[OneTimePetes]

Remember the "ambassador" aka Zakalwe? They had boots on the ground and even set up interactions to prevent him getting to friendly/embedded with the "host" culture.

The whole thing was about to blow up anyway, so they brought in the Player of Games, to do it in a style that would prevent any recovery. Gurgeh was not there to defeat the empire, he was there to defeat the whole idea of the game being "holy".

He was the Jesse Owen shipped to hitlers olympics.

[7thaccount]

Yeah, of course the culture could just obliterate the empire militarily. I think only a few civilizations (pre ascension) could hold their own for awhile.

You bring up a good point about shattering the view of the game though.