I am Of Crazed / Southern Bellz AMA

[Of crazed]

Hello Everyone,

As weird as it is to type, I have been playing NS for about a decade now and have had a lot of fun over the years playing.

My most 'famous' (mostly infamous) nations are Of Crazed: member / leader of the raiding organization The DEN and Southern Bellz: Member and two time WA Delegate of The South Pacific.

I like to think my NS career is pretty interesting, and instead of accepting any interview requests I've had over the years, I figure I'd reach out to the gameplay community directly and see if they have any questions or comments haha.

I was inspired to do this by reading the list of most influential regions, and felt pretty nostalgic because I have had a part in a few regions, and seen a lot of these organizations rise from nothing. I chose to do this now because I do not hold any major positions in the regions I am/ have been involved with so I feel at liberty to speak mostly freely!

So hopefully this follows the rules of gameplay and someone cares

Thanks!

[Kogvuron]

You could have just interviewed yourself

How did you join NS?

[Xoriet]

What was your favorite raid with DEN?

[The Sanghelios Legion]

What is your greatest regret in your NS Career?

[The Serbian Empire]

What made you name your nation Southern Bellz?

[Southern Bellz]

You could have just interviewed yourself

How did you join NS?

I'll post some interesting stories and unsolicited opinions (sounds like my style) about NS in between the questions


I heard about NS in high school where I saw someone in my econ class playing it and asked him what it was. I am pretty sure all he was doing was trolling the UN by making a ton of terrible resolutions about Christmas Trees.

However, this made me check out the game for myself and I wound up being recruited to a small defender region called Abyss. This was my first region and NS actually has another notable member from this region, Northern Chittowa. I got really involved in the region and my original goal was to become delegate. I lost an election and decided to get involved in the army. The army was small so I was having a major part in it rather quickly. We had war games, and were involved in a few unorganized defense attempts. We tried to defend with other orgs and were most snubbed.

To get a better handle on this, we started an intelligence network. We ranked the active raider orgs and sort of ranked them. We then assigned spies to each org with the goal of preventing invasions before they happened.

I ultimately wound up at the DEN where I got trained properly on how NS military gameplay works. I was operating as a spy for a bit, but shortly after I joined the DEN the RLA crashed the forums and shut down the region. The chaos caused by this was really interesting to me. I got a little disillusioned by defending at this time, but I was having more fun raiding which is why I decided to join DEN full time. I made an announcement in Abyss at the time that I would be joining the DEN full time, and a few months later the region mostly went on the other defender regions.

[Of crazed]

What was your favorite raid with DEN?

It is very, very hard to pick one. I had a blast raiding with the DEN and raiding in general. I will post some of my all-time favorite raids. Throughout but will start with my favorite.

Favorite Raids: The Rejected Realms

The reason why this raid is my favorite is because it used a cutting-edge tactic and made a pretty major splash on the game at the time. Defenders dominated the numbers game over raiders. TRR was a long time stronghold of the ADN and the UCRs were considered untouchable at the time. The only ones raided in the sense we operated, was Laz, which had a raid by the DEN and I believe LWU. (Or at least EW was delegate, not really clear haha)

To preface, this raid was towards the tail end of my time as an active raider in the DEN. This was not a typical raid and actually has some backlash that I regret.

At the time, myself and fellow DEN General Meridianland also were involved in the mega UCR Taijitu. The DEN was close allies and we were involved in the government. We ultimately convinced a handful of leadership that their status as a Mega-UCR was not really relevant if they were not impacting gameplay and we proposed a plan to take The Rejected Realms.

Before update, I ordered the DEN to endorse the Taijitu delegate, and then before update the Taijitu delegate ejected almost everyone endorsing him allowing him to become delegate. He flew that Taijitu symbol with DEN blue and gold coloring.

The reaction was almost instant. I know TITO was monitoring what was going on, because the SECOND we updated Grub posted this giant rant about how Taijitu handed the DEN a badge of honor we never deserved and how the keys of TRR could never be taken back. My regret was there was major fallout in Taijitu due to the fact we ejected a ton of their members. This ultimately caused good reform in Taijitu (that I do not take credit for) and led in a shift of Eluvatar towards defender.

I was involved with Taijitu a lot towards the end of my time with DEN and will take any further questions about it. It was a very fun and great region!!

Sidenote: I consider Eluvatar one of the best NS players of all time. I think he’s really nice and has made this game better to play.

[Topid]

If you got the opportunity to smack on current or former NSer and one NSer only, who would you choose?

You could have just interviewed yourself

Joke appreciated greatly.

[Southern Bellz]

What is your greatest regret in your NS Career?

Hello Arby, glad to see this is your first post in the NS forum, you should check it out more often

I don't really have too many regrets in NS, but the obvious one would be letting myself couped by Sedge when I was delegate of TSP. I do think it is a pretty interesting topic.

In the end, the coup was pretty harmless, but it is probably a dark mark on my NS resume. At the time I was TSP delegate for awhile, and while I really enjoyed it, I was extremely busy IRL and did not have the time to be delegate. Anyways, I was couped by what we now know was Sedge by him simply able to endorsement swap. Now, a GCR getting couped is always a big gameplay event, but it was not as common as it seems to be the last few years. Also, it was the first time the TSP coalition government got couped.

Ultimately, an unendorsement campaign and an alliance of outside help was able to put me back in power after a day and change.

Even more interesting is that TSP was a nut house post-coup and people wanted me to do all sorts of things. It was very difficult to return to normal the way we did. And the fact that the core of TSP's government style is intact today is a result of a couple of decisions I made. My first temptation was to fly a DEN flag right after I got back into power, but besides the fact it would have been the most insane couping event in NS, I was a TSPer through and through by this time. However, the bigger temptation came from older members of the government. Some of the plans included total martial law and lock down of the region, including one where Fudge would slingshot as delegate, eject as many high endorsement nations as possible and then have me as delegate again under martial law until we were ready to move on.

It was really at my insistence that the best course of action was to have a great council and have elections ASAP. At this point, a lot of members who are now the most known were just getting involved in the region. (or not at all).

The biggest regret in my NS career also led to what I consider my favorite moments. Political failures tend to follow you in NS, and I have seen people quit over something like this. I really did not want to avoid accountability, so at the time, I never mentioned I was busy, just that it was due to my negligence, I was sorry, and lay out the plan to get the region back. I also stayed involved with TSP, becoming a cabinet member again, and ultimately reelected delegate. Just a comment about how any good player makes mistakes, and how moving on from them often lends itself the most interesting results!

Fun fact: At some point in the coup I sent an embarrassing TG to Sedge asking for RRA help.

[Southern Bellz]

What made you name your nation Southern Bellz?

Well the reason why I changed names was originally I wanted to keep SB stuff and OC stuff as separate as possible. I didn't think the stigma of leading a raider army would serve me well politically in a defender leaning democracy. Little known fact, I entered TSP as Of Crazed and had a name change on the forum to SB. I consider the fact that few knew the link very funny and I consider it one of the worst kept secret.

If you've noticed, I have played the game for about a decade and have only been involved in a handful of regions. I like to play NS mostly involved in one region at a time, with maybe a puppet used in another region for something less involved and more friendly (or spying from time to time).

To finally answer your question, the name Southern Bellz was used because I wanted my nation name to have a strong regional identity. I don't think anyone ever was confused with what region I represented, which is often the case, and something I personally find hilarious sometimes when people play multiple 'roles' that are unclear. The naming tactic is something I originally saw used by DEN General Tommy Franks who used the nation 'The New DEN' at some point.

I don't think if I changed names I would have been able to have the political career I did in TSP, and would suggest it to anyone who wants to try a new region

[Southern Bellz]

If you got the opportunity to smack on current or former NSer and one NSer only, who would you choose?

I'm only aggressive on NS

[Kringalia]

From among all the NSers who have left the game, if you could make one of them come back, who would that be?

[Southern Bellz]

From among all the NSers who have left the game, if you could make one of them come back, who would that be?

From a simple gameplay perspective, DEN General Tommy Franks is one of the most interesting people to every play the game that I have seen. He is very creative on a gameplay sense and is super ambitious.

Besides that just friends I've made who drifted from the game

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

How do you feel about the recent recovery of DEN from it's long-time overlords? Has the puppet used to refound been handed over to you or another old hand from there?

[Cormac A Stark]

What do you feel are one positive way and one negative way that raiding has changed over the years? What are your thoughts on the development of imperialism?

[Shizensky]

Do you know why Meri really nuked my forum? I never was able to get a straight answer out of anybody.

[Venico]

What do you feel are one positive way and one negative way that raiding has changed over the years? What are your thoughts on the development of imperialism?

Kind of building off of this. If there was one thing you could change about raiding (or defending) what would it be?

[Of crazed]

How do you feel about the recent recovery of DEN from it's long-time overlords? Has the puppet used to refound been handed over to you or another old hand from there?

Interesting question. I'm not really sure how I feel. It's good to see it out of TITO hands, but that's about the extent of my feelings.

It's not in my hands, and I have an idea who did it and have not made a major effort to get it. I would honestly like to see it used by someone more than anything.

I honestly feel it added a bit to the DEN brand that we moved homes. At the time I always felt it was extra hilarious, because most defender 'complaints' about raiding that people said were done to us.

Off hand I know the following regions were used as our 'home region' at some point: DEN, DEN II, DEN Military HQ, The DEN Base, DEN Central Command, and DEN Army. I am not sure if The DEN was ever used or just region hawked.

[Of crazed]

Do you know why Meri really nuked my forum? I never was able to get a straight answer out of anybody.

I was not involved. It was done by Meri and Jargongrad and told to the rest of us after the fact. It was a pretty mixed reaction at the time internally, due to the fact that we were forum crashed before. However, as a military organization we always wanted to present a united front.

[Of crazed]

What do you feel are one positive way and one negative way that raiding has changed over the years? What are your thoughts on the development of imperialism?

The two big technical changes, in my mind, are influence and variance raiding.

What a lot of people forget when they complain about influence is that before it, there were rules about ejecting natives that were subjective to the mod who was looking at it. Every raid we did, a defender lodged a complaint to the mods and the mods had a lot to do with the outcome of the raid. It was honestly horrible to deal with. The negative is that gaining enough influence to pull off a serious raid at a serious target requires a talented person's WA for a long time and almost requires bringing in a ton of people to reinforce.

As far as the variance raiding, people raiding today are much better at it that I am. The update has pretty much been mastered. This makes it easier to hit targets but also requires the use of having a lot of organizations reinforce due to the fact that a point needs a WA cushion to properly hold the region. As someone who cares mostly about larger raids, it requires a ton of effort and resources to capture and hold a region that it simply didn't when I was 'in my prime'.

The biggest thing I miss the sense of bravado. The closing of The Old Raiding Club region was really sad in my book because it was nice to brag, boast, and discuss raids with friends. It promoted raider unity along with a competitive factor of wanting to be better than your friends.

Not to play favorites, but in modern times TBH are probably my favorite organization. I have friends there from my active days and their ethos and raiding style is the closest to the DEN. UIAF and TBR also have really done impressive work over the years.

As far as imperialism. It makes a lot more sense in a post-influence NS. It never interested me personally, but it is a type of raiding style that is as legitimate as any other.

[Of crazed]

What do you feel are one positive way and one negative way that raiding has changed over the years? What are your thoughts on the development of imperialism?

Kind of building off of this. If there was one thing you could change about raiding (or defending) what would it be?

Removing founders is something I always wanted. I don't know if it could ever work while being able to take multiple targets an update though.

[Sichuan Pepper]

TITO never held DEN. I do not know who had it before and do not really care.

[The Highlander 1]

I'm in agreement with you on TORC demise and your comments regarding the DEN and TBH of today.

What has been your opinion of Liberation proposals usurping the right of a WA Delegate to password protect a region.

[Of crazed]

I'm in agreement with you on TORC demise and your comments regarding the DEN and TBH of today.

What has been your opinion of Liberation proposals usurping the right of a WA Delegate to password protect a region.

It's not something I like in particular, due to the fact the WA is often a popularity contest, but I do think it does provide an interesting counter-measure to invaders locking down a region. Also, it can have unintended consequences like opening up a region to constant raids.

I mean one of the most interesting things about NS is at it's core it is one of the most simple games ever. What's interesting about it is how people organize to use the mechanics.

[Of crazed]

Favorite Raids: Novus Orsa

I might have a few details off but this is the jist of it.

This was a really bizarre raid because I moved a puppet in to a region because it was founderless and because defender, Avenging Angels, was trying to rebuild in the region. I do not recall if the delegate was inactive, low influence or missing.

I apply to the WA planning to endo swap and post a few questions on the RMB. The next day AA asks if anyone wants to step up to become delegate, and I delightfully inquire. After a bit of back and forth he agrees I'll be delegate tomorrow

The next night, The Black Hawks attempted a raid but missed update.

Now around this time if you missed an update and raiders had a lot of people online sometime they would ask around for dirty puppets from other organizations to try to pile up with people who weren't UD active. The Black Hawks start to pile, and defenders start to pile on AA. I TG AA acting confused and asking if a coup is going on and if he was involved, and eventually convince him to make me the defender point as he explains what is going on.

Approaching update the count is very close. All of the raiding and defending world was involved and only me and 1 other DEN member know that I am the point. The region updates and all of the defenders start boasting a bit on the RMB as I eject the ones I can, fly DEN colors and get TBH and crew to switch their endorsements on me.

It was a super satisfying raid. Very fun.