Post #77
(ISO)
» Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:11 am
I think we're just going to agree to disagree here. We're both very different players, and we both have had success with our different strategies. I'm not saying that your approach to the early game/the game in general is wrong (and I think more players on site play like you than play like me for what it's worth), but I do think you can't make sweeping statements like "playing MOR is the best way to survive early game". I just can't accept that. Yes, there are drawbacks to being seen as a threat in the game, but there are also drawbacks to being someone who is expendable to large numbers of people or who doesn't have the super tight relationships needed to make moves and have agency in how things proceed. Different strokes for different folks etc. etc. If we all played to be as MOR as possible, to me that wouldn't be a very exciting or interesting game anyway.
One thing I do firmly believe (and this is advice for both the early game and for the game in general) is that you should know yourself and play in a way that utilizes your strengths as a player. So if you are good at playing a sneaky UTR style game, great. If you have a fantastic social game, great. If you're a challenge beast, great. It isn't really about those individual ingredients, it's about knowing who you are as a player and knowing how to use who you are to get yourself into the best possible position. It isn't that a MOR game is better or worse than an aggro social game, but that some players are better at playing that kind of game. If the social game is what you're best at, but you're scared about being seen as a threat and so aren't as social as you could be, then because of that fear, you're letting what could have been one of your strongest assets lie fallow. If you're someone like Meme who is able to make crazy big-brain strategic plays, then you should lean into that and learn how to play that way and make it far. Variety is the spice of life.
And one final thing to note: I know that anyone can read this thread, but I was thinking about it with newer players in mind, and while less experienced players certainly do have a range in terms of personality/approach to the game, I think we see them playing not aggressively enough more often than we see them playing too aggressively. So for me, I think the early boots are more often people who aren't playing hard enough than people who are playing too hard, though there definitely are exceptions. For this reason, I think telling new players that one of their main concerns in the very beginning of the game should be their threat level is generally speaking not good general advice. Do some players need to hear it? Probably. But if you're a new player and you have a chance to really seize control and run your original tribe, I say go for it and worry about consequences which may or may not come later. That's what I would do anyway, but again, it might just not be your nature to take that kind of role and that's okay too.
I'm glad you have found a strategy that works for you. That's not my style, not my truth, and it isn't a lot of other people's either.