslandInland]

Freyr, you are still online and still here! Eff 'em all.

No one cares anyone way, least of all me and you. And everyone else.

[:D]

[Platoonist]

[IslandInland]

TBH it is incredible that an innocuous thread about a Steam game from a long lineage of Steam games gets locked.

Eversim (a French software firm I think) have made a lot of games. I own a couple of them on Steam. They are clunky and hard to play but are legitimate games and reflect the zeitgeist. They are not political and make no judgement on anything really. CMANO or whatever the new version is called is about as political if not more so than the Eversim games.


A list of Eversim games on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... er=Eversim

We are all becoming slowly nuts with what we can and can't say/write/discuss.

[Rosseau]

The Eversim games always intrigued me, but the one or two I broke down and bought always disappointed me. And the Steam reviews are quite mixed. It doesn't seem the games can break out of the mediocre into the really good category. But that's just imho. [;)]

[IslandInland]

Indeed.

There are not fantastic but they are like Civ but with modern geopolitics.

[ncc1701e]

Last time I have tried one of their games, they were so many bugs that I decide not to buy another one.
This was a long time ago and it was called something like geopolitical simulator.

Maybe they have improved since then but I don't want to retest.

[ElvisJJonesRambo]

Why not make a sub-Forum with "No Snowflake Zone"?

[RFalvo69]

As an aside, I do have the game ("Power and Revolution") and in its 2020 start the pandemic is optional for the very reason that not everybody wants to go through it again. There is a clear question about if you want it or not.

I played as Italy with the pandemic on and it was... unfunny, because, obviously it dominated everything in the game. Playing the 2020 start without the pandemic simply makes for a more varied and interesting game.

[Bamilus]

Cya

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]