I have requested Azzer an exclusive interview to find out his opinions about the powerblock and other events at top and he as a
player acccepted to answer my questions:
DarkSider: Twigley, Steve_god and JJ claimed they're not in the same bed at the beggining, then we hear Steve is long term allied with Twigley and now we still see the 3 allies at the top ranks with no sign of aggression on eachother, just using combined force to smash other alliances. What you believe from all this ?
Azzer:I believe all three probably planned this from the beginning, before it even ticked - denying it at first to buy themselves time to settle in to their positions and work together before people knew ID lists etc... all three are clearly allied together as three wings working together to outnumber any other alliance 3 to 1 very early on to secure a fast lead, and then continue working together bashing everyone to secure their ranks, regardless of image, style, honour, or anything else. Rank rank rank.
DarkSider: How would you call the leaders and players of those allies ?
Azzer: Cowards, yellow-bellies, wimps, big-girls-blouses... too scared to face eachother because they know they'd have a tough fight, so they gang up and bully everyone else.
They're scared to lose. So they work together and stay together.
DarkSider: You'd expect them to stay together till the end ? Knowing Steve he will probably get bored and most likely doesn't want to get a reputation similar to BW.
Azzer:I predict all three to stay together till the end if they are all ridiculous pussies, OR, knowing the playstyle of the top ranked ally's leader/organiser... half way through the round or near the end of the round, when the rank 1 ally has ENOUGH of an advantage to be guaranteed safety - they'll work with the 2nd to kill the 3rd (telling the 2nd and convincing them they are safe) - then do the same to the 2nd. Until it happens all three think they are safe and best friends and it'll never happen.
But as far as ranks 2 & 3 are concerned - they will stay together to the end. They'd rather quit of boredom, than attack their "buddy boys" and risk dying. That's cowardice.
DarkSider: I was actually expecting Steve and twigley to backstab JJ since it's said JJ has an alliance of pro's while twigs and steve probably know if they want to win they can't take them 1:1 after. I'm sure at least twigs is planning a way to win and not to fight the final battle in disadvantage.
Azzer: Possibly, but the rank 1 alliance will be the one that's in the strong position to manipulate the other two alliances the most, and the other two alliances would let themselves be fooled more easily because it's nicer to believe you're safe, than to think the people who you powerblocked with would turn on you.
The problem with the "turning on eachother" aspect - the 'victims' will die, lose their ranks... but because they didn't do it by choice, they'll still be labelled as powerblockers by the rest of the game. The ONLY way to "save face" and stop themselves being concemmed to Bushtarion history as lame players, is to take action themselves, not to sit around waiting for something to happen.
DarkSider: You think they care about saving their face ? You said earlier on mirc that Twigley might like getting all the negative attention.
Azzer: Some will enjoy it. Others will think that as long as they have "eachother", nothing else matters. But I know there is quite a large portion of players there that would rather be remembered as good players, than lamers, and are starting to question their position. Some will be thinking "I don't like this, but I daren't backstab these guys" and might be thinking about deleting/restarting... even quitting... because it avoids two things (don't need to backstab, don't need to live in a powerblock) - but maybe some will have the guts to take action and stand up for their names. With politics forums being new, and people will be encouraged to put all these stories in to the Wiki articles after....
I think the idea that your name could go down in history forever as a powerblocker, a lamer... or as somebody who died but led a huge backstab in a hilarious "Up yours!" to their ex-powerblocking allies mid-round... is something that might affect people's judgements about whether to take action or not.
I'd rather backstab, have a hilarious fight, make a great political post about the backstab, then be killed by my now ex-allies and live the rest of the round fighting in the mid-rankings... than just quit out of shame/boredom, or sit around with my rank knowing that basically every other player out there thinks I'm lame and don't deserve it.
DarkSider: Yeah you make a believer out of me, let's see if they gather any balls
What you think of Chance and War? Huh ? They fought their own battles so far and are still contenders to top.
Azzer: Chance, War?, even Discworld and a few alliances below, if they are all fighting their own fight, are earning their own name, battling it out and playing the game with a sense of pride and fun. I don't watch what they're doing in-game so I don't know the actual facts surrounding every alliance of course, but that's my interpretation in general. It also looks like the game could still be turned around if they could ALL work together in a mass resistsnace, but tbh it'd be tough, it'd require far more co-ordination than the top 3 allies now, and it shouldn't be necessary - one of those top allies should be taking responsibility, and a resistance should only be needed to take down a "top ally" for fun, it shouldn't be needed to dismantle a powerblock, not in this day and age when leaders/players should be doing better than powerblocking like that.
DarkSider:Well then, what you think of BW and his 2 allies ? He has rank 12 and 14 but he doesn't get as much attention since he is lower in ranks.
Azzer: I think powerblocks/alliances between allies is always bad, and don't think he should be doing it. The middle-ranks are having to face their own "Multi-wing" enemies which shouldn't be the case. Fortunately they do have genuine challengers - there's plenty of alliances that could kill them, so while it's poor gameplay, that aren't "ruining the round for everyone", and they haven't made themselves "immune to real threats" - there's plenty of single alliances big enough to handle both wings. But I still think any form of "wings" is bad.
DarkSider:You kinda started this fashion with alliance wings and pnaps between allies. Players got used to have outside help .. they tasted the easy ride and can't quit anymore.
Azzer: Pnaps were a way of phasing out the old style play wether everyone could defend everyone (remember back then?) Wings were ALREADY being used, very heavily. Pnaps were my way of saying "I'm reducing your abilities with wings now, but I'm doing it a bit at a time because grossly drastic changes upset everyone". I certainly did not cause/create the fasion of wings. I started phasing them out when I replaced "defend anyone" to "replace only naps", and then eventually removed the naps, too.
DarkSider:Any last words ?
Azzer:The round's never over until it's over. And those condemned to make a bad name for themselves can redeem themselves with good actions - the sooner you act, the more glory you can claim. If you're sat in those top 60 and don't like the fact you're being branded as a "Lame" player by the rest of the game, and don't like the fact you're helping cause so much upset and dismay in this first Age 5 round because of the selfish playstyle and attitudes of your leaders, then do something about it. If you sit there saying "I don't like this", but stay doing it anyway, then you're just as bad as everyone else in the powerblock. Condemn yourselves to a bad history or step up now - and if you do manage an epic backstab, write a nice politics story about it and get the game involved, and let everyone know who did it and what they did - take some glory from an unglorious situation.
Thx for the interview, maybe some will search deep inside and find their thirst for glory as the big man said