Here to state more unpopular opinions...
The FS where I am AM is not a Top 10 FS. We're rank somewhere in the 100s, meaning we're not the biggest party in town. We're also only a year old. Before FA started, I brought it up to a vote as to what they want to do--all out or take it easy. They voted to go all out. Once FA started and we discovered the coin badge snafu, I let them revisit their vote. Well, they voted to stay the course on all out anyway, which meant a collective willingness to
chuck all the coins off the side of a skyscraper to make it rain. Alrighty then, off on an adventure we go!
We came in 2nd, which was the highest we've placed, but we even beat our previous personal best, which means our score this FA was higher than 2 FAs ago when they first introduced the new collections system, the easiest FA to date. We didn't come in 2nd because everyone sat out. We really hauled our collective bums to even make one of the Top 25 scores across all the servers!
The coin rains didn't hurt as much knowing everyone voted to shoulder the burden. The third fat finger misclick hurt though because I accidentally sold off my level 10 Witch Hut trying to move some shantytown workshops around. Oops, and ouch! The second fat finger misclick cost me a lvl 33 armory. But I don't even feel that bad about it because I've got myself a bunch of nutcases willing to follow me in the literal Pit of despair and just keep fighting! Plus, it's also easier to laugh it off when I was kinda expecting something like this was bound to happen sooner or later, and it's always a win when you can tell
@samidodamage "I told you!"
All in all, we didn't win. We even lost by a lot (~30K) and all we got to show for it was a small 2x2 building made of colored pixels. Our shelves are bare, our pockets are empty, and I accidentally sold off some pretty big buildings, but our hearts full and we're beaming with optimism! Yeah, 30k is a ridiculous amount of ground to make up and who knows if it's even realistic, but at the end of the day, the group willingly took the path of
MOST resistance in one of the
HARDEST FAs to date and were willing to just roll up their sleeves to try their best. Who knows...maybe it'll take 5 months or 5 years to make up that ground, but this FA proved I've got a bunch of nutters willing to try and find out. They voluntarily put themselves through the ringer and came out the other end smiling. I got a few messages about how it was a fun and well executed FA. That's all an AM can ask for. Definitely don't do FAs for the prizes. You're guaranteed to be disappointed. Some of us are more the journey versus destination types though and I'm hardwired to seek out joy and fun. We found fun even in the most grotesque of FAs.