Invitation to The Liberty Gala

[The Church of Satan]

I’d do my very best to spin it as a victory too.

Nothing to do with that, the North Ustaynga natives were ready to give up on NS entirely there and then. Our efforts gave them some hope but the region has never been the same since the raid and it pretty much flattened their interest in the game. Its to Nakari's credit and the efforts of those who attempted liberations that they had a chance to regroup and rebuild post-raid. They didn't have the enthusiasm to rebuild unfortunately and that community is more or less lost from the game. That not a victory at all, its deeply depressing.

The same occurred in the Iran invasion, with the long term delegate fully ready to give up on the game and let the region die. Thankfully defender efforts were more successful to support them, restore their delegacy and work with them on a refound. Iran now has the potential to become a genuine, secure community again and is making efforts to do so. Roavin and Kuriko deserve their fair share of credit for that and without their work with Iramerica that region might have become a dead shell too.

The context of the discussion was the discourse around morality and the importance of defending natives for natives sake. Those examples very much show the need for defending and the evils of invading. It's not about propaganda points and spin, its about helping people outside of r/d enjoy the game still without their experience being destroyed by r/d.

That's been my biggest beef with raiding from the moment I got involved in R/D too. People being driven from the game so a few others can get their rocks off is wrong. It's a damn shame that it still happens at all. I'd hoped that sort of thing from raiders was done for after TBR died.

[A Bloodred Moon]

Its to Nakari's credit and the efforts of those who attempted liberations that they had a chance to regroup and rebuild post-raid.

I do not recall liberation efforts getting anywhere close to being effective. I am glad to hear defenders can still find victories in the little things, however.

The same occurred in the Iran invasion, with the long term delegate fully ready to give up on the game and let the region die.

Which one, out of curiosity? Persian Empire's invasion, in... 2014? Earlier? The one in 2018, after it was only recently liberated and there were hardly any natives around?

Those examples very much show the need for defending and the evils of invading.

I suppose you could see it that way. However, the reactions to invaders' actions are beyond their control - unless, of course, flaming or baiting was involved, of which I am unaware on both occasions. Furthermore, if you are to be believed, the natives of Iran realised the way to ensure their safety from invasions. Indeed, they have taken the proper steps to protect themselves, so it would seem the raids following the liberation have not permanently affected the community, as they so rarely do.

I'd hoped that sort of thing from raiders was done for after TBR died.

You are a few years late realising that raiders have not stopped raiding with TBR's disappearance.

[The Church of Satan]

You are a few years late realising that raiders have not stopped raiding with TBR's disappearance.

You're either misinterpreting my meaning or implying that driving players from the game is the point of raiding. I hope it's the former because the latter is deeply disturbing.

[A Bloodred Moon]

You're either misinterpreting my meaning or implying that driving players from the game is the point of raiding. I hope it's the former because the latter is deeply disturbing.

It must be the former, then. Numero spoke of North Ustaynga and Iran, neither of which involved flaming, baiting or other behaviour designed to drive people away from the game. You then responded that you had hoped this would have died along with TBR, from which I assumed you were talking about the operations themselves. I am unaware of recent raids by "mainstream" raider regions and organisations involving any such behaviour, and most certainly do not approve of any such thing.

[The Church of Satan]

it must be the former, then. Numero spoke of North Ustaynga and Iran, neither of which involved flaming, baiting or other behaviour designed to drive people away from the game. You then responded that you had hoped this would have died along with TBR, from which I assumed you were talking about the operations themselves. I am unaware of recent raids by "mainstream" raider regions and organisations involving any such behaviour, and most certainly do not approve of any such thing.

My meaning is that I had hoped the result of those raids, the impact it had on the leaders of those regions, was gone. I would expect modern raider organizations to be a little more considerate than TBR, who were entirely and purposely destructive, was.

[Tinhampton]

The same occurred in the Iran invasion, with the long term delegate fully ready to give up on the game and let the region die. Thankfully defender efforts were more successful to support them, restore their delegacy and work with them on a refound. Iran now has the potential to become a genuine, secure community again and is making efforts to do so. Roavin and Kuriko deserve their fair share of credit for that and without their work with Iramerica that region might have become a dead shell too.

Iran was refounded on August 6th 2020. Since then, I would hasten to note that the grand total of eight posts have been made on the RMB, with its population occasionally reaching the heady heights of thirteen nations.

[Daytime to Night]

Numero spoke of North Ustaynga and Iran, neither of which involved flaming, baiting or other behaviour designed to drive people away from the game.

And you're chosing to wilfully ignore the fact that the mere act of invading them had the exact same effect as flaming and baiting...

Iran was refounded on August 6th 2020. Since then, I would hasten to note that the grand total of eight posts have been made on the RMB, with its population occasionally reaching the heady heights of thirteen nations.

Thanks for stopping by to turn your nose up at others, I believe that is the same number of nations as your region? Although since August 6th you've presided over the loss of three quarters of your regions population whilst they have been trying to build a new community from nothing.

[Varanius]

Numero spoke of North Ustaynga and Iran, neither of which involved flaming, baiting or other behaviour designed to drive people away from the game.

And you're chosing to wilfully ignore the fact that the mere act of invading them had the exact same effect as flaming and baiting...

Oh please.

[HumanSanity]

Greetings all!

We're just now coming to the end of The Liberty Gala. I apologize for my delay in making this post due to various other obligations over the weekend, but I want to take a moment to outline some of the cool stuff we did during this event:

• To bolster understanding of defender history we took submissions for the Defender Family Tree, which will be completed and released in the upcoming days. We also releasedan essay by Numero Capitan on the early history of The South Pacific and hosted a panel on defender history.
• We hosted a Q&A with Security Council Author Kuriko about Security Council philosophy, authorship, and research.
• We ran a series of competitive defender games with a variety of activities, including chasing and detagging practice, triggered jumping practice, and team building activities. Information about the teams can be found here. Congratulations to Team Obama on winning the Defender Games! All told in our detag runs and the defender games, we detagged a total of 181 regions. You can see information about the teams here. There was also a pile off competition won by TITO and a live streamed update hosted by Phoenix.
• We hosted a Nation Creation Contest with 40 entrants held over the course of the competition. In the nation creation contest, a set of puppets were ejected each day who were lowest in the daily world census ranking. Congratulations to Wischland on her victory, Yuwa on 2nd place, and Wille-Harlia on 3rd place.
• We ran cards events. Chimes/Jamie won the Defender Switchers contest with his collection of Nakari's switchers The Nakari Portrait. ROM and Numero Capitan vied for the Influential Defenders contest with the ultimate prize going to ROM's collection although NuCa's collection was a close second. We also held a pull event for Season 1 Anime Daisuki which printed a total of 21 copies, setting the record for pulls on a single card in a pull event in the post-TCALS nerf era.
• We held a character design contest with results and detailed sketches forthcoming for the winners.
• We held a Conga Line to generate interconnection between regional communities of the participants, ultimately visiting Spiritus, The Union of Democratic States, 10000 Islands, the South Pacific, and The Order of the Grey Wardens.
• We held a variety of fun games on the Discord server including Among Us, skribbl.io, and Werewolf. Lots of folks met new friends and sometimes the voice chat devolved into several hours of group anime watching, which is never a bad thing.
• And lastly, we hosted a panel on Why We Defend with defenders from a variety of organizations, generations, and perspectives.

I also want to take the chance to thank everyone who played a part in conducting this event. It takes a village to defend and it takes a village for defenders to party together. Thanks to Phoenix of the Sun/FiHami, Benevolent Thomas, Sweeze, Frenchy, Paffnia, Numero Capitan, Kuriko, Nakari, Jamie/Chimes, Merlin, 9003, USoVietnam, Destructive Government Economic Systems, Somyrion/Aumeltopia, Ananke, Dilber, Blackbird, Tim, Prarie, Roavin, Karputsk, Matthew, and Eist who all either helped coordinate an event, sat on a panel for the event, or contributed graphics or another form of advice. I want to give special shout outs to Grea Kriopia for picking up the group's slack whenever others needed some relief, doing all the evening games activities, preparing most of the transcripts, and generally being a wonderful and positive presence. I also want to shout out FiHami/Phoenix for helping co-ordinate the defender games and the Why We Defend panel, BT for his work as event pump up artist and continually innovating on our history event ideas, Paffnia for maintaining his 100% success rate for delivering quality and timely work, and NuCa for pinch hitting and general event admin.

I hope everyone enjoyed the event as well as the historical records, essays, and transcripts we put together. Most importantly I hope people met new friends. From here, we can turn our attention to the Defender Awards hosted by BT and Jamie to wrap up a dfender celebration and a year of defender achivement.

~ HS

[Nakarisaune]

Character Contest Results

While the festivities of the Gala are long over, three characters have not been seen for a while. Today, they were finally allowed to emerge from the studio where the Gala’s artists were locked up with paint and a few snacks.

The winners of the Character Contest are:

13ricity, with the character Arthronak, a dragon-born bard who travels the world spreading music!

Catiania, with the character Tom, a mysterious traveller between dimensions, never seen without an adorable kitten and an unsettling vibe!

Matthew with the character Albrecht Khusro, a paladin who uses his sadistic nature to destroy the things that threaten the world!

[Boda]

Good drawings Merlin, Nakari and Phoenix!

[Tim-Opolis]

These are so awesome! It's great to see so many talented individuals in the Defender Community!