Anticlimactic endgame

hello,
i am one of the people that got into Neptune’s pride with “People Make Games” video

We started with massive game with my friends, it finished around 30 tick and i was hooked

after that i started playing with other people, few weeks ago i started with my first proteus game

during it game turned into 4v4 alliance war, it was fun and in the end, we decimate the enemy alliance,
after that I started to scheme and asked the player close to me, what’s his endgame plan…should we start working on leader together.

He needed 25-30 stars to finish the game and he had massive area to expand to left by the leaving enemy alliance

i got the weirdest answer to my question,

“he’s my ally, he’s the most loyal player I’ve ever played with. We ride it out as a team, or quit out and he’s claims victory faster, I don’t backstab.”

i was shock to hear this but wanted to check in with other ally (not the leader but the forth player in our alliance) what he thinks,

he told me

“Yes I think that way as well, I’m a loyal player to my alliance and I believe in team wins, in this version it is usually one alliance vs another in the end for supremacy. Now that green quit, we can all exit and the game will end, which allows us to concentrate on the next one. Gg”

and then I quit the game…

I was baffled with how this game turned out… the end game is the most fun part of the game in my opinion … it is the time where politics and strategy hits their peak… not only do you have to play smart… but you can’t really trust anybody at this point so its a constant fear of getting stabbed in the back

is this how everybody plays this game ??

are we just trying to find the most honest player ?? isn’t this game at its fullest potential if everybody trying to win?

is this the meta of proteus ? are all proteus games I play gonna end like this?

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You are right, everyone should play to win. It was the way the game was designed to be played. But the truth is, most players find the backstab distasteful, and care a lot about their meta reputations. As a result many if not most end games fizzle just the way you have described.

This debate has been going on for a long time in this forum. Search on “Diplomacy in Space” and “backstab” to get a flavor.