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ISSUE 5
A Look At AWAArds
by Sincluda
Awards. Shiny, beautiful medals that people clamor for and eagerly await at the end of a term. We see them in all shapes and sizes, in many different categories. Today, I'll be looking at one area in particular: World Assembly (Affairs).So what exactly am I doing? I'm going to be looking at every Order of Influence, Order of Jupiter, Sapphire Star (for World Assembly work), and WAAnalyst Award (that I could find). I've compiled all of them into a spreadsheet, and organized them into aWAArds by year and aWAArds by citizen. Let's look at the data!
AWAArds by Year
The first instance of a World Assembly-related award I could find was actually three at once - in late 2013, in then-President Anumia's end-of-term address. This award isn't actually related to the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs, but it's being included because this is more about the WA as a whole. It wouldn't be until 2017 when this many awards were distributed for World Assembly service (there were 5 in 2017) and then it would be another year before 3 Orders of Influence were awarded in a single year (in two separate addresses). 2013 and 2018 are the only years where this many Orders of Influence were awarded.
Back on track - next comes the 2014-2016 years, which saw very little in terms of awards. These three years combined just match 2013 in terms of aWAArds, and one year (2015) saw none! But in 2017, relief came in the form of Sapphire Stars. This was the first year that Sapphire Stars were handed out for World Assembly service, and there hasn't been a year without one since. The new high for aWAArds continued into 2018, where a record-breaking 6 aWAArds were found glistening throughout addresses. After a small dip in 2019, a shiny new medal took aWAArds to new heights - the Order of Jupiter.
The Order of Jupiter was tailor-made for the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs, and the new variety in aWAArds nearly doubled the high score. In 2020, there were 10 AWAArds awarded, half of which were Orders of Jupiter. The new medal displayed how World Assembly activity had grown in Europeia, and it took that growth even further.
2021 rolled around, and the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs was doing better than ever, but discussions could use a little more activity and spice. To help give some more incentive for staffer participation, summer saw the introduction of the WAAnalyst Awards, aka the greatest thing for our aWAArd stats. At the end of every term, three WAAnalyst Awards would be given out (or more, if there was a tie in points). This was equal to/greater than the amount of aWAArds total we got in the years 2013-2016, and 2019. WAAnalyst Awards alone in 2021 tied the record for most aWAArds in Europeian history, with 10 brilliant trophies being taken home by happy staffers. On top of that, 5 Sapphire Stars for World Assembly work were seen through by the Vice President. To cap it all off, 7 Orders of Jupiter and 1 Order of Influence brought the 2021 aWAArds total to 23, more than doubling last year's record. Europeian World Assembly Affairs had obviously skyrocketed into new heights, and even if you think that WAAnalyst Awards ended up inflating 2021's count, it's still a record if you take them out.
Looking into 2022, where one end-of-term address gave us 5 aWAArds already, let's pinpoint what's caused the surge in AWAArds. I think there are two main factors in play: aWAArd variety and Ministry activity. When only the Order of Influence, a presidential medal reserved for monumental contributions was around, of course there wouldn't be as many aWAArds compared to when we got Orders of Jupiter and WAAnalyst Awards. It's just logical. In addition, the years with many medals are when the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs saw large amounts of activity. Once again, this is just logical. This idea is something I want you to keep in mind going into our next stat.
AWAArds by Citizen
Woo! It's finally time to look at the most decorWAAted citizens, and one thing should stick out right away - the contrast between newer and older players in terms of aWAArds. Newer players can net triple the aWAArds than older players ever did in a single term. I attribute this to what I mentioned in the last paragraph - aWAArd variety and Ministry activity. So, it could be argued that the numbers here are inflated by some aWAArds, particularly WAAnalyst awards. Because of this, I've separated the WAAnalyst awards from the rest.
This separation definitely brings some stupid-high numbers back down to Earth, and gives us a more detailed and informed look at how the most decorWAAted citizens stack up with one another.
So, what did we gain from this? We got an informed look at what awards mean to a ministry, in this case World Assembly Affairs. We learned about the history of these awards and how they can tell us a story of a ministry. We used this information to compare individual citizens. Most importantly, we chowed down on a bunch of juicy graphs. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts about this!
Sorry that I'm no good at writing conclusions, but this was a really fun project! It could be interesting to see how awards can tell the story of other ministries, so maybe another one in the future? We'll see. This has been The Not-So-Daily-Bugle, see you next time!
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). Things like the Order of Jupiter and the Sapphire Star can only go out to a few people, and, if I recall, there are rarely cases when more than one is given to a MoWAA member. This makes the decision of who should receive these awards very difficult whereas the WAAnalyst decisions are easy because the point system is mostly quantitative.