alex, my big beef is that people like you who go on these holy crusades against the elite clique totally have a naive and ignorant definition of that clique. you try to paint it as black as possible so that anyone who opposes your thoughts is obviously stupid and just trying to defend cheaters or a cheater himself.

your definition: one group that always does favors for each other.

the reality: a mass of people, some of which ABSOLUTELY HATE each other, and will pge, thereby giving unfair advantages to unknown players. there are factions within this top table club, which ABSOLUTELY CANT STAND to see each other gain points. so sure, overall, the unknown is at a slight advantage, because overall, this clique has a +2/100 average gain. but for every 52/100 situations in which the new unknown player is at a disadvantage because the clique respects each other, there are 48/100 in which the clique is factioned and will attack each other all game long, and the unknown now holds the advantage.

yet, you try to paint the reality as 100/100 times, there is a disadvantage, and 0/100 an advantage. this is ludicrous.

"When I go in to a game I rarely look at who I'm actually playing. Sure it's useful to know that CriticalDog will respect my flag, but I don't use this knowledge to create an advantage for myself over other players."

Of course it's an advantage, the same advantage as if you knew the person WOULDN'T accept your flag. It affects your gameplay. If it doesn't affect your gameplay then you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

"If I'm trying to connect I will choose the best logical path, and not base it on who I have known for a long time. If I do go around someone, I will use the in game chat to explain what I'm doing (very subtley of course) and hope the player I'm avoiding will recognize my move. (they usually do without me saying anything)"

Everybody connects on everybody in round 1. If they don't, then it is very much a PGAish move. Players in the top 25 don't sacrifice the chance to connect 8 lands simply because they have a "friend" in the way. If they do, again, it's PGAish.

You can't honestly tell me that you don't look to see who you are playing with at a table. Player reputations are an integral part of KDice whether it's a reputation of being a vFlagger, trucer, kamikaze connecter, etc.....

You also can't expect someone to chance offering a truce to the noob, having that unknown noob say "NO", and then get countered by the rest of the board anyways simply for offering the truce.

To answer your question as to how many are in the "clique". I would say it's close to 200 or 300 players that I know and most of the games I play at 500's, 2k's, or 5k's have a table full of them. When all 7 players are known quantities to me then all I have to do is know which ones are likely to accept a truce, or accept a flag, or try to ruin me. Player reputations are the BIGGEST PART OF THIS GAME AT THE TOP TABLES. If you don't like it, tough shit. If you want it to change, stay up there for awhile, take your lick for 4 or 5 games, then you will be KNOWN and you don't have to worry about it anymore.

Everyone was a noob once. Everyone has had to go through this.

It's not PGA. It's not game-to-game favors. It's just simple knowledge of one's opponent.

I don't feel like refuting all your dumb just right now but I will start with this:
I had a 4 stack, 3 stack, and 3 stack in a line along the border of the map. The green player had a 5 stack next to my middle 3 stack. When the green player's turn came, he moved away from me. I said in the chat "I'll remember that" Another player in the game asked how long I will remember that to which I replied "Just this game."

You know whats even nicer, is if you don't have to say anything. Smart players see you say that, they counter and you two get wrecked to 5/6/7ish land.

For example me and shadolin are in a similar situation as you were, lets say he moves the 5 away, I can now say nothing and he will think we are cool if I don't hit him on my next turn. Now I am at a great advantage because I have two options:

1: I can have some confidence that I can use shadolin as a an ally in this game and we can both prosper and our potential alliance is not know to the rest of the table.

2: I can build and chase shadolin later, I have not commited to any partnership yet so I am still free to make the best move availble if a better option then working with shad arises.

I understand your frustration to a certain extent alex, but also feel you are vastly overstating that the "clique" actualy works together. Like monte you completely ignored that I noted most of my expected knowledge about players negative traits not there ability to be used for my gain but the additional struggle that trucing a know quantity can bring.

If I am looking for someone to use as a weapon against the rest of the table, trucing a new player is the perfect leverage against the established players, now I don't do this like monte or shad do, but I know why they are nice to new guys because is they like you they will do your dirty work for you without them even knowing it.

Your complaints are not new, but they have been shown to be unfounded and generaly stupid over time. Shadolin, first couple of months plays a stupid ammount of games, finds some success despite only moderate strategic play, gets some morons to help him and boom he wins 400 gold medals. If the top was the clique you think it is this never would have been allowed. We are all self interested, we destroy stupidity when we can because it is unpredictable, but welcome players that are smart and are social.

Defeating a friend in a well played hard fought battle is what makes kdice such a great game. Yes there are some problems, you have fucktards like fiero that just want the game to be about giving him points, or people like adam that have fun for a few days then just get bored and want to have fun. For the most part, people just want to play the game.

Ok thats enough for now.

Sweet monte and thrax refuted the parts of your dumb that I didn't GO TEAM GO!

and monte's wall of text was the shortest...

I think Hell just froze over!

and alex, if you are keeping zero track of people, so that you dont have an advantage over unknowns....

then it seems you are basically begging everyone who reads forums to backstab you every fucking game. why? because you will never seek retribution, BECAUSE YOU REFUSE TO USE EXPERIENTIAL INFORMATION.

and this is exactly what an anonymous kdice would be: backstab central. the most important strat would be to backstab constantly throughout every game. and that, good sir, is one of the stupidest things ive ever tried to envision.

Ok look a game to game favor is explicit reciprication for an action done in a previous game. What you are thinking of is not a game to game favor alex, if you feel it is I am sorry you are in a infinitesimally small minority of the game. Pull your oddly shaped retarded head out of your ass and stop clinging to this woefully ignorant view of the game.

Gosh. Where to start?

"alex, my big beef is that people like you who go on these holy crusades against the elite clique totally have a naive and ignorant definition of that clique. you try to paint it as black as possible so that anyone who opposes your thoughts is obviously stupid and just trying to defend cheaters or a cheater himself.

your definition: one group that always does favors for each other.

the reality: a mass of people, some of which ABSOLUTELY HATE each other, and will pge, thereby giving unfair advantages to unknown players. there are factions within this top table club, which ABSOLUTELY CANT STAND to see each other gain points. so sure, overall, the unknown is at a slight advantage, because overall, this clique has a +2/100 average gain. but for every 52/100 situations in which the new unknown player is at a disadvantage because the clique respects each other, there are 48/100 in which the clique is factioned and will attack each other all game long, and the unknown now holds the advantage.

yet, you try to paint the reality as 100/100 times, there is a disadvantage, and 0/100 an advantage. this is ludicrous."

Where on earth are you getting this info about me? First off, Thrax defined the clique. All I'm saying is that there is a group of buddies at the top who give each other favor game to game which creates an advantage for them and disadvantage for others. I didn't say WHO was in this group, I just said that a majority of the top 25 know what the hell I'm talking about.

Also you guys need to stop attacking the fact that I'm new. This kind of fits into my point. I'm new enough to know there IS stuff going on, but not old enough to get consumed in it like yall have.

There IS a reason the top 25 generally stay the same month to month, and don't you DARE say that it's solely luck and skill.