is feeding acceptable or not

[Omnirizon]

When a player chooses to go AI, is it acceptable for them to give all their stuff to another player?

My take:

Most honorable is to never go AI, fight to the last scrap. Your fighting for godhood after all, to lose is likely to be banished for another eternity to some very undesirable place.

Going AI is acceptable when the end is neigh, it isn't much fun to play that out. However giving all your stuff away is unacceptable on both the thematic and gaming axes. Thematically unacceptable for the same reason it is best to never go AI. Gamewise unacceptable because it gives players disruptive and unwarranted boosts of power.

I read about this happening, and I also read grumbling about it. I personally feel it is wrong, yet some act as if it is natural and OK. Natural maybe, humans are conniving, but I don't think it is OK at all.

That's my stance, how do others feel?

[Foodstamp]

I voted acceptable. People are allowed to make crazy alliances that can span more than half the players in the game to take out players one by one. Surely you cannot fault players for giving some gems and gold to other players on their way out. The game mechanics allow for it more than they do alliances, NAPs etc.

[Jazzepi]

The only time I ran afoul of this was when Sensori in a game I was playing in just randomly spewed gems to people completely unrelated to his current state of affairs. While it didn't matter much in the end, he gave like 40 gems to my opponent who had maintained zero diplomatic relations before him.

That irritated the piss out of me. Besides random distribution I see no problem with pumping you allies.

Jazzepi

[Renojustin]

I think it's very thematic.

Consider the case of the king who, under mortal assault from a rival nation, sends his only son, the child prince, into hiding with a trusted servant. With him he took three magic items from the treasury...

I mean, you can't argue with that.

[Omnirizon]

the pretender fighting for godhood sends his... son?... into hiding with three items that he could have used in his fight for godhood?

and who are we talking about here? i mean is ry'leh going to send any of the lesser beings their stuff? and I can't picture the mind-flayer child prince.

you forget that we are not feudal lards, but are in fact pretenders who want nothing more than to see every other one dead. The cost for not doing so is high. Alliances are in fact only temporary mutually beneficial agreements that we kill other people before we kill each other. there is never any real loyalty.

EDIT:
this is making me laugh now:

"Dear beloved 'ally'. It seems the enemy have overrun my empire and with it my hopes of becoming god. please accept my only child. I'm sending a diaper bag full of death gems and a handful of magic items with him"

P.s. you can throw away the kid if you want to, he was only a tissue thin rationalization anyway. just keep the goodies.

[Randvek]

Omnirizon said:
you forget that we are not feudal lards, but are in fact pretenders who want nothing more than to see every other one dead. The cost for not doing so is high. Alliances are in fact only temporary mutually beneficial agreements that we kill other people before we kill each other. there is never any real loyalty.

Nobody is saying there is loyalty. What there is, however, is a desire to spite your enemies, even from beyond the grave. How on earth is that unthematic?

[Omnirizon]

if you are the true pretender (which in playing the game you say you are) then why not 'spite' them yourself? If you give up and give stuff away to someone else, your only admitting you were a cop out from the start. Never good enough to be god, someone else had to do it for you. What real pretender is going to say that?

additionally, any dominion not your dominion is enemy dominion. you can only possibly give stuff to an enemy. no matter who you give stuff to, it is helping to spread a faith not your own. what true pretender would stand for that? You are here to spread your faith and to become god! not whimper out and roll your stuff over to someone else.

[Cheezeninja]

If you truly want to spite them you'll both go down fighting and give all your assets away as you die. At a certain point in a losing war assets will be rendered obsolete or pretty much useless, like earth gems when you can't get any more earth mages. Alchemetizing them away into gold or something else dilutes their potency and depending on the nature of the war being fought might do very little to harm your opponent, whereas they might possibly help someone else immensely.

I view it as perfectly thematic to try and do maximum damage to the person killing you, through whatever legal game mechanics are available. Why not reward the neighbor that kept his word in the process?

[Agrajag]

Omnirizon said:
if you are the true pretender (which in playing the game you say you are) then why not 'spite' them yourself? If you give up and give stuff away to someone else, your only admitting you were a cop out from the start. Never good enough to be god, someone else had to do it for you. What real pretender is going to say that?

additionally, any dominion not your dominion is enemy dominion. you can only possibly give stuff to an enemy. no matter who you give stuff to, it is helping to spread a faith not your own. what true pretender would stand for that? You are here to spread your faith and to become god! not whimper out and roll your stuff over to someone else.

Remember that you aren't actually a god, you are just a bored Lich with nothing better left to do than try and take over the world.

[Omnirizon]

Agrajag said:

Remember that you aren't actually a god, you are just a bored Lich with nothing better left to do than try and take over the world.

"what are we going to do tonight, Brain?"

"the same thing we do every night, Pinky."
*turns around, intense look in eyes*
"try and take over the world!!!"

"egads Brain! NARF!!!"