Quote:
Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk
In fairness, that's a standard part of any EULA (though it does seem a bit more pervasive than what I normally see).
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Yes it is, of course, the necessary legal back door. The crux is the fact that generally it's the point of legal contracts that is invoked very rarely, in Planetarion it's what is generally used to stomp every creative attempt in protection of what people claim "fair competition" in a game that has never been about "fair competition" in the first place. Most of the genuinely interesting rounds of the game in my opinion have been the ones where dramatic innovations and creative tactics have changed the path of the round.
By choking everything that's not "common tactics" relying on this one bit of EULA that allows the implementation of support planet rules et cetera even mid round is the thing that's driving the "competition" in this game into a race of who can be arsed to bust ass the most instead of a race of who can come up with a clever plan and emerging triumphant.
It's blatantly obvious in this case. Someone comes up with a creative tactic to gain an edge mostly because it's a surprising show of flair (rather than something unbeatable), and people will be howling for the wolves at instant. If it ends up in a punishment, it's just a symbol of what a role the choking grasp of the rules enforcement plays in this game. The obvious bias involved to it further underpins the vanity of the rule culture in this game.