The Rejected Times

[Toerana]

Am kinda curious why Toerana named me as a "Vizier in Osiris" and not as the Minister of AA or former minister of Information, it seems an odd choice as the situation didn't involve Osiris in the slightest?

I felt like it was important to mention the fact that you're also heavily involved in a GCR, whereas Sho and Arenado are not, to my knowledge. Especially since Osiris is an ally of Thalassia. That, and I didn't know which of the departments you'd headed in your time and didn't fancy listing all I suspected.

[The Church of Satan]

TRT is probably the best newspaper in NS.

Probably? You wound me, dear reader. We are very definitely the best. As we have always been.

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

TRT is probably the best newspaper in NS.

Probably? You wound me, dear reader. We are very definitely the best. As we have always been.

You got nothing on Greitbart tbh.

[Great Algerstonia]

Probably? You wound me, dear reader. We are very definitely the best. As we have always been.

You got nothing on Greitbart tbh.

Damn

[The Church of Satan]

You got nothing on Greitbart tbh.

Ouch, Madjack. Very ouch.

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

You got nothing on Greitbart tbh.

Ouch, Madjack. Very ouch.

Look, of all the fake news outlets, yours is the best one. But Greitbart is the only truth-sayer out there.

[Sandaoguo]

"Recipe for Arroz con Frejol (rice and beans)"

Doesn't that translate to "rice with a bean"? I think you mean arroz con frijoles

[Agalaesia]

"Recipe for Arroz con Frejol (rice and beans)"

Doesn't that translate to "rice with a bean"? I think you mean arroz con frijoles

What's the problem wth using a single bean?

Anyway, I've fixed it on the forum version at least.

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

Apologies, I'm late to comment on this. For starters, why does TRT spend two out of three articles of this issue describing the situation in Thalassia? Is it a particularly slow news season?

The main premise of Aga's article on the topic is "the Thalassian founder must learn to be more calculable". I don't see Thalassia as a volatile partner this seems to imply it to be and neither does Karma. I don't think it needs mentioning, but Karma obviously also recognises the current Thalassian government as legitimate and possessing legal continuity with Kingdom's government under the old constitution. The article fails to provide any evidence of meaningful backlash, internal or external, about the change. It even admits so in the title, the founder apparently got off "easy". Well, maybe the reason for the lack of outrage is due to the fact that there is no cause for outrage.

[The Church of Satan]

Apologies, I'm late to comment on this. For starters, why does TRT spend two out of three articles of this issue describing the situation in Thalassia? Is it a particularly slow news season?

We write about the news that's out there, not the news that isn't. Personally I really don't want to restart the crapfest that is the argument from TEP's thread and bring it here (which is why I haven't). Admittedly Thalassia was worth milking for two issues in my opinion. I wanted to do it a third time (the first two convinced me) but when the next release date rolls by Thalassia will probably have nothing to talk about to justify a third go.

[Yokiria]

Personally I really don't want to restart the crapfest that is the argument from TEP's thread and bring it here (which is why I haven't).

Can't fault you for that. Don't want to give AMOM and company an excuse to burn bridges with TRR.

[Helseth]

Phoenix thinks pineapple goes on pizza?

Because it does.

[Toerana]

Phoenix thinks pineapple goes on pizza?

Because it does.

Hot take

[Kraljevstvo Rata]

"Recipe for Arroz con Frejol (rice and beans)"

Doesn't that translate to "rice with a bean"? I think you mean arroz con frijoles

A bit late. It depends on where you come from. Where my family is from, it would be either "gandules" or "frejol (plural)"

It really depends.

[The Rejected Times]

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Issue LXI | September 2020

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia
Deputy EiC: Vincey

Index

An Analysis of the World Assembly | OPINION COLUMN | WRITTEN BY Guest Writer Honeydewistinia | EDITED BY: Agalaesia
An Interview with Kenmoria | OPINION COLUMN | WRITTEN BY Guest Writer Honeydewistinia | EDITED BY: Agalaesia
N-Day - Before and After | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY The Church of Satan
10000 Islands Delegate Elections Conclude | NEWS | WRITTEN BY Eastern New England | EDITED BY Agalaesia
The Worst Forum Skin Contest | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY N-Vince
A Recipe for a Sandwich | RECIPE | WRITTEN BY Minskiev
A Field Report of N-Day | RP/CREATIVE | WRITTEN BY Vincey | EDITED BY The Church of Satan

An Analyisis of the World Assembly
OPINION COLUMN | WRITTEN BY GUEST Honeydewistania | EDITED BY Agalaesia

Welcome to The Rejected Times’ ‘WA This Month’ column! I am your host Honeydewistania, and I will be reviewing all the proposals this month that went to vote, along with some more interesting WA related events.

General Assembly:

The General Assembly has continued its long line of proposals, stretching from April. We kicked off the month of September with three environmental proposals, followed by a some repeals of older resolutions.

Analysis of Land Reclamation Regulation:

The proponents or the proposal believed that the topic was worth regulating, and that people shouldn’t screw up the land they are going to build on. On the other hand, there were a myriad of reasons against. The most pressing were the overreaching first clause, the survey by the ESWA being useless, and the absolutely flabbergasting exclusion of freshwater reclamation.

My Opinion:

As the co-author, it will not be a surprise to you that I was crossing my fingers for a ‘WSA’* and pass. While the problems were definitely of concern, I think most weren’t as big a deal as people made them out to be. Also, I was a bit miffed that most of the problems came flooding in once it was submitted as well (although that isn’t exactly anyone’s fault, unless they were deliberately withholding their concerns as they disagreed with the premise, and in that case I shall watch you angrily from a distance). However, the submitting author is interested in redrafting, so stay tuned!

_{* ‘WSA’ means World Space Administration, one of the most controversial WA resolutions/proposals ever. At the last few minutes it suddenly flipped to the FOR side and passed, which caused uproar across the GA for its overreach and broad strokes.}

Analysis of Marine Protection Act:

The proponents of the proposal believed that protecting marine sanctuaries that are environmentally or culturally significant is an extremely good idea, and by placing regulations on these areas they can be protected. The minor opposition however had some points, namely that the regulations cannot and shouldnt be enforced in international waters due to the World Assembly being unable to assemble a coast guard or Navy to protect these sanctuaries. In addition, the overuse of the term ‘reasonable’ is problematic, and allows member nations to use ‘reason’ to lower the effect of the proposal.

My Opinion:

Honestly? I think Marine Protection Act isn’t that good. Most annoying to me is surprisingly, it’s title. It’s reminiscent to a certain ‘Oceans Protection Act’, which was the original title of ‘Oceanic Hazardous Waste Disposal Ban’ by Nagatar Karumuttu Chettiar before the scope was shifted to focus on hazardous waste*. Anyways, the title is fluff. It’s too feel-good, and that makes me feel-bad. Or feel-cringe. Petty and pedantic troubles aside, the term reasonable does bring down the effectiveness (before people start calling me a hypocrite, read my opinion on ‘Ensuring Effectual Recycling’). I support Imperium Anglorum’s draft to repeal the resolution, where it may or may not be replaced by a more effective resolution.

_{* The proposal, which ended up with a co-author credit from five-time GA author Ransium, was discarded for contradiction and duplication of GA#441 "Convention on Freshwater Shortages", after garnering more than 80% of the vote.}

Analysis of Ensuring Effectual Recycling:

There was very little resistance to this proposal. Most were happy with the replacement of "Promotion of Recycling", as it did more and plugged holes in it. Some felt it was too heavy handed, and others felt that another proposal with an overuse of ‘reasonable’ was not good enough.

My Opinion:

Ensuring Effectual Recycling was quite good, I must say. I shall concede that the overuse of ‘reasonable’ was not that good and I should had given less leeway to member nations. However that wasn’t enough for me to encourage others to vote against, as there are many more good aspects of it too.

Analysis of Repeal “Supporting and Valuing the Humanities”:

The resolution polarised many. Quite a few voted in favour as the target was a drain on WA resources and required all funds from the General Fund to be cut off if transgressions are reported, temporarily (if the nation even appeals) cutting off funding for education and radiological leaks. There were others, however, who felt the lack of a replacement, and the General Fund being a non-issue due to the existence of the IAO (Independent Adjunctive Office), so they cast votes against.

My Opinion:

FOR. Rubber-stamped all the way for this. GA#495 is an opportunity for deceitful member nations to squander WA money on useless tripe. In addition, frivolous reporting could cut off ALL funds from the General Fund and have nations in poverty suffer from lack of basic education, ironically what opponents of this proposal claim that repealing this resolution will do. I suspect that opponents likely wish to pawn off WA money for their own use, and this resolution allows them to.

'Commercial Arbitration Recognition' Analysis:

Again, very little resistance to this. It is a sensible resolution that enforced arbitral awards and recognised arbitration, and one of the few resolutions that promotes mutual benefit between member nations, instead of placing more and more restrictions on them. However, a small minority opposed it due to poor definitions of a tribunal, and some felt that this would promote capitalism.

My Opinion:

I’m just sitting down there and wondering what we did to deserve three resolutions on arbitration. However it’s watertight and well-written with no glaring flaws, so I supported it when it came to vote.

Analysis of Pedagogical Freedom:

Overwhelming against from across the WA. The vague definitions, grey area and the overall repulse towards requiring the legalisation of homeschooling with little regulations made this the most harshly defeated resolution since “Treatment of the Deceased”

My Opinion:

Pretty hard against for me. No homeschools for me, thanks.

For real, it’s also pretty poor in definitions and extremely vague, ‘adequate education’ can mean lots of things.

Analysis of Sovereign Justice Accord:

A resolution that establishes neutral courts so lawsuits between foreign persons and governments can take place, allowing for fair and unbiased suits to take place. Actually very little flaws, most of the resistance if at all was directed at the premise of these courts in the first place.

My Opinon:

Very sensible resolution, and it does what it needs to do, so I voted in favour of this. I didn’t have a strong opinion of it though.

Analysis of Ending School Segregation:

A resolution which prohibited segregation of students by income, race, religion and gender. Many were in favour as ending segregation frankly anywhere is sensible. Many argued against it, saying it would end Catholic schools, private schools and some felt confused by the wording such as the prohibition on self-segregation, which some construed to be prohibiting students from having friends groups based on protected classes.

My Opinion:

I was mostly neutral on this. I was initially in favour but Candlewhisper Archive made a few good points, so I abstained. Not that it mattered, as it passed overwhelmingly.

Security Council:

The Security Council had a surprisingly busy month, with not one but two votes that were extended by twelve hours. Commendations, repeals of commendations and the odd liberation were all in the mix for this month.

Analysis of Repeal “Commend The Red Fleet”:

Many were quite in favour of this as it was an exaggerated self-commendation. Also some were opposed to The Red Fleet’s raid policy, and some didn’t like that they were communist. There were probably those that opposed the idea of anti-fascism in the first place and therefore placed votes in favour. Most of the opposition came from leftist regions, on the basis that The Red Fleet weren’t that bad.

My Opinion:

I was in strong opposition to this. I felt that the proposal severely understated some of the events that occurred. For example, I felt that claiming that TRF’s involvement in the raid against Nazi Europe wasn’t significant was also not giving credit where credit was due. I was, however, in principle of repealing and replacing (or vice versa) the original one, as it wasn’t that good.

Analysis of Repeal “Commend Kuriko”:

A resolution which argued that the target was inaccurate, poorly written and based its passage of a recent event that made Kuriko internationally known (even more than before, somehow). As even Kuriko endorsed the repeal, there was very little opposition to this resolution.

My Opinion:

If the person doesn’t want that commendation, then it’s fair enough to take it away and potentially replace it with a superior one. So, it was an easy for for me.

Analysis of Commend Altino:

The resolution was panned by many, who argued that meritocracy is not commendable, and that the whole clause on TWPAF was overstating the contributions, and some who didn’t feel that Altino deserved a commendation, including others who were annoyed that the authors didn’t incorporate community feedback. It was supported by TWP and Osiris, amongst others, who believed that the resolution did them justice and deserved to be on the books.

My Opinion:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. What a joke. Though the ‘purveyors of cutlasses’ clause was written by me, so I’m also at fault. I was against it from start to finish, though I did help the author in formatting and other quibbles in the drafting stage.

Analysis of Commend The Red Fleet:

Very large support for this, since it was an anti-fascist military being commended for long service to NationStates. In addition, it was viewed as a replacement for the previously repealed commendation, so even more voted in favour. There were a few against however, who felt that TRF’s transgressions outweighed the good they did, and some fascists who don’t like anti-fascism.

My Opinion:

Pretty much very for this, and not just because I wrote it. I’ve worked with TRF and they deserve recognition, they are efficient at what they do and do it well. They are legendary in anti-fascist action.

Analysis of Liberate Syria:

At the start, it was an easy pass, as region getting raided is bad. Some people opposed it as they believed that those in control of the region were actually natives with little malicious intent. However, once the password was removed, efforts to overturn the vote in the last few hours because the liberation was useless were futile, and it passed.

My Opinion:

Full support for this. No mercy for raiders, especially The Wolf Clan.

Analysis of Condemn Ever-Wandering Souls:

People were in favour of this as Souls is a dastardly and evil villain who has destroyed many regions for fun!!!!!! Some people weren’t in favour of this as it was written by a fellow raider, and was written more as a ‘congratulatory’ condemnation, using languages that resemble a commendation more than a condemnation, which is extremely bizarre.

My Opinion:

I was against it, mainly because it wasn’t written as a condemnation, and I feel that SC condemns should be written as ‘argh you are bad and disgusting!’ instead of ‘raider is bad but also very handsome’. I didn’t oppose it in principle though.

Analysis of Condemn the Lands of Kings and Emperors:

People were against this from the start. Riddled with inaccuracies, exaggerations and all-round lack of condemnable material put this resolution to rest very quickly. There were people who were in favour though, as they felt that LKE deserved a condemnation, inaccurate or not.

My Opinion:

I was initially for, but upon close inspection, I realised what a mess it was. So much so that I went and wrote an almost 4000 character repeal on it. I mainly discussed the inaccuracies, as well as gross exaggerations. If you want to read it, private message me on NationStates or Discord.

Interview with Kenmoria
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY GUEST Honeydewistania | EDITED BY Agalaesia

Interview with Kenmoria

Kenmoria is well known in the General Assembly forums for their insightful comments and feedback, as well as their passage of several resolutions.

Melons (Honeydewistinia): Generic questions first: How did you find out about NationStates?

Kenmoria: I first used NationStates as a result of simply mistyping the term ‘Nation-state’ into Google, as part of a project the details of which I have now forgotten. A few days later, somewhat bored, I looked at the site again for entertainment during a period of leisure, and made my first nation then.

Melons: Were you initially an issues player, an RPer, active in the GA etc?

Kenmoria: My first nation, which was called something along the lines of ‘Anglonion’*, was solely there to answer issues. It wasn’t as much of an activity for me then as NationStates is now, but I kept up with the daily flow for a few months before that nation CTEd. Following that, I made a few more Issues nations, followed by an F7 account, the name of which has sadly been lost to time. This was my first foray into the forums, which quickly lead to me becoming interested in the F&NI** subforum, where the majority of the account Kenmoria’s early posts lie.

* A nation called Anglonion ceased to exist a few days before Kenmoria was founded, so I believe that is the nation.
** F&NI = Factbooks and National Information subforum



Melons: What are some significant stuff you have done in F&NI (or II*, or any other RP subforum)? Or was it mostly minor participation?

Kenmoria: This was back in the days where the majority of F&NI consisted of surveys, so I wouldn’t really consider anything there significant, beyond volume. Some of it was quite interesting, I hope, but nothing exceptional. However, I am quite proud of some of the roleplay I’ve done in International Incidents and P2TM**, though I haven’t had much experience beyond the odd storyline. It was mostly useful as a way for me to be introduced into the bizarre world of the forums.

* II = International Incidents subforum
** P2TM = Portal To the Multiverse subforum


Melons: Why and how did you get into writing WA stuff?

Kenmoria: My first interest in the GA was with one of my earlier nations, where I had not yet interacted with the forums and therefore submitted the sorts of drafts that I would now ridicule. After this phase passed, it was with the nation of Kenmoria that I went into the actual GA forums, meaning to continue with past projects. Of course, the first few were absolutely terrible (please don’t look), and so I didn’t actually start drafting good proposals until some months later, once I had spent a while mostly criticising people’s grammar.

Melons: I've already looked.

Your first proposal, Reducing Food Waste, was co-authored by Australian rePublic and Dmitry II (aka Rovikstead). How did you come about with the idea?

Kenmoria: That first proposal wasn’t really my idea, in the sense that the first creator of the proposal was Australian rePublic. He drafted his legislation on the forums for a while, during which I helped with grammar and wording as usual. It looked rather different to the version that was passed. However, sadly, that piece of legislation never made it onto submission, owing to some serious flaws with the content.

A while later, when I was looking through some old threads, I realised that the proposal never went anywhere but wasn’t covered by any existing legislation. Therefore, after telegramming Australian rePublic and Rovikstead for permission, I posted a new, reworked draft to the forums, which actually made it to the submissions page this time.

Melons: Shortly afterwards, you passed Promoting Natural Sciences in Schools. Why did you propose that? Was it to replace previously repealed 'Access to Science in Schools', or did you have strong feelings for the topic, or both?

Kenmoria: This one was a combination of both. I have a keen interest in science and mathematics, and feel quite strongly that there ought to be more global coverage on STEM subjects, which provided a lot of the motivation. The repeal of Access to Science provided the opportunity for me to utilise this belief in the form of a GA resolution.

Melons: You also co-authored GA#441 Convention on Freshwater Shortages by Rovikstead and Araraukar (also known for making numerous comments on the GA forum). How did you end up co-authoring that?

Kenmoria: This was my first coauthorship in the GA, and it happened very gradually. At that point, as I do now, my modus operandi was making lots of quite brief comments on particular aspects of the proposals currently being drafted. This particular proposal had a lot that I was able to comment on, and therefore I made lots of small improvements to it. Over the drafting period, this amounted to enough to warrant my name appearing on the legislation, without planning on my part.

Melons: Speaking of which - why do you consistently make these comments on drafts? Is it particularly enjoyable, or is it mundane work but you care about the greater good and do it anyway?

Kenmoria: Though it isn’t to everyone’s tastes, I find a lot of enjoyment in criticising people’s writing and speech, much to the annoyance [of] anyone who knows me in real-life. There’s something immensely satisfying about sitting down with a draft and covering the whole post with red text, or picking apart the exact reasons why a clause doesn’t quite work.

Melons: Interesting

Anyways, was the situation for your co-authorships of Protecting Personal Privacy and Data Protection Accord similar to GA#441, in which you made small and gradual improvements to the draft, or did MG request your help from the beginning and you decided to help him out?

Kenmoria: As far as I can remember, this was another case of small, iterative changes. This time, however, I did send a few telegrams to MG about more substantial edits to the draft, one he had decided that I was to be a coauthor. Since there were two drafts, I was there from the beginning with the second.

Melons: Now, more recently, you co-authored Ensuring Effectual Recycling with me. You originally had a draft on recycling before Promotion of Recycling was passed. Why did the topic on recycling interest you?

Kenmoria: This is another case of real-life beliefs influencing my personal opinions. Recycling, and environmentalism more generally, is something I view as incredibly important the world in which we live, even more so now than possibly ever before. With the current climate crisis, raising awareness of these issues is crucial to ensuring that governments take the requisite actions to halt the destruction of our planet.

Passing a GA resolution probably didn’t do much in terms of the political aspect, but I did feel invested in the topic, which provided the incentive to get involved.

Melons: Speaking of which - your nation is Laissez-Faire capitalist, and corporations have free reign on many things. Is there a reason you chose such a model for your nation?

Kenmoria: This is the result of small changes to my nation. Originally, it was an exceptionally dull first-world Western nation, with almost no distinguishing features. I later added a hint of more capitalism than is normal in Europe, but nothing additional. This was the way of Kenmoria for a while, until I got into a roleplay with a variety of players in II about a nation called Posteastan. When there, I unintentionally built up Kenmoria as a villainous, ultracapitalist state, and found that I much preferred playing this version than the average country I had earlier.

A few months later, I read Jennifer Government, written by the famous Max Barry, and this book provided me with lots of inspiration for fleshing out the lore and nature of the Kenmorian capitalistic system. The model enables me to have both incredibly free and contented characters, those at the top, as well as tragic scenes whenever a large corporation is involved.

Melons:

Kenmoria: It’s a good book.

Melons: I'm sure. Anyways, kind of last question, you've also authored one issue on AI stuff. Why did you get into issues authorship, and why an issue about AI specifically? And why did you move away from issues writing and into other things?

Kenmoria: Just before the GA, I was involved in Got Issues. It was similar to the GA in many respects, and I liked the cooperative community and the variety of issues present. Like currently, I spend a lot of feedback on small grammar points and macro errors, and this eventually resulted in my decision to write an issue for myself, to see what it would be like. The first was never submitted, but the second made it to the official pool.

AI as a topic is something I have a vague interest in, but not anything overwhelming. It was more a case of me thinking of a good idea for an issue, checking if it had been done before, then leaping into the draft. Ultimately, that was the reason I moved away from Got Issues. Although I definitely enjoyed my time there, I struggled to think of good ideas that could fit the NationStates format.

Melons: Okay, actually last question, do you plan to move on to other NS things (like regional governance or SC or GP or anything) in the foreseeable future?

Kenmoria: I have recently moved into Europe’s government as one of the WA staff, which is close to regional governance. Though nothing definite, I am enjoying looking through the Gameplay side of things, and might try to focus on that area in future. Defending in particular looks promising. In addition, the SC is so closely linked to the GA that I’m fairly sure I will get involved at some point. I’ve made occasional comments there, so a draft might happen.

Melons: Okay, really huge thanks for your patience and time, I really enjoyed interviewing you.


Kenmoria: Thank you for conducting the interview; I enjoyed it.

N-Day - Before and After
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY The Church of Satan


As it does every year N-Day came around and the bunkers were packed. For those of us who have been around long enough N-Day was all too familiar to us. But the same cannot be said of the newer players whose heads were filled with questions. “How does it work?” “How do I launch a nuke at someone?” With that in mind I took it upon myself to get this perspective. What did they think it would be like? How was their experience afterwards? To that end I selected the first two players I came across whom had never participated in N-Day before. Veritocus from The East Pacific and Chewie from The North Pacific for an interview about their N-Day preconceptions and later on their N-Day experiences.

Veritocus from The East Pacific - Before N-Day

The Church of Satan: What did you think N-Day would entail before you read up on it?

Veriticus: For the most part it was exactly what I thought it was gonna be.

The Church of Satan: Did you have any preconceptions about how it would work?

Veriticus: At first I thought countries of a region produced nukes in order to bomb other countries in other regions. Then a little while after that, someone explained that shields also had a play in it, and that regions could ally and create factions. Also at the time I didn't consider the mechanics or specific calculations it took to make nukes or shields or how much damage nukes did and whatnot.

The Church of Satan: Yeah even I didn't take into account the complexities that would be involved in the process. But I think most people didn't.

Countless players come to NationStates and expect to be able to nuke other nations. To have a literal war mechanic (including the ability to nuke other nations.) What do you think of actually having that opportunity, if only for a short time?

Veriticus: I think it's great that I'll have the chance to participate in something of this caliber, and I'll definitely try not to let the time go to waste.

The Church of Satan: Would you say that you're excited for N-Day? Do you have good feelings towards it as you prepare to go into this?

Veriticus: Without a doubt, though it starts at 2AM in my time zone, which'll be a bummer.

The Church of Satan: Yeah it's gonna end up starting at an inconvenient time for many people. Unfortunately the powers that be (Max and/or [violet]) can't make everyone happy. :-/

Veriticus: True that.

The Church of Satan: What do you think about the possibility of being nuked until you're nothing more than a crater? :-P

Veriticus: I don't think I'll be in too much danger. I'm assuming factions will target high-ranking countries over a simple sub-900mil pop country like me, and with TEP being one of the largest regions, the chances of someone targeting me is infinitesimal.

The Church of Satan: So you expect to come out of this at least partially intact?

Veriticus: At least.

The Church of Satan: Well I certainly wish you luck. It's been nice speaking with you and I hope you have fun. After all it does only come once a year.

Veriticus: It's been nice speaking with you as well
---------------------------------------------

Verticus After N-Day

The Church of Satan: So now that you've experienced your first N-Day, what do you think of how it works having experienced it firsthand?

Veriticus: Pretty interesting. It’s fun having something competitive in NS after answering issues and doing challenges.

The Church of Satan: Yeah it's pretty intense isn't it? How'd it feel to nuke other nations?

Veriticus: Sort of anti climatic. Like I launch the nukes, wait a few minutes and refresh the page to see if there’s a DESTROYED on the nations page or not.

It was very exciting seeing the 10K+ incoming nukes targeted at an enemy faction though.

The Church of Satan: So you felt pretty good going in. How do you feel as you trudge through all the ash to get out?

Veriticus: Eh. Most of the time I was online, nothing was happening. When I was asleep or doing something else, there were either orders from my faction or incoming nukes from the enemies. The most action I got to see was at 2-4 AM, which included targeting the Horsemen.

At that point we didn’t make a dent in their shields, and when I woke up the next day I found that my faction’s score was obliterated and I had to move to Augustin Alliance. By then they had already broke through the Horsemens shields, so I just did my part and carried on.

The Church of Satan: "Service guarantees citizenship."

You didn't think that you yourself would be in too much danger. Did that end up being the case?

Veriticus: Like the cowards they were, the Horsemen attacked me in my sleep.

I got 16% radiation on my main account from a puppet account. My two puppets turned out without a scratch, though there were people targeting them once in a while.

The Church of Satan: Two thirds unscathed? Despite the lower number of nations, as a ratio that's pretty good for N-Day.

You expected to come out of this at least partially intact. Would you say you did better than you had predicted?

Veriticus: For the first hour or two, yeah. Once ATOMIC's high command ordered me to fire at the Horsemen of the Apocalypse however, which had way more nations than my faction, I thought it would get pretty messy.

The Church of Satan: Yeah the odds often don't look favorable. The riskiest gamble around I tell ya.

Veriticus: Indeed.

The Church of Satan: Having seen the outcome would you do it again?

Veriticus: In another year, yes. But not right now, it's a very draining competition for me.

The Church of Satan: Very much so. So draining.

Veriticus: Like if I had to answer issues every 10 minutes with extreme consequences if I didn't do them. Made a nice N-Day flag from it, though, so that was pretty cool.

The Church of Satan: There is always time for a good flag. There's a silver (flag) lining somewhere fortunately.

It has been a pleasure talking to you. Don't forget to take your iodine pills to get rid of that green glow. And maybe some Aloe Vera. Might be hard to come by right about now. They must be flying off the shelves of whatever stores are still standing.

Veriticus: Haha! Been a pleasure talking to you as well.
---------------------------------------------

Chewie from The North Pacific - Before N-Day

The Church of Satan: So, question 1: What did you think N-Day would entail before you read up on it?

Chewie: I thought the effect would be more permanent.

The Church of Satan: Yeah that thought did cross my mind when I was in my first N-Day as well, heh. Did you have any preconceptions about how it would work?

Chewie: I thought that it would work with any nation creating a faction with the controls easier then what I can see right now.

The Church of Satan: I didn't take into account the complexities that would be involved in the process either. But I think most people didn't on their first time in it.

Countless players come to NationStates and expect to be able to nuke other nations. To have a literal war mechanic (including the ability to nuke other nations.) What do you think of actually having that opportunity, if only for a short time?

Chewie: I think it’s very nice, so nice that it can be described as amazing.

The Church of Satan: Considering it only happens once a year, that's a rather apt description.

And Z-Day isn't too far away either (zombie apocalypse.) I doubt the radiation will have time to go away. Looks like we'll be having ghouls knockin' down our doors in the near future.

Chewie: Almost time to kill zombies

The Church of Satan: Would you say that you're excited for N-Day? Do you have good feelings towards it as you prepare to go into this?

Chewie: I am very excited about N-day and I definitely have good feelings.

The Church of Satan: What do you think about the possibility of being nuked until you're nothing more than a crater?

Chewie: Very high. The faction I’m joining has never made it out with a positive score. But we will this time.

The Church of Satan: In fairness, last year the faction I was in had the most radiation. xD

Chewie: I’m joining the Army of Freedom.

The Church of Satan: I'm gonna be in The Potato Alliance. I think we'll do better than the last faction I was in did.

So you expect to come out of this at least partially intact?

Chewie: I believe I will come out of it partially intact.

The Church of Satan: Well I certainly wish you luck. It's been nice speaking with you and I hope you have fun. After all it does only come once a year. ^_^

Chewie: Good luck.

Chewie: That’s another one I forgot to mention.

Chewie: Since I only had one factbook (which was a little lean in that area) I thought N-day happened much more often than it does.

The Church of Satan: Might be interesting if it did. A region might even be able to be built around N-Day if it did.
--------------------------------------------

Chewie After N-Day

The Church of Satan: So now that you've experienced your first N-Day, what do you think of how it works having experienced it firsthand?

Chewie: Good for the first few hours. Awful after.

The Church of Satan: I know the feeling, heh. How'd it feel to nuke other nations?

Chewie: Amazing.

The Church of Satan: Yeah it's quite a rush. Especially the first time around.

So you felt pretty good going in. How do you feel as you trudge through all the ash to get out?

Chewie: Tired. Very tired. We had 50,000 nukes coming in.

The Church of Satan: My god, yeah it was very tiring. At one point I had one nation sending 212 nukes at me simultaneously. O_o

Chewie: I had been in the Army of Freedom. We rose to 8th place. Then dropped down to almost last.

The Church of Satan: You guys were going pretty strong for the last 12 hours or so. Must have felt pretty good to reach the top 10.

So you went in anticipating a high chance of obliteration. Would you say you lived up to it? Did you do better than you thought you would?

Chewie: We definitely were obliterated. And we did 5-6 times worse than I thought we would.

The Church of Satan: You expected to come out of this at least partially intact. So what's the damage?

Chewie: -20,000, roughly. I lost 50-55 nations out of 60-70.

The Church of Satan: I'd say that's about average. Maybe a little bit above average actually. I know for a fact that several people lost at least twice as much.

Chewie: All of that came in the final 2 hours.

The Church of Satan: The longest two hours of my NS career.

N-Day comes around once a year. Now that you've had your first one, is one enough or do you need a nice long break in Decon (decontamination)? I know I do. The Rejected Times definitely does. Our office was blown to bits.

Chewie: I need a nice very long break.

The Church of Satan: A well-deserved one at that. Make sure your clothes are washed (if salvageable), the shower thorough and the iodine pills close at hand. Those rads will be gone in no time. The burns though, those might take a while. I'd share some Aloe Vera but it was all in the office. It's been nice talkin' to ya. Thank you for your time.

Chewie: Ok. I will try all that.

XKI DELEGATE ELECTIONS
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Eastern New England

On the first Tuesday of September, the 10000 Islands (XKI) Delegate Elections commenced.

HumanSanity declared candidacy with his platform “Friendship is Magic”. In the platform, he talked about hosting a set of events and revitalizing the FA Department. The full campaign can be found here: https://10000islands.proboards.com/thread/39919/humansanity-delegate-friendship-magic

Shortly after, Hakketomat announced that they were running with their satirical platform “Make TITO Democratic Now”. It can be seen here in full: https://10000islands.proboards.com/thread/39923/hakketomat-delegate-make-tito-democratic

HumanSanity won the elections 40 votes to Hakketomat's 19, making them the 36th delegate of XKI.

Senator elections for New Republica South and Blue Canario North were conducted alongside the delegate elections. Incumbents Controlitia and Wischland, who ran unopposed, won the seats for New Republica South and Blue Canaria North Respectively.

The next Delegate election in 10000 Islands will take place in March 2021.

A Rexpie for Sandwiches
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Minskiev | EDITED BY: Agalaesia

Welcome, everyone to Sandwiches with ‘Skiev! Brought to you by culinary extraordinaire Minskiev, I present to you grilled cheese sandwiches. Woohoo! But Minskiev, I want you to do a different sandwi- Well too bad, we’ve gotta start with the basics.

This article will be split into two recipes; the lazy grilled cheese sandwich, and a compensating grilled cheese sandwich. Finally, I prefer to put meat inside of my sandwich, however this is not necessary. Enjoy!

The Lazy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You will need:

2 slices of bread, I find potato and rye bread to work well.
1-2 slices of cheese, I enjoy Swiss and sometimes American.
*optional* 1-2 slices of meat, I like to have salami.

Note: You should have an equal number of slices of cheese and meat, unless you’re not using any meat.

Step 1. Put the two slices of bread in the toaster. On mine, I like setting the dial to 3.

Step 2. Take the toasted slices, put them on a plate, grab your meat and/or cheese and put them in the microwave for thirty seconds.

Ta-da! How skillful.

The Actual Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You will need:

2 slices of bread. Again, I suggest potato or rye.
2 slices of cheese, I like Swiss. Why 2? Because why would you spend several minutes for just one?
*optional* 2 slices of meat, preferably something thin.
Butter. You’ll only need perhaps a fifth of a stick.
1 pan.

Step 1. Gather the ingredients, assemble the sandwich, and butter up the outside of one slice. Then, set the oven stovetop at the pan to low, and place the sandwich, butter side down, onto the pan.

Step 2. With a spatula and your hand holding the handle, check every minute or so to see if the bottom side is a nice semi-dark brown. Remember that the sandwich should be over the heat, not to the side of it.

Step 3. When the bottom is a nice brown, take the sandwich off the pan without flipping it over, and butter up the top side. Then, flip the sandwich over, and place it on the pan. Repeat Step 2.

And there you have it! Impressive, I know. This has been Sandwiches with ‘Skiev. Laters!

N-DAY: A Statistical Analysis
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Vincey | EDITED BY: The Church of Satan

Statistics is turning into a new found interest in me, which I though could be put to a good use, to unravel the happenings myself, without the need to for other sources. August from The Augustine Alliance had been kind enough to record the N-day stats of factions the day. It has been due to his data that this has been made it possible to create a report. The entire report is based only on statistics and its interpretation. These may or may not reflect the actual situation of what happened that day. The following report was made with the data:


02:00 am THE SIRENS WAIL! It has been announced that a nuclear war is on the brink. Nations are joining factions to coordinate with each other. Nations are specialising in shields, nukes and productions to help each other defend their factions and destroy their opponents.
02:40 am THE NUKES HAVE STARTED! TAKE SHELTER! Horsemen have just got their first strikes down! The Fuster Cluck Coalition is grabbing strikes as well.

03:00 am The Horsemen seem to be the preferred faction by far with over 4.1k members already in it. It isn’t surprising considering their huge victory in the previous war. Will they be able to crush everyone this time too? Stay tuned to know more. An Alliance of Potatoes (PA) is as well growing with almost 2.5k nations, ATOMIC with 2k nations and Ba Sing Se (BSS) with 1.5k. All nations are still in their research and production phase stock piling to their production capacity so they can start hitting! Minor skirmishes can be observed, but there is no evidence of any major event as of yet.

03:40 am THE WAR HAS BEGUN! The Horsemen has waged a war on The Potato Alliance! Horsemen have just pointed close to 36,000 nukes towards The Potato Alliance. These are the two biggest factions but the Horsemen have a huge advantage of numbers. The Potato Alliance had already started ramping up shield production. How long can they keep up?

04:20 am BOOM! The first signs of the cracks in the defence of The Potato alliance are now being seen. The Horsemen are crushing the shields down with their numbers, and they had their first major hit down successfully. PA is trying to hit back but they are constantly being blocked. Can The Potato Alliance recover from it? Other major factions have presently distanced themselves from the conflict, still assessing the situation.

05:30 am The Horsemen are crushing The Potato Alliance constantly. The Potato Alliance seems to be weakening as member nations of The Alliance have started leaving the faction for others. The Potato Alliance is sitting at -32k points while The Horsemen have a huge lead over everyone else with 40k points as of now. The Potato Alliance needs to hold on to its members.

06:20 am The Treachery!The Potato Alliance has dropped its members from 3.3k to 2.3k while at the same time The Horsemen have increased by 5.5k to 6.5k. It is evident that most of the members leaving Potato alliance had Horsemen in their mind. Though all is not lost! The Augustine Alliance (AA) seems to have stepped into the game and has targeted The Horsemen with around 10-20k nukes on The Horsemen. This has given The Potato Alliance a chance and it has started to stabilise the situation. Members have stopped leaving and the numbers are slowly rising. Significantly! Their drop in score has slowed down. Experts are predicting that the worst for the PA is almost at its end.

07:00 am We have fresh news coming from ATOMIC. Reports say that there are over 15k nukes targeted on them. They have launched a counter attack to this. On the other hand, the situation seems to be in a stalemate as neither AA, PA or Horsemen have been able to hit a major blow. The situation in PA is still increasing.

08:00 am The war has now affected ATOMIC too and has been dealt their first major blow. The Horsemen have brought ATOMIC down to a negative score and are continuing to bombard it. Over the past hour, The Potato Alliance has been pushing back against The Horsemen too. Though not by much. AA as well has been constantly preparing nukes, but haven’t bagged any major victories.

09:00 am THE HORSEMEN ARE FLYING, beating down everyone in their way. Over the last hour, ATOMIC has been losing points consistently to The Horsemen dropping down to -40k. While The Horsemen rose from 87k to 95k. This time though Ba Sing Se and AA had as joined in the bombing of ATOMIC. Ba Sing Se piled up nukes while The Horsemen were bombing and as soon as The Horsemen started re-stocking their nukes, BSS and AA took over to further crush ATOMIC. ATOMIC seems utterly destroyed. Can it pick itself up?

10:40 am THE AUGUSTIN ALLIANCE AND THE POTATO ALLIANCE TURN THE TIDES! Over the last hour, AA has been nuking The Horsemen with the help of PA, slowly but surely. BSS and The Horsemen had started to target CRAB while AA and PA took the chance to start hitting The Horsemen. Yet the difference in score is HUGE and Horsemen are still leading by a huge lead. The Horsemen have fallen from 133k to 111k while AA gained around 18k points. PA is still not giving up and is very steadily rising to -43k. BSS, AA, PA all have around 3.2k nations and The Horsemen is still rising towards 8.4k

12:10 am THE WORST 15 MINS OF THE HORSEMEN. In the last 15 mins, The Horsemen lost more than 20k points from 110k to 86k with radiation increasing by 35% to 60k! Points rose from 19k to 30k for AA, BSS rose from 13.8k to 20k and -39k to -34k for PA. PA has not given up and is very close to again getting back the position of 2nd largest faction, just behind AA. ATOMIC however seems to have given up on its cause. This has been the worst drop for The Horsemen until now. How will The Horsemen react to this?

01:15 am THE HORSEMEN'S REVENGE FROM THE AUGUSTINE ALLIANCE! Just in the last 15 mins, The Horsemen have dropped 30k nukes on AA. But they are not alone, BSS, with the largest nuke pile 237k dropped 17k more nukes on AA though not gaining any score. This has been the first major attack on AA and it has stricken them with great force, with rations going up from 0 to 17k in matter of just a few minutes. There is utter chaos due to the sheer number of nukes incoming, and shields are being put up as fast as they can. However, the damage has been done and dropped down to 14k losing more than 50% of their score. Indeed, a revenge served by The Horsemen. While BSS making best of both worlds.

01:50 am The Horsemen face a roller coaster drop! The last 30 minutes have been a roller coaster ride for The Horsemen. They had a sweet taste of victory against AA yet they celebrated too soon. This time The Horsemen faced an even worse defeat! Not having faced any major attacks, AA had over 114k shields in reserve. AA had launched a huge blocking mission blocking nukes on themselves and PA from both BSS and The Horsemen, without getting stricken once. Just 15 minutes from their last defeat, they launched a counter attack, along with PA, while BSS as well joined in to grab points. Horsemen lost 55% of their score and dropping to 60k, this has been the worst defeat The Horsemen have seen yet. Yet they are still at the top of the leaderboard. The biggest gain was by PA though who even in negative score rose from -33k points to -14k. Along with a huge jump in points by both AA and BSS

03:05 am THE LAST-DITCH EFFORT AND FALL OF THE HORSEMEN EMPIRE! PA: A RISING PHOENIX and CRAB Hits Its First Success. This is a paradigm shift in the events of CRAB and PA as they both hit The Horsemen in efforts to bring them down, while BSS tries to shield The Horsemen, but fail. This is simply the Horsemen empire crumbling, and losing all its 56k points going down below 0 while PA have finally managed to come back up with positive points by gaining around 15k score. CRAB as well had its first major victory doubling their score to 30k. This has been an unprecedented journey by PA and a new rigour can be felt in it, after overcoming such a huge loss and finally gaining a positive score. Currently, BSS is leading in score, but not by a huge margin,and anyone can grab the top spot. The momentum of the war has changed drastically in the last few hours.

04:30 am THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL. The spirit of The Horsemen now seems to be broken. PA has taken the lead to get as much score from The Horsemen as possible and other factions are joining in to share the spoils of their victory. The Horsemen still remains the largest faction with over 8.3k nations, nearly twice as much as their biggest rival, PA. While the shields from BSS are still preventing a few strikes, it’s not enough. There are too many targets available to strike and too much radiation in the faction to produce. The Horsemen is in a downward spiral and everyone else is gaining from it. This has also cost BSS the top spot, losing it to AA.

06:30 am TUSSLE FOR THE TOP. AA, BSS, PA and CRAB have continued to grow rapidly by nuking The Horsemen. There are a few exchanges amongst themselves, however, the biggest target is still The Horsemen. Continuous destruction has now plummeted its score below the lowest score recorded at -250k. BSS has been using its huge stockpile of shields which has brought its stockpile below both CRAB and PA. Crab is now leading in shields while BSS is still at the top in number of nukes. However, The Horsemen still stand at the top in terms of production.

07:30 am CLASHES IN CRAB AND BSS! CRAB has taken an offensive stand against BSS, targeting them with over 20k nukes. However the shields have been plentiful in BSS. This has been the first major conflict which hasn’t involved The Horsemen. Though till now neither side has been able to score any significant hits against the other. The action has allowed the AA to snatch the top spot for nukes from BSS. This continues alongside the continuous destruction of The Horsemen. The fight for the top 3 is now between AA, BSS and PA

09:10 am EMERGENCY! The TRT Media Corporation's office is being hit by nukes. The site is being evacuated quickly. We will be unable to provide you any further updates on the war until the area is safe. Please remain calm, in your homes with your loved ones, and pray for the brave who are fighting on the battle field! TRT out!


And that is when it all became a black box. The last 5 hours of data has been lost in the NS Verse. Though at the end it was clear that the only three major contenders were really standing a chance to get the top spot: An Alliance of Potatoes, Augustine Alliance, and Ba Sing Se. The end results of N-day can be seen here (https://www.nationstates.net/page=news/ ... index.html).

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Show your appreciation by upvoting this Issue's dispatch here.

The Times gives our thanks for the ongoing support from our Subscribers:
[nation=noflag]Glacikaldr[/nation], [nation=noflag]Fauxia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Marilyn Manson Freaks[/nation], [nation=noflag]NOrTh pAcIfiC spY[/nation], [nation=noflag]Trabardia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Dixadoing[/nation], [nation=noflag]All Wild Things[/nation], [nation=noflag]Eseral[/nation], [nation=noflag]North Prarie[/nation], [nation=noflag]Asdersland[/nation], [nation=noflag]Windchia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Apple-Loosa[/nation], [nation=noflag]Crazybloxian Empire[/nation], [nation=noflag]Hydra dragon[/nation], [nation=noflag]Jar Wattinree[/nation], [nation=noflag]Libetarian Republics[/nation], [nation=noflag]Zip[/nation], [nation=noflag]Frattastan IV[/nation], [nation=noflag]Free City of Rigia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Imperium of The Huron[/nation], [nation=noflag]Meggland[/nation], [nation=noflag]Ctesiphonis[/nation], [nation=noflag]Renegalle[/nation], [nation=noflag]Nintendo Switch Parental Controls[/nation], [nation=noflag]Mynation[/nation], [nation=noflag]Morover[/nation], [nation=noflag]Hindu Mahasabha[/nation], [nation=noflag]Bormiar[/nation], [nation=noflag]Zealandiana[/nation], [nation=noflag]The Ivaland[/nation], [nation=noflag]Abbots[/nation], [nation=noflag]Carropia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Yen Eef[/nation], [nation=noflag]Carstantinopipal[/nation], [nation=noflag]Democratic Republic Of Unified States[/nation], [nation=noflag]Lifeeeeee[/nation], [nation=noflag]Doge Land[/nation], [nation=noflag]Sensorland[/nation], [nation=noflag]The Human Core Council[/nation], [nation=noflag]Outboundstagnate[/nation], [nation=noflag]The logictalian union[/nation], [nation=noflag]Babme Merrourativa[/nation], [nation=noflag]Big Structural Bailey[/nation], [nation=noflag]Dogelore007[/nation], [nation=noflag]Information of The Communist Bloc[/nation], [nation=noflag]Lansaka[/nation], [nation=noflag]Eleutherosophia[/nation], [nation=noflag]Caduceo[/nation], [nation=noflag]The Unified Missourtama States[/nation], [nation=noflag]Pilgrimtown[/nation], [nation=noflag]The Lazytown[/nation], [nation=noflag]Mitary[/nation], [nation=noflag]The Hope Hills[/nation], [nation=noflag]Mecotla[/nation], [nation=noflag]Minskiev[/nation], [nation=noflag]Homyland[/nation], [nation=noflag]La Republique Louisianaise[/nation], [nation=noflag]Ebonhand[/nation], [nation=noflag]Awesomeland012345[/nation], [nation=noflag]Comfed[/nation], [nation=noflag]Whole India[/nation], [nation=noflag]Nova Vandalia[/nation]

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

[RiderSyl]

the World Assembly "Analyisis" column was overlong, boring, and occasionally grating. please, never again.

[Honeydewistania]

the World Assembly "Analyisis" column was overlong, boring, and occasionally grating. please, never again.

My bad. Did you like the interview?

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

As a note: Chewie is no longer from The North Pacific.

[RiderSyl]

the World Assembly "Analyisis" column was overlong, boring, and occasionally grating. please, never again.

My bad. Did you like the interview?

yes a much better read

[LollerLand]

Really enjoyed reading the N-Day statistical analysis.

[Comfed]

As a note: Chewie is no longer from The North Pacific.

He’s still a citizen.

[Xoriet]

CRAB never targeted BSS. A rogue known as the card farmer Leto II Atreides targeted BSS from inside CRAB. BSS can confirm that we helped them shoot down nukes Leto was aiming at BSS.

[The Church of Satan]

CRAB never targeted BSS. A rogue known as the card farmer Leto II Atreides targeted BSS from inside CRAB. BSS can confirm that we helped them shoot down nukes Leto was aiming at BSS.

That article was intentionally written strictly from the statistics collected during N-Day. It paints a different account of what happened but it's also an interesting take on how statistics cannot determine everything.

[Agalaesia]

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LXII | NOVEMBER, 2020

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Vincey

Index

• Interview with the Grim Reaper - Former Issues Editor - Minskiev
• The Horrible Secret of the Sauce Pt 2 - The Church of Satan
• Three Summarized Arguments for a New Feeder - Agalaesia
• Interview with Electrum - Issues Editor - Minskiev

Interview with the Grim Reaper

INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Minskiev

How did you start writing issues, and how did you become an issues editor?

I started writing issues for one of the Issues Editor contests - which dovetails nicely into the second half of that question. The first real issue I wrote was also an entry into the contest, of which I was one of the winners.
I'd always liked the role that issues played in the game; I appreciated the way they broke down questions into a few simple options, that they used tight story-telling to help frame familiar political ideas in weird and wonderful new lights.

Besides being a fascinating game mechanic, they're also a brilliant literary genre - beyond a small story, they're self-contained microliterature. You can have a few options, sure, but for your own NationState, an issue's story is two paragraphs long - a context, and your chosen response.

For me, writing issues was a way to explore a genre that really is associated with the rise of the internet; a kind of writing that's arguably never been done before.

Do you have a favourite issue?

The Widow Raven is brilliant. I think it reads really nicely as a novelty issue. As a more conventional set of issues, the AI personhood issues are fascinating to me. AI are such a trope of utopian and dystopian science fiction, and they represent such an opaque and foreign notion to us in that genre. In NationStates, AI personhood is really framed around that moment of transition and those questions of what it means to be a person. The result is to create really quirky but completely believable stories that are founded on off-the-wall takes on mundane situations, but my favourite issue actually is kind of structurally quite vanilla - Due Processing is just so well-executed, and really a great example of building a long-form, story-focused issue.

How do you deal with a writer's block?

Not well.

There are a couple of ways that work, to varying degrees.

My preferred way is to skip ahead of the block, which is a technique novellists often use - in an issues context, if you're blocked up on a specific option, just leave it be for a while and work on the others. That works really well for people who don't have a lot of productive time to deal with.

For people who like to sit down and make issues writing a big leisure activity, it can be a good time to get in your weekly exercise. Go for a walk, or at least have a good pace or do some sit ups. The trick is to get out of the mental headspace the writers block happened in, and then get into a new headspace when you get back - have a quick chat with some friends, or read a news article or two and keep the draft out of your mind.

The last way is to remember that you can always just copy+paste your drafts! I've often recommended that people who edit their work - and this goes for people doing assignments and essays too - treat drafts as an opportunity to really experiment. Whenever you get the kind of block where you know something isn't right, but not how to replace it, just remove it. If something isn't in the same place, just move it. Then write around it. Look at that side-by-side with the original draft, and it'll be easier to identify those subtle, emergent qualities - to compare the rhythm and the implications that come from the new relationships in the text.

Are there any changes to issues that you would like to see, including features and player-made developments?

I think the beauty of the Issues game is its simplicity. Really, any move towards making Issues more open for submissions would be great. If I had a magic wand, and I could rewrite NationStates from the ground up, I think I'd take into account that the way people treat issues has really shifted towards something that is typically 'common knowledge', or anciliary to the game. Getting repeat issues is annoying for new players, and so a lot of people start turning off.

I think, in an ideal world, people could become reinterested in issues again through collaborative, public-facing issues drafts in an organized way. Maybe even to create kind of an optional parallel, publicly-managed pool that can be merged into the main one on a case-by-case basis by the more exclusive editor group. When I was an editor, there were points where the pool of drafts was actually a real bottleneck. Moving towards letting people piece together an issue, rather than having a 'main' author who takes ownership of an issue and merges in comments, might make it easier to create a breadth of experiences and styles, and to produce finished drafts.

What makes up a good issue?

A good issue is one that has a really coherent storyline that emphasizes, and illustrates the core question. You don't have a lot of space to provide floral description in an issue, or to provide technical context for whatever is in question. You can't waste word count doing one or the other. The only way to really produce a good issue is to use your word count to do both.

The make-up of a good issue should not be 'story' and 'a question'; it should be a single narrative that does both. Instead of explaining what a problem is, or how solutions impact it, use your story to your advantage and illustrate those two things. Tightening up that story has the advantage of creating a scope for that problem; if you feel like your story is not sufficient for covering all the aspects of your question, consider narrowing the question! It's easier to see a good story than a good question - so, if you think you have a good story, try fixing the question.

What's your favourite type of issue?

I really like issues where the options would not make sense in any other issue. There's a general formula everyone knows for issues that are effectively yes or no questions - "Yes, we should solve this; No, we should expand on it; What if we ask a different question?" Those are great for lots of issues, but for my personal tastes, a well-conceived issue is one where every option has a fundamentally distinct principle, or approach, to solving a single problem.

What tips would you give to a new issues author?

I give two quotes, both being demonstrative of their own principle.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.” - Gary Provost

In a genre where each self-contained work could be composed of a double-digit number of words, each word must count. Justify every word and punctuation mark. The editors have had multi-day discussions about replacing words and punctuation; even about swapping clauses, and moving them around.

Read the issue as a whole; remove any options that are unnecessary, and ensure their lengths, their use of dialogue, and the amount of information versus story in them creates rhythm. Then read each component. The issue text, the options, and the description text must all sing alone, as well as together. Then go as far as to make sure that every sentence works, and that every single word is in the right place to convey your intention. Even conjunctions.

Whenever you feel lost, start by removing anything - and everything - that is not necessary. Repeat this until everything is; until every word you remove would literally make the issue more difficult and less fun to read.

What are your thoughts on people looking up the consequences of the issue before answering them? Do you think it kills the spirit of issue answering?

I think it's not a good way to start off playing the issues game, and I think that if you 'min-max' too hard, then you run the risk of burning out on issues mechanics. That being said, I think that if you're playing less for a singular #1 position, and more for perhaps a slate of stats you want, or a specific image of your nation, then I think that it's definitely fair to derive a lot of fun from comparing the hard mechanical numbers, and trying to decide on the trade-offs you're willing to make on the way towards that slate.

Ultimately, however, the heart of the issues is to experience the stories and for the story's options to feel consequential to you. If what you want your nation to look like is defined less through issue text, and more through stats, then go for it! If someone is interested in getting into the mechanical part of issue - playing issues more for stats - I knew someone who liked to work out what their RP nation would do, and comparing it to what their stats nation would do. That made for some fun conversations!

The Horrible Secret of the Sauce Pt 2

CREATIVE | WRITTEN BY The Church of Satan

The Horrible Secret of the Sauce Pt 2 | Written by The Church of Satan

[hr]
For those of you that don't remember or never read part one of the story, you can refresh your memory or start the story from the beginning. We last left off the RRA had made its way to the office of the Speaker, Vulturret who was the last epidemist The Rejected Realms had. If there was going to be any hope of saving The Rejected Realms it would require him. As bizarre as it sounds he believed the source of the infection was at Kandarin's BBQ & Grill. And so with skepticism, they started the arduous journey there.
[hr]
Vulturret awoke in a daze, trying to figure out what was going on. He heard a voice, muffled but loud. “Hello? Hey! Hey, Vulturret! This is no time for a nap."
"Where am I? What happened?" Turning Vult's head towards himself, Wop yells over the moans and groans of the infected around them, "You stay close to me at all times. Understood?"
"Yes, sssir." A voice from the radio brought him out of his daze, "Commander! They're everywhere. We need to get out of here. Recommend we proceed to the west. The crowd is thinnest there."
Wop unholstered the handgun from his hip, looked forwards at the horde, and fired a few rounds into the windshield. Kicking the windshield out, he crawled out of the humvee activated his radio, outstretched his hand towards Vulturret, and declared, "Move out. We're headed west." The infected roared as they started to overtake the other RRA vehicles. The sounds of gunfire intermittently interrupted the roar of the infected as they fought their way west where the horde was weakest. Fifty feet, a relatively small distance when compared to the several blocks of walking dead they would otherwise have had to traverse, and yet for that relatively small fifty feet, it was still an uphill battle.

They fought tooth and nail just to escape. "There's too many of them, sir!" Wop bellowed his response, "I ain't got time for lip, son. GIVE 'EM HELL!" The APC however was quickly overwhelmed. The troops ended up trapped in what was supposed to protect them. Wop, Vulturret, and a small contingent of soldiers made their way twenty feet out thanks to the distraction of the APC but they weren't aware of how bad it was going until the blood-curdling screams rang out. "They're getting slaughtered in there, sir. We gotta save them."
"Keep moving forward and keep firing. There's no helping those poor bastards with that many infected blocking the exit." Wopruthien motioned west, reloading his weapon. "We're almost there! Don't stop! Focus fire on the north, south, and west sides. Let the infected to the east fall over themselves while we escape!” Pushing through the horde, trying their best to ignore the screams coming from the APC, hating every moment of it. Finally, they break through to the outside of the horde, "Move it! Move it! They're not done with us yet." Vulturret panicked and darted west without thinking, "What're you doing Smarty Pants?! I said stay close!" Vulturret kept running in search of somewhere safe. "Everyone disengage and go after the Speaker. If he dies we all die." Chasing after Vulturret, Wopruthien and the remaining RRA troops caught up with him two blocks away. Wopruthien grabbed Vulturret by the throat and yelled, "I SAID STAY CLOSE YOU IDIOT!" Still trembling and coming down from the adrenaline, Vulturret responded, "I was getting away from those, those...things!"
"YOU NEARLY KILLED EVERYONE! IF YOU WEREN'T SO DAMNED IMPORTANT I'D-" The street started to quake, slowly shaking until the concrete gave way to the tremors, taking with it the entire group, a wrecked semi and a partially collapsed building which finally managed to overtake it.

"Hello? Is everyone okay? Answer me, that's an order."
"A little worse for wear but I'm alive, sir."
"A few bumps and bruises. Nothing to worry about."
"I'm lucky to be alive. And I thought paperwork in The Assembly was exhausting."
"Not me, sir. I'm dead."
"Kyorgia, shut it. We don't have time for your jokes. Good to know everyone is still walking. Anybody know where we are?"
"Well, all I can see is a whole lot of nothing so we must be in a Barnett Newman painting." Wopruthien couldn't help snapping at Kyorgia, "This isn't stand-up night at the local chuckle bucket." Just as he finished his sentence, a distant light sped towards them. That's when Wop's eyes widened with a sudden realization, "EVERYONE MOVE TO THE WALL, NOW! HURRY!" The light moved past them and crashed into the fallen debris from above, exploding as it overturned and scraped its way across the ground. "Gentleman it looks like we're in the subway."
"Where do we go from here, sir?"
"Yeah, you soldiers might be used to this but my job doesn't involve punching things into oblivion. So what do we do now? I can't even tell where this tunnel leads." Vulturret was even more nervous than before, but in control enough to just barely avoid running off in a panic. Holstering his handgun and switching to the rifle on his back, he turned on the flashlight attached to it. "We'll have to move quickly. That horde of infected will be on its way down here any second. They originally came from the north and that train came from the same direction. If we head north we might find less infected to deal with but there will probably still be a lot packed into the tunnel if that train is any indication. If we head south we might encounter a sizeable portion of the horde above us after we reach the surface. Either way, there will be no going back. Everyone keep quiet, stay sharp, and don't waste your ammo. We're taking our chances north. Move quickly." Wop, Kyorgia, Vulturret, and the other two soldiers started northward, carefully climbing over the train wreck. As they passed what was left of the forwardmost car, the sounds of infected pouring into the tunnel from the collapsed road thundered throughout it. Wop whispered as loudly as he could, "Move faster and don't let the infected get the better of you. If you panic you die." They walked for hours in near-total darkness, quietly. The groans of the infected echoing through the tunnel began to fade, slowly. Eventually, they reached one of the stations, the groans of the infected sounded as if death itself were whispering in their ears. Vulturret broke the group's silence, "Finally-"
Wop immediately interrupted him, "Not so fast, Smarty Pants. There might be some outside the entrance. This time, you STAY CLOSE and do as I say. That's an order, not a question." As they exited the subway, the smell of burning flesh consumed them.

One of the soldiers put their sleeve over their nose and managed a few words while choking on the smoke, "What the hell is that?"
"Must be Kandy's new burger. We're on our way there anyway and I don't know about you but I'm hungry," remarked Kyorgia. Wop scoffed at the ill-timed joke but knew he was right. "Aside from his poor sense of humor, he's right. That's the Community Centre. Kandy's is less than a mile away. So tell us Vulturret, what exactly are we looking for?" Vulturret took a folder from out of his bag, "Well Commander, how do you feel about sauce?"
[hr]
I know, ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER? It'll be a long wait but when Halloween comes around again, keep an eye out. See what happens next! Happy Halloween, readers. ^_^

Three Summarized Arguments for a New Feeder

OPINION | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia

Gameplayers have, for quite a while, been nervously awaiting for a new feeder. Some prominent nations have stated that it is not a case of "if," but a case of "when."

Recently, there have also been proposals to create a 'feeder warzone,' and the idea of a new feeder seems to emerge once every so often. So, what is the case for a new feeder, and how would such a feeder shake up how governments interact with the game?

Here are some of the arguments for new feeders:

One: WA Dilution

Diluting the feeder’s World Assembly Nations is a common argument when arguing for the concept of a new feeder. Many argue that The North Pacific and other feeders have too many endorsements. and therefore should be “diluted.” Indeed, the number of endorsements that The North Pacific has gained is a common reason cited in the radical General Assembly “National Sovereignty” argument, a stance which is often used by The West Pacific.

Ideally, by “diluting endorsements” by founding new nations in multiple locations, this National Sovereignty argument could be eliminated. “Diluting Endorsements” by creating more feeders could also make the World Assembly more exciting and less predictable, as the passage of world assembly resolutions would not be as reliant on the few opinions and predictable key votes that it currently revolves around.

Two: Political Diversity

Currently, almost all feeders (with one major exception) are allied or in agreement, however, this makes inter-regional relations and, at times, the World Assembly go stale with lack of engagement from world governments.

All gameplaying nations acknowledge that the inter-regional landscape is stale, however, refuse to do anything about it. By creating new feeders, engagement from existing regional governments in gameplay would increase dramatically. Whether this is a positive outcome depends on the regional government, and it could very well be that many will continue to focus on regional infrastructure over fostering inter-regional relations and conflict.

Three: Why Not?

At the end of the day, the exact nature of a new feeder can only be guessed at - will they gain stable governments and natives, or will they be ridden with constant coups and regional conflicts?

Whatever happens, the creation of new feeders would shake up how governments and nations interact with the game for multiple future generations.

Interview with Electrum - Issues Editor

INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Minskiev

How did you start writing issues, and how did you become an issues editor?

I started writing issues seriously back in May this year, when the fifth Issues Contest was announced. It seemed like a good way to try writing in a different style, given that I am mainly a sports roleplayer (I like to see issues editing as a side gig).

I became an issues editor after winning the issues contest - my winning draft was "The Brains Behind Kuru". It's basically a follow-up on legalising unregulated cannibalism, and how that can lead to the spread of an infectious brain disease. It was a last-minute submission and came to me in a moment of serendipity when I was originally planning to write an issue themed on Sweeney Todd.

Funnily enough, I have some terrible unpublished forum drafts from 2014 on sentient animals and mouldy cheese that I have no recollection of ever writing. They will never see the light of day.

Do you have a favourite issue?

"Contract Killer". It's based on a great piece of English literature, and is littered with references and allusions to the characters and themes of said piece of literature. Option 4 is a great touch as well. A close second is "For Want of a Nail". The premise is engaging, and it provides some very humorous and varied option choices.

How do you deal with a writer's block?

It's good to have a stockpile of ideas that have been compiled over a period of time. I always have a phone or notepad with me at all times to write down issue ideas as they come. When I'm writing a draft, I find that stopping work on it and coming back a week later can provide a fresh perspective.

Are there any changes to issues that you would like to see, including features and player-made developments?

We're always welcome to new suggestions, but one innovation I'd like to see used more often is issues where the resulting effect line depends on the country's characteristics. For example, issue 982 has the leader play chess, and the outcome of that match depends on the country's stats.

What makes up a good issue?

I think the four essential elements of a good issue are, in order of importance: humour, an engaging premise, good characterisation and brevity.

What's your favourite type of issue?

My favourite type of issue is one that presents an unintended consequence to a decision that has been made earlier. If an issue can convince someone to change their mind and consider new perspectives, then perhaps there is hope for this world after all.

What tips would you give to a new issues author?

Draft on the GI forums, and don't rush to submit immediately. We're a friendly bunch and we all want what's best for the game -- if you receive constructive criticism, take it in stride and seek to iterate and improve.

When writing, work on characterisation -- one of the biggest problems I see in submissions is that all of the characters sound the same. Give your characters a bit of personality, either by describing what they're doing, or in their speech.

Also, show, don't tell. For example, instead of saying 'said snootily', think about ways you can express the snootiness of someone without saying it.

What are your thoughts on people looking up the consequences of the issue before answering them? Do you think it kills the spirit of issue answering?

Totally fine with that. It's impossible to stop anyways. After all, part of the fun in NationStates is to mould your country into whatever image you want it to be.

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Discuss this Issue over on the NationStates forum here.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

[Comfed]

I think another feeder would be good for the game, but not a Warzone. This is because one group would quickly seize the delegacy and easily purge anyone who came close to their endorsement numbers.