The Rejected Times: Issue LXIV

[The Aligned People]

Hey everyone! I am happy to publish the second-ever quiz sponsored by The Rejected Times! This is intended to see how well you read, or didn't read the article. Once you've submitted your answers, you'll be able to see just how you stack up against other players that have read the Issue. Good luck!

Here is the link to the quiz.

[The Aligned People]

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Issue LIV | October 12, 2019

Media Officer: The Aligned People

Index

"The State of the World Assembly" | COMMENTARY | WRITTEN BY INTERN Vuy
"Pacifica's Shocking Relocation: Topid Nowhere to be Found" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY CORRESPONDENT Marilyn Manson Freaks
"Election Frenzy 2: More Election More Frenzy" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Vuy
"Nukes Galore: a Flashbangback to N-Day 4" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY CORRESPONDENT Marilyn Manson Freaks

"The State of the World Assembly"
COMMENTARY | WRITTEN BY INTERN Vuy

For a few days last week, the World Assembly Security Council was thrown into a frenzy – not because of a controversial resolution, as one might expect, but rather something perfectly uncontroversial, at least in the eyes of WA observers. The event in question: two regional officers, including the Founder/Delegate, of Montrandecs Neighbours, a new region barely a month old, submitted proposals to the Security Council, both of which are poorly written and contain many factual inaccuracies, though both legal. One attempts a self-commend on the region, while the other tries to condemn The Northern Light, a nation owned by the Government of The North Pacific to publish dispatches and run its card program, likely written for revenge due to TNP rejecting embassies with the region, which does not fit its embassy requirements (even though two TNP Delegates tried to give advice after receiving telegrams from the Founder). At first, they were disregarded like any poorly written proposal, a common occurrence in the WA, but to the surprise of observers, they both reached 52 Delegate approvals, just 12 below the 64 required to go to a vote, with still a day or two to spare. The cause was quickly identified – a mass telegram sent to Delegates asking for approvals, with no explanations on the contents of either one. Many highlighted this as an example that proposals can make it to vote simply with the author buying a dollar’s worth of stamps. Fortunately, after some counter-campaigns and pressure from the community, the Founder withdrew “Condemn The Northern Light”, while the other decreased in approvals and failed to reach quorum.

However, the feeling still remains that one can get a proposal to vote simply by “throwing money” (which is not entirely accurate since API and manual telegrams can also be effective in WA campaigning). So is this really the case, and if so, what do we do about it? Firstly, let’s look at the approval counts. On “Commend Montrandecs Neighbours”, the proposal that wasn’t withdrawn, approvals ended up at 42. If a counter-campaign was not run, it would have ended with 59 approvals – just 5 from quorum. This is not taking into account that the campaign telegram was sent more than a day after the submission – if sent immediately, it could very well make quorum. Despite this, I don’t think it’s fair to say that you can really push a poorly written proposal to vote just by sending mass telegrams. As we saw in this case, counter-campaign telegrams are an effective way to prevent these proposals from getting to vote – it's also more cost-effective (as only Delegates who have approved would be telegrammed) than the original campaign, thus creating a balance where countering is easier. Community pressure also works, as we saw in the forum threads. The community can take initiative to prevent such proposals from reaching a vote, even if we are powerless to stop the approvals in the first place.

Some have argued that if the proposal makes it to a vote, it may be beneficial for the author to see it fail, as they may keep submitting poorly-written proposals otherwise. However, this view is somewhat flawed. First, seeing their proposals reach vote could further convince them to submit more, believing they are close to getting one to pass. Alternatively, it could further incense these new authors and convince them that the WA is controlled by a group of “elitists”, leading them to join in efforts that seek to undermine the World Assembly. The best time to talk to a new author is during the drafting stage, and criticism is best given out constructively. It's always worth talking to the author - too many frequent WA observers, they can appear deliberately ignorant, but often, they just need the rules and etiquette explained to them. This way, the voting floor wouldn't become the showground for a needless crucifixion.

Overall, the historically low quorum has made an event like this much more likely, but it's not all bad news. First, the community is still effective in preventing such a proposal from getting to vote. When you see a proposal like this, the first thought should be "can I do a counter-campaign?" rather then "I can't wait to stomp this when it gets to vote". Secondly, the low quorum actually presents an opportunity for aspiring authors who have drafted properly and sought feedback, and if their proposals are not up to par, then the WA remains vigilant in counter-campaigning. So no, you can't buy your way to a vote in the WA, even with the low quorum. The only way that would happen is if the community becomes complacent.

"Pacifica's Shocking Relocation: Topid Nowhere to be Found"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY CORRESPONDENT Marilyn Manson Freaks

It's no surprise that Pacifica has been without an active founder for a tremendously long time. Topid, its founder, has been busy with his life and hasn't bothered to take an active role in his own region. For those who aren't aware, Pacifica, the region founded by Topid in what may seem like eons ago, doesn't exist anymore, at least not by that particular name.

Since its revival last year when scandal rocked the New Pacific Order once more, Pacifica has been forced to brave numerous hardships, all of which Topid was absent or barely around for.

On September 18, 2019, the cabinet of the Pacifica Democratic Union (PDU), including the Vice President, unanimously voted for the residents that make up Pacifica's community to relocate to a freshly-formed region, one with an active founder.

Now known as Thalassia, Pacifica still maintains the hopeful community that it had before the move. Led by Cormactopia Prime, who is commonly referred to as Cormac and is also the President of Pacifica, nations are still moving into Thalassia. The region is slowly growing to the size that Pacifica once was. At this moment, Thalassia sits at 106 nations.

In almost two weeks since the start of Pacifica's relocation, Thalassia has constructed embassies with some notable regions that Pacifica once had diplomatic relations with. Including but not limited to Lazarus, Osiris, Portugal, Hartfelden, Wintreath, and St Abbaddon.

While everything may seem so obvious in the case of Pacifica-Thalassia, there is one crucial detail that the majority of the world is unaware of: the identity of Thalassia's founder. Founded around 51 days ago, Thalassia is a mystery to many of us. Pacifican President Cormac has let us at The Rejected Times and many others know that the identity of Thalassia's founder shall not be disclosed until the planned relocation is completely successful.

Good luck to Pacifica-Thalassia with the final steps of their relocation and rehabilitation.

"Election Frenzy 2: More Election More Frenzy"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Vuy

Ah, election season is upon us once again…by which I mean of course it’s just another day in NS, because there’s always an election somewhere. We can’t cover all of them (we don’t even know all of them), so this time we’re just going with The Rejected Realms’ Officer Election (obviously), The North Pacific’s General Election, and The East Pacific’s Delegate Election.

Let’s start at home first – TRR had its most recent Officer Election in August, and it was largely uneventful. Six candidates ran, five of whom posted a platform. Sarah, the incumbent Culture Officer, for the position of Outreach, pledging to reach out more to people on the Gameside, though promised to hold a theme region party if made Culture Officer again. Bormiar, an incumbent Deputy Outreach Officer, also targeted this, emphasising a more personal touch and envisioning a mentorship program, with a side note of promoting trading cards as incentives, an area he’s knowledgeable on. United Massachusetts, a well-known World Assembly author and former WA Minister of The East Pacific is a newcomer to TRR, but hoped to use his experience to expand TRR’s presence in the WA, including publishing vote recommendations, building partnerships, and promoting endorsements, targeting the Outreach position as well. However, he also faced the most questions due to the scale of the plan.

Deadeye Jack, the incumbent Foreign Affairs Officer, pledged to continue his previous work, with a focus on potentially setting up a WA bloc with other regions, and closer relations to The North Pacific, though he faced some questions on the lack of response to events in The East Pacific. The Aligned People, the incumbent Media Officer, ran for re-election with a platform of expanding Rejected Radio to include press briefings, attracting more listeners to live recordings and interviews, as well as continuing quizzes for each issue and encouraging more feedback among writers. Only Harenhime, better known elsewhere as Ever-Wandering Souls of The Black Hawks, and a former candidate for Delegate.

Someone had to miss out, and unfortunately UM didn’t gain enough support for his ambitious WA plan. The elected Officers were Sarah, reassigned to Culture, Deadeye Jack, reassigned to Foreign Affairs, The Aligned People, reassigned to Media, and Bormiar, assigned to Outreach. UM was taken in as a Deputy Outreach Officer to focus on WA matters, though was replaced recently due to inactivity.

Further from home, TNP held its General Election a month later, where the positions for Delegate, Vice Delegate, Speaker and Attorney General were all up for grabs as all incumbents decided not to stand. Delegate El Fiji Grande declined to run, citing real-life reasons, while others wanted to give new players an opportunity. Long-time TNPer and three-time former Delegate McMasterdonia accepted his nomination and declared his campaign for Delegate early on, with a very substantial platform and a clear aim:
“I am running to be the WA Delegate for all TNPers. For the new and the old. For the gameplayers and the roleplayers. So we may work together in breaking down barriers in international diplomacy and discovering new opportunities for the next chapter in The North Pacific’s story.”
McM’s plans include creating a Press Secretary position to issue public Press Releases on Government activity and make the public more informed, as well as promoting the successes of government, especially in NPA (North Pacific Army) operations, and successes of WALL (World Assembly Legislative League). He also proposed working with the Speaker to appoint committees in the Regional Assembly, similar to real-world legislative committees, which would “ask questions, seek further clarification, and engage with the content of [ministerial] reports”. Other proposals include publishing more surveys and censuses on-site to assess public opinion, developing a World Factbook with information on our embassy regions, using technology infrastructure such as scripts to support regional development in allies, working cross-department with the Ministry Communications to present seminars and lectures from experienced players, increasing accessibility and visibility of WALL and expanding the organisation to other regions, and hosting new and old cultural like the Lennarts and an event with 10000 Islands.

Minister of Defence Bobberino, who has ran several times previously as a joke candidate, also accepted a nomination shortly after, though he announced that he would be running on a serious platform. He was regarded as a possible strong second choice, but unlikely to win. Two other candidates, Nessuno, currently Lead Gameside Advocate, and Bormiar, announced joke candidacies. For the first time in a few years, a debate was held, hosted by Greitbart, a satirical news publication, though it was a serious debate moderated professionally by Syrixia and Highton. The debate was largely between McMasterdonia and Bobberino, the two serious candidates. McMasterdonia argued that he had the most comprehensive plan for the region going forward, while Bob emphasised his energy as something that the region needs at the moment. However, Bob had not yet put out a platform at that time, which meant that he did not have much concrete proposals to discuss. Ultimately, the platform that Bob did put out was short and vague compared to McMasterdonia’s – the only proposals of note are a personal focus on Outreach (for which he wrote a TNL article that mentioned his efforts in TRR), and a defence-themed festival (which may or may not be named after himself).

The Delegate Election, however, was marked by a controversy and a court case for the second time in a row, this time originating with candidate Bobberino’s decision to ping everyone in the NPA Discord server, with a message to vote for him or get banned. Although clearly intended as a joke, NPA members expressed disapproval and it was removed shortly after by an NPA General. Delegate El Fiji Grande made the decision to file a request for indictment a few days later on the charge of Gross Misconduct (violation of Oath of Office), stating he had considered firing Bob but is instead bringing this case to court for Bob to make his own case on whether or not he has broken the law. Bob pleaded guilty and resigned as Minister of Defence. Despite this, he came a distant second place in the election, receiving 14 votes to McMasterdonia’s 62. Bob was sentenced after the election to a suspension of voting rights for 5 months, a tougher sentence than both the prosecution and the defence recommended, as the Justices believed he didn’t express remorse for his actions by insisting it was a joke. Many citizens, including his opponent McMasterdonia, thought the sentence was too harsh, and Bob has stated that he will appeal.

The Vice Delegate election was much more uneventful, with only one candidate Artemis, the incumbent Speaker and a member of the Security Council that manages endorsements and security (which the Vice Delegate is head of). He ran on a platform of performing the fundamentals of the office well and continuing the efforts of Vice Delegate Sil Dorsett. As he was the only candidate, he was elected unanimously (bar the abstentions).

The Speaker election turned out to be the closest race the region has seen in a while. Darcania was the first to put up a campaign thread, highlighting simply his experience as Speaker in the past with an almost-unanimous election, and promising to continue the work of Speaker Artemis. However, he withdrew his candidacy soon after, citing real-life reasons. This left two candidates – Dreadton, a former Deputy Speaker and incumbent Justice, widely speculated as a potential Speaker, campaigned on his experience in the Speaker’s Office and proposed a program to help with bill writing. Gorundu’s campaignaimed to persuade voters that although he does not have the experience in the Speaker’s Office, he has shown his reliability in the positions he hold, and highlights a few ways he plans to improve and innovate in the Speaker’s Office, including improving RA Highlights (a monthly article highlighting the Regional Assembly’s activity) and a “know your laws” program to educate citizens and residents on TNP laws and aims to improve participation in the RA. Due to the relative newcomer status of both candidates, many voters chose to abstain, and Gorundu was narrowly elected, with 35 votes to Dreadton’s 32.

The Attorney General election also proved rather competitive. We have two serious candidates in the mix – Goyanes, former AG and current RP moderator, and Lady Raven Wing, perennial (joke) candidate and current Deputy Minister of WA Affairs, aka Lord Dominator – as well as Canton/John Laurens, mystery candidate with no platform. Both serious candidates pledged to be active and effective if a situation arises that requires the Attorney General’s attention, and both demonstrated their legal competence by answering several questions that voters posed. Of course, it would be remiss not to mention that there have long been debates on whether the position should be abolished due to a general lack of court cases, and replace it with prosecutors applied on a case-by-case basis. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the two candidates, as Goyanes firmly believes in the necessity of keeping an independent prosecutor, while Lady Raven Wing is leaning for abolishing the office. Goyanes was elected with 45 votes to Lady Raven Wing’s 25 and Canton’s 4, likely due to his experience in the office.

We now move on to The East Pacific, where the Delegate Election is underway right now with a 2-week voting period. The field includes three major candidates – Davelands, former TWP Delegate and current Minister of Regional Affairs and Provost of the Magisterium (presiding officer of the legislature); Marrabuk, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Serge/Libertanny, Magister (member of the legislature) and former Minister under the Delegacy of Yuno – one minor candidate, Algerstonia, an RMBer, and one joke candidate.

Davelands’ initial campaign focussed much on his experience, with only a few broad promises as to what he would do as Delegate. After some probing questions, his campaign appears to focus on increasing activity in the region through similar methods to what he has done as Minister of Regional Affairs, cleaning up the complex laws of the region, creating a greater presence in the Gameplay community, communicating more with allies, and working well with roleplayers that make up a large part of TEP’s community. Several questions were asked on the current inactivity of the legislative and executive branches, both of which he is part of. A controversy also emerged on Davelands’ opposition a resolution to commend Xoriet, a former Delegate, during his time in TWP, drawing questions on how he would decide to vote as Delegate, and some angry words from current Delegate Fedele, who seemed to have taken the job of answering for Davelands. Additionally, Vizier and former Delegate Bachtendekuppen filed a complaint to the Conclave (judiciary) on whether Davelands has violated any electioneering rules, due to a telegram sent by Davelands to citizens, which is traditionally seen as against the rules. Davelands apologized for the incident, but meanwhile, filed his own complaint, claiming there have been "unprecedented attacks" against him, specifically related to him exceeding the Endocap, a violation of TEP law, and asked for the election to be re-done. Incidents cited by him include a motion for removal as Provost by East Malaysia, and his ejection from the region by Todd McCloud, who was authorized to do so by Fedele (who supported his candidacy). In response, many have challenged Daveland's presentation of events (in which he says he made efforts to reduce his endorsements), and cited him mass endotarting after being notified about exceeding the limit. The case is yet to be decided.

Marrabuk campaigned for better unity in the region. His notable proposals include establishing an RMB Ministry to communicate with RMBers and better moderate the RMB, reorganising executive staff and creating an organisational chart for all to see, and a staunch neutrality in foreign policy. He also emphasised his credentials as a team player during his time as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and how he organised the ministry well.

Libertanny’s campaign is the most detailed of all, with several large reforms and an overall theme that is best summed up by his slogan: “A Region By People & For People”. Notably, he proposes an large change in the region’s theme and identity by returning to the historical Freemasonry Era with similar symbolism to those of the era. His other proposal details include exploring possible new allies, consolidating relationships with several specific allies, raising or removing the endorsement cap, reorganising in-game regional officers, bringing back the Ministry of Information (which he had headed previously), and a general focus on activity in the executive, including weekly roll-calls for executive staff. Many of his reforms also focus on democratic change, including better guarantee of freedom of speech, letting WA residents decide the Delegate’s vote on resolutions, trialling the election of ministers, and electing a “Resident’s Delegate”, a regional officer whose responsibility is to act as a liaison between residents and the government, and advocate for residents’ rights.

The candidates also shared several elements of their platforms. All three major candidates agreed that the EPSA (TEP’s military) needs to be made more active through training operations and should conduct joint operations with other militaries, though disagreed on what alignment the EPSA should take – Davelands believes the EPSA should both raid and defend, Marrabuk believes the EPSA should only raid fascist regions, while Libertanny believes it should be the decision of the people, but that supporting allies is the most important part. The three candidates also believed in the importance of working with allies and developing better relationships – Davelands and Marrabuk both expressed interest in fixing the relationship with Osiris, and Libertanny wants to fix the relationship with 10000 Islands and strengthen ties with TSP, TRR and the NPO. The candidates also agreed on ending the controversial Marsupial purges, as they believe it has taken away potential new active players and tarnished the region’s image. Libertanny and Marrabuk both proposed appointing a Vice Delegate as second-in-command as well as appointing new faces to the cabinet, while Davelands did not touch on either. Libertanny and Davelands did agree on the direction of the WA Ministry – specifically that the ministry should focus more on educating residents about the WA and helping future authors.

As of the writing of this article, voting has concluded, and an unofficial vote count based on the voting thread shows Marrabuk has won after second preferences are counted. It's everyone's hope that a smooth transition will occur, given the turbulent election as well as other events in the region.

"Nukes Galore: a Flashbangback to N-Day 4"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY CORRESPONDENT Marilyn Manson Freaks

After N-Day's creation more than 2 and a half years ago, the event has been hailed as a holiday of some sort by the world. Every year, thousands of nations from all walks of life participate. This cannot be said about most of NationStates' other features, obviously excluding Z-Day.

NationStates' first example of nuclear war, AKA N-Day 1, was won by Augustin Alliance with a score of 45,938 points. This year, a new challenger (and winner) has entered the ring. At a colossal 332,564 points, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Hell's faction, absolutely dominated this year's atomic event.

Led by Altmoras, the faction's Horseman of War, Horsemen of the Apocalypse made N-Day history by being the largest faction ever, the only winning faction to have 0 radiation, and the faction to ever have such a high score. In fact, the Horsemen's score was nearly double of what UPPERCUT, last year's winning faction, scored. Insane, right?

UPPERCUT, now known as UPPERCUTS, surely thought so. In fact, they weren't pleased at all. However, they remained cordial and demonstrated good sportsmanship, something we all need to show at times, regardless of who wins or loses.

Shortly after N-Day's conclusion, Altmoras released a dispatch thanking the leaders of Horsemen of the Apocalypse, his dispatch can be read here.

Lastly, it simply does not matter if you survived the treacherous nuclear winter that was this year's N-Day, or if you exploded in the inferno of it all. The only thing that matters is if you had fun (hopefully you did). Cheers to UPPERCUTS, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the mods, and everyone else involved in N-Day. See you next one!

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

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[Great Algerstonia]

So you focus a lot on the three major campaigners but give literally no attention other then recognition of me running for delegate itself?

[Lord Dominator]

So you focus a lot on the three major campaigners but give literally no attention other then recognition of me running for delegate itself?

Presumably they did think you had much of a chance at all.

[Numero Capitan]

Great issue! Thanks for sharing

[Bormiar]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LV | Jan 20, 2020

Media Officer: Bormiar

Index

"Summarized: Confederation of Corrupt Dictators Colluded Coup d’Etat of The North Pacific" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar
"Escadian Battleship Update and Expansion" | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Glacikaldr
"Fun with Charts: A Look At TRR's RMB In 2019" | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY INTERN The Pharcyde
"NationStates Admins Interested in Developing Card Infrastructure" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

"Summarized: Confederation of Corrupt Dictators Colluded Coup d’Etat of The North Pacific"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

“You, citizens of the North Pacific, live under an administration by the few, for the few. A small oligarchy manages your governmental agencies, trading the delegacy and high-power positions amongst themselves.”

- Statement from Ikea Rike attempting to justify the coup plots against the North Pacific; found in “On the Accusations Against Me”

On January 19th, 2020, the North Pacific’s delegate McMasterdonia presented a shocking report detailing unsavory actions known as “Operation 84” the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators (CCD) have allegedly taken action against the sovereignty of the North Pacific and its legitimate democracy. The co-conspirators involved enthusiastically opted for a simplistic approach to couping a structured, secure democracy in convincing themselves that gradually making their way through the ranks to achieve the delegacy would be a reliable plan. The most notable colluders in this unsophisticated plot are Jocospor, the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators’ founder; Castelia (as Artemizistan), the Head of CCD’s Foreign Office and member of its Supreme Council; Ikea Rike, an actor who is seemingly otherwise unimportant in the CCD; and United Massachusetts (UM), a prominent GA author and former Minister in the East Pacific, but it can be reasonably assumed that the plot is mainly the brainchild of Jocospor, judging by The North Pacific’s evidentiary report, which summarizes, “Jocospor suggests the movement will be populist but not militant”. While Castelia and Ikea Rike are members of CCD who would be expected to directly and willingly involve themselves in such affairs as these, United Massachusetts acts as a foreign consultant in the early developments of the plot, and is not publicly allied with CCD.

December 31, 2018. At the behest of Jocospor, Castelia disguised themselves under the pseudonym Artemizistan, joined the North Pacific, and successfully became a citizen - nothing more. Jocospor recruited United Massachusetts, an evangelical delegate of Right to Life and currently emulating the disciple Judas, to counsel Castelia in consolidating power in the North Pacific. They informed their fellow collaborators of the “Catholic minority” in TNP that could be influence by United Massachusetts and used to overthrow the rightful government, but that said Catholic minority cannot know they are being influenced. UM later claims to have an unnamed informant within the North Pacific who would support the coup, but does not detail the role the informant has. UM, who was acclaimed to be an expert, later erroneously states that the Vice Delegate check for North Pacific citizenship reviews an applicants IP, which considerably lowers their credibility. With “Operation 84” remaining stagnant and inconsequential, UM slips away and is later removed from the relevant discord channel, and Castelia resigns from their positions as a spy due to “real life reasons”. It is now already April 21, 2019, nearly 4 months since Operation 84’s enthusiastic but unpromising inception, and nothing has happened.

Jocospor recruits Ikea Rike, who calls themselves “The Inquisitor”. Ikea Rike had already been determined to be a clear associate of CCD, as they had requested an embassy between CCD and TNP the day before being brought into operation 84 (April 21, 2019), but they were chosen for the operation anyways and used their main. The Inquisitor tarts in TNP, having a mediocre 346 endorsements before being their removal from TNP, and applies for citizenship. Little else happens, but Castelia and Ikea Rike are instructed to flatter Pallaith sycophantically, as - presumably in Jocospor’s eyes - Pallaith is an egomaniac. At this point, and to Jocospor’s great pleasure, Ikea Rike makes a subversive breakthrough and infiltrates the North Pacific’s roleplay map, even being granted their own Ikea store to launder money and serve as a base of operations. The Chuck, an ex-CCD discord admin with no real governmental or community affiliations or former affiliations with CCD, is likely the whistleblower of these events, and it has been compiled by the government of the North Pacific in a statement here.

This event has caused major uproar against the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators, as well as a great deal of mocking at what detractors describe to be unsophisticated and inconsequential coup attempt. Several prominent regions have since stated agreement with the North Pacific’s reaction to the attempted subversion, with The East Pacific notably condemning United Massachusetts’ actions against The North Pacific, despite UM being their former World Assembly Minister. In response to fervent anger at their plotting and lack of informing of CCD’s actions, they stated, “In my defence, however, I will note that I had not seen any direct evidence at the time that CCD harboured fascists, despite asking various people for it many times”. Additional controversy comes from CCDers arguing that every part of the attempted coup was IC, to which many players cited Jocospor calling Kuriko an idiot and juvenile in contradiction. While the forums and dispatches are mainly dominated by anti-CCD statements, Ikea Rike issued “On the Accusations Against Me”, which confesses to all charges brought against CCD, agrees that the operation was “sloppy”, and apologizes to the TNPers which it describes as good. But it simultaneously attempts to justify destroying the North Pacific’s legitimate government on the basis of negligence in McMasterdonia and their staff’s choice to not take action against Ikea Rike until recently, when they received substantial evidence, and additional states, “You, citizens of the North Pacific, live under an administration by the few, for the few. A small oligarchy manages your governmental agencies, trading the delegacy and high-power positions amongst themselves. The institutions meant to bring nations involved in your ‘democracy’ are dramatically underused, and are, too, dominated by long-existing nations. If democracy is to be the rule by the people, then why should the people not be trusted to rule unless it is done under the management of a ruling caste” [sic]. While Jocospor also gave a vague and unsubstantial statement on the recent events, a panicked announcement from Jocospor in CCD’s discord (shown below) suggests fear of a spy in CCD’s ranks. When asked by TRT journalists to describe their intentions in leaking CCD documents and their general impression of it, whistleblower The Chuck expresses, “My reasons for revealing the two sleepers in TNP are long and convoluted. They involve an OOC debacle involving me that predates my time on Nationstates and many other factors. All in all, my actions are my own but if there's any advice I can offer to those who seek to learn more about the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators, it is this. 'Sciencia Est Potentia,' Knowledge is Power. Continue to follow the path to truth in regards to the realities of the CCD”.

After this, it seems unlikely that CCD will have any chance of being opened up to in gameplay anymore, and attempts at repealing its liberation will likely be completely abandoned. United Massachusetts, Castelia, Ikea Rike, and Jocospor will also likely be shunned from many regional communities on account of being dangerous to regional security. All in all, this event detrimented many nations and regions for extremely little.

"Escadian Battleship Update and Expansion"
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Glacikaldr

NationStates' very own Escadian Battleship, first tested in 2018, quickly became infamous for taking around a couple of hours at best to play. The Classic update below intends to speed up the start of the game, complementing the following launch of a Werewolf-themed Expansion!

Classic

The original way to play, first released through The Rejected Times in May 2018 for the Tolkien Fellowship Festival; now with minor quality-of-life improvements!



Grid Size:
A 6x4 grid is recommended for this gamemode. Further, using Google Sheets or equivalent software is also recommended to the BM (battleship master; our spin on DM, or dungeon master) to help speed up the game.

Click here to see a blank grid:

Teams:
Classic divides 2-8 players into 2 teams, setting up on either side of the grid in designated deployment zones as seen above. There are four ships per team Classed from 1 to 4, with players controlling one or more, however, each team also nominates a Team Leader at the start of the match or round who will confirm movements to the BM in private following discussion. In the case where teamwork dissolves and coordination is not achieved, the player controlling a ship gets the final say.

Click here for an example of how deployment may look in Classic; please note, deployment is hidden from opposing teams:

Movement:
Occurring simultaneously, movement is also hidden from opposing teams. All ships may move up to one space per round either vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The BM may choose to indicate how long each Team Leader has to confirm their team’s moves per round at their discretion.

Combat:
Combat is initiated through collisions, called engagements, and is resolved following all movements after each round. Higher Class ships sink lower Class ships i.e. 3 sinks 2 upon collision. There are two exceptions to this rule: 1) 1 Class ships sink 4 Class ships upon collision, visualised as a submarine attack on an aircraft carrier; and 2) ships of the same Class bounce back, or revert to their previous positions before the movement phase. In the case where an enemy ship is blocking a bounce for either side, both ships of the same Class now occupying the same grid square are sunk instead.

Here is a recent example of a 2-player match of Classic prior to the deployment zone changes for reference to these combat rules: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1299062.

Fog-of-war:
While Classic has a fog-of-war between the opposing teams as default, this is lifted with sustained periods of no combat. Following the first engagement, if no combat is initiated for the following three rounds, all ship locations become visible to all teams. This visibility does not expose a ship’s Class unless an additional two rounds of no combat passes.

Win Conditions:
In this gamemode, both teams win by defeating or routing all enemy ships. Teams are forced to route if they have no remaining way to win. Similarly, the BM must declare a draw if neither team has a way of winning.

Werewolf Expansion

Building upon Classic rules, the Werewolf Expansion offers a roleplay-friendly and more strategic experience!



Grid Size:
A 7x7 grid is recommended for this gamemode. For this reason, BMs are especially advised to use Google Sheets or equivalent software to help speed up the game.

Click here to see a blank grid:

Teams:
The Werewolf Expansion divides 3-9 players into 2 major teams and one solo player, setting up in specific deployment zones as seen above. The teams are modelled after a Foolish gamemode of Werewolf: the red Werewolf Team has three Class 3 ships and one Class 1 ship; the green Villager (and Seer) Team has three Class 2 ships and one Class 4 (Seer) ship; and, the pink Foolish Player who captains one Class 1 ship. Yet, the teams operate under the same Team Leader rules as in Classic.

Click here for an example of how deployment may look in the Werewolf Expansion; please note, deployment is hidden from opposing teams:

Movement:
Likewise, movement works the same as in Classic.

Combat:
The only additional combat rule in the Werewolf Expansion is the Seer’s passive ‘radar’ ability. All ships that end their movement phase in a grid square next to the S4 ship will be visible, including that ship’s Class, to the Villager Team. While this is helpful against the Werewolf Team, the Foolish Player’s Class 1 ship will appear as a Werewolf Class 3 ship to this passive ability.

Fog-of-war:
Hidden movements, aside from the Seer’s passive ability, remain for the entirety of the match regardless of the frequency of engagements.

Win Conditions:
All three teams have separate win conditions: the Werewolf Team wins by sinking or routing the Villager Team; the Villager Team wins by avoiding engagements for five rounds in a row following the first engagement; the Foolish Player wins by sinking the Villager Team’s Class 4 ship and both major teams lose at this time as well. Please note, forced routing conditions remain the same as in Classic.

Lastly, I have two final notes to add for this new expansion: 1) the Werewolf and Villager Teams might end up working together to sink the Foolish Player, such as by comparing the information seen by the Seer’s passive ability, but it may also be in the Werewolf Team’s best interests to lie at opportune moments during this time; and, 2) I will personally give you bonus kudos if you refer to S4 as Guy throughout the entirety of a match if I’m BM, and I encourage others to do the same.

"Fun with Charts: A Look At TRR's RMB In 2019"
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY INTERN The Pharcyde

I, The Pharcyde, love charts.

To celebrate the New Year, I made several visualizations summarizing The Rejected Realm's RMB activity during 2019. My charts represent data from posts on TRR's RMB between January 1st, 2019 and December 31st, 2019, excluding posts that were suppressed or deleted posts. This column couples my charts with a short commentary about each.

Chart 1. Two Extremes: Z-Day and the Summer Lull

This chart helps puts Z-Day's popularity and the dreaded "summer lull" into perspective. Z-Day was the most active day of the year on the RMB, by a considerable margin, in terms of total posts. Additionally, more unique players posted on the RMB on Z-Day than on any other day of the year. 87 unique posters combined for 360 posts. In contrast, at the very end of the summer — September 7th, specifically — only six posts were made on the RMB. Dead I Jack, Thepeopl, Emenamai, Pandaland MMIXX, and Yy4u from The West Pacific were the brave souls responsible for these posts. May [violet]'s light bless them in 2020.

Chart 2. Ruby Tuesdays

This might come as a surprise, but the weekends were statistically the least active time on The Rejected Realm's RMB last year. If you wanted to find someone to chat with, 10 o'clock on a Tuesday morning would've been your best time to try doing so: 10-11am on Tuesday was by far the most popular hour for posting activity on The Rejected Realms' RMB in 2019. In fact, 10 o'clock was the most active hour overall. Despite Tuesday having claim to the most active hour, however, more posts were made on Thursdays than on Tuesdays. With that said, it's worth recalling that Z-Day fell on a Thursday this year. So, organically speaking, Tuesday was likely TRR's most active day.

Click for full size.

Chart 3. The Perks of Citizenship

Citizens and non-citizens exhibited dissimilar behavior on the regional message board throughout 2019: citizens tended to post more frequently, make longer posts, and obtain more likes per post. Citizenship, post length, and post frequency were all positively correlated with the average amount of likes a poster received on their posts.

Click for full size. Correction: Toerana and South Acren are citizens on different nations.

Chart 4. The Amazing Race

This chart, which shows the cumulative number of posts on TRR's RMB made by nations throughout the year, was made hours before Aandruzognivia narrowly slid ahead of Yahaba to claim the crown for Post King of 2019. If you posted on TRR's RMB last year, you can find yourself on this chart; but if you didn't make many posts, you might just have to squint to locate yourself.

Click for full size.

"NationStates Admins Interested in Developing Card Infrastructure"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

Following the extremely successful Season 1 of NationStates Trading Cards, Max Barry has released a second season which has already been linked to a new spur of activity, among traders and even admins. This current season has had several interesting changes, including a sleek reformatting of a card’s appearance, an intriguing Cards Guild from The North Pacific hosting card-related events, several new legendary cards, and - the feature of this article - an unprecedented level of communication between players and admins.

On November 28 2019, the admins covertly initiated a snapshot to find the rarity of every nation, which were displayed for a brief few minutes before disappearing. Subsequently, an enigmatic Discord channel in the Cards Server called #bug-reports was created, presumably by NationStates game moderator and server admin Frisbeeteria, and Testlandia, who is assumed to be [violet], joined the server (Disclaimer: Don’t join the server just to ask Testlandia for irrelevant things or talk to them; that’s annoying and will get you removed). Based on Frisbeeteria’s unphased tone in the unpredictable arrival of NationStates’ most mysterious administrator, it can be reasonably assumed that Frisbeeteria, trusting in his own control over the server, endorsed Discord communication and invited Testlandia.

Testlandia then began discussing features with active card traders, such as an “inscription feature”, in which, prior to the release of spawnable S2 cards, nations could change the custom fields used in cards, like the flag, motto, and pretitle, causing hilarious meta references like Ransium changing his full nation name to “the game mod, prolific issue editor and author, prolific WA author in both the GA and SC, long time delegate of Forest, commended nation, surely I’m worth a few more bank of Ransium”. This beloved addition, along with a popularly-requested “Add to Collection” button on individual card pages and a feature to filter out certain card rarities in the auction page, quickly made the #bug-reports channel one of the best things to happen to cards. Renaissancistic People (r3n), the spearhead of the North Pacific’s Card programs such as the Card Lottery and many tools such as the North Pacific Card Queries, has made several requests such as this one in the past for a cards API to make requests on information about decks, collections, and individual cards. Another main feature recently added is the ability to gift cards. This could allow for more regions to have gifting programs for incentivized outreach, and new player-made sub-games, such as a gambling idea several players attempted to implement but couldn’t do to the tediousness of doing it manually.

These new features in cards have exemplified a surge in current activity among [violet] and potentially the rest of the NationStates administration. [Violet] has modernized the site by increasing the maximum resolution quality in flags and promising to update the default flags, finally provided feedback on Koth's "Faction Gameplay" proposal, and even created a foreseeably beneficial dispatch creation, editing, and removal portion of the API. Additionally, they have maintained a provable awareness of the going-ons in the technical forum beyond just the inappropriate advertising thread. With these very recent contrivings, it can be expected that we’ll have more in the future; something to look forward to.

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Discuss this Issue over on the NationStates forum here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

The Times gives our thanks for the ongoing support from our Subscribers:
Glacikaldr, Unibot III, Fauxia, Marilyn Manson Freaks, NOrTh pAcIfiC spY, Eseral, Libetarian Republics, Nintendo Switch Parental Controls, Morover, Outboundstagnate, Trabardia, North Prarie, Dixadoing, All Wild Things, Asdersland, Windchia, Renegalle, Carropia, Green Africa, Hydra dragon, Jar Watinnree, Ctesiphonis, Zip, Hindu Mahasabha, Zealandiana, Bormiar, Crazybloxian Empire, Abbots, democratic republic of unified states, Sensorland, Frattastan IV, Meggland, Babme Merrourativa, Free City of Rigia, Carstantinopipal, Doge Land, The logictalian union

[Th Empire of Wymondham]

Good to see another great issue from TRT!

[McMasterdonia]

Nice job Bormiar and TRT!

[Your Imaginary Friend]

I love the charts. <3 Really impressive Pharcyde!

[Bormiar]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LVI | March 8, 2020

Media Officer: Bormiar

Index

"Growth on the Table: Thalassia Since the Move" | OPINION PIECE | WRITTEN BY INTERN Toerana
"The East Pacific’s Recent Delegacy Election" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar
"Somyrion Wins the Delegate Elections in the South Pacific" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia
"Constipation in the Security Council" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar
"Brief Interview on Reddit Boom with Contemporary Home Affairs Minister Konar and his Deputy Bobberino" | INTERVIEW | INTERVIEWED BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

"Growth on the Table: Thalassia Since the Move"
OPINION PIECE | WRITTEN BY INTERN Toerana

The Thalassian community, formerly located in Pacifica, has historically had a plethora of issues, at least until the community transitioned to Thalassia earlier this year. Since then, the Thalassian community has been able to flourish, having only a few incidents within the region from the move, a sharp change from their time in Pacifica. But, is it all good times ahead?

The regional population has slowly been in decline, having fallen from their 307 nation high in December down to as low as 231, before climbing back up and sustaining around 265 residents. This is a far cry from the numbers seen in Pacifica, with Pacifica’s population peaking at nearly 700 nations, around May of 2019, seeing around 340 just before the community’s move.

The January Elections

Thalassia is a democratic region, a key belief enshrined in its constitution. In the January Prime Minister Elections, there was one key concern on the minds of the voters: Recruitment. Four Candidates chose to run in the election:

• Arenado
• Wiskawga
• Toerana
• Ashurg

However, despite the issue of Recruitment being at the forefront of the election, and in the minds of many of the voters, only Arenado proposed a solution to the dilemma that was a point of concern for many Thalassian voters, and the basis of this article.

NSToday, having an unconventional partnership with the Thalassian government to preside over the election, interviewed the three “primary” candidates of Arenado (the favourite to win) Wiskawga and Toerana. The public could submit questions, and were polled on how they wished to vote. To summarise the polls, Arenado took the lead with 54% of the expected vote, followed by Wiskawga at 27% of the vote, and Toerana with 18% of the expected vote. You can see the full NSToday breakdown here. The polls were almost exactly correct, just slightly differing from the actual result.

Turbulence Ahead

On the 25th January, a sudden resignation was announced by President Rockiberg, citing a “very unpleasant scuttle” with the region’s founder, and incumbent Minister of Administrative Affairs. The role of President is of extreme importance to Thalassia, as it primarily includes Security, managing referendums and controlling the region's World Assembly Delegacy. Following this event, allegations of bullying against the former President came to light as the Vice President, Czech Germania, took up the helm as interim President, until an election was scheduled by the Prime Minister. Upon questioning, Liruslau, former MoC and current VP said he “didn’t know or experience any of what he is alleged to have been doing” during their term as Minister of Culture. We were unable to contact Rockiberg, as he has vanished from all NationStates related discord servers, and is incommunicado.

Another sign of potential troubles ahead occured on the 9th of February, when 7 members of the active roleplay community in Thalassia were banned for an indefinite amount of time, while being subject to appeal on the 9th of March. However, potentially worrying for the region, a number of those banned have formed a new region post their bannings, with one banned roleplayer stating on the RMB, “I'm kicking back and watching Thalassia kill itself by banning everyone that RP'ed”. Long term members of the community may see reminiscence with the incident that spurred the creation of “The Levellers,” a region with a poor reputation. Only time will tell what occurs in “Tidewater.” Other active members of the community that were banned have said that they believe rules should be loosened in relation to offsite property, given the nature of the discord. With former Minister of Security and one of the banned players Wiskawga saying, “I think it should be amended to say that the creation of any offsite platform not authorized by the Constitution is illegal. And regarding promotion, yes, I think it'd be great to have a set definition.” When asked if they had been contacted by the Thalassian government prior to the ban, Yaldian Territories stated, “sort of, arenado [The Prime Minister] asked me questions about the server but he told me not to tell anybody about them. I was not told to take it down however. He did say that it is illegal by the constitution.”

A Bright light at the end of the tunnel

Despite the hiccups that have occured over the past month in Thalassia, the future for the region looks bright with Minister of Culture Czech Germania stating, “a revamp of our stats system and our rewards system,” programs designed to reward the active roleplaying community of Thalassia, despite the recent bannings.

We asked some long term members and government officials where they think Thalassia will go next, with former Prime Minister Badivermeraed stating, “I think it will be focusing on recruitment, as well as continuing foriegn outreach and setting a standard for the government.” While founder Sho said when asked about what she believes will be Thalassia’s greatest challenge in the future, “Honestly? I think our greatest challenge will be trying to find a cohesive identity. I’m proud of how open minded our region is in terms of personal (ooc)/national (ic) identity, but I do think it occasionally puts people at a loss for what our collective goals should be. I’m hoping that the coming administrations will really work on giving our citizens the voice to shape our region into the home that we desire.”

Despite the banning of a large number of the roleplay community, plunging the Regional Message Board into silence, the Prime Minister has unveiled a new roleplay program to stimulate activity, and it has largely worked, with the RMB seeing renewed activity, despite it not being roleplay related. The roleplay community may have been shattered, but the region has come out of it’s turbulent hiccup stronger, and ready to face the challenges that lay ahead.

"The East Pacific's Recent Delegacy Election"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

The East Pacific has been in a rather tumultuous position recently. After Fedele attempted to coup the region, it was forced to revive itself and amend its security. On top of the new Concordat, developments under Marrabuk’s delegacy, especially those passed by Todd McCloud, have deliberately decentralized power on the delegate. As a result these changes, a Regional Officer (other than a vizier, the regional security position with influence and endorsements) must be confirmed by the magisterium (the private legislature of the East Pacific) in order to avoid an event like in Fedele’s delegacy, where he had full reign over Border Control positions. Additionally, endorsement caps are now determined by viziers instead of the delegate. These recent fixes to the East Pacific were fresh in the minds of voters, so naturally they would be a major section of delegacy campaigns. Marrabuk stressed this in his campaign, claiming that he helped increase viziers from 3 to 8 (adding ). Even if they are picked poorly, the additional viziers dilutes the power of one rogue vizier or delegate. The concept is similar to the North Pacific’s clever anti-endocap policy, which prevents a rogue delegate from banning all the high-endorsement natives. He also mentioned fixing the judicial system by filling in the arbiter positions (the justice equivalent), rebooting the East Pacific News Service, reviving the East Pacific’s military, and working to establish treaties with Balder and Osiris. He promises to continue to do this work.

However, he is met with some opposition. A Mean Old Man, a controversial figure who, despite being a respected ex-delegate (who created their military) of the East Pacific, is often reminded of their crimes in attempting to coup Lazarus and Osiris. In a premeditated response to this in his dramatic and somewhat unsubstantial roleplayed campaign post, he redirects blame, which partially just fits his roleplay. He finally made a post about policies when asked, where he promised to stomp in the World Assembly and host authorship conferences, particularly to repeal lacking proposals; he offers to take up a stronger suppressive presence which grants ROs more freedom to suppress. But what is most notable is his interesting Foreign Affairs take. A Mean Old Man makes comments in his campaign such as “UCRs recruiting endlessly from the GCRs while the latter is expected to have no reaction to this. Capitulation of this sort has never come easy to me” and “My paranoia towards raider and defender orgs and their possible ulterior motives in the GCRs has not subsided”, which is analogous to the ancient, now-gone and disavowed Francoist principles of previous incarnations of the New Pacific Order (of which AMOM has been a senator) that the UCRs were exploiting and infiltrating the GCRs, inspired by powerful contemporary UCR-based R/D organizations like the Alliance Defense Network and the Atlantic Alliance. As for official foreign policy, AMOM proposes that TEP reaches out to small, nascent regions and “spread [their] influence far and wide”.

In the end, the East Pacific overwhelmingly re-elected Marrabuk as their delegate. Marrabuk won by 78.8% majority, and after doing so he changed the cabinet by amalgamating the Ministry of Manpower and Ministry of Immigration, as well as unifying the Ministry of RMB Affairs and Ministry of Culture.

"Somyrion Wins the Delegate Elections in the South Pacific"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia
Somyrion has won the delegate elections in the South Pacific, following a two step electoral process.

Round One:

The first round of the South Pacific’s (TSP's) Delegate elections uses a system of approval voting. Candidates ranged from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Concrete Slab, a member of the Local Council (the Gameside administration body of TSP); Islands of Unity; Agalaesia, the region’s former Minister of Regional Affairs and Beepee, also a Local Councillor.

The campaigns made a broad range of pledges. Concrete Slab’s campaign promised to “Put the WA back in the WA delegate,” and called on his experience to highlight his ability to make the World Assembly more prominent in The South Pacific. Island of Unity’s campaign discussed his time within TSP. Island also promised to assist with integration; establish a legion of honour and to commission a formal TSP anthem. Agalaesia pledged to increase the endorsement count; while “Making the WA more Inclusive,” by creating focus groups to improve engagement with the World Assembly in the South Pacific, however, Agalaesia later dropped out of the race, citing his position as Minister of Regional Affairs and real life issues as reasons for dropping out of the race.

Eventually, Somyrion and Beepee progressed onto the next round of voting, with 29 and 25 approvals respectively, and Islands of Unity and Concrete Slab had 18 and 17 approvals respectively.

Round Two:


The second round of voting consists of a gameside poll.

Again, the campaigns from the two candidates who progressed were wide ranging. While Somyrion’s campaign (titled “Well, I’ve learned some things”) mainly reflected on his achievements and fallbacks during his previous term as delegate, and made promises based on those reflections (which included working more collaboratively with the Local Council; running World Assembly Endorsement Days which were successful during his previous term and bolstering World Assembly engagement), Beepee simply made a list pledges including (“I'll endotart my little heart out. I'm doing pretty good at it... check my links…” and “I'll be the big friendly welcome mat that everyone can use”), along with a small list of his experience and some other small facts about himself.

Somyrion won the elections with 90 votes to Beepee’s 68, re-electing him as the delegate of the South Pacific.

"Constipation in the Security Council"
NEWS | WRITTEN BY MEDIA OFFICER Bormiar

The Security Council has recently been hit with a massive slew of new and intriguing proposals to evaluate- this article simply summarizes that. These proposals have ranged from extremely heated debates to voting periods entirely devoid of comment. The chunk of resolutions began with Marxist Germany’s Commend Benevolent Thomas, which recognized a prominent region-builder and famous defender. Many voters considered the proposal to be long-overdue, despite the unfortunate failing of a previous attempt at commending Benevolent Thomas. Whether there was any disapproval for “Commend Benevolent Thomas”, not a single comment was made on the NS forum thread in the entirety of the voting period.

Roleplay proposals are not common in the Security Council, and “Condemn Norrlands” by Ultior, a roleplay-based resolution, was not added to the books. The proposal cites that Norrlands has nuked many nations, but the crushing defeat was largely because voters felt that Norrlands was godmodding in its roleplay.
In sharp contrast to the previous two proposals, the Security Council was shaken by “Commend Crushing Our Enemies” by Jakker City, nominating a prominent TNPer and member of TBH, who has been retired from raiding for years. Clauses 3-5 clauses recall COE’s work in the Black Hawks, which consist of taking up leadership positions, the OOC leadership COE provided in re-directing raiders after Predator, and their induction into the raiding hall of fame. This sparked a heated debate extending as far as mass telegrams, where McMasterdonia (for) and Kuriko (against) had a back-and-forth mass tg session. The proposal’s defenders interpreted the proposal as not commending COE for raiding, rather for exemplary leadership. A strong summary of the argument can be found coming from, oddly, Crushing Our Enemies themselves (link). They fiercely support their work in pragmatically revamping the ranks system, which had not been discussed greatly before. However, some gameplayers argued that COE’s leadership in The Black Hawks helped them raid regions, and thus commending it commended raiding. Likely because of this reason, the proposal struggled to garner support. During the approval stage, it was failing to reach quorum until the Black Hawks used its WAs to create delegacies and approve the proposal. Upon going to vote, it appeared to be passing by a decent cushion, but, after a long period of tied voting, the votes eventually turned to against, and remained such until the end of the voting period. While many high-endorsement delegates voted for the proposal, super-delegates still were no match for individual WAs.

The Security Council had a brief break following this, as two straightforward resolutions hit the voting floor, both of which passed easily. The first, condemn Gatesville Inc by Bormiar, admonished the successor region of Gatesville for its work in coups and denunciation of the World Assembly. The subsequent resolution, “Condemn Tinfect” by Morover, had trouble reaching quorum, but after a last-minute campaign telegram, enough approvals were obtained. It is a roleplay resolution centered on the despotic and genocidal actions of Tinfect in its interstellar roleplay, as well as their non-compliance with many GA resolutions.

Currently in the Security Council, we have a series of liberations designed to suppress fascist ideology and a raider organization run by blacklisted players. One of these liberations, “liberate Pars” by Kuriko, was a passing resolution to free a region raided by the intentionally unnamed organization, but many delegates switched their vote when he raiders fled the region, and it failed. Another, “Liberate the Union of the Axis Powers” by Praeceps, is an offensive liberation of a small fascist region in order to destroy fascist presence in NS. Nearing quorum is a liberation of a region invaded by the military entitled “Liberate the Unicorns of the World”. Several similar resolutions are currently being drafted on the forums, but are derided mainly for giving attention to the fascists. As for standard resolutions, “Commend Arconian Empire” by THX1138 is nearing quorum as a commendation for a dedicated defender.

One other controversy is “Liberate the East Pacific” by Marrabuk, the East Pacific’s delegate. It is an homage to a previous Liberate the East Pacific, also a joke, and was making fun of the East Pacific’s recent welcoming of A Mean Old Man. Many SC regulars got upset at the East Pacific’s government for the “badge hunt”, but they brushed it off. Despite a major stomp early on supporting the proposal from The East Pacific and The West Pacific, the proposal failed.

The Security Council has been invigorated by what appears to be controversy. It serves as yet another example of how fascism and raiding can be trusty ways of grabbing attention, and how standard the Security Council’s response can be Nevertheless, the debate and activity in the Security Council is fun and will hopefully continue.

Correction: Liberate Unicorns of the World was reaching quorum, before it got withdrawn for becoming unnecessary. Commend Arconian Empire failed.

"Brief Interview on Reddit Boom with Contemporary Home Affairs Minister Konar and his Deputy Bobberino"
INTERVIEW | INTERVIEWED BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

NationStates recently experienced a boom in population due to a Reddit post. Being in TRR, we don't get to always see the full impact of these booms. We get the Rejected nations, sure; mostly inappropriate names that quickly get deleted. People that can't behave are ejected to us. I wanted to get the perspective of a Feeder, so I reached out to Konar (Bluie) and Bobberino, from TNP, Bluie being the Home Affairs (HA; outreach equivalent) minister at the time of the boom, and Bob his deputy.

(These opinions do not represent TNP, just the individual giving them.)

Bluie: TNP may have gotten a lot of new nations made in it, but not a lot have stayed or became more active. As far as I can tell, there has been no influx in the rate of people joining the forums or the discord server. We tried to send out telegrams via HA, but not much success. These influxes are always a net good, bringing new players into the game. The bad stuff though are some toxic or immature people also join, but with due diligence, these people are often outed and cast out”

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we did not get to continue this discussion. I then asked Bob, the deputy, several questions for his input.

Sarah: Roughly how many nations do you think TNP took in during the Reddit influx?

Bob: Give or take.... 5000.

Sarah: How many do think stayed?

Bob: 2000 or so - based on the 8000 to 10000 rough increase.

Sarah: Did you guys do anything extra or different to try to engage?

Bob: We specifically released “New Foundings for the Forum” lists, which send telegrams from Home Affairs staffers to new nations that have founded w/in the set period. These essentially recruit new nations to the forums and push them to register, apply for residency/citizenship and to get involved.

Sarah: What is something good and something bad about this random influxes?

Bob: Something good? New nations, new voices, new citizens and new community members. Something bad? TNP has a target on our backs for being too big. This gets bigger.

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Discuss this Issue over on the NationStates forum here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

[Tinhampton]

Issue LVI | March 8, 2020

...Nearing quorum is a liberation of a region invaded by the military entitled “Liberate the Unicorns of the World”...

I'm already feeling old!

Still preeeeeeeety good, as ever

[Bormiar]

Issue LVI | March 8, 2020

...Nearing quorum is a liberation of a region invaded by the military entitled “Liberate the Unicorns of the World”...

I'm already feeling old!

Still preeeeeeeety good, as ever

Whoops I forgot to update that section after it was withdrawn- that sort of thing is expected to happen. Added a correction.

One of the problems with issue-based news systems is that you don’t get news as it happens.

[Toerana]

I'm already feeling old! :P

Still preeeeeeeety good, as ever

Whoops I forgot to update that section after it was withdrawn- that sort of thing is expected to happen. Added a correction.

One of the problems with issue-based news systems is that you don’t get news as it happens.

The solution sounds like daily issues to me :P

[Dead I Jack]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LVII | May 26th, 2020

Index

"Kicking it off in the World Assembly" | INTERVIEW | CONDUCTED BY REPORTER The Aligned People
"South Asians Victorious in TSP Military Affairs Special Election" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia
"Increased Global Interest in World Assembly Affairs" | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY JOURNALIST Bormiar
"The Bread Box" | COLUMN | WRITTEN BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

Kicking it off in the World Assembly
INTERVIEW | CONDUCTED BY REPORTER The Aligned People

The Rejected Realms has taken a more involved approach in the World Assembly with Bormiar being elected as the Officer of the World Assembly in TRR. As such, it seemed fitting to showcase one of our citizens, Morover, to get his take on what it’s like getting started in the WA.

Morover was founded on October 14, 2018 with his join date in the WA quickly following. Morover liked the idea of getting involved with legislation and law so the World Assembly was his avenue to be able and do so. Morover was active in the WA from the start and eager to get involved: he posted his first proposal a couple of months after he joined with other drafts quickly following. When it comes to authoring, Morover prefers to write for the General Assembly “as it feels much more real and substantive...and it can get incredibly complex at times, and I can deeply appreciate the complexity behind it.”

Morover has written 3 resolutions: GAR#467 “Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy,” SCR#297 “Condemn Tinfect,” and SC#299 “Repeal: ‘Condemn This Game.’” Morover has more proposals in the works that he hopes to usher into a resolution.

I want to thank Morover for sitting down to do the interview and I hope that his inside knowledge on getting started in the WA can help out a new player wanting to get involved.


TAP: Hey Morover! Thanks for sitting down with me. So, you have some good experience in the World Assembly joining it back in October 2018. Could you tell me about your time in the World Assembly as a whole?

Morover: I've really rather enjoyed it. It can be a harsh environment, and it is a steep learning curve, but it's a place of learning, and it is a really cool community full of some of the smartest people I've had the pleasure of meeting.

TAP: Since there is that initial learning curve, when did you think it might interest you to write your own proposal?

Morover: Honestly, I'd imagine it was during my lurking days. I remember looking at the “at-vote proposals” and thinking that I'd be good at it (hint: I wouldn't have been at that point), but I didn't really know what went into it until a later point.

TAP: So when you took that step and authored a proposal, how long had you been in the WA?

Morover: My first proposal happened before I actually did anything else in the World Assembly, so I would have been incredibly green. My first passed proposal came about six months after I started the World Assembly.

TAP: What chamber were you writing for when you authored those proposals?

Morover: First written and first passed were both in the General Assembly. My first passed was "Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy", which essentially covered a loophole present in "Convention on Gender" which may have allowed nations to not supply their transgender population with adequate hormone therapy for transition.

TAP: To help people understand what goes into the drafting process, could you explain what you had to go through for "Affordable Transgender Hormone Therapy?" How long did each step take?

Morover: So, United Massachusetts helped me out greatly with ATHT, pretty much single handedly writing the preamble. I honestly don't remember how many drafts I went through, but there are 25 edits to the OP of the resolution thread, so I'd estimate at least 15 drafts, with about 8 of those being serious attempts. There was actually just over a month between the initial post of the draft and the passage of the proposal (June 15 - July 16). Also, in the drafting stage, the most difficult part of the actual proposal was convincing people that the loophole the then-proposal was fixing was actually present.

TAP: So what comes after that drafting stage once you’ve been able to convince members that your proposal, if passed, solves a legitimate problem?

Morover: After drafting is submission, which I've always had some troubles with. In order to get any proposal to vote, you must submit it to the World Assembly, and then 6% or more of all delegates must "approve" that proposal, which tends to linger around 70 approvals nowadays. It used to be far easier than it is nowadays, due to differences in how campaigning works. Typically, to get a proposal to vote, you need to send out telegrams to the delegates asking them to approve your proposal. People do this in different ways, with some preferring using the API to do it, and some using stamps (and a small minority doing these telegrams manually, which is a giant pain in the ass). I'm not the best at writing campaign telegrams, but I'm starting to get it, so it is something that you just need to work at.

TAP: So how should someone go about submitting a proposal? How do you know when it’s just right?

Morover: I posted on July 4th that I'd be submitting it on July 10th, and I think that's really the only way to do it. Saying that you'll be submitting on a specific date and then sticking to it, unless someone points out an error that you can't fix in a reasonable period of time.

TAP: And how did you get through all the challenges that come with authoring a proposal like getting it past quorum?

Morover: Honestly, I just hoped it'd get to vote. If I recall, I used API-campaigning for ATHT, though I may be misremembering. I do remember that during the voting of specific proposals, players who GA regulars call "orcs" came out and spouted a lot of transphobic sentiment - so much so, in fact, that it is the tenth most replied to proposal ever in the WA Archives subforum on the NS Forum.

TAP: Where did you get your inspiration for authoring ATHT and what made you want to write it?

Morover: Honestly, at the time, I just wanted to get something passed, and I figured I could pass that. In hindsight, it was legitimately essential legislation, and I've rather grown out of the mindset of passing resolutions for the sake of passing them.

TAP: Awesome! So transitioning from the General Assembly to the Security Council, could you tell me about your most recent repeal you authored in the Security Council? Anything special about it?

Morover: Yeah - so, Condemn This Game was a resolution written by Lord Dominator, intended to be at vote on April Fools' Day. It was a joke, and, as such, it would be repealed, so I just threw my attempt for it in the ring.

TAP: Okay, I see. So even the World Assembly has to get in on some satire every once in a while.

Morover: I wrote it because I knew it would be repealed, and I thought a joke proposal should be repealed by a joke repeal. People thought it was a joke, because it was. It was a satirical take on the other repeals of the time, taking it to drastic extremes, and it turns out that it worked out, because it passed!

TAP: Do you think authors need to change any of their tactics when writing for the General Assembly vs. the Security Council?

Morover: Not really, it's all the same process, just with a different operative clause.

TAP: What about your favorite resolution that you’ve authored? Could you tell us about it and why it holds that place for you?

Morover: My favorite is probably “Condemn Tinfect,” which was also my first Security Council resolution. It was a lot of fun to write about such a despotic nation, and especially one with such complex lore (and I know the author through the GA). As for inspiration, I pretty much just thought "I wonder if Tinfect has been condemned yet," and she hadn't, so I approached her and asked her if she was interested, and she said she was, so I wrote it!

TAP: Well, Morover, I want to thank you for being a part of this interview and I hope it can inspire some new players who are on the fence about getting involved in the World Assembly to do so. What advice do you have for those players and what would you want them to know?

Morover: Just get out there and do it! It's a steep learning curve, and people are very harsh most of the time, but it's usually just to ensure that everything is in tip-top shape. You might go through several proposals that are shot down before getting one that sticks, but it's all part of the process. It's supposed to be fun, don't get too caught up about it.

South Asians Victorious in TSP Military Affairs Special Election
NEWS | WRITTEN BY INTERN Agalaesia

The South Pacific’s (TSP’s) Special Elections for the position of Minister of Military Affairs has concluded, electing South Asians, a long time member of the South Pacific Special Forces.

The election was initiated after Heliseum, the former Minister lost his legislatorship status, and by extension, his cabinet membership after ceasing to exist. As the cabinet can only appoint a cabinet minister once the term has passed the halfway point, a special election was to be held, due to the fact that the previous Minister of Military Affairs lost his cabinet seat before the term was not yet halfway through.

The election was contested by two candidates: South Asians and Miravana, both long time members of the South Pacific Special Forces and recruitment officer and former tidal force co-ordinator respectively. In his brief campaign, South Asians stated his desire to “reactivate the Tidal Force” (the civilian militia of TSP), “increasing more soldiers” through training and active operations and “creating guides for officers” to help soldiers in getting promotions. South Asians also stated his personal goal of reaching the rank of Officer. Miravana’s campaign centralised around bolstering numbers and to “reiterate the fun that everyone should be having.” Miravana dropped out of the elections a few days later, citing his lack of time to spend on the position as the main reason.

At the conclusion of the elections, results for all candidates were counted using the Instant Runoff Voting Method, despite Miravana dropping out. South Asians won by 25 votes to Miravana’s 5.

In a statement, The South Pacific’s new Minister of Military Affairs South Asians stated:


“I would like to thank all the legislators of The South Pacific, for showing their support to my campaign and helping me in my landslide victory. I have been elected as MoMA during an age in which the defending community isn't in very good shape as it was a couple of years ago. SPSF being one of the most important defender military [sic.] out there. It is my responsibility to try and revive the former glory of the defenders. We have the quality but we need the quantity with the same qualities. That's why i [sic.] ask all the defender orgs out there to start recruiting and training new people and provide them with your valuable knowledge. We are having an influx of new nations and it is the best time for Recruitment and Training.”

Increased Global Interest in World Assembly Affairs
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY JOURNALIST Bormiar

The World Assembly has recently undergone a large series of consecutive proposals in both chambers. These include controversies such as “Access to Abortion”, nd a series of joke resolutions in the SC: “Condemn this Game”, “Condemn Nations Creating Regions for SC Props”, and “Condemn Deruuu”. After the passage of “Condemn this Game”, the voters put their foot down, passing “Repeal ‘Condemn this Game’” and destroying the latter two by extreme margins. The voters saw that joke resolutions were devolving into degenerate spam, if they weren’t already. The General Assembly debacle surrounding abortion was of far greater scale and impact, and is still ongoing. In reaction to Marxist Germany’s "Repeal 'Reproductive Freedoms'", an attempt to further pro-life ideology, Imperium Anglorum submitted “Abortionplexes for All”, a joke resolution which mandates the funding of free abortions that was later redrafted into "Access to Abortion", a serious proposal. Both sides fought each other as hard as they could, including through mass telegramming and even military force.

This brings us to the first tool regions and organizations have used to further their presence in the World Assembly: military force. When a delegate is supplanted, their approvals disappear. Therefore, militaries are able to take out approvals of proposals they disagree with by simply removing delegates from office. Some describe this action as a barbaric attempt to push one’s opinion through violent military fiat rather than open discussion, though members of both sides of the “Access to Abortion” debate support R/D force in proposals. United Massachusetts, a prominent member of the rag-tag group of anti-”Access to Abortion” campaigners, argued in a statement to the Rejected Times, “Approval raiding -- a small part of our operation -- was a tactic built within the gameplay structure that we used... those who say that this idea was only ever anti-fascist are lying. Galiantus, for instance, used it before as part of an anti-WA agenda, and so have others. The game did not fall apart then, and it will not now”¹. The North Pacific, one of the forerunners of current approval raiding, seems to agree. Its North Pacific Army has conducted blockade runs (likely the first in its history, judging by the mission logs) on Repeal “Reproductive Freedoms” and "Condemn the World Assembly Elite" (due to its authorship by an alleged fascist)², successfully taking out 35 delegates. The latter proposal failed to reach quorum due to the attempts of several regions, documented here.

While some have claimed that the recent WA blockade runs were out of place, as they had previously only been enacted to fight fascists, this is incorrect. The concept has existed for quite a while, with regions such as Gilgamesh pledging to approval raid. Regions like Gatesville attempted to use their military might to hurt the World Assembly, and the superpower that was the Atlantic Alliance in 2003 which took over multiple GCRs endeavored, as stated in their charter, “to thereby achieve a near-absolute political superiority in the World by forming an Atlantic bloc to monopolize the UN resolution-writing and voting process”³. This was 2003. While this is not new, it is also not normal, so it demonstrates an increased interest in the World Assembly, namely from the North Pacific Army, which had previously never ran a blockade run⁴.

Another nascent characteristic of the modern, WA-invested world are WA programs. The Rejected Realms, the South Pacific, and Thalassia have all taken major steps in creating World Assembly “offices” (the latter being less notable as it is a new UCR, and such is expected). The Rejected Realms created theirs after a series of new WA-related developments, including a ping program and voting awards. It has created the WA Office, which has been experimenting with both pros and cons and recommendations with the help of its experienced, midsize staff. The South Pacific’s staff, also created in 2020, also writes recommendations with the unique twist of quoting other’s opinions from all over the world, regardless of whether they agree with TSP’s stance. One particularly impressive attribute of TSP’s recommendations is its stunning graphics. Thirdly, Thalassia, after the passing of the Executive Powers Amendment, has a World Assembly-focused delegate rather than a president. Zentata, the region’s delegate, has been issuing reasonings for their votes. The Augustine Alliance has taken a similar step in World Assembly development. They offer vote recommendations which are sent through August’s bot’s “NSN Global News”, a system which sends news updates across various servers that can be sent by anyone.These new opinions are welcome additions to the pre-existing “Information for Voters” dispatches in The North Pacific and Europeia, and any other recommendations from WA programs.

Another intriguing aspect of regional WA programs is the interest in regionally-written proposals. The North Pacific has been making clear headway with its Heroes of the North program, and the Rejected Realms has expressed interest in Communal General Assembly drafting. While no resolution has technically been a regional project yet, the South Pacific’s Aumeltopia and Rabbitz originally drafted Condemn Auphelia in order to “get drafting around [their WA Office] rolling”⁵. They drafted the condemnation for the iconic TSPer in TSP’s forums and WA discord. Commend the Holy Principality of Saint Mark was not quite a community project, rather the product of a “University of the West Pacific” task assigned to The Unified Missourtama States and Teralyon⁶. TUMS stated to TRT, “The only help we got from our regional government was a link to the Security Council rules and guidelines, so yeah, not much”. The resolution received immense backing from the West Pacific, but was not quite authored communally. Regardless, this nascent communal drafting idea may yield extremely efficient proposal development if done properly.

This interest could be the cause of coronavirus or gameplay growing stale or something else, but it is existent. It is too early to tell whether this new participation of regions in WA affairs will last and make a large impact, but the legislative and military affects of WA interest are microcosms of what they could be if magnified on a greater and bolder scale. The World Assembly is generally not organizationally competitive, but if it were, the escalation associated with that could have drastic effects on the World Assembly.

-----

¹ The full statement has been truncated to strictly regard the merit of approval raiding. The full statement is as follows: “Approval raiding -- a small part of our operation -- was a tactic built within the gameplay structure that we used. Naturally, it upsets those who support "Access to Abortion," but fundamentally, those same people created the crisis by trying to push through an idea solely because it annoys and unsettles us, doing so through a joke resolution, and then trying to cover the tracks and smear the personalities of pro-life delegates. They held this over our heads as a taunt -- "look at this resolution. We'll pass it and you can't stop us." Well, we responded. That's all it comes down to, really -- we responded to mockery with serious resolve. And we know that eventually, they'll get their way. Eventually, Access to Abortion will pass, in all likelihood. But this whole controversy is really about seeing how many names they can drag through the mud in order to get there. As for the tactics we used, I will say a couple things. Firstly, they were entirely legal. Secondly, they were entirely defensive -- designed to prevent a group of extreme authors from pushing an agenda on us. Thirdly, those who say that this idea was only ever anti-fascist are lying. Galiantus, for instance, used it before as part of an anti-WA agenda, and so have others. The game did not fall apart then, and it will not now.”
² https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9192138/ and https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9192062/
³ http://graptor.net/atlantic/charter.html
⁴ The current NPA was created in 2012, and its mission logs linked above encompass its existence since then. The original NPA, disbanded by Lewis and Clark (Westwind) in 2008, was defender.
⁵ From TSP’s WA server to see that
⁶ The West Pacifican May 2020

The Bread Box
COLUMN | WRITTEN BY INTERN A Leaf on the Wind

This is the first installment of what I'm calling the #BreadBox. Questions are submitted to me and I'll post them and respond, either seriously or sarcastically. Or both. Depends on my mood and the question. So let's see what the first round of questions are!

Q. for the breadbox... For somebody known to the rest of the Rejectverse as Sarah Bread, why did you not call your nation "A Loaf on the Wind?"

A. Well. You see. At the time of making my nation, I actually wasn't a bread yet. The nation came first! That would be a great name for a switcher though … brb …



… or not I guess.

Q. What is your favourite type of bread and what is your least favourite?

A. Okay. This is a toughy. I love Hawaiian sweet bread. Oh man. Arby's has a fish sandwich on Hawaiian sweet bread. It's so good. I could eat just a whole loaf of it. But also potato bread is really good. It's like. "you know what these carbs need? MORE CARBS!"

My least favorite bread would probably be ...any hard bread or bread with hard shell/crust. I ain't tryna chip a tooth here, just give me the soft squishy insides!



Q. What is the best strategy for answering the issues facing your nation?

A. I think it really depends on the person. For my main nation, A leaf on the wind, I try to answer each issue as best as I would in real life. So that nation closely relates to my IRL politics.

Another nation I have, Arnavaz, I actually screenshot all the issues and let a friend of mine (a devout Muslim) answer all the issues. Him having to idea what NS even is or anything.

Really what it comes down to is how you want your nation to be. Some people will RP with their nation and answer issues that way. It might not be their IRL politics, but it fits into their RP.



Q. Do you chew cinnamon sticks?

A. No! Who does that? It sounds painful. Like it would hurt your tongue. Do you chew on cinnamon sticks?!

Q. What's the best way to keep law and order on the Regional Message Board?

A. POOL NOODLES
Someone getting sassy? Just give them a good whack. I will share with you a secret, though. So pay attention. If someone is being extra sassy, you know what I do? Two. Pool. Noodles. Boom.



Q. Pepsi or Coke?

A. Okay. This is going to get me in trouble. I'm going to be threatened with so many toasters, I can feel it.

Pepsi.



I. Said. It.

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Discuss this Issue over on the NationStates forum here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

[McMasterdonia]

Nice issue.

I do have a serious complaint about the allegations about Pepsi raised in the Bread Box. I would like to speak to the Manager directly to resolve this.

[Dead I Jack]

Nice issue.

I do have a serious complaint about the allegations about Pepsi raised in the Bread Box. I would like to speak to the Manager directly to resolve this.

Looks like we got a Karen on our hands, folks.

[Yokiria]

Nice issue.

I do have a serious complaint about the allegations about Pepsi raised in the Bread Box. I would like to speak to the Manager directly to resolve this.

Looks like we got a Karen on our hands, folks.

I hate that term. Karen is a nice name.

[A Leaf on the Wind]

Nice issue.

I do have a serious complaint about the allegations about Pepsi raised in the Bread Box. I would like to speak to the Manager directly to resolve this.

I said what I said. #NoApologies.

[Benevolent Thomas]

Did I read any of this? No. Did I see the Big Earl gif? Yes.

Nice edition!

[Agalaesia]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LVIII | 01/07/20

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia

Index

Card “Raiding”: Death of the Late Game | OPINION | WRITTEN BY Bormiar | EDITED BY Toerana; Editor-in-Chief
Defender Security Council Voting Blocs: Future of Failure? | OPINION | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY Bormiar
Ha Ha... Courting | SATIRE | WRITTEN BY The Church of Satan | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief
The East Pacific Election Overview | NEWS | WRITTEN BY Toerana | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief
Return of Ranking the GCRs | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Glacikaldr | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief

CARD "RAIDING": DEATH OF THE LATE GAME
OPINION | WRITTEN BY Bormiar | EDITED BY Toerana; Editor-in-Chief

Much of my time on NationStates has been used in playing the card trade game. While I can no longer tolerate the work, I understand the hours spent doing the same repetitive tasks, itching for a legendary card to add to your ever-expanding pile or cleverly sell off to make even more bank. Collecting legendaries is rewarding, but it’s also clear that traders wanted cards even more exclusive. As seen in cards such as Queen Yuno and Farrakhan, raw inflation of normal cards never worked. The cards’ inflated values would slowly return to normal if not maintained by the inflating party. We found CTE cards, or cards where the nation has ceased to exist, to be the perfect target. They only spawned while at auction (i.e. while a player is purchasing the card), which made them excellent transfer cards (cards with very few owners used in transferring bank) and extremely hard to obtain. Cards of notable players who had ceased to exist became extremely expensive, such as Tupelope, Anime Daisuki, Pergamon, HMS Unicorn, Improving Wordiness, Punk Reloaded, Renaissancistic People, Frattastan II, Nastic 2, Soops, and Mindless Contempt. Traders would save up for months to obtain these tantalizing cards, occasionally liquidating their decks for them. They would save up thousands of packs to be spammed in the moments where the cards would go to auction (an extremely successful technique). The ownership of these cards carried immense weight, admiration, and prestige. They were our late-game goal.

Unlike many card traders, I did not join the cards game in an advantageous time. I have never seen a card game where 5 bank was a lot and legendaries were sold for next to nothing (to later be worth thousands of what they were), or a game where now-CTE cards could be pulled normally (because the nation would not have been CTE). I still obtained one of the top 50 decks in the world in a matter of months, and have obtained the (once-)nvaluable CTE cards of Pergamon, Nastic 2, and Sentimental Journey. Thus, I can attest to the mobility of the cards game, and the ability of any player to earn these high-valued CTE cards.

Regardless, a highly successful pull event (a scheduled player-made event where a CTE card can be pulled) of Pergamon via a card I lended resulted in the spawning of dozens of Pergamon cards, instantly diluting the value of the card to virtually nothing. It was discovered that placing multiple bids with small differences in amount can lead the card’s chances of spawning to become ridiculously high. A greedy cards community blindly pounced on this opportunity like a glutton unaware or uncaring of the health effects of McDonalds. The price of your average Pergamon has crashed from over 1000 bank to a pitiful 100 bank, a mere 1/10th of the original price. The average player has 3 Pergamons, and there are 175 copies. The card is essentially worthless in every metric other than market value, which will continue to go down.

The fall of Pergamon is among every single other high value CTE card. Due to this same tactic, Soops and Mindless Contempt have fallen from thousands of bank each to merely a few hundred-- for both. Improving Wordiness, HMS Unicorn, NERVUN, Old Tyrannia, and Reinaissancitic People are a little pricy but affordable to the average active trader. Enormously expensive cards such as Tupelope, Frattastan II, Punked Reloaded, and NASTIC 2 are now junk. It’s hard to fully grasp the sheer magnitude of such a change without being a cards player yourself. If you’re a gameplayer, imagine if influence were removed… along with passwords, and founders, and ROs, and border control. Tantalizing cards that you worked months to acquire can be bought after farming for a few hours. The late game of cards is over.

To add insult to injury, some players -- namely those who benefit from this change -- have embraced this disaster with thunderous applause.The Black Hawks, in conjunction with notable traders such as Feu de Glace, Refuge, and 9003 (the former two being members of the Black Hawks), executed a "cards raid". They essentially institutionalized the devaluing of cards with the claim that their goal is for “CARDS FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST THE 1/10TH OF ONE PERCENT!”. This was not “raiding”. Furthermore, the claim that this helps “the people” rather than the “1/10th of one percent” is just plain backwards. Where cards of high market value are sold at low prices, the cards almost always go to wealthy traders who have the auction skill, vast resources, and ability to lose occasionally that is necessary to win many of those auctions (which draw lots of attention). Wealthier players also tend to store packs, be faster farmers (practice and knowing about scripts to speed it up), and have more nations to farm. Feu de Glace, who is known for saving packs, now has 58 copies of Pergamon (with a Market Value worth an absurd 8816), and was temporarily at second place in deck value. Noah’s Second Country has 23 Soops, worth 5,681 bank. Both of those players have defended the system. This exploit benefits the ultra-wealthy and is defended by the ultra-wealthy. They are willfully misleading others if they say that this benefits small farmers.

Ransium notified the admins of the problem in mid-May. He explained in detail the cause of the problem, how it benefits a select group of players (“Note that in a couple hours for farming Feu was able to farm about 50k in cards.” and “The problem is that a very few select players can use this exploit to guarantee they get a large portion of the additional copies that are placed on the market.”), and offered multiple solutions to the issue. The Northern Light explained the effect even further, as did several other players. Admin Ballotonia pointed out that unintended consequences have led to good things in NationStates (though I don’t see how you could argue that with Ballotonia’s R/D example, as pre-influence R/D had greifing rules), and implied that fixing the issue would be a case of the admins succumbing to the will of “whomever screams the loudest”. It seems unlikely that admins will do anything about the issue.

The admins may be right not to interfere, however. If CTE cards can no longer be spawned (nearly) at will as they are now, the market value of the cards would decrease at an extraordinarily slow rate. Therefore, the players who have already exploited the system would be left on their thrones, much to the chagrin of future players. Certain players (they know who they are) milked an exploit purely for their own momentary benefit, and in doing so we no longer have high value cards to strive towards. Eliminating scarcity eliminated demand. Almost every card in the game can now be gained relatively easily if you’re a rich player. For a late-game player like me, there’s very little incentive to play.

Note: This article is largely intended to appeal to gameplayers and cards laypersons, but makes an argument to other cards players as well. Further, more complex, reading can be found here: viewtopic.php?p=37104977#p37104977

_{EDITS: "The Black Hawks, in conjunction with notable traders such as Feu de Glace, Refuge, and 9003," has been edited to "The Black Hawks, in conjunction with notable traders such as Feu de Glace, Refuge, and 9003 (the former two being members of the Black Hawks)," to clarify elements of the article.}

DEFENDER VOTING BLOCS: FUTURE OR FAILURE?
OPINION | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY Bormiar

In his retirement as the delegate of the East Pacific, Marrabuk mentioned the idea of a “consortium of nations.” Marrabuk defined the consortium as a “basically to form a WA Bloc and Military partnership with various participating regions agreeing to work with TEP.” Marrabuk’s idea is interesting, as it seems to want to target the impossible dream of an FRA-esque unaligned union, however, this idea has cropped up in many other regions, including the South Pacific. In their campaign for election as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of the South Pacific, Qvait, mentioned the idea of a defender aligned voting bloc, promising that the agenda to create one would take precedence in the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

When understanding Qvait’s suggestion, it is important to define the functions of a voting bloc. Currently, there is only one major voting bloc, which is the World Assembly Legislative League (or WALL). WALL does not require all regions to vote a certain way, which means that, as opposed to solely serving as a collective organisation to “stomp” or “stack” on World Assembly resolutions, it may also serve as a forum for debate and discussion between regional governments. Of course, depending on the nature of the agreements, there can be other types of agreements within a World Assembly bloc, which could include requiring all regions to vote in line with the majority.

Of course, there will always be variation between agreements due to regional priorities and regional culture, however, I think that, using the current voting bloc as a model, voting blocs can be defined as “a forum for regions to share thoughts on resolutions, and ideally vote on resolutions together.”

With that in mind, let’s look at Qvait’s proposed defender, Security Council voting bloc. There are five primary defender or defender leaning regions that have high delegacy endorsements - the more powerful ones are the Rejected Realms; the South Pacific and 10000 Islands, and the less powerful ones are the Free Nations Region and the Union of Democratic States. The mentioned regions all have a defender military and their delegates all have above 100 endorsements.

Usually, defender leaning delegates tend to vote together on Raiding and Defending resolutions. 10000 Islands tends to be more radical, it may be more likely to vote against commendations of raiders, like “Commend Crushing our Enemies”, while other defender leaning regions may be more inclined to vote for the commendation as it isn’t explicitly for raiding achievements. Generally, defender regions vote together on R/D-related topics.

Delegates of defender regions vote very similarly in the Security Council, so a voting bloc which forces other regions to vote in line with the precedent set by the voting bloc would be useless, as it would just reinforce current voting habits with an added layer of bureaucracy to superfluously show already existing “defender power” off to NationStates Gameplay. A forum for discussion like WALL, where regional representatives share ideas may be a better idea, however, as defender leaning regions are likely to share opinions on matters (demonstrated by how they vote in the Security Council), there is little to no need or requirement for such a voting bloc.

The other factor that can heavily affect the outcome of such a voting bloc is an experience in World Assembly and Security Council matters. It is safe to say that the Rejected Realms and 10000 Islands have a large amount of experience World Assembly Authors and advisors. The delegate of 10000 Islands, Kuriko, has written the most Security Council Resolutions of any one player, and the Rejected Realms’ World Assembly office is managed by Bormiar, who has written notable and unique resolutions including “Condemn Atlantic”. Both regions tend to have a large number of players voting on the delegate’s vote offsite.

However, other regions such as the South Pacific, the Union of Democratic States and the Free Nations Region don’t have as many experienced World Assembly authors as the other two regions. This isn’t a bad thing, and a voting bloc can help regions build World Assembly participation, however, this runs the risk of the larger regions dominating the discussion in the voting bloc.

There would be, of course, regional Foreign Affairs policy discussions that would be had before a region casts its vote in the defender leaning voting bloc, however, many representatives, especially from the smaller User Created Regions with a lack of experienced authors will likely feel uncomfortable to comment on the quality of the writing in the resolution, meaning that their opinions will largely be relegated only giving political opinions, not commenting on any other aspect while the larger regions will dominate discussions on things like commendations related to roleplaying and other elements of the game.

Now, of course, there are public relations benefits to a defender voting bloc. It will show people that defenders are more united, and that they also have a great deal of voting power in the Security Council, it will still have little to no effect on the Security Council or the wider world of Gameplay, and if it does start having an effect on regions, it will likely be negative, as larger regions will dominate discussions and influence the views of smaller regions.

As opposed to building a voting bloc to show off might, regions should explore alternatives that would allow them to build up their World Assembly programs without having to conform to a precedent set out by regions around them. Such alternatives could involve regional “exchange writer” programs, which allows World Assembly writers from other regions to co-author resolutions with other regional writers. If a region has a budding writer, the exchange writer could support the new writer in research and writing and be marked as a co-author. This would be beneficial to all regions who have people interested in the World Assembly and World Assembly affairs, but don’t have anyone who has sufficient experience to guide new authors, as it would immediately place newer writers into contact with seasoned members of the world assembly.

To conclude: a defender leaning voting bloc is viable, but there is no need for it, and everyone who is planning on building it would just be wasting their energy on codifying a system that already unofficially exists.

Ha Ha Ha...Court-ing!
SATIRE | WRITTEN BY The Church of Satan | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief

The stairs outside Gameplay City Hall were buzzing with rumors of the biggest trial in history. Rumors that everyone, even the system itself is being put on trial. All the big names came in, strolling towards the largest room available; Mcmasterdonia, Yuno, Xoriet, Frattastan, Guy, Fedele, Elegarth, Eluvatar, Davelands, Big Bad Badger, Bachtendekuppen, Grub, Benevolent Thomas, Kuriko and more. Their attorney, probably the highest ranked among the numbers of NationStates Gameplay, Crazy Girl led them inside with determination and a briefcase full of snacks, "This whole thing is a farce! I can't begin to imagine how entertaining it'll be. Popcorn?" Not far behind, John Q. Nation struggled to keep up, hounding them as frequently as he could, "You can't treat me like this you elitist scum! The people will not stand for this! They will not allow you to not allow me to get handed everything I want just because I want it! It's not right!" Crazy Girl stood at the door as her clients finished entering the building and waited for John Q. Nation (who has opted to represent himself as the prosecuting attorney) to catch up, "Look John, you just lost your snack privileges. You're gonna have to get your own. Now hurry up and get in there. I have a trial to win."

The Honorable Judge Sedgistan now presiding

Bailiff Rep Prod announced to the room, packed with more GP heavyweights than a GCR coup, "All rise. Court is now in session. The Honorable Judge Sedgistan now presiding." The big screen TV flickers on, the bad reception from Gameplay City Halls obviously poor wifi connection shamelessly on display, "Okay everyone sit down and shut up. I have a dinner reservation tonight and I won't have your sass ruining my night." John Q. Nation turns red with anger, "Are you kidding me!? The judge can't even be bothered to physically be here!? I demand this trial be presided over by a judge that can at least be here to do their job!" Slapping the water with his pool noodle, Judge Sedgistan laid down the law with his booming voice in surround sound, "I said I'll have no sass from anyone in my courtroom! Especially you, Mr...Bumnuts? You can clearly see me so of course I am here. Now let's this get this carnival going. Time for opening statements. Prosecution, get it over with." Gritting his teeth, John Q. Nation begins, "Your Honor, for years a cabal of elitist heavyweights have shaped and controlled NationStates Gameplay into a corrupt, toxic mess that doesn't allow people do things the way that I want them to. This cabal stamps out all opposition that is me. The prosecution will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that these elitists have ruined NationStates Gameplay and twisted it into something that this court must condemn and destroy for the sake of mysel- I mean the community at large. It's time that they face justice." Barely paying attention, Judge Sedgistan motioned to Crazy Girl to make her opening statement.


"Oh, is it my turn? Okay. Your Honor, I am just a simple NationStates veteran that's better than the prosecutor in every way. I look to our anonymous jurors and ask one simple question. Do you want the cheese-flavored popcorn, the caramel popcorn or the buttery popcorn with extra butter? Now I don't just have popcorn. I brought malted milkballs, Raisinets, Snocaps and a fine selection of gourmet coffee. The defense will prove that these snacks are delicious! The defense will prove that my clients also like snacks! Nothing further, Your Honor. See you at home!" The defendants stood by and feasted upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats. John Q. Nation, snackless by his own actions simply sat there, ranting and raving instead of presenting evidence. "Your Honor, this is a travesty! Those elitist Gameplay snobs can't monopolize the snacks like that! I demand that they share those snacks with me! It's what the people want!"


With a loud grunt, Judge Sedgistan replies, "Look here Mr. Birdbath...Beanbag, it's your fault you don't have any. You should have brought your own snacks or conducted yourself better while speaking to opposing counsel. You left the snack stand now you have to eat candy corn instead. I'm gonna ask you only once. Do you have any witnesses to call or not?" Pleading for his case he retorted, "No I don't have any witnesses." The look on Judge Sedgistan's face turned to a scowl, "Bootylicious, you better have a damn good explanation for this!" Slightly annoyed, John Q. Nation corrects Judge Sedgistan, "It's John. John Q. Nation. And do I really even need any? The evidence is right there in plain sight. Every time these snobs disagreed with me it was right in front of us for the world to see! Every time they laughed at my ideas it was right in front of us for the world to see! Every time I didn't like them it was right in front of us for the world to see!" Glancing towards the prosecution, Judge Sedgistan inquires of Crazy Girl, "Does the defense have any witnesses to call?" Just finishing a cup of coffee (probably Kopi Luwak) Crazy Girl looked up and very briefly turned her attention away from the crossword puzzle she was working on, "Umm not really. However if it would please the court I'd like to call for a pizza." John Q. Nation stands up and shouts, "Objection, your honor! Completely inappropriate!" Judge Sedgistan rolls his eyes, "Over-ruled. Make the call."

Six slices later, it was time for a verdict. "This case has been...a large, boring waste of time. The prosecution has called no witnesses. Presented no evidence. Instead he has spent the entire case whining, complaining and trying to take the prosecution's snacks. The defense didn't even need to do anything. Snacks was exactly the right strategy. In the case of John Q. Nation v. NationStates Gameplay, this court rules in favor of NationStates Gameplay. Keep on keepin' on. Prosecutor Johnsturbation, get out of my court. Next time it better be a real case or so help me I'll use more than just a pool noodle. Court is adjourned."

The East Pacific Delegate Election Overview
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Toerana | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief

The East Pacific held their delegate elections in June, with nominations opening on the 31st of May, and closing on the 15th. 24 people were nominated for delegacy, including the incumbent delegate Marrabuk, and Viziers Todd McCloud, Bachtendekuppen, Pakitsk, Zukchiva, VW53Aland, Asendavia, Grand Vizier Dragons Blood and Incumbent Vice Delegate Libertanny. Out of the 24 people nominated, 7 accepted their nominations, with 4, Aivintis Eastern, Alksearia, ArenaC & Sokala, dropping out, leaving just Zukchiva, Libertanny and Algerstonia to reach the voting period.

In their campaign, Zukchiva stated plans for a cards guild, the “abolishment” of the Vice Delegacy, holding state of the region addresses, similar to those in TNP and increase the number of Viziers, although stating he didn’t have any nominees during his campaign.

Libertanny ran a campaign promising full freedom of speech, within NS rules and excluding fascist ideology, spreading the region in the example of the NPO, to other games, the independence of the WA aspects of governments and the foundation of the Bureau of Public Affairs. The Bureau of public affairs is intended to serve as a channel of communication between the government and the public.

Algerstonia ran on a platform of complete government overhaul, promising to replace the existing ministries with the Ministries of Love, Truth, Peace, Plenty, and Harmony.

The voting itself commenced on the 8th of June, and ended on the 15th, seeing Libertanny win the delegacy by 6 votes.

You can view the East Pacific Delegacy Election subforum here: https://forum.theeastpacific.com/2020-f279/

The Return of Ranking the GCRs
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Glacikaldr | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief

Since March 2018, much has changed among many of the feeders and sinkers: our main GCRs. In light of this, The Rejected Times is happy to welcome back our 'Ranking the GCRs' Survey!

We encourage you to participate here!

This post will serve as the announcement for this years' perception survey, however, we will also strive to reach out to as many NSers as possible! It is our hope to have a diverse—and not exclusively Reject—playerbase participate. To help put these words into action, we will be reaching out to all the regions mentioned in the survey following the release of this article.

This survey will remain open to all for three weeks—until Wednesday the 22nd of July—and we would greatly appreciate it if any regions and players share the survey around. But please answer earnestly. If we end up needing to exclude some outliers, we will provide two separate datasets and include an explanation as to why.

We want to provide an accurate account of perceptions, and realise that earning your willingness to participate and share this survey is the best way to achieve this. To help towards earning your trust, the commentary we usually provide accompanying each category will strive to be more tasteful — with consultation where necessary. We will notify and allow governments and delegates to provide commentary on areas of interest we identify if they so wish within the follow-up article. Ultimately, the worth of these words can only be judged once the results are released but we intend to win your trust for future surveys of this nature as well.

The survey will look at the following categories to determine an up-to-date Overall Perception Index: Acceptance and Tolerance, Activity, Culture, Military Presence, Civil and Political Rights, Diplomacy, Value as Interregional Partner, Stability, Overall Delegate Performance, and Overall Government Performance.

The last survey served as a revival of this series, comparing GCRs to our 2014 dataset. This newest survey in the series promises to provide comparisons over a shorter timeframe and should better serve to show how quickly perceptions can change — indicative of the tide of hearts and minds in NationStates.

Thank you for your consideration in supporting this project!

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Read and Upvote the Dispatch Version here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

Join the Rejected Times and write articles here (anyone can join; no prior experience required)

[Bormiar]

CoS captured the entitlement nicely.

[Tinhampton]

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia

*Kalmiria

Nice to see Queen Yuno back in the big time again

[Bormiar]

[Ballotonia] implied that fixing the issue would be a case of the admins succumbing to the will of “whomever screams the loudest”. It seems unlikely that admins will do anything about the issue.

Ballotonia meant this as the opposite of my interpretation. He seems to not have been referring to anyone in particular:

I wasn't referring to any 'side' in particular. Just in general: screaming loudly does not mean Admin will change the game according to ones wishes. I really don't care about loud screams. What matters are facts and arguments, which is what I solicited in that thread.

I read that post a few times and was convinced of my interpretation, though I like this a lot more (Ballo wasn't being rude). It fits into the article better, seeing as I defended the admin's (inferred-- we don't know if they've made a decision yet) choice:

The admins may be right not to interfere, however. If CTE cards can no longer be spawned (nearly) at will as they are now, the market value of the cards would decrease at an extraordinarily slow rate. Therefore, the players who have already exploited the system would be left on their thrones, much to the chagrin of future players.

This wasn't an attack on the admins or Ballotonia.

Edit:

Message from Ballo:

The only inference one can draw from that is I do not see TCALS as such an urgent problem that I had to disable it immediately. Instead, I left it so that anyone could do with it as they pleased, and what happened is that various actors used it in differing ways. None of those uses were envisioned when the system was implemented. But the general notion of that thread remains: changes are under serious consideration, and people get the opportunity to submit their facts and arguments to help in making the game better overall.

[Mecotla]

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The Rejected Times was founded in January 2013 by Kogvuron. It has since become the centerpiece of quality journalism in NationStates Gameplay. With every issue, you can expect provocative opinion columns, a broad selection of new stories and witty features.

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"Holy crap that news paper bulletin is cool!" - World War 3 America
"Which rival service are we crushing next?" - Frattastan
"The best newspaper in NS" - Alexej III
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Voted best foreign newspaper in Lazarus! (2014)

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Issues

Issue I. January 27, 2013.
Issue II. February 12, 2013.
Issue III. March 16, 2013.
Issue IV. March 28, 2013.
Issue V. April 6, 2013.
Issue VI. April 8, 2013.
Issue VII. August 19, 2013.
Issue VIII. August 31, 2013.
Issue IX. December 12, 2013.
Issue X. December 25, 2013.
Issue XI. January 7, 2014.
Issue XII. January 12, 2014.
Issue XIII. January 26, 2014.
Issue XIV. February 11, 2014.
Issue XV. February 26, 2014.
Issue XVI. March 8, 2014.
Issue XVII. March 22, 2014.
Issue XVIII. April 14, 2014.
Issue XIX. May 04, 2014.
Issue XX. May 19, 2014.
Issue XXI. June 01, 2014.
Issue XXII. June 12, 2014.
Issue XXIII. June 26, 2014.
Issue XXIV. July 07, 2014.
Issue XXV. July 25, 2014.
Issue XXVI. August 13, 2014.
Issue XXVII. August 28, 2014.
Issue XXVIII. September 19, 2014.
Issue XXIX. October 08, 2014.
Issue XXX. October 30, 2014.
Issue XXXI. January 04, 2015.
Issue XXXII. January 23, 2015.
Issue XXXIII. February 15, 2015.
Issue XXXIV. March 10, 2015.
Issue XXXV. April 01, 2015.
Issue XXXVI. April 11, 2015.
Issue XXXVII. April 28, 2015.
Issue XXXVIII. May 20, 2015.
Issue XXXIX. October 25, 2015. [Attempted rebranding]
Issue XL. May 26, 2017. [Also considered a Special Release]
Issue XLI. January 23, 2017.
Issue XLII. December 29, 2017 (dispatch).
Issue XLIII. March 1, 2018 (dispatch).
Issue XLIV. May 16, 2018 (dispatch).
Issue XLIX. February 14, 2019
Issue L. March 31, 2019 (dispatch).
Issue LI. May 01, 2019 (dispatch).
Issue LII. June 01, 2019 (dispatch).
Issue LIII. August 01, 2019 (dispatch).
Issue LIV. October 12, 2019 (dispatch).
Issue LV. January 20, 2020 (dispatch).
Issue LVI. March 8, 2020 (dispatch).
Issue LVII. May 26, 2020 (dispatch).

Special Releases

An Interview with Venico. December 10, 2013.
Biyah banned from Osiris. December 10, 2013.
The Rejected Realms: Worst Forum Skins in NS History! January 6, 2014.
Glen-Rhodes elected as MoFA in tight race! January 12, 2014.
Profiting from the War on Nazis. January 16, 2014.
Slavia Freed! February 21, 2014.
Auralia banned from the WA - multied to self-commend! March 2, 2014.
Milograd Resigns! Lazarus goes to the Polls. March 4, 2014.
Election Fever: Friendship and Cooperation 2.0 - With Hileville! March 18, 2014.
Forum Administration Shake-Up Causes Controversy. March 21, 2014.
Hileville accuses Belschaft of Fraud and Defamation. March 23, 2014.
The Rejected Realms has a New Delegate! April 29, 2014.
“Extra omnes!”: Possible New Conclave for the UDL? May 05, 2014.
Springtime for Wintreath [Interview with Wintermoot]. May 09, 2014.
The Beige Regime takes Command. May 11, 2014.
Liberal Haven: Behind the Scenes. May 14, 2014.
Liberate Hogwarts Passes Narrowly. May 31, 2014.
Election Fever: Lazarus Elections Coverage - With Milograd! June 08, 2014.
Paint it Orange. June 14, 2014.
Lazarus Elects Funkadelia as New Chairman. June 15, 2014.
Unofficial Results Project A Ramaeus Win. June 29, 2014.
Rising Stars and Old Friends: Chanku and 1 Infinite Loop Interviewed. July 01, 2014.
The 25th Edition - Coming soon ... July 14, 2014.
Rising Stars and Old Friends: Applebania and Crazy Girl Interviewed. July 16, 2014.
Austria Freed. July 20, 2014.
Frak destroys LWU Forum. July 28, 2014.
New Motto and New Officers for TRR. August 01, 2014.
Balder Queen Dismisses Government. August 02, 2014.
Weird Laws of NationStates. August 04, 2014.
Rising Stars and Old Friends: District XIV and The Bruce Interviewed! August 16, 2014.
"Back to School" for NS Universities? August 19, 2014.
War between Osiris and Lazarus Motioned. August 24, 2014.
Ranking the GCRs; The Overall Perceptions Index. September 23, 2014.
Radical Leadership Changeover in Lazarus. September 29, 2014.
Lazarus: You’ve Been “Funk’d”! Lazarus-Osiris pursue a Peace Deal. September 29, 2014.
Funkadelia announces his intent to resign. October 13, 2014.
Attempted Liberation of Coalition of Catholic States. October 22, 2014.
A Consensus Reached: Down with Independentism. October 22, 2014.
A Smooth Rejectmas For Everyone! December 26, 2014.
Public Service Announcement: Who Killed Kandarin. December 28, 2014.
Belschaft declared "Security Threat" by TSP Cabinet. Feburary 19, 2015.
Oh, The Places You’ll Go! 3 Possibilities for a Future TWP. March 05, 2015.
Coffee with Darkesia. March 14, 2015.
Five Possibilities for 'Mod March'. March 21, 2015.
Caught in Political Limbo: TSP’s Forum Troubles. April 04, 2015.
Former NPO Senator Elegarth Speaks Out!. April 16, 2015.
Kazmr on the Lazarus Liberation. April 22, 2015.
Tomb Resigns as TNP Delegate. May 13, 2015.
Eluvatar elected as TNP Delegate in a very Special Election. May 27, 2015.
Epilepsy Awareness Month. December 1, 2017.
Liberating Iran: A Long Time in the Making. January 25, 2018 (dispatch).
Winter 2018's NationStates World Arts Fair Coverage. January 29, 2018 (dispatch).
RRA Recruitment Poster Competition. March 10, 2018 (dispatch).
Marilyn Manson's TRR Officer Resignation. March 10, 2018 (dispatch).
The Wolfist Dominion of Lazarus Exposed. March 16, 2018 (dispatch).
Lazarus Reborn: Undead Have Flatlined. April 23, 2018 (dispatch).
Remembering the Dead Mongrels. April 23, 2018 (dispatch).
An Outsider's Perspective on Catalyse's Resignation. May 21, 2018 (dispatch).
TRR's Journey Ahead. June 07, 2018 (dispatch).
21st Century Ghost(fox): An Interview with Lynxi, Soon-to-be Pharaoh of Osiris. March 31, 2019 (dispatch).
Is The South Pacific Ready to Embrace Defending? June 28, 2019 (dispatch).

Rejected Radio

Coming Soon to a June Near You. May 31, 2015.
2015 Special June Broadcast: 'To Play Interview A King'. June 02, 2015.
A Conversation with Anabelle, the Newly Ascended Pharaoh of Osiris
Pride Month with Tinfect & Wintermoot

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Discuss The Rejected Times over on the NationStates forum here.

[The Church of Satan]

Was it really necessary to quote the OP to say you enjoyed reading TRT? In it's entirety no less? Just sayin'.