The Rejected Times

[Captain Albert Alexander Hamilton]

I have one objection. You didn't make them all Zaolat.

Otherwise, this was beautiful.

EDIT: oh god, this was the wrong thread. Oops.

[Glacikaldr]

Just want to reiterate that everyone did an amazing job getting this issue together. A big thank you to all from the Media Department and thank you to all who enjoyed or gained villainous intelligence from our hard work

[Corinthes Phoenix]

Oh holy crap. Carinthe. That's a name I haven't heard in forever.

Here's a blast from the past then

[Fratt]

Oh holy crap. Carinthe. That's a name I haven't heard in forever.

Here's a blast from the past then

That nation doesn't count, sorry.

[Drop Your Pants]

That nation doesn't count, sorry.

It's the closest I could get I might be able to drag some old TYWers from that time into the light for a brief chat before they fall apart.

[Marilyn Manson Freaks]

I forgot Nai's gender.

[Escade]

This was a great read and some nice touches of humor as well

[Glacikaldr]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Liberating Iran: A Long Time in the Making
SPECIAL RELEASE | WRITTEN BY Glacikaldr | EDITED BY TRT STAFF


All eyes are on the tense situation emerging in Iran.

With the stage set for a major liberation, we sit down with Iramerica, a native of Iran, and Feux, the author of the current "Liberate Iran" proposal in the process of being voted upon within the World Assembly Security Council, to discuss the future of the region.

At of the time of publication, Iran sits as a backwater passlocked region. Its small, negligible population, undergoing the slow drooling process of whittling away with the sands of time. Eighteen quiet souls still remain, observing a World Factbook Entry that instructs the residents to endorse nations that no longer exist. Meanwhile, the last post on the Regional Message Board, more than three years old, asks if anyone knows the region's password. Evidently not. The answer, or lack thereof, of which that query received says all you need to know about the situation in which Iran currently finds itself: griefed in a matter that can only be described as cold, calculating, and severe.

Cue to the Security Council, where voters now sit deciding on the fate of its latest proposal, "Liberate Iran". The proposal, written by former New Pacific Order (NPO) Senator Feux, hopes to remove the password locking out natives and prospective nations of Iran. Its snappy prose tells the story of how Iran was systemically invaded over the course of a year from the first appearance of dubious new residents, Gharechi and Persepolis the great, to the banjection of key natives, followed by their subsequent alteration of the region's password. It's a complicated story to follow as invasion go, but one reminiscent of the Persian Empire's occupation of Greece.

"I took up the proposal idea because I was appointed the [NPO]'s WA Squad leader." Feux tells the Rejected Times, "I was putting together a list of proposals that we could do as a team and Liberate Iran came at the top of the list." Feux also went on to say the potential for renewal in an otherwise dead region attracted him to Iran's case.

Now, you might be wondering to yourself, how could an occupation like Iran's have continued for so long without attracting international attention? After all, three years is a long time, no? Well, in all likelihood, the subtlety of the raid probably kept it off the radar of most defenders, many of whom are used to spotting for something a little more conventional.

However, one Iranian native and former delegate, Iramerica, actually did submit a WA Liberation at the time. Tragically though, the proposal was culled for rules violations and no one followed up on Iramerica's concerns - until now. Iramerica, who has been a resident of the Rejected Realms since his banjection from Iran, has lent his support for Feux's proposal.

"After a long time, finally some good people are helping us take back our region,” Iramerica tells a reporter over lunch at Kandarin's famous BBQ & Grill, “I tried hard before to [liberate Iran] but unfortunately I could not do it on my own. I was Iran’s WA delegate and I tried to do my best to serve the region and its residents. I tried to make every single nation feel involved in our decisions." He also spoke about the importance of a region’s security and freedom as well as, of course, its allies.

"I hope I will be able to move back to my region, Iran, and build that ancient region again," says Iramerica with inspiring determination, "I am absolutely thinking positive about the region."

Currently, the vote is strongly in the proposal’s favour and it seems certain to pass at this point in time. Looming on the minds of many gameplayers, however, is the potential for a firefight to break out. When voting closes for "Liberate Iran" at 05:00 GMT on the 26th of January, 2018, the WA Liberation will come into effect, removing the region's password immediately. While this will surely leave behind a very stable resolution, it will also leave approximately half an hour until Iran itself updates. To a raider and a defender, this means a half an hour window to organise and pile military forces into Iran, a region currently under the public spotlight.

One of the major questions of the day is whether the NPO, who sponsored the resolution into existence, will pile into Iran. If so, will the NPO align with either the defender or raider forces, or will NPO refuse to cooperate and pile in as a third party? The mission's lead nation will be of particular concern. An operation like the one Iran's situation demands could turn out to be very long term before establishing a lead delegate. For defenders, it's important the lead nation can be trusted to have Iran's best interests in mind. For the NPO, Iran is as good an opportunity as any to demonstrate the full power of the Pacifican Legion. Failure to cooperate, however, could give the advantage to raider forces. As an aside, The Rejected Times wishes to give a general warning to our region's defender army, the Rejected Realms Army, of which will surely be featured on the front lines: they'll be watching our every move.

Returning to the resolution's author, Feux is hopeful for Iran's future, but also anticipates a long road ahead until the region is stabilised. "There will be raids," concedes Feux, "[but] there will [also] be defending operations. [And] It is important the liberation stays in place so a community can take root."

At this time, there remains a lot of uncertainty, all across the international community, as to how events will unfold when Iran's password is removed. Launched from desolation to centre-stage, it seems inevitable that Iran will soon play host to a dramatic confrontation. Stay tuned for Friday, and expect a rough reentry.

[Glacikaldr]

Hey, Deputy Media Officer for the Rejected Realms here!

I'm proud to announce TRT's new Subscription Service:

"The TRT Staff bring to you, our dear readers, a subscription service to The Rejected Times. Subscribing to this service will sign your nation up for a telegram whenever TRT releases a new publication, with the option to only receive TRT issues."

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support!

[Vulturret]

Hey, Deputy Media Officer for the Rejected Realms here!

I'm proud to announce TRT's new Subscription Service:

"The TRT Staff bring to you, our dear readers, a subscription service to The Rejected Times. Subscribing to this service will sign your nation up for a telegram whenever TRT releases a new publication, with the option to only receive TRT issues."

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support!

Cool, great to see y'all expanding your horizons to fancy subscription-based services. I'll be sure to subscribe!

[Marilyn Manson Freaks]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[Glacikaldr]

We're doers and pleasers at the same time!

[Glacikaldr]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Winter 2018's NationStates World Arts Fair Coverage
SPECIAL RELEASE | WRITTEN BY Glacikaldr | EDITED BY Marilyn Manson Freaks

The Rejected Times comes to you, our dear reader, after being honoured with VIP access into Winter 2018’s NationStates World Arts Fair, running from the 26th to the 29th of January, 2018. We were guided around the showgrounds hosted in The South Pacific by Security Officer Dixadoing, an officer of the Renegade Islands Alliance whose Cultural Branch organises and supervises these fairs.

Dixadoing was happy to report to us that Winter 2018 has seen an increase in the festival’s participation, saying that "It's been a fun journey… [and] I believe that this fair has had a bit more publication and advertising than the last." The World Arts Fair, or WAF for short, due to still being a relatively new endeavour, credits hosting the event elsewhere and receiving external support as being a huge contributing factor to the festival’s current success. "We have several people dedicated to dispatching notices to many, many regions across NS, and I personally have spammed many of your regions, nations and RMBs… Lesson: getting the word out there actually works. Learned." Dixadoing told us, as she went on to agree that the event has now been set up with longevity in mind. The Fair, ever open to additional volunteers and judges prior to its conclusion, prides itself on rating the quality of art in the three major categories of visual, performance and writing, now also including a separate category for fan-fiction writing. These categories are broken down into three well-organised days as well as an additional day for the judges to convene while a celebration of all forms of art takes place. Nevertheless, the submission form will remain open for all visual arts, writing, performance and song submissions until the very end of the festival, with Dixadoing noting that, "the fair is always changing and evolving."

The first day of the event, on the 26th, titled, "All the World's a Stage", saw the bulk of performance based entries being submitted. A karaoke contest was also hosted over on the World Arts Fair’s Discord Server. On the 27th, "Worth a Thousand Words" saw the majority of visual art submissions, including but not limited to drawings, photographs, flags and abstract art. Additionally, games of DrawThis were also facilitated on that day. New participants have today’s "The Mighty Pen" to look forward to, with writing submissions accepting a wide range of genres such as prose, poetry and non-fiction, as well as a new separate fan-fiction category. Bots have also been added to the discord server, leading to speculation that "Trivia#0005" will be used to run a trivia competition throughout the day alongside a funny haiku challenge. Finally, the festival will conclude with an "Awards Ceremony" day, but do not fret as celebratory games will continue while the judges "convene and decide which winners will reign until the next fair". These games will include Cards Against Humanity, most likely the NationStates version, to keep the blood boiling as the results start to roll out.

Dixadoing also expressed her support for the positive influence the fairs have been having on other events hosting all around NationStates, firmly believing that, "they set a wonderful example of a successful cultural celebration that includes everyone. I’m thrilled that something like the WAF, being as small and new as it is, would be influential enough to integrate cross-festival activities. Those involved in [increasing activity across all events in NationStates] are innovative, creative, and constantly thinking about how to make... events better and I’m delighted to be involved with [this endeavour]." The 'Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends: Year One' event, hosted by The South Pacific and 10000 Islands, is an example of communities working together to produce something for the entirety of the NationStates community. This event is currently in the process of coming to a natural conclusion with its final Yule Ball RP and WereWolf threads over on XKi’s forum, while discord participants grow bitter with the most recent news that Slytherin won the House cup this year. Alongside the event notably seeing large involvement across the NationStates community, it has even advertised the start of Winter 2018’s World Arts Fair as well as increasing its fan-fiction submissions through the Golden Snitch Writing Game. Together, these two events have contributed much to a cosmopolitan framework and sense of interregional community in NationStates. "[These events are] another example of the creativeness and inventiveness of our NS players." Yet, for now, we look forward to see who the WAF judges, including the prominent NationStates players Flow, CoS, Siege, Seraph, Omega, MM, Mattie and Glacikaldr, decide are the winners of each of the four categories.

Dixadoing, in conclusion, reinforced that, "the RIAs goal is to host, or facilitate, in the case of another region hosting, the WAF biannually to open up a cultural window to players in NS, particularly those in the r/d game. Ideally, this provides more people more opportunities to submit their work and share with the NS world. As many people have pointed out in the last few days, this can also be a way to create some [artistic] guilds that would use the WAF as a goal for competition." TRT Staff were also told to redirect all our readers who were interested in Winter 2018’s NationStates World Arts Fair to the welcoming dispatch made by our friend Dixadoing, alongside the World Arts Fair’s Discord Server. We hope you can all make it to the finale of the festival and even make some last minute submissions!

[Escade]

This is an excellent article and really speaks to this positive trend of players and regions working towards cultural and creative events that are open to a wide variety of player and spheres. These events are really about showcasing and providing support to NSers in enjoying the fandoms, games, socializing and\or creative pursuits that we love and engage in with fellow NSers.

I really loved the Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends: Year One event because of how many people said they got to meet new people and how many wanted to make sure the Discord stayed up so they could still nerd out over the fandom and play games with new friends. We also tried a Wolfia bot that was subpar in comparison to the TRR Werewolf bot and so many HP Festival attendees followed friends there to engage in WW. I think they've hit 15+ players recently which is amazing and chaotic but totally fun!

I'm also so excited about World Art Fair because it celebrates and cherishes our artists, singers, performers, and writers but also encourages people who have always wanted to try these things to do so. Please watch out for creative arts groups forming that will actually help creative people work together on projects, get feedback and then showcase their work to the larger community!

<3

[Glacikaldr]

This is an excellent article and really speaks to this positive trend of players and regions working towards cultural and creative events that are open to a wide variety of player and spheres. These events are really about showcasing and providing support to NSers in enjoying the fandoms, games, socializing and\or creative pursuits that we love and engage in with fellow NSers.

I really loved the Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends: Year One event because of how many people said they got to meet new people and how many wanted to make sure the Discord stayed up so they could still nerd out over the fandom and play games with new friends. We also tried a Wolfia bot that was subpar in comparison to the TRR Werewolf bot and so many HP Festival attendees followed friends there to engage in WW. I think they've hit 15+ players recently which is amazing and chaotic but totally fun!

I'm also so excited about World Art Fair because it celebrates and cherishes our artists, singers, performers, and writers but also encourages people who have always wanted to try these things to do so. Please watch out for creative arts groups forming that will actually help creative people work together on projects, get feedback and then showcase their work to the larger community!

<3

Thank you very much for the kind words! I'm sure RIA and your region (TSP) appreciates them too.

The engagement over at TRR's WW bot is amazing right now, and we really do have whoever programmed the Wolfia bot to thank! But, on a serious note, I used to do singing a lot in high school, and I'd probably love getting involved in a creative arts group as soon I stop being scared of all of you. <3

Thank you for enjoying the article, as well as these amazing events (and supplying us with them)!

P.S. Sorry about 'NSWAP' - I guess with all the excitement around these events we thought it was a more so of a party than a fair (I also referred to Dixadoing with the wrong gender pronouns out of inattention initially, but let's forget about that one)!
We'll get it fixed once we can poke the anonymous nation enough for it to wake up

[The Grim Reaper]

we really do have whoever programmed the Wolfia bot to thank!

FTR the bot used in the TRR server is the 'Discord-Werewolf' bot by belguawhale (GitHub), in Python. Wolfia bot uses external Discord servers and a centralized bot so I don't recommend it for NS use. Discord-Werewolf does direct DMs for the functions by which Wolfia Bot uses its own server, and has to be run per instance.

[Marilyn Manson Freaks]

I'm enjoying my time as judge this year.

There are a lot of cool submissions, however we need more! If you have anything you'd like to submit, we'd be happy to judge it!

[The Church of Satan]

There are indeed some good submissions! I really have enjoyed them. ^_^

[Escade]

we really do have whoever programmed the Wolfia bot to thank!

FTR the bot used in the TRR server is the 'Discord-Werewolf' bot by belguawhale (GitHub), in Python. Wolfia bot uses external Discord servers and a centralized bot so I don't recommend it for NS use. Discord-Werewolf does direct DMs for the functions by which Wolfia Bot uses its own server, and has to be run per instance.

Basically, the TRR bot even if made of beluga whales and pythons is epic and really fun. Now I just need to be able to play wolf without crashing and burning!

<3 TRR

[Glacikaldr]

Dear Reader,

We are happy to announce that Game Created Region opinion polling will be returning. The last ranking survey was open to the public back in 2014, and now, in 2018, we will be able to examine just how much opinions on GCRs have shifted.

We welcome any and all readers of The Rejected Times to take part in The Overall Perceptions Index (2018), of which can be accessed here.

Yours diligently,
TRT Staff

[Lilith Yuno]

(Image)

(Image)

Dear Reader,

We are happy to announce that Game Created Region opinion polling will be returning. The last ranking survey was open to the public back in 2014, and now, in 2018, we will be able to examine just how much opinions on GCRs have shifted.

We welcome any and all readers of The Rejected Times to take part in The Overall Perceptions Index (2018), of which can be accessed here.

Yours diligently,
TRT Staff

(Image)

I answered the survey ^_^
It was rly fun

[Glacikaldr]

I answered the survey ^_^
It was rly fun

Thank you very much!

[RiderSyl]

Fun survey.

[Glacikaldr]

We're looking at releasing the results as a Special Release soon and then doing an Opinion Article about it in the next issue, featuring our interpretations of the subjective data. We'll see though, if the issue is ready in February then we'll consider releasing it all in the issue.

[Glacikaldr]

Just letting everyone know that the survey is now closed, thank you for your participation and you can expect the article to be a feature in the new issue that will be published shortly!