NationStates Jolt Archive

Friends, and foes, you have pushed and shoved me to the edge of the cliff of sanity. For many a time, you have not seen beyond the fog, you have been blinded by the beliefs of others that have been forced upon you. I come before you to say - No more. No more will I be clouded by others beliefs. No more shall I be limited by what I WILL do. No more can I be blinded from the light of possibility.

It has been an inescapable truth of Nationstates that poor RPing quality has become the norm. While some will excuse this on the basis of an inherent lack of RPing abilities and interest on the part of some players, it has far exceeded any such explanation. These fora have been clogged with oppression, and the forcing of beliefs on those who are unwilling to follow the trends.

You fail to comprehend the inevitable truth that there are options beyond the barrier of Will and Won't. You have been brainwashed others who seek nothing but power. You are being controlled by those who long to form your style of roleplaying to their liking. You are being depleted of originality, of your own personal thoughts and ideals. This, as you may have gathered, I cannot stand. You have been sucked dry of your opinions and interests. You are being forced into acceptance of one ideal, one goal.

You are unwilling to realize that, yes, a 9km long Space Battleship is possible. You are oblivious to the fact that, yes, a planet CAN be destroyed by weapons, if used properly. You rely on the words of scientists and the internet. And now, I shall reveal to you the truth of the matter. Those sources are quite possibly wrong. We do not KNOW if the Earth is so far from the Sun. We believe it is. We rely on machinery that is most likely faultly, or far off. Hell, I've messed up a few things during my life. Einstein did not know that it is impossible to achieve the speed of light. Early scientists said the speed of sound was impossible. Some even said that powered flight would be impossible. Some thought that the world would end in the year 2000. Surely, I tell you, they have proven to be an unreliable source in the past, so why trust them to define the future? We regularly break the speed of sound with powered flying machines and we're still alive and kicking in the year 2004.

If you still wish to be controlled by your peers, then by god, you're free to do so. I beg you to consider the truth. Next time you plan your next RP, do not simply ponder what you WILL do. For the sake of the quality of roleplaying, please, consider what you CAN do.

THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.

Yes, the truth can set you free. Free to blindly follow it into the clutches of incomprehinsible mediocracy.

I personally have no problems with those stated examples...........when they are RP'd correctly. There is a difference between, say, a 2 month old nation saying "Brawr! Look at me! I have m3ga n00ks!! I kill all now with one push of the button!!1111!", and a mature 1 year old nation carefully RPing the development of a highly destructive, super secret experimental device that may (or may not) have some loose basis on reality. I say, instead of pondering what you "can and can't do", ponder what you shouldn't do.

So let me get this straight, you're going to have planet destroying weapons and uber penis spaceships because you're not going to be "controlled" by your peers and "limited" by something like physics or economics, and that that is more original somehow than sticking within the rules?

Frankly, I find planet destroying weapons and 9 km spaceships to be completely unoriginal, found flying unrealistically through space soap opera after another, formulating the basis of a thousand variations of the OMG TEH UNIVERSE IS GONNA EXPLODE type crises that have to be solved with OMG MY ANTI UNIVERSE COLLAPSER MATERIALIZER WAND.

My humble opinion is that I am not brainwashed, or controlled, or being sucked dry of my opinions or interests. And that having godlike abilities simply because it is vaguely possible (in that it cannot be proven to be impossible... but then again you can't prove a negative now can you?) RUINS RPs. That throwing physics and common sense out the window is the very thing that makes RPs bad. (Well, one of many things, of course.)

As for scientists, well just because people once thought the earth was flat doesn't mean scientists or science is a 'proven unreliable source.' Some scientists are wrong, yes. But can you go from that to ALL of them are unreliable? That seems a bit of a leap to me. And remember that you can't prove a negative. Sure, I can't prove that it's impossible to create planet destroying weapons. But can you prove to me that it is possible for your NS nation to create them? I don't think so, not in a way that's going to be generally accepted in roleplay with serious roleplayers. But then again I may be one of those who is trying to control everyone on NS with the evil rules of econ and physics and the evils of science. In fact I think we should let the Amish write science fiction stories. :P

In fact I think we should let the Amish write science fiction stories. :P

Wonderful idea!

And no, I'm not trying to defy science and economy. I'm talking about letting your mind wander, while staying in the basis of (semi-)reality.

And no, I don't think science is an unreliable source. It's just that I question some of the theories.

THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.

Free your mind Neo...

In fact I think we should let the Amish write science fiction stories. :P

Wonderful idea!

And no, I'm not trying to defy science and economy. I'm talking about letting your mind wander, while staying in the basis of (semi-)reality.

Well okay, I can definitely agree with that. It's all about the roleplay. I'm just concerned about setting precedents, remembering that there are tons of nations around who are looking at the existing nations to learn how to RP. And if for example, Melkor had gone through with his masses-of-orcs-beyond-NS-pop idea, it would have set a bad role model particularly as he's a game mod and a well known player, and it wouldn't be long before we'd have a new Tolkien nation each week, each with it's own set of orcs beyond the NS population (and probably ridiculously more so.) Melkor I could trust to do it right, but not the ones who would follow his example.

I think I wanted to say something about balance here too, but I forgot what it was. (I just got back from a physics class, maybe that's why I was rather touchy in my post above defending physics.)

I fully understand the many points that you have brought up, but must disagree overall.

This is not the place for the creative, unfortunately, because you are dealing with over 100,000 nations. Granted, perhaps only 5-10% are active on the Boards, if even that, but even if you assume only 1 out of 100 nations will be roleplayed then you have a thousand users, all supposedly gaining a great deal of population (and land to contain them all) and many other dubious statistics.

At any rate, before I digress too much, if you are looking for excellent creativity, my best suggestion would be to work on a sci-fi or fiction novel, by yourself. I say this only because it is through independent efforts that literical genius is created, or at least something half-readable and nominally creative.

By RPing here, you are surrendering some of this creativity, because there would be no way to manage Nationstates if every person conceives of amazing designs, weapons that can destroy planets, suns, and/or galaxies, or energy sources that could last ions. I could go into more detail about dozens of amazing advances that could be acheived in a "creative" universe, but I will stop now, because the point will hopefully have dawned on you by now. If everyone gets what they want, then there is no way to have any good RPing or any fun out of this.

Granted, it is difficult enough to have effective role-plays when there are no justifications or even rewards in wars. If you think about it (I put this in more detail many months ago, it may still be available under a thread that mentions "The Esamopian Science Council" or something like that,) there is no reason to have conflicts in NS, because we all have unlimited land, unlimited resources (we only need conjure them up) and therefore no need, no want, and total utopian fulfillment. The only reason that "wars" are made is that otherwise we would all leave NS, go to a notebook or a word processor program, and then by ourselves, make up novels detailing fantastic voyages, incredible technologies, and all that other good stuff.

So, can you have your 8 km ships or planetary destroyer weapons? Sure, as long as you are willing to play with someone who is willing to be dominated by said vessel and obliterated by such weapon, which really means: ONLY IF YOU PLAY BY YOURSELF!

<omnipotent, 10km, world-eating TAG>

It seems good RP is getting harder and harder to find.. you start with something and you get rapidly bombed with questions about how possible is to do what you do, design or create, come on people.. this is make-believe.. not reality.. you want reality? get off your chair, turn of your computer and go outside your house..

Granted, there are some that are just plain unfair with their ubber ships/mechs/vehicles/whatever, i think there should be some common sense on things, but alas, that seems to be in short demand here also.

Just because in RL we dont have the means to travel faster than light it does not mean it cannot be done.. maybe it cant be done but how do we know if we cant even try due to tech restrictions?

It was said man was never going to fly, hell, we put men on the moon!
there are good RP'ers out there.. but are being swamped by bad ones that intrude onthe threads and ruin everything.. i have seen a that happen..