World Changers: The World of NS is Changing Forever

[Saintland]

World Changers

Changing NS Forever

If you've clicked on this thread, you are probably wondering who the World Changers are and what they are about. Maybe (if you are participating in the currently ongoing 65th World Cup), you've seen the cryptic messages in my signature over the past few weeks leading up to today. Maybe you haven't and have just stumbled upon this thread because the title sounds interesting. Either way, you're in the right place.

The World Changers are a region that has 2 very distinct goals. We wish to expand the political diversity of NationStates. We seek to end the dominance of center-left social democrats in the World Assembly and produce international law that reflects a broad range of political opinion instead of a monolithic and stifling Orthodoxy. For too long, NationStates has been dominated by that Orthodoxy, which also dominates most developed nations in RL. Those that reject the Orthodoxy have largely thrown up their hands in despair and given up hope that they can do anything about it. But, we can and we will bring the Orthodoxy's reign of terror to an end.

Yes, you say. The Orthodoxy is a problem on NationStates, but what is the other goal of World Changers? We want to fully experience all aspects of NationStates. We reject the dichotomy between "Roleplay" and "Gameplay." In World Changers, we seek to be both "Roleplayers" and "Gameplayers." We will be everywhere on NationStates and it will soon be impossible for anybody to fail to notice us.

World Changers are NS RPers, II RPers, GE&T RPers and Sports RPers. We will be active in all of the RP forums and will be noticed. We will have our own regional RPs, but we will also RP with others outside of the region. We will have our own regional sports championships, but we are also active in the world championships, such as the World Cup and the Olympics, as well.

But, we are not just a roleplay region. We are also gameplayers. Our WA delegate spot is open to whoever can secure the largest number of endorsements. It is non-executive, so we do not have to worry about rogue delegates. We are also both Invaders and Defenders. We don't believe in invasion for the sake of invasion, nor do we believe in defending for the sake of defending. Instead, we believe in defending regions that oppose the Orthodoxy and we have no problem assisting the invaders when they invade a region that is part of the Orthodoxy.

We do not, nor will we ever have an off-site forum or a "regional government." Since each and every one of us has signed up for NationStates and NationStates already has a forum and every region has a regional message board, off-site forums simply duplicate functions that are already performed or could be performed by the existing forums and the existing regional message board. Regional governments, besides being about as pointless as a high school student council, are a waste of time that should be spent battling the Orthodoxy. While other regions have every right to have their off-site forums and their pointless "governments," the World Changers choose to be a dictatorship focused around a common purpose. We are at war with the Orthodoxy and we do not have time to waste holding "elections" for symbolic offices.

Join the World Changers today and help end the Orthodoxy!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

[Dalimbar]

Welcome to Gameplay, friend, where dreams come to die. I suggest for your sanity that you survey the field first, and see if this is really worth it.

*Offers a bottle of something from his bar*

[Saintland]

OOC: I'm been planning this for months, ever since the Milograd movement showed me that gameplay can be turned into another kind of roleplay, but I want to do something more permanent than that turned out to be. I'll probably have a recruitment telegram done soon and new nations will soon be able to expect a recruitment telegram from me (marked as such).

[Cerian Quilor]

What Milograd Movement? You mean the Milograd Trollcoup? You mean the Milograd Complete Misrepresentation of Fact?

Moreover, its not practical to say 'we'll defend our allies' or 'we'll defend those opposed to the Orthodoxy' (and there's a vague and nebulous concept). Usually you don't know who is going to get raided until seconds before hand, if the organization is remotely competant. Moreover, given that only Founderless regions are vulnerable, your 'opposes to Orthodoxy' will be limited in the first place, since the vast majority of said founderless regions are inactive (around half have 1 person, IIRC). At most you can engage in liberations of your 'opposers of Orthodoxy', but you'll find it impossible to do on your own for years at least. And getting people to help you when you play both sides of the fence is hard to pull off, much of the time.

Additionally, again, since targets are limited to founderless regions, your ability to actually raid 'supporters of the Orthodoxy' is also limited. And since troops without practice will not succeed much of the time (Trust me, I know. And emperical evidence can be seen in the sloppy movement of large operations when you have to dredge up largely inexperienced players. The margin for error drops precipitously then.) And the best way to get the practice is to engage in what the UDL used to refer to 'arbitrary raids'. And before you bring up Warzones, trust me, from someone who raids on a regular basis, the Warzones are nothing like a live-fire exercise in a real region. The only way to train for raiding is to raid.

Moreover, its fine to say you'll have them all there, but the fact of the matter is, Roleplay requires the other people to also roleplay or else it is just trolling. There is a reason why many Gameplayers aren't already in roleplay - because they don't want to be there - and vice-versa.

What this looks like is a guy who only knows the basics about Gameplay, without having dwelt in the nitty gritty for long enough to grasp how things work. I didn't say exactly what you said when I first joined, but I did in fact sound a lot like you - idealistic, naive and huge ideas about how to reform Gameplay. Do you really think no one has had this idea before, or tried to implement these concepts before? Gameplay has existed for years and your ideas are not hard to come up with.

Moreover, the so-called Orthodoxy you describe doesn't exist. If it does, I am a direct beneficiary of it, and thus have no incentive to wish you luck.

Therefore, bad luck to you.

Also,

[SkyDip]

God, Cerian, you're such a bundle of joy.

[Cerian Quilor]

God, Cerian, you're such a bundle of joy.

What, you don't think his idea has any chance of going anywhere, do you?

[Daynor]

Good luck!

[SkyDip]

God, Cerian, you're such a bundle of joy.

What, you don't think his idea has any chance of going anywhere, do you?

No I do not. But good god man, let the man have a small glimmer of hope, why don't you?!

[Cheergirls]

Can I bake fresh apple pie for all who join?


(OOC: The OP will get it)

[Johto and Kanto]

I'm confused what this guy is saying...
My region has diversity, and does most types of RPs. I wouldn't really think it was "world changing", though.

[Cerian Quilor]

What, you don't think his idea has any chance of going anywhere, do you?

No I do not. But good god man, let the man have a small glimmer of hope, why don't you?!

Were I in his position, I'd rather have my absurd dream crushed before I waste too much time on it.

[Crazy girl]

Is this where I have to say all posts are OOC here so knock off the OOC: nonsense again?

[The North Polish Union]

Am I the only person that actually likes this idea?

EDIT: After skimming through your commentaries on the GA resolutions in from the link in your sig, I found this gem:

#27 Freedom of Assembly
This resolution grants a "right" to engage in subversive assemblies rebelling against the rightful government. Saintland condemns this resolution because rebellion against rightful government is rebellion against God.

I personally feel that the GA is a bit too liberal for my tastes, but this is raving lunacy in your part.
Please explain how rebelling against a government is "rebelling against God," and how public protest is "subversive."
I like your idea of changing the WA, but if your going to change it to some hyper-conservative dystopia, I must sincerely hope that you are stopped about halfway.

[Eist]

What do you mean by Orthodoxy? That seems to me to be as convoluted and nonsensical as Milograd's Oligarchs.

It seems to me that you are just spouting crap and hoping that it will stick. In my experience, no region has ever survived using this method. You have to know your end goals first--and you clearly don't.

[Koussath]

Am I the only person that actually likes this idea?

EDIT: After skimming through your commentaries on the GA resolutions in from the link in your sig, I found this gem:

#27 Freedom of Assembly
This resolution grants a "right" to engage in subversive assemblies rebelling against the rightful government. Saintland condemns this resolution because rebellion against rightful government is rebellion against God.

I personally feel that the GA is a bit too liberal for my tastes, but this is raving lunacy in your part.
Please explain how rebelling against a government is "rebelling against God," and how public protest is "subversive."
I like your idea of changing the WA, but if your going to change it to some hyper-conservative dystopia, I must sincerely hope that you are stopped about halfway.

Probably. Because most people know how nutbar it is.

-Cerian Quilor.

[The North Polish Union]

Am I the only person that actually likes this idea?

EDIT: After skimming through your commentaries on the GA resolutions in from the link in your sig, I found this gem:

I personally feel that the GA is a bit too liberal for my tastes, but this is raving lunacy in your part.
Please explain how rebelling against a government is "rebelling against God," and how public protest is "subversive."
I like your idea of changing the WA, but if your going to change it to some hyper-conservative dystopia, I must sincerely hope that you are stopped about halfway.

Probably. Because most people know how nutbar it is.

-Cerian Quilor.

Why thank you. Ive always been proud to be a nut.

I don't like that way this guys trying to change the WA, I just like the idea of changing the WA.

But frankly, I have no idea how to do it myself. Maybe I could do the most massive WA multi in history.....

[Saintland]

EDIT: After skimming through your commentaries on the GA resolutions in from the link in your sig, I found this gem:

#27 Freedom of Assembly
This resolution grants a "right" to engage in subversive assemblies rebelling against the rightful government. Saintland condemns this resolution because rebellion against rightful government is rebellion against God.

I personally feel that the GA is a bit too liberal for my tastes, but this is raving lunacy in your part.
Please explain how rebelling against a government is "rebelling against God," and how public protest is "subversive."
I like your idea of changing the WA, but if your going to change it to some hyper-conservative dystopia, I must sincerely hope that you are stopped about halfway.

Seeing as I RP this nation as a Talibanish Christian theocracy, it kind of fits. I see World Changers as more of a coalition of nations that oppose the Orthodoxy's ideology, for whatever reasons. I don't think it is reasonable to expect that everybody within the region would see eye to eye on every proposal. I want to build a broad coalition that is against the status quo, so obviously everybody would have different points of view regarding which existing resolutions should stay and which should be repealed.

What do you mean by Orthodoxy? That seems to me to be as convoluted and nonsensical as Milograd's Oligarchs.

It seems to me that you are just spouting crap and hoping that it will stick. In my experience, no region has ever survived using this method. You have to know your end goals first--and you clearly don't.

Of course there is an Orthodoxy. While it isn't a conspiracy, it is very clear that a certain ideology dominates much of NS.

There's obviously no requirement for regional members to be active everywhere, but I want the region itself to be ubiquitous.

No I do not. But good god man, let the man have a small glimmer of hope, why don't you?!

Were I in his position, I'd rather have my absurd dream crushed before I waste too much time on it.

I don't necessarily expect to change the WA and if I accomplished that goal, it would kind of take away the region's reason for existing. Gatesville has been pushing a National Sovereignty point of view and they accomplished their goal, but they've contributed to at least 2 coups in GCRs in the last few months and are one of the largest regions. I'd call that successful. If I can build a decent sized regional community, I'll be satisfied.

Can I bake fresh apple pie for all who join?

If we get more people interested in RPing theocracies in NS Sports, your main nation will have plenty of opponents to throw apples at.

[Cerian Quilor]

I'm not talking about your WA crusade. I'm talking about the rest of your stuff.

[The Bruce]

What, you don't think his idea has any chance of going anywhere, do you?

No I do not. But good god man, let the man have a small glimmer of hope, why don't you?!

I sometimes suspect that Cerian Quilor is here to harvest the tears of young, ambitious nations.

From what Saintland is getting across in their initial post, it seems like they want to start an under-developed version of the Meritocracy, but with slightly more of a "gameplay" aspect.

I would say that's it's an unfair generalization to say that "gameplayers" don't like roleplaying. Some of the biggest names in "gameplay" have also been extensive roleplayers. Some are almost incapable of conducting any basic diplomacy without it. Not that I would ever accuse anyone named Todd McCloud of this.

What is unclear is what is this "Orthodoxy." Is it all those reflecting a left to centre view in the WA? Is it those who perpetuate regional governments that are anchored more on regional offsite forums than in the actual region? Is it anyone over the age of 21? In any case, it will be very difficult to properly organize the ambitions of this region without offsite chat room and/or forum. You can only do so much within the resources of a NationStates region (although now that messages aren't lost after they cycle off the region board, it's not as hard as it once was). It's a challenge to maintain the democracy of the region, when elections are concluded on offsite forums, and even more so on system created regions that don't have founders. For a region with a founder, it's a simple thing to make the delegacy entirely beholden to the WA votes of the NS region and not the forum, when you have the founder for security.

[Cerian Quilor]

That is so going in my Sig, Bruce.

Anyway, yes there are Gameplayers who like Roleplaying, but the majority of GPers aren't in the II/RP world. And less so in more modern generations.

[Akimonad]

Anyway, yes there are Gameplayers who like Roleplaying, but the majority of GPers aren't in the II/RP world. And less so in more modern generations.

Which is quite odd considering 'news pieces' on gameplay been wandering more and more into what could be considered roleplaying.

Anyways, this idea (which is quite original and I like a lot) seems to be largely based on an unswerving ideology, and for those, the best enemy is one that isn't well-defined. Hence, the construct of "the Orthodoxy". I think it's quite clever.

[Darkesia]

I read the first paragraph of this and went "lol wut?"

No need to read the rest.

If you would like to make a foray into GP land and grow your region, the first step is to remove the clique-ish statements about some RP event that very few GPers have even heard of. By opening with these statements you give the region the feel of being exclusively for RPers.

Now... If that's what you are after, fine. But if you are interested in trying to blend the two worlds, you need to take a more inclusive approach.

Just a little advice from the peanut gallery.

[Arius I]

World Changers

Changing NS Forever

If you've clicked on this thread, you are probably wondering who the World Changers are and what they are about. Maybe (if you are participating in the currently ongoing 65th World Cup), you've seen the cryptic messages in my signature over the past few weeks leading up to today. Maybe you haven't and have just stumbled upon this thread because the title sounds interesting. Either way, you're in the right place.

Interesting pitch, Darkesia makes a salient point about the mention of the 65th World cup being kind of out of place for the audience. Really, I find the whole message in its entirety to be something really only geared to the "Role Play Community" in how it is written and demonstrative of a lack of understanding of the "Gameplay Community" by the author as well.

The World Changers are a region that has 2 very distinct goals. We wish to expand the political diversity of NationStates. We seek to end the dominance of center-left social democrats in the World Assembly and produce international law that reflects a broad range of political opinion instead of a monolithic and stifling Orthodoxy. For too long, NationStates has been dominated by that Orthodoxy, which also dominates most developed nations in RL. Those that reject the Orthodoxy have largely thrown up their hands in despair and given up hope that they can do anything about it. But, we can and we will bring the Orthodoxy's reign of terror to an end.

This is something of a subjective point in numerous levels, ranging from the claim of bias to the extent of the bias being a "reign of terror" (not that I totally disagree, especially with respect to the Security Council, though that may just be because I pay more attention to it and care more about what it deals with since I am more of a "gameplayer"). That said, whether the bias is real or not is irrelevant I suppose since the way you framed the issue, as Akimonad touched upon, is effective enough as a socio-political device.

Yes, you say. The Orthodoxy is a problem on NationStates, but what is the other goal of World Changers? We want to fully experience all aspects of NationStates. We reject the dichotomy between "Roleplay" and "Gameplay." In World Changers, we seek to be both "Roleplayers" and "Gameplayers." We will be everywhere on NationStates and it will soon be impossible for anybody to fail to notice us.

While I might disagree with the latter line (it is really easy not to notice a place if you are out of the loop or apathetic to the world beyond your borders), I can't say I disagree with the sentiment expressed therein. I personally enjoy regions which not only have side RP stuff not tied to the main regional RP going on, but also put a RP veneer over their gameplay actions, craft elaborate and coherent backstories for their region and characters, allowing for the regional experience to be much more rich and so forth.

World Changers are NS RPers, II RPers, GE&T RPers and Sports RPers. We will be active in all of the RP forums and will be noticed. We will have our own regional RPs, but we will also RP with others outside of the region. We will have our own regional sports championships, but we are also active in the world championships, such as the World Cup and the Olympics, as well.

But, we are not just a roleplay region. We are also gameplayers. Our WA delegate spot is open to whoever can secure the largest number of endorsements. It is non-executive, so we do not have to worry about rogue delegates. We are also both Invaders and Defenders. We don't believe in invasion for the sake of invasion, nor do we believe in defending for the sake of defending. Instead, we believe in defending regions that oppose the Orthodoxy and we have no problem assisting the invaders when they invade a region that is part of the Orthodoxy.

I can appreciate this sentiment.

We do not, nor will we ever have an off-site forum or a "regional government." Since each and every one of us has signed up for NationStates and NationStates already has a forum and every region has a regional message board, off-site forums simply duplicate functions that are already performed or could be performed by the existing forums and the existing regional message board. Regional governments, besides being about as pointless as a high school student council, are a waste of time that should be spent battling the Orthodoxy. While other regions have every right to have their off-site forums and their pointless "governments," the World Changers choose to be a dictatorship focused around a common purpose. We are at war with the Orthodoxy and we do not have time to waste holding "elections" for symbolic offices.

Join the World Changers today and help end the Orthodoxy!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

And this is where you lose me. While a gameplay region can most certainly function without its own forum, they usually, via allowing for much more tailoring of services to the needs of the region and so forth, are the key to creating a truly strong gameplay region and they can also greatly benefit a role play region as well. And your dismissal of what amounts to the usual form of gameplay governments as "pointless" just solidifies a lack of understanding, or appreciation for, the gameplay side of things, which is totally fine if you want to operate a role play region, but if you are going for a hybrid of the two that kind of tune will not resonate with the gameplay crowd or help you excel in the gameplay sphere.

While it's not my cup of tea, it has some potential in various areas.

Just my two cents.

Regards,
Arius

[the Imperial Crown]

Whilst I'm sure your idea is fantastic in theory, you are essentially creating a system which will result in people headbutting each other over ideological differences.

I see a government being deadlocked due to conflicting interests of its members- the only way the region would be able to operate if it was controlled by a majority of certain types of players, something that sounds unlikely given your post.

Orthodoxy eh? I'm not entirely sure you even know what you're talking about, so I'd avoid a mess of words by trying to decipher it myself.

[Saintland]

I think I made a mistake with my original recruiting strategy of focusing on new nations and re-founded nations. I had greatly over-estimated the level of forum activity of the typical new or re-founded NS nation. If I had kept up that strategy and spent all day sending out recruitment TGs, I probably could have recruited an average of 7 nations or so a day, but I'd probably just have a large region with little or no activity and if I wanted that, I'd just create hundreds of puppets. I am currently rethinking my strategy, as I think I need a core of RPers and I will be trying to figure out a way to better target my recruiting efforts toward RP-oriented newcomers, especially nations that have the right political orientation.

But, it was never going to be easy to go out of my comfort zone and attempt to start a region, especially when I've always been focused on the RP side of NS.