my goal(s) for defensive oil didn't include making the game more popular ... but your post did get me thinking and perhaps i'll start a new thread along those lines ...

as for defensive oil, from my view, that was about adding a kind of symmetry to the game that would, as you say, increase the levers and knobs available for players while also shifting the oil market and such ... my intuition says that would make a better game, but its just a feeling ...

as a player, i prefer games that require knowledge, experience, creativity and discipline on the part of the individual - an easily mastered game holds no interest for me, regardless of its social aspects.

yet the game must not require a substantial part of my life to be played at a comptitive level

and these are precisely the characteristics that brought me back to earth

(all that aside - i also vote for dumping ghost acres)