"National" alliances

[Juliette]

I actually founded an world wide alliance in the hopes of getting people of different backgrounds, regardless of origin, to come together and share unique ideas on how to tackle problems.

Yay! Let's hope you're more successful as the U.N. *applauds*


@ Buck: So true.. conveying sarcasm and other less obvious style figures is already somewhat more difficult because we use this medium. The fact that not everyone's English is at the same level tends to further complicate this. So no.. you wouldn't be as funny as you are to someone who wouldn't understand you. I do think that is pretty obvious.. but it is a good thing to put forward against international alliances.

@ Lore: The potential for fun in such an active, localised group is so much more fortified by the possibility of going out in weekends etcetera.. "Oh Look! 'The Dutch Armada' is on PPT, they must all be in Paradiso or the HMH again, or recuperating."

@ L.A. & Greased Gerbil: Thanks.. I'm a somewhat subconscious teacher. I just criticise people a lot.

[~Coyle~]

i like being in a world wide alliance cause if some day things go horrible wrong and i need to flee my own country, i know i will have safe house to go too


that the only reason i get to know any one in this game.

hahaha exactly what i was thinking, so that goes both ways

[~Sokar~]

Most posts here are about the language reason.

But, maybe those players created and joined that alliance only because they wanted to show the world that they are pride that they are hungarians, slovenians, polish etc. Why are there only goa'uld alliances, only tau'ri ones? Why do some ppl (mostly friends) create alliances with a movie name, or a name of a music band? Because they like it and they want to be a part of a closer community which has other requirements than only stats and UP too, cause they will have something common (nationality, ingame race etc.) with each other >>> the community might be stronger, and it's a good feeling to be a part of a strong community.

Language is not the biggest part of it I think. There are lots of ppl in the Hungarian Unity who can speak and write english very well. But those who has only a very little knowledge in english, even those can easily do the basic communications with the foreigners on main forums.

And yeah, main forums. If you are in a national alliance, that's not mean that you can not communicate with ppl from all over the world regularly. Of course national alliance forums' language is the mother language of the members, but they can be active on main forums and on MSN too.

[Slugworth Assrot]

Lone Wolf.

I have my own set of rules which basically boils down to:

A) Play competitevly
B) If you can make a profit - do it.
C) No defence + naq = Slugworths Naq
D) No defence + uu's = Slugworths uu's
E) Dont take crap from anyone
F) Never show fear when communicating with others
G) If you lose it, replace it
H) I Am Slugworth - You Are Not.
I) -.-

Unfortunately my play-style tends to earn me many enemies so I avoid alliances as I dont want my actions to endanger friends with less agressive and less opportunistic play-styles.

It seems to me that people might want to be in a national alliance out of patriotism, or as already stated - to be alongside people you can easily understand and work with.

Personally, If I were to be in an alliance, and someday I think I will be, I would opt for a more global setting as I embrace other cultures readily and enjoy learning and hearing about new things. Not only that but it is better strategically to have a spread of people who are online at different times so that your alliance isnt all asleep at the same time, but thats just a fringe-benefit.

I'm a nice guy really, never confuse the RPG persona with the real thing!

^.-

[Robe]

Lone wolf can get boring after a while.

International Teams are an absolute necessity.

If you want to spice it up then add a large number of Aussies

[Slugworth Assrot]

I actually have great fun as a Lone Wolf.

[Cole]

I'm french, and we aren't really the best in learning other languages. Sure, I was somehow good at english in school (14-15 average rates in high school). But, when I came here, I saw it wasn't sufficient level, compared to english native language ones (when I see my 2005/2006 posts I find my english funny). I grew up my english level thanks to this game/forums (not all people of course lol, just some people good at it, not necessarly native english language people), particularly thanks to my friend Universe who taught me well how to use a proper english.

L.A.,

You've mastered English better than most people who speak it as a native language. I know people (in Australia) who've spoken English their entire lives, but can hardly put together a decent sentence, let alone spell it correctly.

Obviously, Universe is a good teacher.

G.G.

Yes she is, my english level started to really rise, when I started msn chats with her and be in her alliance..

I got myself 16 in english in my high school exam, and this semester best rates and average of my class, level 4 english class out of 6 levels in my university, in which most of people are in second or third year of university (close to get a licence). So next year, I'll go for fifth level.
So I suppose I'm not doing bad..now, I just need to practice english with people face to face to improve my accent.

I actually founded an world wide alliance in the hopes of getting people of different backgrounds, regardless of origin, to come together and share unique ideas on how to tackle problems.

Yay! Let's hope you're more successful as the U.N. *applauds*


@ Buck: So true.. conveying sarcasm and other less obvious style figures is already somewhat more difficult because we use this medium. The fact that not everyone's English is at the same level tends to further complicate this. So no.. you wouldn't be as funny as you are to someone who wouldn't understand you. I do think that is pretty obvious.. but it is a good thing to put forward against international alliances.

@ Lore: The potential for fun in such an active, localised group is so much more fortified by the possibility of going out in weekends etcetera.. "Oh Look! 'The Dutch Armada' is on PPT, they must all be in Paradiso or the HMH again, or recuperating."

@ L.A. & Greased Gerbil: Thanks.. I'm a somewhat subconscious teacher. I just criticise people a lot.

Yes, subconscious teacher if you want to call yourself Jo. I know you annoyed me slighty sometimes, when I did mistakes, and you corrected me in your reply on forums, instead of thru pm, but in the end, it worked somehow.
But well, just remember my english back in 2006, it wasn't really great, wasn't it?

[Rodwolf]

I do not understand why people think it's best to have a big group of active players from same time zone?


In a game that goes on 24/7 it's obviously the best to have each time zone covered by active player's...


Therefore national alliances or teams would just be a nice curiousity to have for a sort of World Championship SGW Tournament during a week or so. But being all the time in a national alliance = 'Epic Fail'.

[BenjaminMS]

Personally, for alliances I like international alliances the best, but I wouldn't either if there would be a 'full-Dutch' alliance...

@ Robe: sorry but I am afraid you're quite mistaken there. I also prefer being lone wolf from time to time. Why?
- You don't have to worry about visiting forums (which is a must in alliances)
- You don't have to worry about consequences of your actions. (Yes, you'll still face them but most likely no others will be harmed due to it)
- Less bureaucracy
As a lone wolf you might or might not stand less strong, but your freedom for actions is far greater and outweighs the potential disadvantages from time to time.

@ languages: it's just a matter of the education. The Netherlands, due to the open economy, focus on international languages. Thereby, you're obliged to speak at last basic English, French and/or German besides the native language (Dutch). But countries like France, Germany and Italy focus less on international languages. Matter of preferences.

@ national alliances: it's more often East-European and Balkan-countries where players focus on 'being national'. Most famous 'single nationality-alliance' being SU of course...

@ Rodwolf: not necessary. Sometimes it is better to have the same timezone... easier to coordinate masses etc

[Neimenljivi]

Well having spent most of my time in a national alliance (Slovenia United) I can say I like national alliances most. Sure due to the same time zone you don't have an advantage of being able to mass your enemies 24/7 but these are just ingame disadvantages. But the advantages in and outside of the game outweight disadvantages by far. For instance we can easily go out for drinks or something and we understand each other far more when it comes to comunicating. Slovenia has a very high education standard so it's not like we can't understand what other people are saying in english or some other languages (most of people here can speak/understand 3+ languages), but it's much easier when it comes to things you can say or can't say in some situations due to different cultures around the world.

It's also far easier to coordinate massings because we're online at the approximatly same time.

But like I said, national alliances normally go deeper than game due to each nation's culture, small distances between people and because members, in the most cases, have more in common than international alliances. Sure it's nice to meet people all around the globe and have a chance for a conversation with them but this friendship exists only through internet mostly (you can't really travel 20 000km to meet with someone every day, unless you're bill gates that is, so it's harder to make RL contacts with someone that lives few thousands km away) while you can easily make bonds with someone who lives nearby in real life aswell. That's what counts for me and (I assume) most of the people in national alliances.

Thanks BenjaminMS, it's nice to see SU's the most famous national alliance in SGW

[Noobert]

World Wide Alliance.

Why? Not only is it good for strikes, sitting on players in a war, and massing but you get to meet new people. Hear about their lives in a different part of the world, etc etc blah blah.

[Rodwolf]

@ Rodwolf: not necessary. Sometimes it is better to have the same timezone... easier to coordinate masses etc

What you say sounds right however it is not better to have that setup for an alliance in SGW.

An alliance who has active players in each timezone will always get the upper hand on an alliance who only has players from one particular time zone. Since the second alliance will be pwned when they are all asleep they will also get counter attacks when they try to do something.

Everyone with some experience in big wars ( i do not know if you have warexperience Benjamin?) knows that the best time to strike is when your opponent is not sitting behind his pc...

[RepliMagni]

It depends on how big the alliance is - in a very small alliance like TO it was way more important to have similar timezones - me, chris, mem, frazz, mark, etc, were all online at the same times and so it worked well. It would be very hard to effectively run a 10-member alliance if everyone was scattered all over the globe.

Of course in a 20+member alliance then different timezones is always the best. 4 strike teams of 5 members in different timezones.....if you're active then you're way more effective.....

[zeekomkommer]

the biggest disadvantage of a national alliance is the timzones, whn it is drawn into war you have a time of the day wich isn't remotly covert sinc they are either sleeping or to work/school

on the other hand you do have a better bond with countrymen, but then again i have met so much wonderfull ppl in a international alliance that i would feel just to bad about not letting them in becausse of their country of origin

[lone dragon]

I could not say for sure I am only fairly new and have not ruffled any bodies feathers so to speak but I think if there were national alliances we in Australia would be in trouble being properly a small section of the game whereas America and Canada would be a little over represented and if it was by suburb I would be really gone I think there may only be 4 or 5 people max that I have heard of.

Lone dragon