NationStates Jolt Archive

Greetings to All and Sundry,

Delegate Dictatorships of the Pacifics were part of what consumed the attentions of the system Moderators when they were ruining the feeder regions to feed their egos. It’s doesn’t surprise me after only a day the Delegate of the Pacific has booted out nearly a thousand nations for not endorsing the Dictator there.

I’ve always felt that it was an absurdity for the feeder regions of the Pacifics to be beholden to anyone, save the system moderators and administrators. These are supposed to be places where nations can get their feet wet before going on to either creating or joining other regions. It doesn’t serve anyone but a few megolamaniacs to have these feeder regions ruled by Dictator Delegates, who do everything they can to ruin the experiences of new nations in the system.

I feel that some of the Delegates of the feeder regions have genuinely put in an effort to build a culture in the Pacifics, but unfortunately there has also been a lot of abuse of their regional powers. I remember on the night that the East Pacific was founded, an Invader group sat on the region and ejected anyone that didn’t endorse their man. Not nations that endorsed other nations, but just for not endorsing them. Is this the sort of experience that new nations should be subjected to? Is this the sort of experience that will grow the game? I think that it would be much better if the Delegates of feeder regions were limited in their regional powers the same way they are in the Rejected Realms. Players just starting out in the Nation States World just don’t deserve this sort of treatment.

The Bruce

Stickied thread already. Use it. And knock off the trolling.

Since this thread was closed and warned in error (see sticky for GMC's misunderstanding and apology), reopening.

I wanted to address this earlier, but ran out of time. You have a case, The Bruce, but it's not the only viewpoint. I think this new approach deserves serious consideration before discarding the concept, or the game.

First and foremost, this is a game of politics. In particular, a game based on a satirical and twisted view of politics, with unpredictable issues and a hyper-powerful UN. It's not surprising that many players in Gameplay, Roleplay, and even General and UN, turn their thoughts to dirty politics of one sort or another. Getting ejected on Day One is dirty politics. What better introduction to a game like this?

Your fundamental point appears to be that a sense of community, of belonging, is necessarily a good thing for the game. In one sense, I totally agree. I truly enjoy my interactions with the players of this game, and have developed real online friendships with more than a few. By the same token, I've taken my OMGsecr1t puppets to town against some of my friends when it was in my puppet's nature to do so. This was primarily in my old stomping grounds of the UN, but I'm sure I'd have done the same had I ever been in the invasion game. That's just politics.

You say there's a sense of culture in the feeders, but it's limited to the active participants. I'll bet no more than 200-500 of any feeder region's members have visited the offsite forums more than once or twice. The core members probably number under 50 for each. No matter how badly I might have understated those numbers, I guarantee that at least 75% of every feeder's members don't participate in regional culture. I'm betting it's closer to 95%.

Last night I watched a tsunami of ejections in the Pacific. 700-800 nations were ejected over about 4 hours, and I checked the Pacific RMB and the RR RMB regularly. Not one of those ejectees voiced a "WTF?" comment on site. In the first six hours under influence, the mods got exactly one nation claiming they had been unfairly ejected, and it wasn't from a feeder. I don't see a basis for culture based on that.

We've been conceptualizing this for over a year, and coding / testing / trying it out for 3-4 months now. It's not some haphazard weekend experiment tossed out without careful consideration. We're also leaving player information vague deliberately. There are multiple imponderables, and we want people to figure it out for themselves. There are sound reasons for this, but the principle one is "it's more fun that way". Silver platters and silver spoons don't mix with this brand of politics.

This is new. Give it a chance.

I actually did post a "WTF" message in the RR RMB when I discovered that I'd been booted, but it was more out of surprise than outrage. I had assumed that the feeders were "neutral" regions. It's not a big problem for me, not worth bothering a mod about, but it certainly is "dirty politics".

I liken the new feature's affect on the feeder regions as akin to the feeling I first got when I played an online game. It was the one where you could be an elf, dwarf, etc. Anyway, I went online a few times after paying my money and no one would talk to me and I felt completely lost.

Didn't play that game again. Too much negativity at the onset might not be a good thing and could turn off a lot of potential long time players.

To be fair, you aren't paying for this game...

And, yes, it may be a little rough for new players right now, but that's because the system is new, so people with power are testing it out. After about a week or so, things should be considerably calmer.

Feeders are one of the best place for invasions, tyranny, and other despicable behavior. No-one made those regions and no-one owns them.

I think you missed my point. If people are unwilling to continue playing something they invested time or money in due to a negative initial response, why would they invest time in something that was free but had the same negativity. There is no initial outlay to prompt a person to give it more than a cursory feel.

Let's all try to remember that for those of you who worked on making this happen, you've had time to come to terms with the idea and see how it will work. And for the new and inexperienced players, this is just how the game is, nothing too extraordinary. But for people who have been playing the game for multiple years and weren't in on this update to the game, this is a pretty serious shock to the system. It'll take some time for us to adjust, and like The Bruce we may not be very enamored with the changes.