In this week’s issue: the continuing saga that is K17 and a letter that made us zen. Do remember to keep writing to us on anything concerning Westerosi affairs.
to add to the k15 vs k17 to be honest their best player was a noob
Pingee
This War of the Kingdoms match is practically writing itself now.
WarSheep steps away after the debacle of latest KvK, while ELT conducts movement to k18..K17 literally dead with all smaller alliances already departing
RavenK17
What did we just say.
We have to admit we find surprising this piece of development. Also, not moving to K24 as from what my birds tell me. How come?
Let us also count how many times we have heard a kingdom reportedly dying or declared dead to find them being resuscitated or not totally dead upon closer inspection. They have said this about K1, K2, K3, maybe K9, somewhat K10, maybe K13, and definitely K23. Guess what, all of them are still alive and breathing with a structure in place, regardless if it is made up of a small commune of like-minded alliances or a supreme superpower who likes their domain compact.
That said, we are taking bets on which kingdom The Old Gods would actually decide to close down due to attrition. Wagers can be placed here. Would be interesting to see a kingdom getting a bye at the War of the Kingdoms because there was an odd number of eligible servers.
You seem to be extremely knowledgeable about the different servers and the alliances there. I wonder if I could ask your opinion on a matter. My alliance is thinking of moving, possibly to a k30s server. Which one would you say has the most room for a mid level alliance AND is fun?
Bellaskye REVk19
Talk about a thought exercise.
We admit we have helped those who approached us privately, asking our thoughts on the state of affairs of different kingdoms. And we appreciate the fact that our opinions are of value not just to our regular readers, but also to individuals and entities who have reached out to us.
That out of the way, there is a reason why we do it in dark rooms behind closed doors. We do not want to construe our personal viewpoints (which are mostly backed up by either firsthand experience or anecdotal statements from eyewitnesses, but still filtered through our perceptions and lenses no matter how objective we try it to be) as public information or ‘gospel truth’.
For one, it would be unfair for kingdoms whose dynamics do not jive with our personal preferences to potentially paint them in a bad light when that was not the intention. We also do not want to impose our preferred philosophy and playstyle to others.
We already get angry comments and reactions when a reader gets slighted by a writeup. What more when we declare – in public – that K so-and-so is bad because of this and that. Imagine how controversial that would be.
To partly respond to your query: what is your definition of fun? Because our idea of fun would most likely be different from yours. Now, if you spelled out what it is (for example, “I hate bullies” or “I like to hear the lamentations of their women” or “I play with a flair for diplomacy”), then it might have been easier to recommend a kingdom that would fit your roleplaying psychology the most.
Hear us out: not all Lords and Ladies are built the same way. Some are all about having law and order (produced by Dick Wolf), whether it is in council-with-voting style like K24 or having a centralized power that forges the direction and identity of the kingdom. The second one can be sub-divided further into those who choose to have a pacifist commune built on harmony and cooperation (and actually make it work! Try to implement this in a ‘war game’ and watch your resident warmongers complain) and those who want to satiate their inner megalomaniac by calling the populace of their kingdom “citizens” or “subjects”. And then there are those who would like to be in perpetual conflict, whether through diplomatic imbalance ala-Littlefinger or actual combat like a raging horde.
So, which one is you? Because even if a number of people would argue one way or the other that the scenarios presented above is the “wrong way to play the game” and is “not fun”, well guess what, no kingdom whose dynamics have swung on any of the extremes mentioned previously has been closed for “being played the wrong way”.
That said, I would like to take the opportunity to promote our Patreon. Our initial goal is to cover the monetary costs of maintaining and hosting this website. As much as we can do this out-of-pocket, we would like to keep the spirit of “free-to-play” alive in this endeavor.
Our stretch goal, on the other hand, is to turn this into a self-sustaining publication complete with compensated staff and in-house personnel. If you notice, our bare-bones approach means we are limited on what we can cover and publish. Having more eyes and hands at our employ would mean more content delivered to the people of Westeros both in quantity and quality.
In return, our patrons would receive an invite to The Raven Express Discord server where one can have PRIMARY, NO-HOLDS-BARRED, UNFILTERED access to any information that we are able to collate. At the same time, patrons can also meet minds with other Lords and Ladies of Westeros as well participate in our special polls and prop bets.
Many an aspiration book says to give your goals a round solid figure that is attainable on a timeline that makes the objective achievable, so here it is: a monthly total subscription of 100 USD can cover a year’s worth of website hosting as well as premium publishing services. Hitting two months straight means this publication and web address (theravenexpress.com) is guaranteed to operate for two calendar years.
Sustaining that amount regularly would mean we would be able to eventually hire a website developer, a graphics artist, a Discord server moderator, a social media manager dedicated to each platform, as well as Twitch and YouTube channel operators. Of course, not to mention additional writing and editorial staff for the website and our online accounts.
Simply put, our stretch goal is to make The Raven Express a media entity of its own.
To cap everything, indeed, there is a thing called “freedom of information”. However, our service is not, as we, for the past three months, have dedicated time, effort, and creativity to make The Raven Express into what it is now – Westeros’ go-to publication for news, recaps, opinions, gossip, drama, and more.
The Raven Express 