The Rejected Times

[North East Somerset]

Unibot tries to divide defenderism up between TITO and "everyone else" because it suits him to have it like that. ie. To isolate 10KI due to his lack of influence there.

Never mind the division is totally baseless, and the logic deployed to justify it is typical of what we've come to expect from his "editorials". ie. Total drivel.

Surprised? I'd hope not.

[Glen-Rhodes]

There are real differences between XKI and other defender groups. It's not really a "baseless" division. What's baseless is pretending that there aren't any divisions, just so you can criticize Unibot for being a self-serving politician.

[Ananke II]

Of course there's differences between defender regions/orgs. I don't remember a time when there wasn't and that's a good thing. It means that people can get involved where they're most comfortable. The problem with Unibot's article is that he's trying to twist NS gameplay and it's history into fitting his own worldview, so he can tell people that TITO is somehow adrift from the rest of the defender sphere. It's a nice touch how he manages to indicate that TITO has always been different from other defenders by grouping ADN with his own view of defending and make this a bad thing. Unfortunately this theory of his isn't supported by reality. It's not possible to neatly align every defender org bar one in a tidy group.

[The Blaatschapen]

Of course there's differences between defender regions/orgs. I don't remember a time when there wasn't and that's a good thing. It means that people can get involved where they're most comfortable. The problem with Unibot's article is that he's trying to twist NS gameplay and it's history into fitting his own worldview, so he can tell people that TITO is somehow adrift from the rest of the defender sphere. It's a nice touch how he manages to indicate that TITO has always been different from other defenders by grouping ADN with his own view of defending and make this a bad thing. Unfortunately this theory of his isn't supported by reality. It's not possible to neatly align every defender org bar one in a tidy group.

Sure it is possible.

Groups that are TITO on the left, groups that aren't on the right.

There, done.

[Sichuan Pepper]

I like the right side that leaves the left or wrong depending on your point of view

[Blood Wine]

The Divided Defenderdom
EDITORIAL | UNIBOT

We begin our survey of the different political philosophies of defenderdom with Liberalism – the ideology of mainstream defenderism,
The second political philosophy that can be found in defenderdom is Neo-Conservatism.
Finally, I also did suggest there was a third political ideology in defenderdom – Marxist theory.

---

Ofcourse,Unibot rejects the notion people can have fun with NS

[Applebania]

The Divided Defenderdom
EDITORIAL | UNIBOT

We begin our survey of the different political philosophies of defenderdom with Liberalism – the ideology of mainstream defenderism,
The second political philosophy that can be found in defenderdom is Neo-Conservatism.
Finally, I also did suggest there was a third political ideology in defenderdom – Marxist theory.

---

Ofcourse,Unibot rejects the notion people can have fun with NS

Wat

How did you glean that from that

[Blood Wine]

Ofcourse,Unibot rejects the notion people can have fun with NS

Wat

How did you glean that from that

no mention of defenders that defend for fun rather then morals

[Glen-Rhodes]

If "defending for morals" wasn't fun, nobody would do it.

[V I Lenin]

Interesting article on 'The Divided Defenderdom', although I would have to disagree with your analysis that Marxist ideology does not provide a role in defending. I would argue that Marxism is essential to the revival of defenderism.

Why? Marxism draws attention back to our current global political environment, which is currently under threat from an international political coup by a narrow class of oligarchical Imperialists who are interested in dominating the NS world for their own benefit.

Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism, I think lack three qualities which Marxism brings to the table and strengthens

Firstly, Marxism brings the 'adversary' to the table. 'Know your enemy' as Sun Tzu famously said. You cannot successfully rally a cause or take effective action unless you are able to identify your opponents. Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism, as described above, are essential insular political ideologies. For all the Liberal or Neo-Conservative cares, these invader actions could be the activities of a bunch of unorganised raiders. However, Marxist defenderism, brings to the fore that our current world of warfare and invasion is driven by the political aspirations of the Imperialist. The only way to bring peace, or at least, to substantially reduce the chances of invasion in Nationstates, is to fight the Imperialist. Marxist defenderism is essential, therefore, if defenderism is to be able to regain the initiative and pursue an effective strategy. It also has the potential to unite defenders behind a common effort against a common enemy, targeting resources more carefully.

Secondly, Marxism understands the ideological element to this struggle. While Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism recognise their own ideological motivations, they are not able to place themselves within the wider battle for ideas. The ideological standing of their opponents is not properly regarded and while concerned to demonstrate their own rightness, they do not undertake the effort to demonstrate the falsehood of Imperialism. Marxist defenderism is clear that this is an ideological conflict and that the most important battleground is not in the trenches, but in the mind. Education and information are the tools by which the Marxist wages war against the Imperialist. Defenderism has lacked momentum because it has not been able to generate effective mechanisms for taking part in the ideological struggle; this paper, being the only exception.

Finally, Marxist defenderism locates the root cause of the struggle not in the nature of human beings or through some unfortunate chain of accidents, but as the direct cause of the political oppression of citizens of Imperialism at home. Despite their objections, the political affairs of Imperialist regions are tightly controlled by a narrow clique of individuals who control all major military and intelligence positions. Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism does not have an efficient explanation for why invasions take place or the motivation behind Imperialism. Marxist defenderism is able to articulat a clear reason and this explanatory power is useful for prosecuting defenderism, mobilising defenders without demonising those that reside within Imperialist regions. Unfortunately, those that prosecute Imperialism (except for the narrow Imperialist power class) are labouring under false consciousness, unable to see that they are not securing 'glory' or 'power' for themselves, nor are they helping their own regions. They are merely killing their own regions prosperity and denying the march of world history.

I would, therefore, argue that Marxism is not merely an active force within defenderism, but is its future.

[The Blaatschapen]

Brrr, if marxism is the future for defenders, I'll become a raider >_>

[PrussianEmpire]

Through raiding, I gain freedom. Through tagging, I embrace democracy.

[Solorni]

And through defending you lose freedom. Through detagging embrace totalitarianism?

(If we equate defending to Marxism).

[V I Lenin]

Every invasion, every tagging mission is merely another link in the chains of Imperialist oppression of both you, and the world.

[Blood Wine]

If "defending for morals" wasn't fun, nobody would do it.

Yeaaaaah,no.

Anyone who takes a game so serious it becomes involved with morals and looking down on other people isn't having fun

[Frattastan II]

-snip-

If that stuff is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist.

Had to say this.

If "defending for morals" wasn't fun, nobody would do it.

Yeaaaaah,no.

Anyone who takes a game so serious it becomes involved with morals and looking down on other people isn't having fun

Morals aren't necessarily about 'looking down on people', or thinking that doing an undesiderable action makes people 'bad', or imposing a uniform conduct on everyone.

[Blood Wine]

-snip-

If that stuff is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist.

Had to say this.

Yeaaaaah,no.

Anyone who takes a game so serious it becomes involved with morals and looking down on other people isn't having fun

Morals aren't necessarily about 'looking down on people', or thinking that doing an undesiderable action makes people 'bad', or imposing a uniform conduct on everyone.

NS morals are,after all raiders are griefers and evil amirite?

[Glen-Rhodes]

If "defending for morals" wasn't fun, nobody would do it.

Yeaaaaah,no.

Anyone who takes a game so serious it becomes involved with morals and looking down on other people isn't having fun

This is such a tired response. Nobody is saying raiding is the equivalent of murdering your neighbors to take their yard in real life. It's just a god damn good-vs-evil lens to view the game, which is pretty basic storytelling device in game design. And because this is a political simulation, and the most prolific proponent of moral defending is a political science undergrad, there's a lot of 'serious' writing and theorizing about the morals of the R/D game. Yes, people can have fun doing that. Nobody is shackled to this game.

[The Rejected Times]

Ranking the GCRs: The Overall Perceptions Index
FEATURE | UNIBOT

In the interests of comparative political analysis, The Rejected Times invited all of our readers to participate in a very successful survey (n = 61) which asked participants to rank Game-Created Regions based on their perception of those regions on a number of valued criteria from 1 to 5 – 5 being “highest” and 1 signifying “lowest”.

Note: Six respondents were removed from the final results to prevent data manipulation – some because they had selected “0” or “5” for every region (on every option), others because they had selected “5” for a particular region on every option and “0” for every other region at every opportunity. Manipulation be bad....

---

Overall Perceptions Index

1. The Rejected Realms – 0.685
2. The East Pacific – 0.664
3. The North Pacific – 0.653
4. The South Pacific – 0.633
5. The West Pacific – 0.602
6. Balder – 0.594
7. Lazarus – 0.578
8. Osiris – 0.564
9. The Pacific – 0.546

The Overall Perceptions Index is collected by finding the sum of the performances of all of the feeders and sinkers in all of the survey’s following indices, divided by the highest potential score (50). The OPI provides an overall picture of how Game-Created regions performed on average throughout the survey.

Tentatively, we hypothesise that democratic republics performed better overall and that non-republic forms of government were perceived poorly on a number of criteria including Overall Government Performance, Value as an Interregional Partner, Civil and Political Rights, Diplomacy and Acceptance.

The Rejected Realms – Parliamentary Republic
The East Pacific – Presidential Republic
The North Pacific – Parliamentary Republic
The South Pacific – Parliamentary Republic
The West Pacific – Oligarchy
Balder – Constitutional Monarchy
Lazarus – Single-Party Socialist State
Osiris – Constitutional Monarchy
The Pacific – Autocracy

---

Acceptance and Tolerance

The South Pacific – 3.43
The Rejected Realms – 3.41
The East Pacific – 3.34
The West Pacific – 3.33
The North Pacific – 3.3
Balder – 2.87
Osiris – 2.52
The Pacific – 2.44
Lazarus – 2.34

The South Pacific recently passed a new constitutional amendment that protects the Right to Equality for all citizens and has been a relentless voice for cosmopolitan acceptance – their success in this category comes with little surprise. Perhaps more surprising is Lazarus’s poor performance and The West Pacific surpassing even The North Pacific (an established liberal democracy) in terms of perception of acceptance – here recent events involving, say, Ikania and Llama’s departure from Lazarus or the controversial rise and fall of Flemingovianism in The North Pacific might play a role in hurting their images abroad.

Activity

The Rejected Realms – 3.56
The East Pacific – 3.48
The North Pacific – 3.44
Osiris – 3.33
Lazarus – 3.3
The South Pacific – 3.21
The West Pacific – 3.08
Balder – 3
The Pacific – 2.49

Here The Rejected Realm’s series of cultural events from RRA Day to Competitive Rock-Paper-Scissors matches to the “Cool Flag Brigade” and more, seems to have rebounded the region’s activity fortunes. Osiris and Lazarus also appear to have benefited in this category from their ongoing war, while perhaps more surprising is the lower than expected result for Balder and The South Pacific. Although things have been quiet in The South Pacific for some time, Balder has led the pack in their own “activity” reports – perhaps people simply aren’t buying their analysis? Or perhaps activity is seen as something independent of post counts per se? All questions to consider.

Culture

Lazarus – 3.49
The East Pacific – 3.26
The Rejected Realms – 3.25
The North Pacific – 3.13
The South Pacific – 3.1
Osiris – 3.05
Balder – 3.02
The Pacific – 2.97
The West Pacific – 2.84

Lazarus rises to the top! Lazarus easily surpassed the other regions – seen as a cultural leader. Many things could contribute to Lazarus’s score, but we reckon its communist theme and the Lazarene Gazette played a large role in its success here. Interestingly, only 0.16 separates fourth and eighth place which could suggest normalization issues – in the sense that there is a ‘plateau’ or ‘glass ceiling’ that has to be surpassed to be widely received as “culturally distinct and unique”.

Military Presence

Osiris – 3.43
The East Pacific – 3.41
Lazarus – 3.31
The Rejected Realms – 3.23
The North Pacific – 2.95
Balder – 2.89
The South Pacific – 2.75
The West Pacific – 2.49
The Pacific – 2.21

Osiris clenches a slight lead over The East Pacific – Osiris has increased its military presence recently with the creation of ISRA (a military alliance between Osiris and Balder) while The East Pacific has held a strong military presence with the EPSA under the leadership of Xoriet.

Civil and Political Rights

The Rejected Realms – 3.61
The South Pacific – 3.36
The East Pacific – 3.28
The North Pacific – 3.25
Balder – 2.93
The West Pacific – 2.89
Osiris – 2.66
Lazarus – 2.48
The Pacific – 2.28

No surprises here, potentially – for the next three categories, the democratic republics lead the list and the others trail behind by a substantial margin. A democratic republic, we could speculate, is perceived by many as a necessary form of government to protect the civil and political rights of residents.

Diplomacy

The North Pacific – 3.36
The Rejected Realms – 3.25
The East Pacific – 3.08
The South Pacific – 3
The West Pacific – 2.97
Balder – 2.79
The Pacific – 2.66
Lazarus – 2.57
Osiris – 2.43

Admittedly, “Diplomacy” can be a vague category – some respondents may be considering “Diplomacy” as the ‘politeness’ or diplomatic savviness of the regions, other respondents might consider “Diplomacy” as the breadth of the region’s FA portfolio. The North Pacific leads the diplomatic arena – perhaps a sign of support for the work of TNP’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, McMasterdonia. This category however was less kind to Osiris and Lazarus, whose current strife appears to have hurt their diplomatic reception.

Value as Interregional Partner

The North Pacific, The Rejected Realms – 3.43
The East Pacific – 3.39
The South Pacific – 3.28
The West Pacific – 3.15
The Pacific – 3.08
Lazarus – 3
Balder, Osiris – 2.95

Ties Galore! The North Pacific and The Rejected Realms were tied as most valued interregional partners, while Balder and Osiris were tied for last. What increases value? Diplomatic benefits? Consistency and maturity? What makes a good ally? No idea. Good question really. Whatever the answer is, respondents thought highly of the democratic republics and less so for the others (a reoccurring trend).

Stability

The Pacific – 3.85
The East Pacific – 3.72
The Rejected Realms – 3.7
The North Pacific – 3.56
The West Pacific – 3.41
Balder – 3.38
The South Pacific – 3.26
Lazarus – 2.85
Osiris – 2.39

Topping the charts in terms of stability is…. The Pacific! The NPO has stood, in various forms and governments, for eleven years now since Francos Spain’s rise to power. Lazarus and Osiris, the mostly recently created states, were seen as the least stable. Perhaps more interesting is the low result that The South Pacific received – seen as the least stable feeder. With the “recent” (ish) Milograd coup and the more recent upheaval surrounding Hileville’s messy departure from The South Pacific, we suspect that events in the past have had a negative impact on the public’s memory of The South Pacific.

Overall Delegate Performance

The Rejected Realms – 3.54
The South Pacific – 3.26
Balder – 3.2
The East Pacific – 3.18
The West Pacific – 3.1
The North Pacific – 3.08
The Pacific, Osiris – 2.82
Lazarus – 2.72

Overall Government Performance

The Rejected Realms – 3.26
The North Pacific – 3.15
The East Pacific – 3.05
The South Pacific – 3.02
The West Pacific – 2.85
Lazarus – 2.82
Balder – 2.66
Osiris – 2.62
The Pacific – 2.52

Awww, thanks guys! We’ve been working very hard here in The Rejected Realms to help grow its institutions and develop it even more than it already has been before by previous governments.

In most cases, the Delegate’s performance was rated higher than the Government’s performance except for The North Pacific and Lazarus. Some stand-out performances included The South Pacific’s Kringalia and Balder’s Solorni – seen as positive forces for leadership in their respective regions.

Until next time - Uni out!

[Todd McCloud]

TRR is at the top of a poll created by TRR's delegate and was featured in two TRR newspaper reports which were advertised to members in TRR.

Shocking

[PrussianEmpire]

Note: Six respondents were removed from the final results to prevent data manipulation – some because they had selected “0” or “5” for every region (on every option), others because they had selected “5” for a particular region on every option and “0” for every other region at every opportunity. Manipulation be bad....

Wow, way to just throw my vote away.

Listen, I genuinely believe TEP deserves a 5 in every category. I demand my scores be added back into this survey.

[PrussianEmpire]

TRR is at the top of a poll created by TRR's delegate and was featured in two TRR newspaper reports which were advertised to members in TRR.

Shocking

I know, it's quite a shock.

[Jakker]

Uni, I wonder if pretending to not be super biased on everything is really hard for you or you just don't don't care about anything other than boosting your own ego

[RiderSyl]

Overall Delegate Performance

The Rejected Realms – 3.54

I. Cannot. Stop. Laughing.

[PrussianEmpire]

Overall Delegate Performance

The Rejected Realms – 3.54

I. Cannot. Stop. Laughing.

Ikr?

I'm calling bullshit on this one.