Hai there! I welcome you to the very first edition of the Midweek Madness Blog. It has been a busy week for all of us here at W50, and there are plenty of new developments to report on. In this edition we’ll be taking a look at the current state of CBears (and the departure of their leader, Social Suicide), the past and present of [END], as well as the results of the very first MM Survey experiment. Hope you guys like 
CBears without Social Suicide?
On Tuesday afternoon Social Suicide announced that he would be stepping down as the leader of CBears (the current top ranking tribe in our world). He left the tribe shortly after this. In his fairwell message, he claimed that he had left due to his new goals and aspirations in real-life (joining the army). He did, however, mention that he wasn’t quitting this world entirely, and that he would still be playing his account. This came as a shock to the community (as well as most of the tribe). Social was the one that made the tribe function, running it as a dictatorship from the very beginning. It’s hard to imagine a CBears without him. And yet, it has happened. The face of the tribe has left, announcing that CBears are over, leaving 45+ members wondering what their next move should be.
Naturally, this event stirred a lot of discussion within the community. Social’s reason for leaving was questioned. Was it really due to RL circumstances, or was this merely an excuse? Admittedly, it was strange that he should quit during the first real challenging war that the Bears had encountered on this world (CBears vs HUG). Many accused him of being a coward, while former tribemates rushed to his aid, defending his honour in public. Throughout all this chaos, there were countless questions being brought up: What will happen to CBears now? Would there be a change in leadership? Would they merge? Would they disband? The only statements from the remaining council so far have been vague and uncertain. As of now, an official statement has yet to be made.
I grabbed an interview with Social a few hours after he left. Hopefully this will answer some of the questions the community has for the former leader (or possibly just bring up more). Please click on the ‘Show’ button in the grey box below to access the interview.
| Interview with Social Suicide |
SelectShow |
FrailBeauty: Hello Social, thanks for agreeing to do this interview with me today. Lots going on, isn’t there? How are you feeling about everything right now?
Social Suicide: Not particularly feeling much of anything, I am just in a calm state of mind. I feel what I did should not reflect on my ability as a leader, I’m not immune to having RL priorities. I do feel I could have done more to secure the remaining fate of the current CBears roster, but they are all mature enough to make their own decisions, there are many options.
FrailBeauty: You have not quit W50 entirely though. Tell us a bit about your new tribe. Are you leading it?
Social Suicide: Originally it was supposed to be a solo tribe for a while, until I sorted out some things (RL related as well as IG). Then Rhymezz came over. He is loyal to Unkwn, and I’d like to think myself too. Devil came shortly after as he’ll be co-playing me. I’m not really leading the tribe as such, there isn’t really much to lead at this point in time. I don’t really know where it’s going to go, I’ll either stick with Unkwn with a core base of 10-20 members (something small which I will have time to lead), or join another tribe.
FrailBeauty: I see. You have admitted that you have lost your will to lead. Was it something about the CBears tribe in particular that caused this, or is this strictly RL-related?
Social Suicide: I started to lose interest in the game as a whole. Basically not so long ago I was logging in for only an hour or two a day. When RL occupies you for long periods of time, you don’t tend to think about the computer as much. I’d like to think my loss of interest was due to this, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of it was TW-related. When one of our members was reported by another member and banned, that really put a damper on things for me.
FrailBeauty: Ah. Did this make you doubt the loyalty and dedication of the members of your tribe? Was the choice to leave in no way related to the current HUG war?
Social Suicide: I’m sure HUG would like to pat themselves on the back thinking it was due to them. However, there are a few HUG members I shared words with prior to leaving who know my feelings. A member being banned only made me question several members loyalty. I know there are at least 25 players who would not do such a thing, but even their dedication to the tribe is questionable at times. You have one member who will give it their all, launch when I tell them to and land when told a date. Then you have the members who don’t do anything, and blame their co-players for their mistakes. The choice to leave leadership was due to me having a too busy RL to lead such a large tribe. It was ‘primarily’ because I no longer felt CBears was the tribe I wanted it to be. Even leaders are allowed to leave.
FrailBeauty: Fair enough. You are, however, content with how far CBears came along in the time that they did spend under your leadership? A lot of people have accused you of mass-recruiting to the top. Would you like to elaborate on how exactly the recruitment process worked, the goals/ideas behind it, and what you were hoping to accomplish with such a unique map spread?
Social Suicide: Yes well, everyone knows people who scream mass recruiter at a 50 member tribe, is obviously acting out of jealousy. I know we grew to 60 members at some point, but the mass recruitment allegations were made around 50. I tried to recruit no more than 5 members per continent, preferably the best of said continent, giving them much room to expand. The downfall of this tactic is minimal support, but with my standard on recruiting, everyone could and can handle themselves. The goal was to dominate the North-East, but not with 1 continent at a time, but with all of them simultaneously, it was a risky but effective method. I admit that if we did not recruit in K54 and engage confrontations with HUG, then the back-line tribes would not have been so lucky, if we had another month or two, I feel CBears would have been an impenetrable force without strict coordination prior to the HUG war.
FrailBeauty: So you regret recruiting on HUG domain and thus starting the tensions between the tribes which lead to the war?
Social Suicide: Yes I do. You’d be a fool to think a tribe leader doesn’t take risks. I’ve taken hundreds over my time, this one finally caught up with me.
FrailBeauty: Did you attempt to try and fix things before leaving? Or was this perhaps your way of fixing things for the members of the tribe? Do you think your departure was the best thing you could have done for them, considering your current RL situation?
Social Suicide: I have been fixing things since the founding day of Unkwn, when there is a problem, cross noble or internal issue, people come to me. I know a problem when I see one, and there were serious morale issues within the CBears tribe, people may think I’m advertising their disadvantage, but anyone with a clean eye can see what’s going on. I did try to fix things with new leadership, finding people to step up, I discussed with the council for a while about a reformation, and also a merge with School or another surrounding tribe. There were several possibilities, but to find another leader active and dedicated enough to take my role, there was not, and to share responsibilities, there were just not enough people wanting them. I’m not sure if my departure was good or bad, but as said previously I felt I needed to leave for my own reasons.
FrailBeauty: Do you feel perhaps that it was your fault to lead as dictator, and that you should have instilled a different mindset in your council from the start, or did you enjoy doing most of the work when things were going well?
Social Suicide: I’ve always enjoyed being a sole leader, my methods are usually questionable, but sound and effective. Two dukes often ends in dispute when both are head strong. I don’t feel I was at fault. If I had been a democracy, the tribe would not of been what it was.
FrailBeauty: Do you think you’ll ever try leading a tribe again for real on this world or, perhaps, on another world in the future?
Social Suicide: Possibly on this world, if I remain in Unkwn and continue a small group. However I won’t be making new tribes on new worlds, that would be too much work. World 50, I’ve already established working relationships so it’s not as difficult or time consuming.
FrailBeauty: Anything else you wish to let the world know before we wrap this up?
Social Suicide: Play for fun and realize it is what it is, a game. Don’t get entrapped in it. If I say any more than that I’ll be flamed ;p
|
The [END] – Or Just the Beginning?
Say what you will about this tribe, but you can’t deny that they’re nothing short of newsworthy. Internalling/inactive-snatching their way to the top? Maybe. Ennobling an embarrassing amount of barbs in their conquers roster? Perhaps. Still managing to get back on top after this many reformations and failures? Yes. Now, we are all used to the early stages of the game where noob-tribes have the chance to get to the top ranks via smart mass-recruitment. But at this point we are four months into this world, and things are no longer that easy. Getting into the top three tribes of any world is an accomplishment. Even more so when one of your leaders just happens to be one of the most hated players in the world. These guys have seen enough bashing and hate from the outside world thus far, so I have decided to take a different approach in this article. Let us open our minds to [END], if only for a couple of minutes, shall we?
The Long and Twisted History
Where to start? Astronomy (former duke of Orphan, =300=, and now council member of [END]) was asked to take on the leadership role of EVHU (later renamed to Orphan). He claims the tribe was already in bad shape when he took over, and that things sort of just kept getting worse from there. Many members were inactive, uninspired, and many had issues with the leadership. Loyalty was low, and morale was even lower. They had a short-lived war with JPEG and Banned at the time, but bigger concerns were to come when they started facing tensions with both DIY (now reformed as HUG) and CBears. Both of these tribes could sense the impending fall of the Orphans, and both were hungry and eager for new recruits. In less than a week Orphan had gone from a strong leading tribe to a sinking ship with little to no chance of survival.
The council and loyal members decided to abandon the tribe and reformed under the =300= tag. Reforming didn’t solve many of their problems though. If anything, it made them more vulnerable. With a low member count and both CBears and DIY as their neighbours, the members of the tribe felt very insecure indeed. Astronomy approached the leader of CBears (then Social Suicide), offering to merge his top =300= players into the CBears tribe. At this moment in time the cold war between CBears and DIY had already commenced, and thus Social was open to the idea, knowing that it would give him a stronger frontline. Open to the idea – he was, take action – he did not. The =300= members were left waiting, feeling unwanted and uncertain about their future. It was then that they decided to join DIY instead. Of course, we all know how well that plan went down. After DIY disbanded, Astronomy and the members of former =300= formed the tribe [END].
The [END]
The name in itself was ominous. With the hectic past of the tribe, the future was not looking bright at all. When they had just formed, they were nothing more than 15 or so odd members spread over three continents with enemies all around them.
For us [END] was exactly that. The end. Our final station. There we decided to just do our best and fight and die if it came to that. No pacts, no serious merges – nothing. – Astronomy
So this was the beginning of the [END]. They started with no diplomacy, and slowly started recruiting back those players that they had once lost to other tribes (mainly CBears). It was speculated that they used methods of threatening players into joining them, but this has never been proven. They later recruited a chunk of players from the former A0A (known as LOVE just before disbanding), fulfilling their spread on the map.
When talking to their council, I was informed that they had two set goals in sight: warring JPEG and then later warring CBears. Nothing has yet been declared and their conquers listings clearly show no indication of war-like activity. So, basically, all they’ve done so far is recruit themselves to the top.
What? What is this?
Why, oh why, Frail, are you doing a feature on the most hated tribe of W50? Because. Because it’s interesting to know where our top tribes came from and how they got there. This tribe has been through the gutters in every possible aspect of this game. But when we take a step back and stop judging the little things (the reputation of a leader, their less than flattering statistics etc. etc), we are able to see the facts as they are. They’ve secured a decent spread on the map. They’ve shown that they are determined enough to continue no matter what. They’ve managed to give themselves a fresh start, after numerous ups and downs – ones which most other tribes would not have survived. They have yet to prove themselves to the world when it comes to war, but who’s to say that they can’t this time? Villages are still villages, whether they were taken easily or not. They’re building up at a rapid pace, and with no one attacking them – they have all the tools at their disposal to succeed. It will be interesting to see if they can accomplish anything in their first real war (if they should ever declare one, that is).
The [END] or just the beginning? Only time and war will tell, really.
Hazad’s Section
This week Hazad has written about some of the new features that have come along with the v6.5 upgrade of Tribal Wars. Clicky the ‘Show’ button in the boxy below to access his article.
| v6.5 Updates! |
SelectShow |
As of Monday, Tribalwars has had a minor update and is now up to version 6.5. If you have not yet seen the full list of updates, click here and it will take you to the official list. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain some of the upgrades in a little more detail. Some of them are big time savers.
Lets start with the best one:
Added the ability to directly upgrade buildings from both the graphical overview and the buildings overview. – Morthy
I think there is going to be a whole lot of people discovering the Buildings Overview now that this has been updated. This overview is now an essential part of your day to day TW life. Get used to it. When you visit your Buildings Overview, you will now find a bunch of little tool looking symbols down the left hand side. When you click on ones beside a village, the buildings available for upgrade become a link. This is a bit of a slow process and we are all a bit too lazy for that right? Luckily enough, they included a tool button right up the top of the column which activates all available upgrades. After you activate the links, you can scroll on through and upgrade any and all buildings you need, without having to go to any single village. This is a massive help, but I still found it to be a bit messy and hard to find the right information. If you can find yourself a Sort Script that works on the building overview (not too hard to find ) you can very easily get the information you want in an easy to view way. So if you need to upgrade walls in many villages, you can easily just activate the links, then run a sort script and it can arrange all villages in order by their wall level. Very quick and efficient.
Now, my next favourite upgrade:
Added the ability to set a default catapult target. - Morthy
Yay! Now when I run through my cat attacks, I don’t have to go through the painful task of changing the target. When you send an attack with cats now, there is a check box on the confirmation screen to ‘use as default’. If you have a large string of cat attacks to send at a farm for instance, you send the first one so it will save the default, then all the next attacks will be automatically aimed at the farm. I’m glad they included this to be honest. Changing the cat target (even if you have a script to help do it) is a menial task at best. Especially later on in the world when you can be spraying 200+ cat nukes at an enemy.
The last upgrade I wanted to feature was this one:
Added the ability to add/remove groups to multiple villages at the same time. – Morthy
With the increased flexibility in swapping groups around, I am finding myself more and more tempted to really mess around with my troop builds and stuff. I can easily switch villages around between a slower/stronger def build to something faster quite easily. Not sure if my laziness will catch up to me on this one or if I will explore this sort of thing further but for now the novelty of this feature is too much to resist. In quiet times I will likely find myself switching nuke villages over to a stronger build, then when war breaks out I can easily change them back to a village group for a quick-build nuke. Time will tell for this one though!
~Hazad
|
Ranks & Maps
Top 10 Tribes Map
*Generated on Wednesday 15/09/10 – Does not account for changes in tribes and reformations
Top 10 Players Map
*Generated on Thursday 16/09/10 – Does not account for changes in ranks after that.
| Top 10 Tribes |
SelectShow |
Points
1. CBears – Same as last week
2. [END] – Moved up 2 spots
3. SchOoL – Moved down 1 spot
4. HUG – Moved down 1 spot
5. SeVeN - Same as last week
6. CHAMP – Moved up 1 spot
7. NOT! - New in top 10
8. Toyz - Moved up 1 spot (formerly known as F.SIN)
9. ~HELL~ – Moved up 1 spot
10. NIT - New in top 10
Opponents Defeated
1. SchOoL - Moved up 1 spot
2. [END] - Moved up 2 spots
3. CBears - Moved down 2 spots
4. HUG - Moved down 1 spot
5. SeVeN - Moved up 1 spot
6. Toyz - Moved up 1 spot (formerly known as F.SIN)
7. CHAMP – Moved up 2 spots
8. NOT! - New in top 10
9. ~HELL~ – New in top 10
10. =TTD= - Moved down 2 spots
|
| Top 10 Players |
SelectShow |
Points
1. Astronomy ([END]) – Same as last week
2. ahmedrefaat ([END]) – Same as last week
3. tattered apocalypse (SchOoL) – Same as last week
4. Zalem (CBears) – Same as last week
5. KeegiKolmas (CBears) – Moved up 2 spots
6. aetos21 ([END]) – New in top 10
7. IdlingIdiot (SchOoL) – Moved up 2 spots
8. The-Tradesman (HUG) – Moved down 3 spots
9. jenderal candanga (Unkwn.) – New in top 10
10. LafforDie999 (SchOoL) – Moved down 4 spots
Opponents Defeated
1. The Injustice System (SchOoL) – Same as last week
2. The Handyman (HUG) – New in top 10
3. C0V3RT (CBears) – Moved up 5 spots
4. Sun1009 (CBears) – Moved down 2 spots
5. snetram (Tribeless) – Moved down 1 spot
6. kingkev (SchOoL) – New in top 10
7. Shusaku Chiba (CBears) – Moved down 1 spot
8. Reiny Uy ([END]) – New in top 10
9. myhammerisbig (HUG) – Moved down 2 spots
10. jongski87 ([END]) – Moved down 5 spots
|
The Survey Section
The results of the Survey are in and can be viewed below!
I will be doing weekly interviews with some of the winners. This week’s interview just happened to be with myself. I got my friend, octavianTHEoctopus to ask me a few questions.
| Favourite Personality: FrailBeauty |
SelectShow |
octavianTHEoctopus: FragileBooty, I see that your months of lurking the W50 forums have finally paid off. Tell us what it is like to be the Favorite Personality of the community, and how many of your competitors did you have to murder to get there?
FrailBeauty: The death toll is not important. Hehe, but no. In all seriousness, I am very flattered and honored and all that. I guess I should have prepared a speech, huh? Sorry for the somewhat lame response.
octavianTHEoctopus: I think the question on everybody’s mind is how soon until your flying monkeys land on the w50 externals? But seriously, what have been some of your favorite and worst moments on the W50 externals?
FrailBeauty: I don’t have flying monkeys. I do, however, have flying panda bears which I invested in, but they are too fat to fly. I guess I was ripped off. Favourite moments… Hmm. I have always enjoyed war declaration threads. I felt the most exciting was the one a few months ago with the 4-5 tribe coalition against CBears. What was intended to be a gang bang, turned into a bunch of weaker tribes dropping like flies when crumbling under the pressure. I myself was part of TG/Brace! at the time, so it was definitely an experience seeing how losing a few nukes and nobles can impact player morale enough to disband months of hard work in one go. My least favourite moment was the Social Suicide vs Faaaaark’s Mouth thread. I found it annoying and petty.
octavianTHEoctapus: Some vodka and a treadmill will get those pandas airborne again. Given your humble nubby beginnings, I can safely say W50 has been a total success story for you. When you joined did you imagine it would lead to this?
FrailBeauty: Well. It’s safe to say that when I joined W50 I was a total nub. The furthest I’d gotten on any world prior to this one was 6 villages. All of them barbs of course. This was on W18 back in 2008. Although, to be fair, I always used to think I had 60+ vills on that world for some reason. It’s only recently that I’ve managed to dig up the account in the archives. I lol’d pretty hard. So no, I could never have expected to get this far on W50. I didn’t even know there was a ‘this far’ to get to. When you’re a nub, you’re kind of oblivious to the whole ‘elite premades’ world. You have your nubby little k, with your nubby little tribe and your nubby little enemies – and that’s all you know. I started out this way, but through being eager to succeed and having great mentors, I managed to learn the tricks of the trade and actually go places in this world. Still have a lot to learn though, I believe.
octavianTHEoctopus: Yes, don’t we all? Thanks for telling us of your nubby exploits, I lol’d, you lol’d. I’m sure everyone will lol. Nubs always underestimate their nubbiness. You’ve accomplished a lot in so little time, official W50 forum troll, blogger, and you have even become a mod. What else are you looking to accomplish (TW-related)?
FrailBeauty: Erm. Well I was aspiring to overthrow Morthy as the Community Manager of Tribal Wars, but now that he has transformed into a cow, I’d feel too bad. I like cows you know.
octavianTHEoctopus: With a moo moo here and a moo moo there, here a moo there a moo everywhere a moo moo. Yes I think I speak for everyone when I say cows are delightful. It’s always been my belief that you will not be satisfied with Tribal Wars until you have become dictator of InnoGames. Do you plan to stick to administrative stuff on the forums, or have you thought about playing future worlds? Maybe even leading a tribe from the beginning?
FrailBeauty: I have thought about it yes. That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far in regards to that. Thinking.
octavianTHEoctopus: Well I wish you luck on your TW adventures wherever they may lead you. Congratulations on this accomplishment. I think I speak for the vast majority when I say well done!
FrailBeauty: Thanks O.o
|
Final Words
Hey guys. The move from forum thread to blog has not been an easy one. As you can see the layout has changed drastically, and just the overall look and feel is different. For this reason I have cut down the War Section this week. This doesn’t mean it’s going to be gone forever, I have simply decided to make it more elaborate and use it instead of the ‘Sub-Article’ section every two weeks. Hopefully you guys liked it none-the-less! Next week I’ll be following up on the current CHAMP/NOT! situation, the falling of JPEG (or reformation? I don’t know yet!) and the state of CBears without their original leader.
Till then 
-Frail
I read your Blog,
But what I know and would start a Forest Fire..
Inspiring work Dar! :O You put Shakespeare to shame.
Wow epic!
very nice O.o, very well written and interesting.
Great blog enjoyed it immensly,
hope to see more blogs from you soon frail!
very nice frail
nice to see a good bit about end
epic
Great first blog Frail! I really loved it and enjoyed it.