Lets put it like this, I'll bet ya'll have played Monopoly. Win or loose the game is suppose to be fun. Wheelin and dealin just having fun with a bunch of friends. Now I'm sure we all know at least one player that takes the game a bit too serious, always works the deals to death getting every possible advantage they can. Plays as tight, or as cut throat a game as they can. This is the one player nobody likes to have in the game. They just suck the fun right out of it. It gets to the point that when people suggest "lets play!" and this person is in the game, most just say nawww, because they know it won't be fun, and after all thats what playing a game is suppose to be about, fun.
Now we're getting somewhere, Fugitive. You've admitted that it is nothing but a matter of preference for a certain playing style, and shown that you don't think anyone can legitimately prefer a different style than you do.
Has it occurred to you that maybe there are groups of people who LIKE playing cutthroat Monopoly? That they have more fun that way? Not if they play cutthroat and no one else does, but if everyone in the game plays that way?
This can be extended to many, many games. Poker. Croquet. Diplomacy. Tennis.
And Aces High.
Some people like to play a relaxed, friendly game and others like to push the game to the limit, as long as everyone obeys the rules and no fights break out. Some people enjoy both styles, depending on their mood and the circumstances.
This may seem strange and wrong to you, but it isn't. They're having just as much fun as you are, they're just doing it differently, in a way you personally wouldn't enjoy.
And as much as your group hates it when a player comes into your game and plays the way your group doesn't like, trust me, they hate it JUST as much, and just as legitimately, when you show up at one of their cutthroat games and spend three hours doing nothing but carping and whining and insulting everyone else for not playing the "right" way or being "nice" or "fun".
And that's exactly what you're continually doing on this forum.
Aces High isn't a Monopoly game with four players, it's a hall with 20 or 30 Monopoly games going at the same time, or a park with 20 or 30 croquet games, but the boundaries are not well-defined. Occasionally players with different styles will interfere with each other or people will end up in a group they're a poor match for, but 80% of the time, if you want to and are willing to make a minimal effort, you can play your way in one part of the room with other like-minded players while other people play their way in another part of the room.
But you and some other folks here aren't willing to do that. You'd rather toss insults around and whine and cry and hold your breath until all those other nasty people stop playing the way they like and start playing the way YOU approve of. And you say that if they don't, you'll eventually just take your mallet and your ball and go home, like several others have done.
That is the very definition of childish behavior.
The grownup way to handle the situation would be to stop feeling compelled to fight the hordes, let them do what they want, and just walk (fly) away, go to a different sector, and find a fight more to your liking. Stop letting it eat you up inside that somewhere else on the map others are doing something you think is pointless and stupid.
If you learn to do that instead of whining that it ain't like the good ol' days anymore, you'll be able to enjoy the game a lot more.
FYI, I'm one of the folks who enjoys both styles of croquet (etc.) and wouldn't want to see either go away. I play a mean game of Death Match Croquet.
