A Conversation With West Europeia
Learning More About Europeia's Roleplay Arm
Written by Monkey
West Europeia, the Europeian satellite region dedicated to roleplay, has recently been a talking point in the Senate after some noticed that their WA delegate had occasionally voted against Europeian interests. This isn't the first time that West Europeia has been discussed in our region, issues like problematic players, moderation issues, and autonomy have been debated and criticized in the past. A separate region was first a compromise agreed upon by some members of the Europeian roleplay and Europeian officials, with HEM leading the charge on establishing the region. But since then, the forum community has been rather disengaged with the day to day operations of West Europeia, only debating and discussing issues when they arise or directly impact Europeia, sometimes without consulting West Europeians themselves. The EBC set out to interview some members of the West Europeian community to hopefully shed some light on this somewhat distant community, and hopefully provide an introduction to the forum community.
Note: Since receiving these answers, West Europeia has announced that they are in process of shutting down their roleplay.
First, we wanted to learn more about the individual nations involved with the roleplay. For many of them, Europeia is their main region that they choose to participate in.
"If you do not count the north Pacific, then yes, Europeia was my first region, though technically speaking I am currently residing in West Europeia for moderating duties," says Aragren. Aragren was one of the nations inspired to join NationStates during the Drew Boom early last year. They noted that "I was interested at first in the idea of a browser game based on customizing your own nation and managing it. While many of the details about the game I envisioned eventually turned out to be different, I stayed after seeing all the different communities and how welcoming they were."
For others, Europeia is just one of many regions they're involved in. Others came from other regions as well, eventually finding their place in Europeia.
"Euroepia is not my first region, nor my main region. I started at The Royal Alliance III, then the International Assemby, then the Union of Normal Nations, and then the Liberty Democratic Alliance where I am Prime Minister Elect," writes Clun Forest Sheep, the current head of the roleplay.
New Peoples Empire, one of the rare individuals to be a member of both our forums and roleplay, writes "Europeia is technically not my first region. Obviously, I was created in a Pacific. But I was first recruited to join the 10,000 islands. I didn’t like the idea of my nation being an island, so when I got a telegram from a place called Europeia, I went and joined there because I liked the name. A month later, I actually read through the WFE, and found out WE were islands too. But at that point, I had grown attached to the region, and had no interest in leaving." They also noted that prior to NationStates, they had tried playing Politics and War, before settling into NationStates.
When asked them about what keeps them interested in NationStates, roleplay was a significant factor for most of the responses:
"The issues give something to check on from time to time, though the roleplay itself is of course the main thing that makes me come back regularly. However, I must say that I have found particular joy in the creation and designing of factbooks, especially when they are themed around the roleplay, since it makes the experience all the more immersive," says Aragren.
Alfafar, a member who also joined during the Drew Boom, goes even a step forward in identifying the roleplay as their main focus for continuing to be involved in NationStates:
"Well, in all honesty It's mostly the RP. I've frankly stopped caring about issues (I'll elaborate later on that) and stuff like that. Europeia has a good RMB to talk in but I don't think it would be enough, so I think the RP is what makes me stay here since I enjoy it."
Others, like New Peoples Empire, adds the Europeian community as well: "Honestly, I’m here because of sentimental attachment. For months, I only just logged in once a day to keep my nation alive. Now, I’m here for the RP, and to one get re-reinvolved in the Europeian community."
We also asked about what features of NationStates they enjoy, and recieved responses ranging from cards to issues to factbooks, and of course, the roleplay.
"My favorite aspect of NationStates has always been the world building. I’m a world builder, I like to imagine my own worlds, or characters in already existing worlds. And even before the RP, I could really do that. Mind you, it was much less in depth world building, and it had no real correspondence to anything, but it still felt really satisfying." says New Peoples Empire. Aragren also noted an interest in the creativity behind Nation-building, through factbooks: "The issues give something to check on from time to time, though the roleplay itself is of course the main thing that makes me come back regularly. However, I must say that I have found particular joy in the creation and designing of factbooks, especially when they are themed around the roleplay, since it makes the experience all the more immersive."
We then asked about the roleplay, and whether they could help familiarize Europeians with the nature of what goes on, and what it's about.
"Basically, the RP revolves just around the geopolitical nature of all the worlds major nations interacting with each other. We have a map, which we regularly update to coincide with recent geopolitical developments around the world. When it comes to newer players, the rules are pretty much: have fun, be nice, and don’t god mod. Basically, making yourself overpowered so it isn’t fun anymore. That’s pretty much my job, to clamp down on people researching technology or stuff that’s too overpowered or unrealistic." explains New Peoples Empire.
Alfafar elaborates on the various nations that take part, saying "As for how to explain the Roleplay, It's basically a Roleplay that started in 2020 (nowdays we are in the mid 2050s), all nations in the map are custom meaning that they aren't based off a real country (for example there's no ''Germany'' in the RP It's called ''Salxebourg'', or ''France'' is called ''Algamonzimt''). We also have very advanced technology, which while being heavily unrealistic (Since I doubt by the 2050s we would be able to travel from Earth to one of Saturn's moons) It does make the RP more fun!"
We also asked about the history of the roleplay. One of the members, Aragren, who has been involved since the start of the roleplay, was able to explain their perspective of how things started.
"As several Europeians might already know, the roleplay started off as a small thing on the Europeian RMB, consisting of only 3 participants. However, with the flood of Durnil viewers, more and more people signed up, eventually clogging the RMB to the point where King HEM stepped in and offered the solution of creating the region of West Europeia, since many of the members that came from Durnil´s viewer base were on the younger side and could not create an email account to use the Europeia forums and/or discord.
It started off with a little bit of tension, since many people were frustrated that the RP had to be moved away, and felt like Europeia was cutting itself off from them and ridiculing them, like a sort of mark of shame. Then there were also of course the unavoidable one or two "problematic" members who were first given second chances, but eventually kicked out.
All in all though, after about half a year, everything was running perfectly smoothly."
Alfafar provided a more succinct account of their founding, identifying why West Europeia's region only contains a few nations:
"If I remember correctly it was because we were flooding the RMB with RP posts, and the Europeia staff wanted to assign us to a region so we wouldn't completely take over the Europeia RMB. And sure enough they told us to RP in West Europeia, they letted all ''Lore Checkers'' (basically ''mods'' for the RP) into the region BUT the ''average'' player would not be able to join, but they could still talk since West Europeia and Europeia had embassies. I really don't remember anything else from this period but I think that's mostly the basics."
We then moved on to ask whether any of them had tried other parts of the Europeian community, like the forums, or Discord. All of the interviewees said that they had tried our forums or Discord to some degree, but never became fully active on platforms outside of the roleplay, with some exceptions. For example, Aragren says that "I actually used to be in the discord server and a little active on the forums. But after taking a bit of a break from NS, and also never really connecting with the Europeian community (except for one or two people), I did not make the effort to join again."
When asked about what other features of the game they have invested time into, common answers included things like cards, or the World Assembly, but they were relatively brief in describing their interests in these other parts. "I love the World Assembly, as one could probably guess, considering that’s my job here. I wrote a resolution, although it kinda fell through, however I hope to make many more in the future." says New Peoples Empire. Clun Forest Sheep said "I collect cards, and farm some when I have time."
We then asked about the community in West Europeia, and whether they had any certain political system of leaders to lead the roleplay initiative, what rules they had, etc. Interestingly enough, the answers to this question widely ranged on focus.
Alfafar answered the question with a heavy roleplay/IC focus: "As I've stated earlier, the West Europeia community ever since December of 2020 hasn't really had any toxic players meaning that at least right now It's a pretty welcoming and nice community, there's around 30 members and if I'm not incorrect 6 Lore Checkers (obviously counting them as Members too). As for the leaders, It's easy really, if they are INSIDE of the West Europeia region, they are very likely a Lore Checker, even then in our factbook of members of the RP and rules you can see which people are or are not Lore Checkers. Honestly, I will say in my opinion the top 3 most important rules. 1. Have a proper Casus Belli to declare war on someone, this feature was pretty lacking in the early and mid stages of the RP but nowdays It's really enforced. 2. To always specify if you're talkign In Character or Out of Character, these confusions can lead to possible RP Out of Character dramas which really don't help the RP's image. And 3. If you're losing a war, don't rage or start godmodding, it not only is worthless since the Lore Checkers will declare it void but might even get you temp. ban at worst and a severe warning at best."
On the other hand, New Peoples Empire took a bit of broader view in talking about the roleplay leadership and politics: "Right now, when it comes to members, I think we have around 20. We have determined leaders through many ways. First, Onaea was just the De Facto head, but when he disappeared, and NAFS was too busy to really take on such a role, the position [fell] to Lukania. Of course, he was a bit of a despot, so he was removed and a presidential election system was established. Emastalia was our first president, I the second. These were two relatively [simple wins]. After that, elections broke down into two bloc: reseters and continuers. The reseter bloc wanted to restart the RP, believing that it would entice more activity. The continuer bloc disagreed, thinking that stripping nations of all the hard for lore work they had done was unfair. Clun was a continuer, and won. Then him and Nova just pretty much took turns being president, as none of the other three continuers wanted to run(me, Emastalia, and Aragren). The reseters came close, but never were able to win. Eventually, around November, we stopped holding presidential elections and an oligarchy of the LCs just became the norm. And then we introduced the weird new system I don’t understand, and that’s where we are now."
Lastly, Aragren took the most OOC perspective when sharing information about the roleplay: "In technical numbers we are about 20-30 members currently, though there are of course those more active than others. "Leadership" is determined every couple of weeks among the moderators, who do a simple vote for a leader and vice-leader. The moderators themselves are picked by the current moderators when necessary. For any new members, I advice to take into account that the community is really built upon the roleplay. Meaning that you join because you want to take part in the roleplay. So be careful with expecting just a casual chatting-region, or a region built around the idea of the community, like Europeia. In a sense, West Europeia´s purpose is to exist for the roleplay. You should also keep in mind that many members are slightly on the younger side (though I can testify that several have grown from when they first joined in 2020), so do not be surprised by the occasional strange comments (strange in the sense of seemingly random and childish). But besides that, you are free to simply join and ask us directly, since any other rules I forgot are most likely just technical rules about the roleplay."
We also asked about whether they could shed some light on some of the current events going on in the roleplay.
"Currently there's a war between Lorscinia and New Peoples Empire, the dispute comes from the fact that Lorscinia invaded Kazahkstan (sorry if I spelled it wrong, It's a complex name) and fully annexed him, the Casus Belli was seen by New Peoples Empire as a false flag attack and gave Lorscinia an ultimatum, to leave Kazahkstan, however Lorscinia refused. And now they are going to mediate in London to either come with a compromise between the both or an unfortunate war in Central Asia. Besides that, not much," describes Alfafar.
New Peoples Empire explains "Well, nothing in particular. We are approaching the 2060s, so our technology is all pretty advanced. When it comes to what’s going on, there’s two big events. Both ways. Zimt and Clun are going to war over what will most likely amount to a false flag, and me and Lorscinia are going to war because a couple Kazakh soldiers crossed his border and where trying to annex his land so he annexed their country back and I said he couldn’t do that so now we’re most likely going to have to fight it out."
Lastly, we asked all the nations whether they had any advice for members who might be interested in trying out roleplay.
"Just have fun. Enjoy yourself while doing your stuff. Putting in the time and effort to make an established lore, society, and history for your nation really helps build the immersion, but it isn’t that necessary to really enjoy yourself. But I do definitely recommend building up your factbook collection, as it really helps worldbuilding," says New Peoples Empire. Alfafar added on, "Well, if someone is willing to join the RP and has never RPed. We can teach him, afterall, everyone was always new to RPing!...Our RolePlay isn't super complex really, borrowing maybe the fact it doesn't have modern day borders and perhaps our extremely futuristic things there shouldn't be much issue with it. And for the aspects I find the most enjoyable, frankly It's mostly war and tension moments."
Aragren gave perspective on some of the more challenging aspects of roleplay, saying "I advise that you first take your time to think about whether you are really willing to spend possibly several hours per week on a roleplay. For the best roleplays I have been in have always consisted of long, well thought out texts, and those take time and effort. If that does not sound like your type of thing, then I must be frank, don´t force yourself upon a roleplay. Because it is one thing to accept that it might not be your cup of tea, but it is entirely another to ruin it for others by making low-effort posts and remarks, for people who actually care about their writings and put a lot of effort into it.
With that out of the way, if you really do enjoy long writing, to have a consistency between each one of your texts so they build upon eachother, and to have your texts interact directly with those of others, then please do consider trying out a roleplay, for that is exactly what it is about. Building a world together through the means of writing."
We hope that this interview sheds some light on a different community than Europeians are usually used to, and despite West Europeia's shutdown, we hope that citizens now have a better idea of what went on within this project.
