Sleeping

[Manson]

This was written by Jakker for 2016 RaiderCon to urge raiders to use "sleeper" puppets more and get involved with the communities they're raiding. All the credit goes to Jakker and RaiderCon.

I am not too active in NS anymore and especially nowadays when life has been quite busy. My most active period of raiding was 2011-2013 and 2014-2015. The game has changed a ton over the last year or so, but I would argue that after the fallout of Predator and the decreasing popularity of tag raids, this aspect of raiding is ever as relevant as it has been in the past.

Sleeping.

When I first came up as a raider, tag raiding was first gaining popularity. And while I enjoyed it enough, the practice of making puppets and switching to hit small regions had minimal appeal for me. I would go through all of the founderless regions and dossier every single one I would want to hit. Since nearly all of the regions I wanted to raid had several endorsements, sleeping seemed the obvious way of life for me.

The first raids I led were of Ohio and Asia. I remember talking to Tramiar a couple of months prior to hitting Asia and informing her of wanting to raid it. She reacted in disbelief, but that she would love to see it happen. It was then I realized the need of larger raids.

While I was sleeping in Asia, I tried to study as much as I could about the region. I read up on their history and learned the ins and outs. I knew which nations had the most literal and metaphorical influence. I knew when nations were active and when they were not. I absorbed everything I could. And suddenly, something happened. I grew attached to the region and its community. I grew fond of the region and this made the raid all the more sweeter.

With Ohio, a delegate streak of over five years was ended. I telegrammed back and forth with the delegate at the time who taught me that one of the natives that was the most upset was actually his ex-wife in real life. This exchange with him provided the opportunity to just have a real conversation and build a connection through the raid.

These two instances were practices that continued for most of the raids in my career. I loved developing connections with natives that lasted after the raid was over. I still check in with the regions I have raided and truthfully want the best for them. What sleeping does for me is develop respect and appreciation for the region I want to raid. Sleeping helps me really enjoy a raid because I already know many of the natives and I have worked hard on something for so long.

I have an attachment to all the regions I have raided. So much so that I actually do not like it when that region is raided again. I do not want to see those regions burn or suffer inactivity. I want them to thrive. It was great to see the success that Capitalist Paradise has had after the raid in 2012. This is not me trying to say that raids inherently help regions, but I do believe that they have the power to make a positive impact.

Nowadays, it saddens me to see that most raids conducted where minimal to no sleeping was involved. Fully investing in a region forced me to ensure that my triggering was as perfect as possible. I would spend weeks analyzing the update times. I would constantly look over endorsements and the nations in the region.

Sleeping makes a player have a true understanding of their surroundings. Sleeping makes a raid more than simply hitting a region. Sleeping makes the victory so much more sweeter and the defeats so much more bitter.

I understand the challenges that come with spending months in a region. It is a lot of work that may not pay off. But I think raiding as a whole has endured because of infiltration, deception, and stealth. The push towards speed in raiding made sleeping less of a common practice. I hope that my raiding has provided some level of inspiration to future players that sleeping is a vital and rewarding part of the game. I know that for me, it really woke me up to the ins and outs of raiding.