I do not require other people to defend my actions.
I have done things which have set my country back, tremendously, usually in terms of economic capability, in order to secure a long-term--beyond the length of the game--advantage for my country in terms of positioning. When was the last time you paid 14EP for a single EC and some surrounding territory because it made sense for one to two centuries into the future and in terms of immediate in-game economic payoff that wouldn't actually affect your EP income? 10EP for a bunch of tiny desert islands only good for naval positioning in 50 years? Never? Oh, well, I guess you're not playing in-character.
I do not play in-character? Correct me if I'm wrong, but in most games over the sort of duration of which I'm playing, I establish the character of my nations myself, and their goal is usually their self-survival and improvement. That is most readily accomplished by elimination of enemies, and a securing of a stable position. I believe that is the general goal of most governments. If you have some evidence to the contrary that they are instead supposed to implode randomly, please feel free to present it.
I don't write stories? That's pretty simple: I do, I just only do it when I have some actual inspiration, because I don't like whoring out my writing for puny little bonuses.
And if you think all these things regardless, great for you, because this is an activity I engage in for fun on the Internet. The opinion of anyone here--myself included--has a true value to others about the same as some 13 year-old kid on Live screeching insults into your ear over a game of Halo. The only reason it matters for anything is because people are willing to invest a meaning into it.
So if you want to demonize me, criticize me, make me your own personal George W. Bush of NESing and project whatever you want onto me, great. I've always relished the prospect of being a villain. It just makes it easier for me to lay out all the annoyances
I have without the need to try and be civil or polite about it.
This goes for everybody, not just ~Darkening~, because I know I have some enemies out there in the audience. Yes, you know who you are *waves*. And I suppose it just as well applies to other players. Let he who is without fault cast the first stone at another.