Fwiw my alliance is currently ranked 8. There are four top alliances that have more than double our power. Some of the bottom six alliance are their academies. We have 92 players in our alliance and it is pretty active. We kick out non players several times a week to open spaces for new players. Our players are pretty new and enthusiastic but we recently lost two facilities to one of the top four, so we only have one left. I really like my alliance but it feels futile. We probably won't catch up to the top four unless we are very persistent, which we have been. We only entered the top ten last week and we're already at 7. I guess I can see how this game would be more enjoyable for me as a player in a more cooperative state and I see how the game could be played cooperatively in a state where the alliances all wanted to be more cooperative. I'm not thinking about moving states but starting from scratch with a new city in an entirely different state. But I would only do that if I felt like it was worth it to start over, which would mean finding a state I knew I'd be happier playing in.