NationStates

There is some precedent for the "Centrally Planned Regional Economy" idea. Lazarus was quite keen on iron production during the PRL years and had an unusually high position in the World Census for something metal related - arms manufacturing or mining or something like that.

I had had this silly idea that there could be a market economy for the GCRs that they could participate in. And their would be a "basket of goods" that related to inflation, price parity and trade.

Obviously I never really fleshed the idea out further....

TNP - Rum
TRR - Coffee, Clementine, Smoked Meat, Ink
Lazarus - Iron (at the time)
TSP - Pineapple
TWP - Chocolate
TP -
TEP - Baked goods, Flour, Nylon
Osiris -
Balder -

TSPs exports would be SPIT, llamas and lampshades and no-one would value them as much as we do - which would stymy the export market entirely.

I am reliably informed that rum is OUT and cachaca is IN in TNP and Osiris would presumably produce bandages and little else

Numero Capitan wrote:TSPs exports would be SPIT, llamas and lampshades and no-one would value them as much as we do - which would stymy the export market entirely.

I am reliably informed that rum is OUT and cachaca is IN in TNP and Osiris would presumably produce bandages and little else

On the contrary, llamas and lampshades means wool, lamps, and lighting fittings. (Coconut and palms would also be a TSP produce, I would think.)

Wool & Lamps (and Palm Wax!) suggests that TSP would likely benefit from a trading relationship with a colder, darker community with limited daylight. Like TNP and TRR.

I also think Rum/Cachaca suggests extensive trade to TSP too. Sugarcane and Oak are both more of a southern commodity. This suggests TSP is a developing economy that exports raw natural resources and TNP is a developed economy that produces rum and cachaca. Alcohol rates increase with cold/darkness, so incidentally the best market for TNP's top commodity would be domestic (+TRR).

Osiris probably has a fuck-ton of O-I-L, let's be honest. Being a "rentier state" suffering from a "resource curse" explains its turbulent history, regime instability, and past maladministration. Osiris is Egyptian theme, it's a sweltering desert sitting on crude and gas. Throw in some textiles and linens for good measure.

For Lazarus, I'm thinking a mineral economy - EMERALD, IRON, METEORITE etc. Most of its regional themes have dealt with minerals, rock, earth. That also helps to explain it's political instability as a resource-rich, developing country.

With TEP, my mind gravitates to the original Loop era symbol -- wheat symbolizes its agricultural produce (wheat, barley, flour, grains) as the breadbasket of the world; masonic symbols suggests a masonic culture, perhaps there is an active internal and external construction industry. Flour dovetails nicely with TEP's obsession with cake.

I see TNP (Northern) and Balder (Nordic) as northern port cities, centres of commerce. Fishing. More developed economies. And TRR would be more desolate (as Max Barry implied), Siberia-esque -- reliant on its meat/poultry exports (BBQ) and its creative industries (journalism). Perhaps NPO would have a flourishing arms industry like Russia.

I've decided to revive an old idea I had, thanks to your thread. It's based on the show Big Brother. The idea is something like this:

Nations arrive in the region. Region gets locked with a password and everyone must join WA for short period, a day or two, to verify one nation per player. Then based on the daily NS stat rankings, 1st place is awarded the Head of Household position and nominates 2 nations for eviction. Still working out how to do the veto competition, but then the remaining nations, minus the HoH and nominees cast secret votes by telegram to evict 1 nation. Nation voted for eviction gets ejected to TRR and the game continues until 2 players are left. Some of the last to be evicted would then constitute a jury to select the winner.

Thoughts or interest on the idea?

Julie Chen wrote:I've decided to revive an old idea I had, thanks to your thread. It's based on the show Big Brother. The idea is something like this:

Nations arrive in the region. Region gets locked with a password and everyone must join WA for short period, a day or two, to verify one nation per player. Then based on the daily NS stat rankings, 1st place is awarded the Head of Household position and nominates 2 nations for eviction. Still working out how to do the veto competition, but then the remaining nations, minus the HoH and nominees cast secret votes by telegram to evict 1 nation. Nation voted for eviction gets ejected to TRR and the game continues until 2 players are left. Some of the last to be evicted would then constitute a jury to select the winner.

Thoughts or interest on the idea?

I had something similar to this, but it was more role play based amd more danganronpa inspired. Basically after someone were to be “killed” they would be banned from the region, similarly if the one who killed the victim was caught or the non victims who just the wrong killer, would be “executed” and banned as well.

Julie Chen wrote:I've decided to revive an old idea I had, thanks to your thread. It's based on the show Big Brother. The idea is something like this:

Nations arrive in the region. Region gets locked with a password and everyone must join WA for short period, a day or two, to verify one nation per player. Then based on the daily NS stat rankings, 1st place is awarded the Head of Household position and nominates 2 nations for eviction. Still working out how to do the veto competition, but then the remaining nations, minus the HoH and nominees cast secret votes by telegram to evict 1 nation. Nation voted for eviction gets ejected to TRR and the game continues until 2 players are left. Some of the last to be evicted would then constitute a jury to select the winner.

Thoughts or interest on the idea?

There was an earlier version of this, where NS-UN membership (So, it was a LOT earlier...) wasn't necessary and it was simply a matter of the Founder expelling whichever nation had the lowest surveyed ranking each day... Oh, and IIRC all of the nations involved had to be new ones. It was run in a specially-created region, organised by the government of Equilism, IIRC. One of my own puppets, now currently CTEd, was created for it.

Bears Armed wrote:

Julie Chen wrote:I've decided to revive an old idea I had, thanks to your thread. It's based on the show Big Brother. The idea is something like this:

Nations arrive in the region. Region gets locked with a password and everyone must join WA for short period, a day or two, to verify one nation per player. Then based on the daily NS stat rankings, 1st place is awarded the Head of Household position and nominates 2 nations for eviction. Still working out how to do the veto competition, but then the remaining nations, minus the HoH and nominees cast secret votes by telegram to evict 1 nation. Nation voted for eviction gets ejected to TRR and the game continues until 2 players are left. Some of the last to be evicted would then constitute a jury to select the winner.

Thoughts or interest on the idea?

There was an earlier version of this, where NS-UN membership (So, it was a LOT earlier...) wasn't necessary and it was simply a matter of the Founder expelling whichever nation had the lowest surveyed ranking each day... Oh, and IIRC all of the nations involved had to be new ones. It was run in a specially-created region, organised by the government of Equilism, IIRC. One of my own puppets, now currently CTEd, was created for it.

That still happens, we ran one a few months ago and other GCRs have ran similar (TSP comes to mind)

Lyrical International Brigade wrote:This is interesting! I'm reading this thread for the first time now and feel I should point out that Anarchy implements most elements of your Peacezone Theory: no bannings or ejections, ROs are simply custodians of their tools, and the delegate almost never votes on WA resolutions. I think the last time they did was when I was delegate three years ago, due to my heavy GA involvement.

We break with the theory as you outlined it in that our WFE is obviously not neutral and we tend to reject embassies from 1) virulent opponents of our little group of ideologies and 2) largely shitposting regions or embassy collectors. Those aren't rigid policies, though - these are the results of community decisions or administrative acts about which nobody has spoken up to complain about or disagree with. And other than after a raid, we do not seek out or request embassies ourselves (again, if the community wanted to, we would).

It might be interesting to see the full implementation in some region, but you'd need good recruiting to make it so in an active way and not just "this region is empty and/or puppets."

True Peacezone Theory is an ideal to compare against, because its admittedly very boring. I think the general principles are worthwhile, that powers should available to all or not at all. It just tends to not being empowered to do anything since its difficult to have a way to share power equally. Allowing everyone to do anything at once rapidly descends in chaos.

My workaround is a sortition or rotational delegate system, where everyone randomly gets turns at being delegate (or defacto delegate, since the in-game spot is just a placeholder to carry out pressing buttons) but people can trade with each other which week they want to be delegate. People still get to do something while it all balances out in the end.

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Of my list, I think 'Centrally Planned Regional Economy' and 'Regional Policy on answering issues' are the easiest ideas to adopt by most regions without completely restructuring their region. Maybe it's time I participated in large region again to bring it about.

That sounds a bit like the Global Right Alliance's old "Rotatorship" from 2009ish, which was the most fun form of government I've experienced in NS. It was primarily offsite (it was way before Regional Officers) but was essentially "everyone's a dictator for a week" with almost unlimited powers save the ability to change the Rotatorship system.

It only lasted a few weeks until a Communist themed regime gulaged most its opponents for a while week, but would translate well to a gameside version based aaround ROs. Diplomacy with a Rotatorship major region would be a blast.

Sedgistan wrote:That sounds a bit like the Global Right Alliance's old "Rotatorship" from 2009ish, which was the most fun form of government I've experienced in NS. It was primarily offsite (it was way before Regional Officers) but was essentially "everyone's a dictator for a week" with almost unlimited powers save the ability to change the Rotatorship system.

It only lasted a few weeks until a Communist themed regime gulaged most its opponents for a while week, but would translate well to a gameside version based aaround ROs. Diplomacy with a Rotatorship major region would be a blast.

The Rotatorship was awesome

Found another idea I once posted in Neutral Ground. Moving it here for posterity as it was the most ridiculous idea for a region I ever had.

Region which celebrates 2nd place!
(Original Discussion)

Looking for a 2nd home? 2nd Place!
Some where you'll get a 2nd chance? 2nd Place!

"2nd Place" is a region that is a celebration of all those who came 2nd. In this region, instead of seeing the 2nd placed finisher considered the first loser, they are recognised the actual winner!

Rules:

The Delegate is Non Executive: As the 1st placed finisher, they get a (mostly) useless position.

The 2nd most endorsements will be made the Vice-Delegate Officer with all the executive powers. They are the real winners!

If we want extend this to the point of insanity...

Other officers will be made up of:

The person with the 2nd most number of epic cards, as Epics are the 2nd highest rank!

The person with the 2nd most number of badges of the 2nd tier (5% green) rank!

And for every 2nd week for a 2 week term, an officer will be made for the 2nd ranked person in the daily census 2 days ago! But we shall have term limits so that no one can have more than a 2nd term! Until everyone else has had a 2nd term.

In 2nd Place, it shall have polls, but the we will only record the 2nd highest result as the winner!

Our discussions will feature the stories of all those who came 2nd - In sports, in art, etc...a reminder that just because someone is 2nd in something doesn't mean their effort has gone to waste. 2nd Place will give 2nd placed finishers all the love they deserve!

The idea could also work for rewarding 1st place, but '2nd Place' is more appropriate as I suspect such a region would be someone's 2nd region and not their main - '2nd Place' for the 2nd region for everyone!

I like the idea of everyone fighting over second place in a badge. It would make it a lot harder.

I’m interested in that rotational delegate concept. I like the idea of a region where everyone has the chance to eventually become WA delegate and have that NS experience for at least a little while. I think it would be especially effective if nations that have already served as delegates can’t be selected again unless all available candidates have gone before.

And I really like the idea of it being an autocratic form of randomness, with the WA delegate able to do whatever they wanted with the region and reshape it as they see fit. I imagine they just wouldn’t be able to ban and eject nations so as not to ruin the fairness.

Does a region built along those lines currently exist?

The first Galactic Republic wrote:I’m interested in that rotational delegate concept. I like the idea of a region where everyone has the chance to eventually become WA delegate and have that NS experience for at least a little while. I think it would be especially effective if nations that have already served as delegates can’t be selected again unless all available candidates have gone before.

And I really like the idea of it being an autocratic form of randomness, with the WA delegate able to do whatever they wanted with the region and reshape it as they see fit. I imagine they just wouldn’t be able to ban and eject nations so as not to ruin the fairness.

Does a region built along those lines currently exist?

Hi, I didn't see this until now. I don't know of any region that does this at the moment. There's quite a bit of logistical issues switching delegates all the time, or if you're sticking to one in-game delegate, trusting the delegate to follow the instructions of the 'real' delegate.

The objective for the rotational delegate concept is to offer safeguards for minority opinions and pet causes. It might better made if we kept delegate elections as normal (and delegate being allowed to do whatever they like), but simply give everyone 2 vetos per month that they can save or use. So that when an issue really important to one person comes up (e.g. A resolution on abortion in the General Assembly), they can use the veto to force the region vote a particular way, whereas in simple majority voting it would never happen. The limited number of vetos mades the person has to consider whether it is worth it to use.