Would you play to the death?

[capnq]

I have never played Dom2 or Dom3 multiplayer, and don't expect to anytime soon, but I have some experience with Space Empires IV multiplayer.

I have stuck games out to the bitter end, and been complimented for doing so. If anything, I tend to start thinking I'm going to lose sooner than it's actually been decided, and adjust my strategy from trying to win to losing as slowly as possible. I have also conceded games to the only other surviving player when I couldn't see any way of winning.

A long time ago, I subscribed to an online TBS game that was only played as a two-player duel. I got good enough at it that I entered several single-elimination bracket tournaments, and actually won one of them. In that game, I won several duels when my opponent conceded from what I thought was the stronger position, simply because the game was taking too long to play out. I was also eliminated from a couple tournaments (along with my opponent) because our duel had exceeded the time limit for the round without a clear leader.

My point in mentioning that is that one cannot expect every player to approach the game in the same manner. One of the reasons I dropped that game was that I got tired of winning by concessions that I didn't think I deserved. There is no unanimously agreed upon way that the game should be played, and arguing that there is such a way is mostly going to drive people who aren't interested in that style of play away from the thread.