Quote of the Day – The Strategy for the Conquest of Fountain

The CFC goes to war on a simple, tested strategy: grind the moons down, and only later bother grinding sov. Hostiles should be either massacred or blueballed to ensure their playing experience is ruined. Relentless metagaming should take place such that the conflict is as demoralizing and unfair as possible. To us, sov is essentially meaningless once jump bridges have been snapped; what matters is that our foe does not want to log into the game. We have taken out superior forces by ruining their gameplay to the point that they do not bother logging on; this was how we dealt with the massive Raiden pre-nerf Titan blobs in the Tenal campaign. You can kill a hostile spaceship by blowing it up, or by ensuring that it never logs in in the first place.

Now that such a huge and ridiculous band of hangers-on have joined the ‘independent’ TEST to fight their war for them, it is important that the CFC remembers how we fight: it has been months since Tribute, our last grinding hellwar, and we have many newbies. At every turn you should consider how to ruin the fun of the foe, while still enjoying yourself. We care nothing for ~honor~, ‘gudfites’, or any of the pubbie views of how warfare ‘should’ be. We have massacred, griefed and blueballed our way across the galaxy since Red Alliance first taught us how to win sov wars in late 2006, and there is no reason why we will change our methods now.

The Mittani, GSF CEO Update: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

The Mittani, back from E3, has provided an update on the war.

In the situation room

The update itself contains salve to sooth all possible worries of the rank and file, including my own concerns that we had let things get out of our control on the diplomatic front.  We are told that TEST is screwed and hurting for money, they fear us and so are staging out of low sec right from the start, their allies are only in it for the fights, and that we have managed to break off Black Legion from TEST’s pack, in large part due to TEST’s promiscuous ally policy.  (Though, with that last one, there are some tales as to what transpired floating around.)

Oh, and we are all heroes, having stepped up and worked overtime to launch the invasion.  Go us!

Liberation of Fountain

Now, how much of the CEO Update you believe will no doubt reflect where you stand.  If you are from TEST or one of their recent allies, you are probably standing on your chair shouting, “Lies and damage control!” and wondering how The Mittani’s trousers have not yet burst into flames.  The comment thread on the post over at The Mittani (he’s both a space tyrant AND a web site!) is running about as you would expect.

You will also see on the comment thread a recurring mention that this sort of update is really only focused at an internal audience, that it is a morale booster for the troops, and that you should view it in that light and not blow a gasket.

That is a lie.

There is a long history of posting the CEO updates publicly.  They used to get reposted on Kugu.  Now, with with access to their own gaming news site, updates get posted in the GSF forums and to the front page nearly simultaneously.

These sorts of updates are clearly crafted for public consumption and often contain sections directed squarely at the enemy.  They are propaganda.  They are part of the meta game.  And an enemy has to parse this sort of thing whether they agree with it or not.  They have to ask if we really believe what was said, if things really are going to our plan, if people will keep logging on if fights dry up.  Enemy leadership won’t express any doubts to the rank and file, but they have to assess the message and decide where it should fit in their world view.  And if an enemy blows a gasket over an update… and does something stupid… so much the better.

Other alliance heads mask their updates in secrecy.  We hear about them through leaked recordings and transcriptions.

The Mittani publishes his updates for all to see and makes them do double duty.  They bolster the morale of the troops and attempt to raise fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the enemy and its leadership.