- Pronouns
- he / him / his
Out of Character No More?
Written by Hem Tiberius
The April 2007 General Election in the Land of Kings and Emperors was one of epic proportions. The upstart young party builder, Holy Ekaj Monarchy, stood against a longtime political veteran -- Anumian Captain -- for the Premiership of the region. While popular opinion polls had the race close, the edge was consistently given to Anumian Captain. However, in the LKE, popular vote had no credence. It was the number of citizen divided constituencies that determined the winner.
When the race appeared to be heading for a tie, the besieged young Member of Parliament called upon one of his oldest friends. Stressing how they were friends, and how Lord SenatorTC promised to always aid his friends, Mr. Monarchy carried the election.
The result was grumbly and unhappy on the Social Democratic Party side. How could SenatorTC have betray the coalition he was apart of? On account of what? A personal relationship?
As we examine why things have gotten so negative in Europeia, we must first consider how friendships and relationships have changed over the last five years in Nationstates:
When new members would join Europeia, they would often speak as a "delegate" from their nation. Roleplaying their way into the region, they would describe intricacies of their nation and government. This still happens today, but no longer is Verteger around to repeat his storied quote: "Mate you don't have to talk IC, most of us never do. OCC all the way."
While in that day, seasoned players scoffed at those who spoke "In Character" the difference between In Character and Out of Character has vanished completely in the last few years. Not only do friends on Nationstates vote for each other, stick and with each other, they often connect their political careers together.
People have always been backstabbing each other in Nationstates history. Why does the negativity seem so particularly...terrible here? Because of how the personal nature of our politics have changed. People tie each other to their friends, and are shocked when their friends do anything outside their immediate interest. Furthermore, they are shocked when their friends so something to someone who may not be mutual friends.
Hence, the departures of April 2011.
With skype, face to face meetings, intimate details shared, there is no In Character anymore. We except and demand the same person on MSN as we do on the forums. Lethen is the exact same as Mark. HEM had better be the same person as Jake. There is no out of character. Indeed, we begin to see characters fade altogether, seeing only the person behind the computer.
This is a problem, because Nationstates is a game. We play to win. And yeah, there are some unbreakable rules. There are things that are nasty. But the insane depth of alliances and relationships have lead to the insane depth of our disappointment and frustration.
Lethen voted against me the first time I ran in Great Britain and Ireland. He openly said I didn't have enough experience. We were as close as it got in NS during that time.
Would that happen today? Probably not.
People follow people around. "Families" have become cults, and degraded the level of our conversations. Loyalty is to "people" not to regions. Which is a shame, because the interests of an entire region is usually better than one unilateral person.
During Rachel's term I would talk to her casually about her life and then criticized her Presidency on the forum. People thought I was blatantly two faced. Rather, I honestly see an OOC and IC part of the game. IC is vanishing though, and the expectations we consistently act IC as we would OOC is borderline absurd.
Written by Hem Tiberius
The April 2007 General Election in the Land of Kings and Emperors was one of epic proportions. The upstart young party builder, Holy Ekaj Monarchy, stood against a longtime political veteran -- Anumian Captain -- for the Premiership of the region. While popular opinion polls had the race close, the edge was consistently given to Anumian Captain. However, in the LKE, popular vote had no credence. It was the number of citizen divided constituencies that determined the winner.
When the race appeared to be heading for a tie, the besieged young Member of Parliament called upon one of his oldest friends. Stressing how they were friends, and how Lord SenatorTC promised to always aid his friends, Mr. Monarchy carried the election.
The result was grumbly and unhappy on the Social Democratic Party side. How could SenatorTC have betray the coalition he was apart of? On account of what? A personal relationship?
As we examine why things have gotten so negative in Europeia, we must first consider how friendships and relationships have changed over the last five years in Nationstates:
When new members would join Europeia, they would often speak as a "delegate" from their nation. Roleplaying their way into the region, they would describe intricacies of their nation and government. This still happens today, but no longer is Verteger around to repeat his storied quote: "Mate you don't have to talk IC, most of us never do. OCC all the way."
While in that day, seasoned players scoffed at those who spoke "In Character" the difference between In Character and Out of Character has vanished completely in the last few years. Not only do friends on Nationstates vote for each other, stick and with each other, they often connect their political careers together.
People have always been backstabbing each other in Nationstates history. Why does the negativity seem so particularly...terrible here? Because of how the personal nature of our politics have changed. People tie each other to their friends, and are shocked when their friends do anything outside their immediate interest. Furthermore, they are shocked when their friends so something to someone who may not be mutual friends.
Hence, the departures of April 2011.
With skype, face to face meetings, intimate details shared, there is no In Character anymore. We except and demand the same person on MSN as we do on the forums. Lethen is the exact same as Mark. HEM had better be the same person as Jake. There is no out of character. Indeed, we begin to see characters fade altogether, seeing only the person behind the computer.
This is a problem, because Nationstates is a game. We play to win. And yeah, there are some unbreakable rules. There are things that are nasty. But the insane depth of alliances and relationships have lead to the insane depth of our disappointment and frustration.
Lethen voted against me the first time I ran in Great Britain and Ireland. He openly said I didn't have enough experience. We were as close as it got in NS during that time.
Would that happen today? Probably not.
People follow people around. "Families" have become cults, and degraded the level of our conversations. Loyalty is to "people" not to regions. Which is a shame, because the interests of an entire region is usually better than one unilateral person.
During Rachel's term I would talk to her casually about her life and then criticized her Presidency on the forum. People thought I was blatantly two faced. Rather, I honestly see an OOC and IC part of the game. IC is vanishing though, and the expectations we consistently act IC as we would OOC is borderline absurd.