[DRAFT] You Dig?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Based on the Hardin Coal Plant in Montana, that replaced coal mining with bitcoin mining.

TITLE:
You Dig?

VALIDITY:
capitalism, internet, some mining industry, no autarky

DESCRIPTION:
An ailing town in the North @@ANIMAL@@ Province of @@NAME@@ was once a prosperous diamond mining community, but has fallen on hard times with the exhaustion of the mines. However, an international tech conglomerate has come to the rescue, with the intention of opening a massive cryptocurrency mining facility.

OPTION 1
"We're pleased to be creating hundreds of jobs in this town, and bringing prosperity back to prospectors," declares CEO Elo Muskitty, accompanied by his vice president and girlfriend Tia Daniel. "In fact, dearest leader, we'd be doubly happy if you were to visit and officially open the new mine, to give it your stamp of approval. You'd raise the profile and price of PilesOfChitsCoin, our latest offering, stimulating the economy at no cost to the taxpayer."

OUTCOME:
one-of-a-kind non-fungible tokens are worth more than one-of-a-kind non-fungible ecosystems

OPTION 2
"This town used to have an environmentally disastrous industry producing something that has no actual value other than what the market assigned to it, trading the earth's health for the spurious creation of wealth, and now..." complains chisel jawed environmentalist Kris Hempsworth, waving a surprisingly small hammer in a threatening manner. "Instead, why not give the nature a chance to recover, and create legislation and subsidies to ensure that any new industry here be ecologically sustainable? You could encourage sustainable agriculture grass crops here for example: bamboo, hemp, sorghum or oats. I call them the mighty four."

OUTCOME:
the government is proud to be 100% for growing more grass

OPTION 3
"Look these are tough miners, not namby-pamby techies or hippy farmers," complains Sissy Roads, CEO of De Whiskies diamond conglomerate, whose soft hands and skinny arms have definitely never held a pick, and who positively diminutive next to the environmentalist. "Truth is, the diamond mines could still produce more diamonds if we just dug a little deeper. All it would take would be slightly looser industry regulations, slightly improved bargaining power against those pesky unions, and slightly more leeway in where we put our spoils. Do you really be the one to overturn this town's noble heritage of traditional mining?"

OUTCOME:
small bodies buried under landslides are a sign of romantic devotion

[Floppa Lovers]

As someone with a burning hatred for NFTs, this is actually quite funny! Great issue.

[Equai]

I like it

[Verdant Haven]

Ahhh, good times with this one :-P Nice choice.

- I would look to make it a little bit more obvious that the crypto-mining proposal is bad for the environment, since both the option 1 effect line and the text of option 2 are both based on that fact. It isn't necessarily obvious to people at first glance, and anybody who isn't already aware of it could be confused about how or why it's coming up the way it is. Alternately, one of the other down sides to Option 1 could be presented, like the fact that its output is entirely dependent on the continued high value of a speculative and unsupported game of make-believe, or the deafening noise which is the main local complaint in the real town where this happened.

- It's not entirely clear from the opening description why Leader's input is needed here. What caused Leader's involvement?

- I kept expecting something that would reference or acknowledge the giant open pits that are the tell-tale signature of diamond mines. Not important really, just figured I'd mention it, since Diamonds happen to be what was chosen.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Ahhh, good times with this one :-P Nice choice.

- I would look to make it a little bit more obvious that the crypto-mining proposal is bad for the environment, since both the option 1 effect line and the text of option 2 are both based on that fact. It isn't necessarily obvious to people at first glance, and anybody who isn't already aware of it could be confused about how or why it's coming up the way it is. Alternately, one of the other down sides to Option 1 could be presented, like the fact that its output is entirely dependent on the continued high value of a speculative and unsupported game of make-believe, or the deafening noise which is the main local complaint in the real town where this happened.

Good points. I didn't want to go full lecture mode, but I could replace the hanging ellipsis with an actual brief description of the impact. Will put that in draft 2

- It's not entirely clear from the opening description why Leader's input is needed here. What caused Leader's involvement?

Just general NSiness making any government input into a player decision. I think its a reasonable situation for government to make stance.

- I kept expecting something that would reference or acknowledge the giant open pits that are the tell-tale signature of diamond mines. Not important really, just figured I'd mention it, since Diamonds happen to be what was chosen.

I could reference that, though I may need to trim elsewhere.

[Kiddian States]

Great issue (as to be expected)
However, why introduce crypto mining to a regular mining town? Aside from names, crypto mining and regular mining are rather different (such as regular mining needs a place to be mined out, while crypto mining just needs a bunch of GPUs or whatever)
I feel this needs to be explained a little better, both in the difference between the two and why the tech giant decided to bring it to a community built on a very different type of mining

[Eggtowne]

Great issue (as to be expected)
However, why introduce crypto mining to a regular mining town? Aside from names, crypto mining and regular mining are rather different (such as regular mining needs a place to be mined out, while crypto mining just needs a bunch of GPUs or whatever)
I feel this needs to be explained a little better, both in the difference between the two and why the tech giant decided to bring it to a community built on a very different type of mining

Maybe the decrease in land value makes it a cheap area for a tech company to develop?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Great issue (as to be expected)
However, why introduce crypto mining to a regular mining town? Aside from names, crypto mining and regular mining are rather different (such as regular mining needs a place to be mined out, while crypto mining just needs a bunch of GPUs or whatever)
I feel this needs to be explained a little better, both in the difference between the two and why the tech giant decided to bring it to a community built on a very different type of mining

Maybe the decrease in land value makes it a cheap area for a tech company to develop?

Well, it happened irl. I'll have to look into why.

[Verdant Haven]

Large areas of cheap real estate and abandoned industrial buildings, depressed prices for services, and local politicians and populations that are eager to offer incentives for businesses willing to bring new jobs seem to be the top reasons why crypto miners have been moving to old mining towns. It's happening all across the US, really - especially after the recent crackdown in China. If a company can find cheap electric rates and a pre-built structure they can buy for a song, sprinkle some tax-incentives on top and it seems you've got a winning proposal.