Aha, I misunderstood, it's prestige not power, well then it is not as important. OK.
But what you then wrote is so contradictic to my basic attitude that I must write a few lines.
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"ABUSE"
I will abuse every rule there is. I always play like that and have done all my life. So help me God
I intently use the word "abuse" here because you failed to define it. In a game I would never do anything that I myself would consider "abusive". But to take advantage of leaks in the legal environment is not abusive per se in my world. The normal characterisation is quite the opposite: it is smart play. Just that: an intelligent adapation to the rules.
It is probably quite difficult for me to construct a situation where I would call a within-the-rules-action abusive. Feel free to make an example in case you want to test my style.
Another positive side effect of my attitude is that it encourages people to actually read and understand the rules. And further it will speed up the time needed to making the rules really good. In fact I am close to the ideal beta tester since I love to look for bugs and legal leaks that I can take advantage of.
"SPIRIT OF THE GAME"
Concerning the spirit of the game I do not know about anything special. This is another vague concept you present. If I were you I would refrain from using vague concepts when you are discussing how people should act.
For me the spirit of the game (any game) is twofold
1. that everyone does his best within the rules to "win" in this (and coming) games, "win" in this case = making his nation as grand/big/prosperous as possible
2. and that he is nice to his fellow gamers
In that order. Incidentally it is just about the attitude I have in my professional life as well.
RL
I would like to add that any references to what would happen in RL I will take no notice off. I do not take part in such silliness, where those with stronger attachment to this RL/RP aspect will be losers vs those with lesser. It is simply contrary to my number 1 spirit of the game principle.
I would like to stress the fact that there is no mentioning on page 1 of "RL" aspects. I would never have joined this game in the first place if I had to adhere to such restrictions on my playing style. I have declined to take part in such games (RL - RP) before. Thus I believe it is entirely wrong to introduce such aspects in the middle of a campaign.
