And in true Guardian fashion, I will claim #100 for the Galactic Guardians. 
  
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New issue available.
 Link
The main topic in this issue is the metaverse scoring and the...
Disappearing Games!
Where's Nancy Drew when you need her?
        
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Very good issue. The topic of aging/disappearing scores is very interesting.
As a new player, my preference is essentially in favor of the current system, which has the effect of encouraging "new blood" and rankings based more on "what have you dont for me lately?". After all, nobody is saying that Greg Maddux is the best pitcher in baseball anymore, even though his career resume is probably best or second best (Clemens?).
However, I also sympathize with the argument that veterans shouldn't be (i) penalized for being "less active" or (even worse) (ii) disincentivized from submitting new scores.
Since I doubt that at this point the system will be changed, perhaps it would be better to think about tweaks that could be made with the new Metaverse that will hopefully be made next year for GalCiv 2.
   
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The Metaverse Scoring issue discussed in the last Metaverse Review has been resolved by Stardock.
See this thread for details: Link
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New issue available.
Link
Featuring a special report on The Millionaire's Club.
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Good review!!!! 
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excellent work as always.
    
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Yes, time to do one on the CSF I think.
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The Metaverse RAG
September 16, 2004
by Newfyscotian
All the news that is fit to print and some that is not.
It has been a wild time this week. A new empire has taken 2nd spot in the Metaverse. This empire started life as the Crazy Canucks created by Newfyscotian when he left the CSF. The Technician soon joined which catapulted the new empire from 16th to 6th position. The name/theme was changed to The Foundation. Veteran players such as Matthew Downie and Evil Steve have joined giving a good start to the fledgling empire. Several other players have joined as well. These additions have allowed The Foundation to move to 2nd place!
The Foundation empire is now shooting for the number 1 Metaverse spot. There currently is only 12 million points between 1st and 2nd. 
In other news;
Shooting for 3 million
The Technician the top ranked player currently at 2867624 points and 583 games is on tear to 3 million points and 600 games. He has not slowed down his game submission rate since he threatened retirement several months ago.
Empires in Decline
Many of the empires are experiencing a sharp decline in active players. Once proud empires such as Aldarians, Fellowship of the Ring, Star Fleet, European Alliance, The Diplomats, Gamma Squad, New Texas Republic, GoneGolders, GROSS, Mid-Western confederation and the Canadian Star Federation have 5 or less active players monthly. Even in the Galactic Guardians a relatively new empire there is a decline in membership.
There are many reasons for the decline in active players. Some of these are simple boredom or the wish to play new games. Galciv has been around for longer than a year with many players being active that long. Even the new expansion pack is not enough to hold the interest of long time players. As always real life such as a new school year starting up, work and other personal commitments are having an effect. In some cases there are players that have become disenchanted due to the way Metaverse scores are calculated. Player burnout has been a common theme lately, and this is brought on in part by playing the Metaverse game and cranking out 60K MASO games the same way over and over.
The Top 25,
Despite the decline in many of the empires there are still many players vying for a spot in the Top 25. There are now 12 players with scores greater than 1 million points and to get a position in the top 25 a score of greater than 780,000 is required.
Some recent milestones
The Galactic Guardians have over 2500 battles fought, that is a lot of scrap Yor parts at the Yor store.
Technician is the first player to have over 500 games played. How does he do it?
Technician was the second player to get over 2 million points.
Greldon was the first player to break 2 million at least 2 times.
Newfyscotian was the first to get 60K on a Medium map playing MASO.
Genghis Hank is the only player in the Top 25 that has not gotten there by playing MASO games. He has done it by playing Crippling games.
Genghis Hank recently came very close to 60K on a Medium map playing Crippling with a score of 57960.
The Galactic Guardians have 4 of the 5 top spots and have 10 players in the top 25 positions of the Metaverse.
Metaverse Scores and Immunity
There has been much debate in the forums suggesting alternatives to the current scoring method. It is felt by many that the Block method is unfair because existence of one or more zero blocks can effect a players metaverse score too much. When zero blocks exists, scores that are submitted may actually have a negative affect on the players metaverse score. These affects will periodically come up until the zero block has disappeared.
Ageing of the scores is part of the Metaverse scoring process allowing new and active players a chance to gain rank in the Metaverse. This ageing process is more noticeable on inactive players. Many inactive players that are experiencing ageing are seeing their scores drop as time goes by. However there are a few inactive players who's scores seem to be immune to this process. This has been brought to Stardocks attention, although Stardock has not replied to this they do have a good track record of addressing bugs and other issues of this type. For more information please see Link
Cheating
During the Month of June 2004 Stardock discovered a few people they accused of cheating. The supporters for the accused and for Stardock were very active during the coming days. There were calls for proof and explanations from Stardock and the accused. While Stardock is under no obligation of providing proof they did respond explaining how the cheats were discovered and what they did to the people accused. For more information please see Link
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Newfy, I think you have an new job! Excellent! 
 
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Thanks newfie, well done.
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Seems like the news update has been succesful. Perhaps I will do another one when there is some news worthy event.
I am sure that Theoden of Rohan won't mind a competing news outlet.
Mine is done cheaply on plain brown ... um ... virtual background and his is much more flashy done in a blog. Hence mine is called the Rag
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