[NitinA]

First off, Wonderful post Troll.

Secondly, I prefer value. I've played either as a: deadbeat running an alliance, consistantly top 100 player when I cared about my planet, or (for the first time ever) XP whore in round 20. As a value player, I've played with ever type of cons structure: maxing out amps, maxing out dists, maxing out FCs, or mass-mines. But easier to play than the rest, XP whoring is looking pretty good this round, for me personally, compared with other rounds. Well, even though I was Ascendency in round 16, I was one of the few Asc players r16 who decided to play for value instead of XP. I was fleetcaught 3 times that round without def from gal or Asc, (including one FC which dropped me from t30 to 65th within 10 ticks of final rankings) but ended up not so bad. Considering I didn't have defence at all that round, was fleetcaught so often, and played in an alliance that didn't defend, I wasn't so bad off. I ended the round 61st with 3.1m value 7.6m score, and 2k+ roids, (nowhere near my top rank), but still great considering circumstances. Playing for value without an alliance isn't hard if done correctly.

That being said, playing for XP is very easy. This round, I've spent mabye at most 20mins total per day in the game itself playing. I've spent more time talking on IRC than actually playing--the community which I find more fun than the actual game--but have managed to stay pretty well off. I'm about t350 at the moment, spending very little time on the game--crashing a lot, not getting defence, and attacking only 3-4 days of the week--but haven't managed to do so bad. I'm about 400k away from a t100 score, which is my GC has bitched about considering he's playing for value and has had to spend much more time playing to maintain his score.

It's a shame (to me, at least), but I basically agree with you as to where the game is going being more XP oriented. But I guess XP hasn't attracted new players to the game, so it's bound to die anyway.