[Inside Government] Frontier/Stronghold and Europeian Policy






Frontier/Stronghold and Europeian Policy
What is Europeia's policy on the update, and how has it evolved?

Written by @Sincluda




On July 6th, 2021, while Europeia was gearing up for a presidential election in a couple days, NationStates game moderator Sedgistan posted a new thread in the on-site Technical forum. He pitched an idea labeled “Democracy/Autocracy,” which would eventually develop into “Frontier/Stronghold.” In the months that would follow, this proposed update to the game would barrel to the forefront of Europeian politics. So what is Frontier/Stronghold? And what is Europeia’s plan?

To start, what is Frontier/Stronghold? The gist is this - User-Created Regions (UCRs) will be given a choice between becoming a Frontier or a Stronghold. The latter is essentially the same as the status quo, except that the Founder can appoint a “successor” to replace them should they cease to exist (CTE) or leave the position, essentially meaning the region cannot be “founderless.” For Frontiers, they become like Feeder regions, losing their Founder in exchange for new nations spawning in their region, and influence decay being added. More detailed information on the update can be found here, compiled by current Vice President @SkyGreen24.

The update flew mostly under the radar of Europeians until August of 2021. On August 14, 2021, then-President @Calvin Coolidge released a statement against the update, and posted it on Europeia’s embassy forum on NationStates. Europeians voiced their agreement with the statement, but to their dismay, Sedgistan disregarded their opposition to the proposed update.

The update sat mostly on the back of Europeia’s mind once more, although now with established displeasure, until the September presidential election, which is another story itself. Suddenly, the update, now called Frontier/Stronghold, was at the prime political issue. Two major plans were proposed. Both involved Europeia, which would be a Stronghold managing “satellite regions” that would be Frontiers. One plan suggested these regions operate solely as funnels/billboards to direct people to the main region. The other plan preferred that these regions act more like developed regions with their own unique culture, just under the Euro flag. In the end, the Lime/SkyGreen24 ticket won, with their plan being the former. In addition, Lime, the new president, appointed @Peeps to be Transition Minister and establish a Frontier/Stronghold Transition advisory group (which he did).

A month or so later, @McEntire requested the creation of a new political organization; “Forward Europeia!” (FE). FE was created with the purpose of lobbying for and supporting a plan that polling suggested was extremely unpopular - have Europeia itself become a Frontier. However, leading to the creation of FE, many citizens started advocating for the Frontier plan, and polling found that the region slightly preferred the idea. On the same day that FE released its manifesto, President Lime made an announcement - his administration would be reversing course and begin pursuing a Frontier Europeia. The reasoning behind the change was later presented in this thread, created by the Vice President.

As of this article, this is Europeia’s current policy for the update. Transition Minister Peeps, has presented the senate with the Frontier Act, which is legislation that would lay out plans for a Frontier Europeia, including the introduction of a Gameside Security Council similar to what many GCRs have.

The call for Europeia to be a Stronghold still resonates, and it seems to be becoming more visible. While there has been no organized party or such, several opinion articles and Grand Hall posts have been made in favor of the Stronghold option. While the last poll on the topic pegged support for Stronghold at 26.8%, it still has a base of support and shouldn't be ruled out as an underdog.

With the next presidential election around the corner, “the most major change to NationStates since influence,” as some have described Frontier/Stronghold, is still almost certainly the prime issue, as it was in the last one and in the senate election. The update, once a minor issue in a dusty corner, is now at the front of every Europeian’s mind, and likely will be until the update goes into effect, and possibly after, too.

 
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