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Politics
Politics as defined in text books is the study of power. The power to
decide about where, who, when and how to allocate scarce resources. If a community has excess of all resources,
its unlikely people will be drawn into politics. Its the necessity to produce treasured but scarce goods,
and manage them which prompt people to begin politics.
Big Numbers
How does power play itself out in Travian? In my opinion as a travian
enthusiast with 5 years of experience, it is NUMBERS which is at the heart of
travian dynamics. It is NUMBERS which infuse energy into the game. From a newbie player up to the veterans, the
pursuit of LARGE NUMBERS becomes the most consuming thought every player
has. From the beginning when a player
begins with a population of 2 until the end when veteran players itch to reveal
their humunguous hammers, players are in a hurry to level up, to pop up, to rob
more, to train more.
The truth of the
matter is, it becomes a competition not only among travian players. It becomes a race to beat LARGE NUMBERS. Having said this, I wish to make a proposition that an alliance's success
in travian rests on its ablitiy to organize around large numbers.
Population Does Matter
Some gamers boastfully write on their profiles "Population does not
matter". But in my opinion, it is only the most skillfull who can make
such a claim. Population does matter
because of the following reasons:
a) High population means high resource and fast toop productions.
b) It suggests a dedicated gamer. A
high population gamer most likely spends countless hours on PC, and spends a
lot of money on gold. As in any
competitions, it is difficult to beat
anyone who has a lot of time and money.
c) Since gamers chase large numbers,
alliances which house high pop members get respect. They are feared. Their good will is sought after by small
alliances. It matters little if they are all pop and no muscle. Their
population size casts a mantra of sort to most gamers. It is not their troop count nor skill which
command respect, its simply the fact that they are large.
Whenever I ponder about war and politics in Travian, my mind ocassionally
lumbers into history and in particular into the story of Japanese defeat in WW
II. General Nimitz was commander of the
allied fleet tasked to bring down Japan.
His strategy was simple. Bomb the Japs. Bomb them hard. Rain hell and fire. Simply bomb every square foot of their major
cities, it doesn't matter if bombs fall on vacant lots or factories. Bring LARGE NUMBERS on the Japs.
Finally the LARGESTever NUMBER of that time fell on Nagasaki and
Hiroshima. It was the size of an atomic
bomb.
