[Grandpa Kim]

Gamey? My goodness people, I do believe I could make a case for every feature of the game to be gamey.

It is gamey to:

use emergency build when there is no emergency
use retro-series building
NOT continue moving into a new and unknown system
be able to move the same number of sectors on the diagonal as on the horizontal or vertical
only be able to have 12 intel projects at one time (research too!)
bump up pop. on a planet by continually taking pop. from its moons
be able to move a freshly captured planet to jubilant on the turn

Well, you get the idea.

Until these types of games are so smoothed out as to be indistinguishable from analog, they will always be gamey.

I'm currently in a game where I am doing quite well. Two of my opponents have been so trod upon by my forces, that most of their planets must be rioting, but they continue to pour intel attacks on me simply because they still have viable partners. And its impossible to end this annoyance. Their planets are spread all over creation; borders are non-existant within their partnership. Whether by design or brotherly love, I don't know... and really don't care. Not because I think I can beat them anyway, but because I always go into a game expecting the worst and expecting some new wrinkle I never thought of. If it was the SOS every game, I wouldn't bother playing. Its things like this that keep the game fresh and new to me.

In-game rules are great; they can add a new wrinkle to game all by themselves. But if it ain't in those rules and isn't a cheat, its fine with me.