The Invasion of the North Pacific
By Unibot.
Last lecture, I discussed Francos Spain's coup of the Pacific. As his regime, the New Pacific Order, grew to fruition, it was perhaps inevitable that the Order would soon set its sights on occupying another feeder region. Attempts were known to have been made against the West Pacific and the South Pacific, but none were as memorable or as successful as the NPO's invasion of the North Pacific. It was a crisis that would rock NationStates and bring its largest region to its knees before ultimately culminating with (arguably) the greatest liberation of all time. If you've ever heard the phrase, "Puppetmaster" and wondered the history behind it, this is the thread for you. Over the course of this lecture, we'll discuss the Puppetmaster Attack and its mechanics in great depth.
It's fair to say in terms of both its ambitious scale and organization and its indisputable significance, this was NationStates at its very best.
Act I: A New Pacific Order
June 17 2004
09:15 GMT: A mysterious figure, UPS Rail, takes the delegacy of the North Pacific from Magicality with 533-522 in endorsements.
His victory is greeted with tepid congratulations from forum-goers. The North Pacific was a democracy at this point, but it recognized the authority of "the UN election mechanism." That having been said, although UPS Rail may have taken the delegacy after months of tarting, he did so having only superficially met the other requirements. For instance, while he had, indeed, announced his candidacy as delegate (Apr 19) as was expected of him, his campaign thread was nonsensical muck. What little of his campaign literature was intelligible ("I'd like to see an eventual overthrow of the NPO") turned out to be outright false upon him taking the delegacy.
Several natives have since expressed their regrets regarding the circumstances that allowed UPS Rail to rise to the delegacy. When Magicality had become very inactive earlier that month due to a real life emergency, her high endorsement count had made it difficult for others to reach her - out of all those actively tarting and pursuing the delegacy (e.g., Blackshear, Costelloism, Thel DRan, Rasputinland, UglyTool, and Cathyy) only one of them (UPS Rail) was in position to bridge the massive endorsement gap. As of consequence, a political unknown entered the delegate seat.
UPS Rail quickly attracted suspicion for his feigned innocence, the mystery surrounding his rise to power, and - not to mention - his name, which was soon recognized as an anagram for 'Sir Paul', an NPO Senator and Director of the Pacific Press!
June 27
After an extended absence, UPS Rail returns to activity to order a vote to be held for July 1st on whether the North Pacific ought to leave the Alliance Defense Network (ADN.) If successful, this would have marked a serious policy reversal for the region. The North Pacific was at that point, a contributing member-region of the Alliance Defense Network (ADN), the largest defender alliance of its day.
But withdrawing from the ADN wasn't the only policy reversal that UPS Rail was planning to announce...
June 28
In a Seattle News exclusive, UPS Rail reports that he hopes to advance a détente with the Pacific. Provided Francos Spain were to change his civil code, widely panned as illiberal, UPS Rail suggests that the North Pacific would in turn work with the Pacific in the (yet to be formed) multilateral pact, the League of the Pacifics. That alliance, the brainchild of then East Pacific delegate, 1 Infinite Loop, hoped to be ratified by all of the Game-Created Regions by August 1. If both the Pacific and the North Pacific were to have joined such an alliance, the shared membership would have signaled the interregional acceptance of Franco's (otherwise) pariah state.
This would have been a major aboutface for the North Pacific whose past delegates - including Nastic and the Twoslit Experiment - had been outspoken critics of the New Pacific Order.
In the next twenty-four hours however, the situation quickly turned hot.
June 29
04:51 GMT - Shots fired! UPS Rail ejects and bans a number of natives with high endorsement counts: Magicality, Thel D'Ran, Welshland, Costelloism, Cathyy, Fengate, Alexein, Fred the Nation, Eye-Err-Land, and Blackshear. The immediate reaction from natives on the forum ("Old Blue," as it was nicknamed) is outrage at the betrayal.
05:01 GMT – UPS Rail changes the North Pacific's World Factbook Entry with a message reminiscent of Francos Spain's first World Factbook Entry. He links the region's factbook to the New Pacific Order's proboards and suggests the North Pacific is now a colony in an NPO Empire - quite literally "A New Pacific Order." (“Tyranny has been deposed! The North Pacific is now guided by the ideals of Peace, Strength, and Prosperity. A New Pacific Order has been formed. Establish yourself on the NPO forums at (cut and paste) http://newpacificorder.proboards19.com/index.cgi “)
14:55 GMT - Francos Spain changes the Pacific's World Factbook Entry to subtly (or not so subtly?) recognize the events in the North Pacific. He makes a curious reference to "the Great Empire of the Pacific." ("With strength, valor, and discipline, the NPO continues to instill pride in and defend the honor of the industrious citizens of the Great Empire of the Pacific. The whole of the world is waiting and wondering what the next great advance of our progressive revolution will be.")
On the NPO forums, Francos Spain dodges the question of whether UPS Rail is Sir Paul, maintaining a wafer-thin claim to plausible deniability. He portrays UPS Rail's takeover of the North Pacific as a victory for truth against the hypocrisy of his detractors - a common theme in his propaganda:
"The North Pacific has thrown off its shackles of delusion and deceit. The embodiment of corruption that was the NP's former government has been exposed as the liars and warmongers they really are.
To sum this up in a single sentence: The North Pacific has crumbled under the weight of its own hypocrisy.
With regard to the identity of UPS Rail, I suppose the question that really matters is what difference it would make to you. You don't like the idea of being deposed by a traitor so you seek him to be of those with whom you are openly at war? I say, the latter of these would seem to only hurt your cause even more. At least if he's simply a traitor, you have no one to blame but him. An operative, however, and you'd have no one to blame but yourselves. The abounding conspiracy theories never cease to entertain me.
The road ahead is a windy one, but we know what lies at its end. The perseverance of the NPO and its supporters has always triumphed over every task set before them. We no doubt stand on the dawn of a new and even brighter day; let us celebrate this revolutionary turn of events and work to bring to fruition all of its potential."
To sum this up in a single sentence: The North Pacific has crumbled under the weight of its own hypocrisy.
With regard to the identity of UPS Rail, I suppose the question that really matters is what difference it would make to you. You don't like the idea of being deposed by a traitor so you seek him to be of those with whom you are openly at war? I say, the latter of these would seem to only hurt your cause even more. At least if he's simply a traitor, you have no one to blame but him. An operative, however, and you'd have no one to blame but yourselves. The abounding conspiracy theories never cease to entertain me.
The road ahead is a windy one, but we know what lies at its end. The perseverance of the NPO and its supporters has always triumphed over every task set before them. We no doubt stand on the dawn of a new and even brighter day; let us celebrate this revolutionary turn of events and work to bring to fruition all of its potential."
June 30 - July 03
The North Pacific's crew - Poe, Democratic Donkeys, Nastic, Hiooland, and Ananke - were managing a very effective unendorsement campaign against UPS Rail. It's fair to say that while UPS Rail was clearing the region of competitors, he was still hemorrhaging endorsements at an extraordinary rate. Over this period (less than five days), UPS Rail dropped 267 endorsements - almost halving his endorsement count.
July 01 - The West Pacific, a fellow ADN member-region, passes a public condemnation of UPS Rail calling his acts, "unacceptable and inexcusable". 1
And then things get weird.
July 04
06:00 GMT - Just before the start of update, UPS Rail ejects another round of competitors to his endorsement count.
06:12 GMT - UPS Rail departs the UN, leaving the delegacy vacant.
Shortly thereafter, UPS Rail posts a dubious apology for the coup citing Francos' betrayal ("Franco double-crossed me"). He also says by departing the UN, a relatively new native, Costelloism, will be next in line to take the delegacy. Unfortunately though, that message was a smokescreen for NPO's true intentions. Logically, UPS Rail wouldn't have cleared the region of competitors if he had wanted to pass the delegacy to natives. And there was another issue too, one tiny little problem: Costelloism wasn't next in line.
At that time, without a rare Endorsement Count "scraper" script it was difficult to know who was in next line with UPS Rail, but the North Pacific's natives just so happened to have access to such a script via Blackbird (ADN Intelligence) who distributed updates to Thel D'Ran. They found a mysterious new figure, Great Bight was leading Costelloism for the delegacy, 229-153. There was no time to correct the situation.
07:39 GMT - Great Bight becomes delegate.
UPS Rail bleeding endorsements from June 29-July 04.
Act II: Great Bight
Great Bight was the original NationStates account of the player better known as Mammothistan - NPO Senator, an invader with the Farkers/Puddists, former Atlantic Alliance soldier (as "New People"), and future NPO Emperor. Great Bight joined NationStates on Jan 06 2003 and moved to Sea of Cecil, which was also where the nation resided before it was moved to endorse UPS Rail after the initial takeover (June 29) in the North Pacific. It's important however to remember that the real identity of Great Bight was suspected but confirmation only came later when Mammothistan admitted as much to Unistrut. Thus when Great Bight took office that fateful American Independence Day, there remained a (naive) aura of mystery surrounding his intentions and his affiliations.
This is an example of a tarting message which Great Bight had used over the course of the past few days to raise his endorsements:
"The Martian Pirate Plutocracy of Great Bight
Received: 1 day ago Ahoy, ______!
I have given your nation my UN endorsement. 'Tis a sign of good faith and one I'd dearly hope you would return in kind. Would you please return this friendly gesture?"
Received: 1 day ago Ahoy, ______!
I have given your nation my UN endorsement. 'Tis a sign of good faith and one I'd dearly hope you would return in kind. Would you please return this friendly gesture?"
Despite Great Bight's kooky pirate-like demeanor, any goodwill that the new delegate had with the North Pacific's residents was soon squandered by his fondness for the ban button. Players began to debate whether the griefing rules in place (in lieu of today's Regional Influence system) applied to Game-Created Regions and whether it was possible Great Bight could run afoul of them notwithstanding the ban limit (200 Nations.)
July 08
Great Bight institutes an endorsement cap of 180, applying it retroactively to eject a number of close endorsees and some not so close endorsees. The banjections are only vaguely related to the cap. Determined to raise hell for their new delegate, however, many North Pacific natives returned three, four, even five times to the North Pacific over the coming weeks to tart and collect endorsements in defiance of Great Bight.
Meanwhile, a joint resolution was submitted to both houses of the ADN Congress to (1) refuse recognition to Great Bight's delegacy, (2) condemn the manner in which he rose to power, (3) dismiss the legitimacy of Great Bight's withdrawal of the North Pacific from ADN as "unilateral and unlawful," and, (4) offer the organization's full support for the North Pacific's government-in-exile. The resolution ultimately passes, 19-1-2 (For-Against-Abstain.) 2
And then things got a little weirder still...
July 10
16:11:03 GMT – Melkor Unchained ejects Great Bight from the UN by for “gross infractions.” The ban list is cleared.
20:30 GMT - Responding to the power vaccum in a gob-smacking turn of events, Francos Spain (the Pacific's delegate) himself launches into the North Pacific. He also alters the Pacific's World Factbook Entry to request UN Nations to support him:
(This is a faithful impression of the transcribed WFE / Population.)3
At update, Poskrebyshev - Francos' right hand man - would take control of the Pacific with 320 endorsements.
21:53 GMT - Great Bight's UN ban is quickly reversed when Melkor Unchained was made aware of prior rulings related to Francos Spain.
Melkor: “Alright, I need to say something. I'm overruling myself. Great Bight was ejected from the UN wrongfully and the ban on his admission to the UN has been lifted.
I mistakenly ejected him from the UN based on outdated rulings. I was only made aware of the Francos Spain ruling today, as it occured some time ago during one of my lengthy absences from the game. I've sent an apology to Great Bight, but wanted to make one here as well.. “
I mistakenly ejected him from the UN based on outdated rulings. I was only made aware of the Francos Spain ruling today, as it occured some time ago during one of my lengthy absences from the game. I've sent an apology to Great Bight, but wanted to make one here as well.. “
Despite being removed from the delegacy, Great Bight never lost access to the regional controls because the region hadn't updated. He returned to the delegacy once his endorsements were returned. With a vengeance, he booted a number of nations that were vaguely in position to challenge him, including Xtraordinary Gentlemen, Thel D'Ran, Mikitivity and Nastic.
July 11
12:43 GMT - Francos Spain writes on the North Pacific's RMB, "Please endorse Francos Spain for brighter days."
He begins to slowly collect endorsements in the North Pacific with this tarting message:
"Greetings ____,
I have given you my endorsement as a show of support. Would you kindly endorse me back?"
I have given you my endorsement as a show of support. Would you kindly endorse me back?"
Four days later though, Francos Spain logged in for the last time (till 2011.) His inactivity soon started to draw the attention of others. At this point however, the NPO Senate explained his absence as a "vacation."
July 13
Loop's League of Pacifics hits a major diplomatic stumbling block as a question arises over who will represent the North Pacific in the League: the government-in-exile or Great Bight? Mammothistan and the New Pacific Order's delegation contends that it is inappropriate for a government-in-exile to be recognized by the League, while the North Pacific's delegation contends it is inappropriate for the League to recognize the legitimacy of Great Bight. 1 Infinite Loop's suggested compromise to allow both delegations to sit on the League of Pacifics pleases neither side and contributes to the project's ultimate failure. While Lazarus and the East Pacific eagerly ratified the League of Pacifics, the North Pacific and the West Pacific confirmed their opposition to the treaty and the Pacific never ratified it.
Act III: Better Times
July 16 marked a noticeable change of tone in the North Pacific. More than two weeks into the invasion, natives - tired of Great Bight's regime - were growing more frustrated and outspoken. A number of high profile members, including Poe, were deleted for flaming and spamming.
With the banjections starting to pile up (many residents were banned multiple times), messages on the region forum started to express doubts that the occupation of the North Pacific would ever end. Indeed, many were wondering just what it was defenders - their treatied allies - were planning to do about the occupation if anything? To that end, the mission's organizers from the GLA/A.L.L. - Ananke, Crazygirl, and Free4All (Ballotonia) - were facing serious pressure to reassure everyone that a plan was in the works, while also defending its unconventional approach.
"Unconventional," is putting it lightly. The operation pioneered an ingenious 'pre-endorsement' technique which Free4All had actually devised for the purposes of overthrowing the New Pacific Order in the Pacific. It was only in light of the dire circumstances facing the North Pacific, that the wily plan - the region's best hope for a liberation - was put into action. And so began, "The Puppetmaster Attack."
With failure conceivably resulting in a permanent NPO occupation, the very fate of region depended on the mission's success...
Players were instructed by the mission's organizers to found three anonymous non-UN puppet nations in the North Pacific and distribute their names and passwords to the mission's organizers. By now, we could already see signs of the operation quietly percolating on the North Pacific's regional happenings under the cover of anonymity. For instance, if you look hard on July 14 (15:45), you can see one player founding two disposable puppets in the North Pacific to use in the operation: their names, "Soviet Urinals" and "Wickedly evil people."5 Less than a day later on July 15 11:08:37, Free4All would found "Better Times," one of the mission's three lead nations (in the end the only one which was utilized).
When the mission's organizers logged into each of these non-UN puppet nations, they 'pre-endorsed' the mission's lead nations (which were also non-UN puppet nations at that time) by posting an endorsement action ("endorse.cgi") with the otherwise correct CHK values. This process allowed the mission's puppetmasters to endorse a non-UN nation with another non-UN nation, albeit without said endorsement 'counting' as a real endorsement until both nations joined the UN. It should also be said that because the mission predated National Happenings, Dossiers, and the Activity page, there was no sign present on either nation that an endorsement had been given or received. Throughout this process, participants never lost access to their puppet nations. Free4All was in constant communication with the site admins and game moderators to verify the legality of the Puppetmaster Attack.
The value in this technique was the anonymity it gave the lead nations and the mission's participants in the run-up to update, but also the simplicity of the mission for its participants. Provided you didn't try to understand the byzantine logic behind it, the instructions were terribly simple: make a puppet nation, give the password to so and so, and join the UN when the organizers ordered you to. If your nation was ejected by Great Bight, you had back-up nations to rejoin the liberation with - as did the lead participants. It was a liberation for which anyone could participate in, and indeed, it needed to be. Despite a determined and effective unendorsement campaign against Great Bight, his endorsement levels remained stubbornly high due to his reliance on foreign support. By July 19, it was noted that Great Bight had retained only five native endorsements. Between Great Bight and Francos Spain, approximately 148 foreign endorsements had been amassed from the New Pacific Order, USSR, and New Sparrow. To unseat Great Bight, the liberation recruited over 180 participants but only two thirds of them, 121, ultimately joined the UN in time and contributed to the final count. Ananke notes that out of the participating forces, the North Pacific, TITO (10000 Islands) and the ADN provided the largest numbers; while she’s confident the liberation could have recruited more participants, security concerns kept recruitment confined to trusted defender circles.
July 28
08:23 GMT - Update in the North Pacific begins.
08:23 GMT - Better Times joins the UN. (Now with 120 Endorsements.)
08:27 GMT - Update in the North Pacific ends.
08:27 GMT - Better Times replaces Great Bight as TNP's Delegate.
At this point in time, the order of NationStates' update was in fact randomized (much to the annoyance of defenders), which meant liberators typically had to move into their target-regions at the beginning of update (6 GMT), leaving them wholly exposed to invader leads for hours. However, as part of Puppetmaster's unique method of attack, the lead nation only had to join the UN before it was updated itself by the update mechanism. There was no need to be a UN member at the start of the region update, and even if the lead nation were to be ejected before the regional update concluded, after being updated in the region its endorsement would count towards the delegacy regardless.
08:31 GMT - Better Times banjects Great Bight6
08:31 GMT - Better Times removes Great Bight from the region's banlist.
08:31 GMT - Better Times banjects Francos Spain
08:32 GMT - Better Times removes Francos Spain from the region's banlist.
Immediately after taking the delegacy, Better Times began trading endorsements to build his count and secure the region with the intention of departing from the UN when the government-in-exile's delegate, Thel D'Ran, was safely in position to take the reins. This is a screen capture of the North Pacific as it appeared on July 30 (01:08:36), freshly liberated. Better Times added an excerpt to the World Factbook Entry from the Broadway Musical, Les Misérables, an allusion to Paris' June Rebellion of 1832. Although the delegate's clock says "elected 42 days ago" - this is a technical bug, which had been present throughout the coup - the correct time would have been "elected 1 day, 17 hours ago."
July 31
06:12 GMT - Thel D'Ran becomes the delegate of The North Pacific. To tart his way to the delegacy, Thel had to endorse more than 1350 nations. Yikes!
September 13
07:10:01 GMT - The Stabilizing Force of Francos Spain ceases to exist in The Rejected Realms, after being kicked from The North Pacific by Better Times.
____________________________________________________________________
1 Below is a copy of the West Pacific's full statement.
2 Below is a copy of the ADN's full joint resolution.
4 Text of the Pacific's World Factbook Entry. (July 10.)
5 Yes, that Wickedly Evil People.
6 I dated these times based on Zeta Black's founding time. A nation which happened to be founded at the same time as these happenings.
Acknowledgements
Flemingovia assiduously noted the endorsement and ban levels multiple times a day on a regular basis - a public record which was essential to compiling this analysis. Each morning he would playfully invoke the style of a BBC news bulletin to announce the delegate's endorsement count. Much of the data presented here can be attributed to Flemingovia, yet again evidencing his incontrovertible divinity.
Thel D'ran also contributed quite a lot to my research with his own retelling of events in his "History of the War."
I’m also indebted to Ballotonia, Ananke and Eluvatar for peer-reviewing this lecture. The mission details and the mechanics of the Puppetmaster Attack are complicated and easy to misinterpret; it was important to me to get them right for the public record. I dedicate this lecture to Free4All, Sydia, and Goobergunchia.
