[SUBMITTED] Highway Robbery by the Book!

by **Palos Heights** » Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:13 pm

Doing some taxes for last year and looking at school expenses reminded me that I actually bought a textbook for $800. Having not seen an issue come to light yet regarding the insane inflation of textbooks (over 800% since the 1990's), I figured I'd take a crack at it. As always, feedback is welcome!

[title] Highway Robbery by the Book!

[validity] All nations

[description] Tensions are high in @@NAME@@ as the latest academic semester in @@DEMONYM@@ universities kicks off and students are once more buying textbooks for their classes. Now, an endless sea of beleaguered 20-somethings waving torches stretching beyond the horizon is now marching on your office demanding an end to the exploitation of students through the rapidly inflating prices of already exorbitant textbooks.

[Option 1] "ATTENTION @@LEADER@@!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@ from a megaphone. "We the oppressed, stressed, and consistently under-dressed are tired foregoing meals and basic comforts in order to afford the required tools for our education! We, the future of @@NAME@@, have come before you to demand immediate action against the publishing companies to make our textbooks more affordable!"

[Fallout 1] not using a textbook as a coaster at a college party is considered a party foul

[Option 2] "@@LEADER@@ don’t let those hooligans intimidate you!" says famed textbook author Goodman DiPyro. "Textbooks are an important aspect of the education experience and current market prices are reflective of this. How can a medical student identify the difference between a cyst and a lipoma without the most accurate and descriptive images possible? If anything, giving more money to the textbook industry will help boost the modern @@DEMONYM@@ learning experience while generously rewarding us for being so integral to the education system!"

[Fallout 2] new editions of chemistry textbooks offer subatomic images of everyone's favorite elements

[Option 3] "@@LEADER@@, while our publishing friend here does bring up great points about the importance of education, these textbooks are absolutely terrible for the environment!" retorts your Minister of Higher Education @@RANDOMNAME@@. "Educating the masses is great and all, but not at the expense of our pristine forests! I propose that we overhaul the education system so that our students use interactive tablets with all of their learning material digital and readily accessible. Goodbye heavy backpacks and scoliosis and hello 21st Century!"

[Fallout 3] strip mining of rare earth metals is up while back problems are down

[validity NV]: Inheritance is legal

[Option NV] "Duddy, who let the poors out onto the front lawn?" questions Richard Kensington-Wellington III, heir to the Kensington-Wellington fortune. "The work should have never been allowed to study in the first place. I mean, it’s quite obvious after all that only the elite of society should be educated. All of my friends and their duddies say so! In fact, I don’t want to see any more of these common folk in schools anymore!"

[Fallout NV] college educations are worth five times their weight in gold

by **Divitalia** » Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:32 pm

If a person has chosen 209.2 or 209.4, they’re only valid for option NV

by **Ransium** » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:34 pm

209.2/4 don't activate any policy flags currently, so we have no way of keeping track of what you trying to. I don't think I'd be in favor of making a new policy for it either. Maybe tie it to education spending or something else.

by **Kenmoria** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 3:35 am

It is convention to put [DRAFT] before the title so people know it's an issue draft and not a question/suggestion.

by **Palos Heights** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:42 pm

Ransium wrote:209.2/4 don't activate any policy flags currently, so we have no way of keeping track of what you trying to. I don't think I'd be in favor of making a new policy for it either. Maybe tie it to education spending or something else.

Kenmoria wrote:It is convention to put [DRAFT] before the title so people know it's an issue draft and not a question/suggestion.

Divitalia wrote:If a person has chosen 209.2 or 209.4, they’re only valid for option NV

I can't believe I forgot to put Draft up there. Sorry guys! Fixed it!

Regarding the validity, I thought maybe to tie it to a previous issue but I guess it's all for naught if my validity made only one option available based on a specific choice. I have gotten rid of the 209.2/209.4 references since there is no policy affecting this anyways.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:59 am

I was sure there was already an issue about expensive textbooks, but I can't find one. Must have been a past accepted draft that was submitted then later deleted.

by **Australian rePublic** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:15 am

You need to make a joke about changing a few words to justify a new edition

by **Palos Heights** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:12 pm

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:I was sure there was already an issue about expensive textbooks, but I can't find one. Must have been a past accepted draft that was submitted then later deleted.

That there wasn't surprised me too. With all of the high school and college aged players of NS I figured someone would have done one by now but here we are!

Australian rePublic wrote:You need to make a joke about changing a few words to justify a new edition

I thought about it and would have likely gone for the option 2 to make the joke, but I had to choose between making the argument the DiPiro was making reasonable and making the joke regarding using spellcheck to justify a new edition. With the choices I made, I was struggling to find a way to work the joke in but I figured to go with something campy instead. I've been trying to work on making the industrial options less "villainous" or "greedy" and I had to sacrifice the editing joke to get that done this time around. Thanks for the feedback though!

by **Palos Heights** » Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:00 am

by **Palos Heights** » Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:37 am

Another bump!

by **Fauxia** » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:30 pm

What's with the all caps in option 1?

by **Palos Heights** » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:46 pm

Fauxia wrote:What's with the all caps in option 1?

It's meant to depict the student yelling into the megaphone very loudly. "ATTENTION FAUXIA!" as opposed to "Attention Fauxia!". Too much?

by **Fauxia** » Wed Feb 21, 2018 4:30 pm

Palos Heights wrote:
Fauxia wrote:What's with the all caps in option 1?

It's meant to depict the student yelling into the megaphone very loudly. "ATTENTION FAUXIA!" as opposed to "Attention Fauxia!". Too much?

Oh. I guess not, though I am no editor

by **Jutsa** » Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:37 am

Alright, Palos Heights - lets do this!

I've gotta admit that issues involving education don't grasp me as much as I'd like them to,
but a promise is a promise.

Now, before we even get started, I'd like to ask you to change the “smart quotes” and ‘apostrophes’ to "dumb quotes" and 'apostrophes'.
Again, I'm sure the editors would probably comb through it themselves, but if you can, it wouldn't hurt.

(also, good news: I remembered how to use wincompose to make ‘ and ’)

The Issue/Validity/Title:
Highway Robbery by the Book!
great title.
[validity] All nations
Hmm... idk, not all nations have text books, but then again I'm not sure if that's a flag or not.
Tensions have come to a head in the college student demographic as the latest university semester kicked off over rapidly inflating price of textbooks.
This sentence is a little bit confusing, because while I get that it's supposed to read this:
tensions have come head to head [as the latest semester kicked off] over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
but atm it kinda looks like
tensions have come head to head, because the latest semester kicked off over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
It's not a huge complain, but I'd like it if perhaps the "as the latest semester kicked off" was at the beginning, for clarity. Also:
over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
I'd say "prices" instead of "price".
An endless sea of beleaguered 20-somethings waving tiki torches has amassed beyond the horizon
The problem here is that people might associate this with the Charlottesville nationalist incident that half-recently happened in the US.
I mean, it might not be a problem, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Option 1:
“We the oppressed, stressed, and consistently underdressed

Nothing wrong with this one imo.

Option 2:
“@@LEADER@@ don’t let those tiki torch waving hooligans intimidate you”
1) I'd remove @@LEADER@@ - don't want to have his name show up too often!
2) Change the tiki torch thing IF you change the description. If not, it's fine.
3) , or ! before the ”, though probably , as you put "says" afterwards.
says McStraw-Field publishing company representative [...] and current market prices are reflective of this.
This only really works for nations with private industry. See if you can make a varient option for this for nations without private industry.
If the students had paid any attention to their studies they would know [...]
Comma after studies. Idk if it's necessary, but I think it'd help.
newer editions of chemistry textbooks offer subatomic images of everyones favorite elements
new* everyone's*

Final note: I'm not entirely sure what this option is doing. Atm it seems like it's possibly not much different from the dismiss button,
though I sense it could also be a textbook business subsidy. Perhaps the speaker could specifically ask for subsidies, and in turn cut out some of the other, less necessary text?
Or, if you think it's fine as is, perhaps you could tell me what this option is doing.

Option 3:
with all of their learning material is digital and readily accessible. Goodbye heavy backpacks and hello 21st Century!”
I'd remove "is".

This is a very good option. That said, it might not hurt to duplicate this option so it has two varients - one for ecologically minded nations(this one),
and one for less ecologically minded nations, where less stress is placed on the environment and more stress is placed on technological advancement.

NOTE: This is hardly necessary, and it's perfectly fine if you do not do this. This is just an idea I thought I'd bring up.

Option 4:
heir to the Kensington-Wellington fortune.
May want to have a validity for this one that says inheritance is legal.
“The work should have never been allowed to study in the first place.
The work? Perhaps you mean the workforce?
, all of my friends and their duddies say so!
I'd replace the comma with a period and capitalize the a in all.

Overall a pretty nice option.

Option 5:

Tbh I'd just remove this option.

So, to summarize:

1) A few grammar and spelling adjustments, nothing major;
2) Possibly remove references to tiki torches;
3) Possibly change option 2 a little;
3) Split option 2 into two varients and possibly do the same for option 3(though 3's totally unnecessary);
4) Set a validity for option NV (and possibly the issue; I'm not sure); and
5) Remove option 5. You can keep it if you want, but I don't think it's really doing anything important to the narrative.

That's all. Take/leave what you want. Good luck, Palos Heights.

by **Palos Heights** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 1:03 pm

Jutsa wrote:Alright, Palos Heights - lets do this!

I've gotta admit that issues involving education don't grasp me as much as I'd like them to,
but a promise is a promise.

Now, before we even get started, I'd like to ask you to change the “smart quotes” and ‘apostrophes’ to "dumb quotes" and 'apostrophes'.
Again, I'm sure the editors would probably comb through it themselves, but if you can, it wouldn't hurt.
(also, good news: I remembered how to use wincompose to make ‘ and ’)

The Issue/Validity/Title:
Highway Robbery by the Book!
great title.
[validity] All nations
Hmm... idk, not all nations have text books, but then again I'm not sure if that's a flag or not.
Tensions have come to a head in the college student demographic as the latest university semester kicked off over rapidly inflating price of textbooks.
This sentence is a little bit confusing, because while I get that it's supposed to read this:
tensions have come head to head [as the latest semester kicked off] over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
but atm it kinda looks like
tensions have come head to head, because the latest semester kicked off over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
It's not a huge complain, but I'd like it if perhaps the "as the latest semester kicked off" was at the beginning, for clarity. Also:
over rapidly inflating price of textbooks
I'd say "prices" instead of "price".
An endless sea of beleaguered 20-somethings waving tiki torches has amassed beyond the horizon
The problem here is that people might associate this with the Charlottesville nationalist incident that half-recently happened in the US.
I mean, it might not be a problem, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

Option 1:
“We the oppressed, stressed, and consistently underdressed

Nothing wrong with this one imo.

Option 2:
“@@LEADER@@ don’t let those tiki torch waving hooligans intimidate you”
1) I'd remove @@LEADER@@ - don't want to have his name show up too often!
2) Change the tiki torch thing IF you change the description. If not, it's fine.
3) , or ! before the ”, though probably , as you put "says" afterwards.
says McStraw-Field publishing company representative [...] and current market prices are reflective of this.
This only really works for nations with private industry. See if you can make a varient option for this for nations without private industry.
If the students had paid any attention to their studies they would know [...]
Comma after studies. Idk if it's necessary, but I think it'd help.
newer editions of chemistry textbooks offer subatomic images of everyones favorite elements
new* everyone's*

Final note: I'm not entirely sure what this option is doing. Atm it seems like it's possibly not much different from the dismiss button,
though I sense it could also be a textbook business subsidy. Perhaps the speaker could specifically ask for subsidies, and in turn cut out some of the other, less necessary text?
Or, if you think it's fine as is, perhaps you could tell me what this option is doing.

Option 3:
with all of their learning material is digital and readily accessible. Goodbye heavy backpacks and hello 21st Century!”
I'd remove "is".

This is a very good option. That said, it might not hurt to duplicate this option so it has two varients - one for ecologically minded nations(this one),
and one for less ecologically minded nations, where less stress is placed on the environment and more stress is placed on technological advancement.

NOTE: This is hardly necessary, and it's perfectly fine if you do not do this. This is just an idea I thought I'd bring up.

Option 4:
heir to the Kensington-Wellington fortune.
May want to have a validity for this one that says inheritance is legal.
“The work should have never been allowed to study in the first place.
The work? Perhaps you mean the workforce?
, all of my friends and their duddies say so!
I'd replace the comma with a period and capitalize the a in all.

Overall a pretty nice option.

Option 5:

Tbh I'd just remove this option.

So, to summarize:

1) A few grammar and spelling adjustments, nothing major;
2) Possibly remove references to tiki torches;
3) Possibly change option 2 a little;
3) Split option 2 into two varients and possibly do the same for option 3(though 3's totally unnecessary);
4) Set a validity for option NV (and possibly the issue; I'm not sure); and
5) Remove option 5. You can keep it if you want, but I don't think it's really doing anything important to the narrative.

That's all. Take/leave what you want. Good luck, Palos Heights.

Jutsa, I took a lot of what you said to heart and worked on these changes as you suggested. I removed option 5 because you are right, but I decided not to split option 2 into two variants or do the same for option 3. The irony of option 3 is that in wanting to be more eco-friendly and avoid cutting down trees we rely on high-tech devices that require many hard-to-obtain minerals.

I set a validity option for NV for the inheritance, like you said. Also, the "work" is intentional since the speaker is so dismissive of the lower classes that they view those with less wealth to be nothing more than workers who ultimately serve them either directly or indirectly.

But new draft is up labeled Draft 2! I welcome all feedback and comments!

by **Jutsa** » Tue Mar 20, 2018 3:25 pm

Looks pretty good! I respect your declining some of my suggestions.

I don't really have anything to add, myself, though it wouldn't hurt to wait for a little more feedback. Goodluck.

by **Palos Heights** » Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:29 am

Last call for feedback as I will be submitting this issue for consideration shortly.

[SUBMITTED] Highway Robbery by the Book!

[SUBMITTED] Highway Robbery by the Book!

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