The Candidates' Culture Clash

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The Candidates' Culture Clash
Written by hyanygo

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One of the surprises of the recent Presidential radio debate was the 20 minute long discussion on culture. Here's two of the highlights from that debate.


The under-used culture hub

[flash=300,300]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9WmcH5AEqQ[/flash]​

(Youtube - 5 mins)​

The reason for the under-use of the culture hub, according to Common-Sense Politics (CSP), is that it simply has not been a priority of past administrations. His administration, he says, will make it a priority.

CSP is clever enough in this debate to quickly turn the issue to what he sees as his opponent's weakness. Whilst acknowledging that both he and Calvin Coolidge (Calvin) share the priority of getting foreign visitors into our Weekend Games, CSP is left confused at the rest of Calvin's plans.

CSP rubbishes Calvin's other three planks of: survivor, religions row and an interregional festival. CSP says that survivor is already running, that religions row is just merely spam and the interregional festival is too ill-defined to be a policy in its own right. Calvin responds that far from being a spam game, the activity in Religions Row has been high and (Calvin will later claim) that the activity there is exactly the sort of roleplay Europeia needs. In other words, unlike real-life, religion works!.

CSP fires back that he sees it as odd that Calvin places religion so high on his cultural policy and then Calvin shutters the first part of the debate by claiming that contests just don't work.

The question for Europeia is: Is either candidate right? I think that both of them are not. Religion and contests are too weak to base a cultural strategy off. I don't think that either one in the isolation that both candidates seem to be putting them in would achieve the results that they want. Contests are just not quite the right tool for the end goals CSP is aiming for, and religion is too weak to drive cultural policy.


Roleplay

[flash=300,300]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRPc2trUq1U[/flash]​

(Youtube - 3 mins)​

Calvin starts the second sub-debate asking CSP why roleplay should feature so prominently in CSP's strategy. CSP responds by saying that we've done roleplay all wrong and what is needed is a "simulation" roleplay that does not require the traditional sort of effort of the past. The Culture Ministry under CSP would then be in charge of helping the process play out.

Calvin, unsurprisingly, thinks that simulations are a mistake and are bound to fail. Sports roleplay, according to Calvin, has been a failure and the only success has been religion because it is low effort.

The question for Europeia is: should we do roleplay, and if so, what kind? I think Calvin is less wrong than CSP here but neither has the sharpness of vision to merge both roleplay and religion. I've heard that the Culture Ministry does have something interesting planned and I await their announcement.

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Answer the poll above and take part in the conversation below!

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[Pichtonia]

Calvin shutters the first part of the debate by claiming that contests just don't work.

I think that's absolutely correct, and shows a good understanding of culture. PR-wise, contests always seem to make things more lively. But in Euro that barely makes a difference, in my own experience. Calvin, maybe due to his own time in Culture, seems to understand that significantly better. Generally, I must admit I haven't had the chance to listen to the broadcast myself. A bit more elaborate article would be nice, but I also acknowledge that covering the election isn't that common in itself.

 

[hyanygo]

Generally, I must admit I haven't had the chance to listen to the broadcast myself. A bit more elaborate article would be nice, but I also acknowledge that covering the election isn't that common in itself.

I think the 20 min culture section is a very interesting listen. I too would like an elaborate article, but that would take more than the hour I put aside for this. If you want some other interesting articles, see:

http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/single/?p=10059462&t=10012645 (Private article by Punchwood), and
http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/topic/8929379/1/?x=90#new (EBC article by hyanygo)

 

[Pichtonia]

Generally, I must admit I haven't had the chance to listen to the broadcast myself. A bit more elaborate article would be nice, but I also acknowledge that covering the election isn't that common in itself.

I think the 20 min culture section is a very interesting listen. I too would like an elaborate article, but that would take more than the hour I put aside for this. If you want some other interesting articles, see:

http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/single/?p=10059462&t=10012645 (Private article by Punchwood), and
http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/topic/8929379/1/?x=90#new (EBC article by hyanygo)

I must admit I didnt see your old one yet, but I did read the one of Punch. No matter the outcome of this election, and as former Culture Minister I strongly support Calvin here, I think this Ministry will be interesting to follow.

 

[Ervald]

Stimulation roleplay? I can't listen to the audio due to my hearing impairment but that seem awfully vague. Plenty of roleplays are stimulation especially politically and sports-wise which had been attempted, including myself, several times in Europeia. Almost all of them died out rather quickly or never got off the ground.

 

[hyanygo]

Stimulation roleplay? I can't listen to the audio due to my hearing impairment but that seem awfully vague. Plenty of roleplays are stimulation especially politically and sports-wise which had been attempted, including myself, several times in Europeia. Almost all of them died out rather quickly or never got off the ground.

If you need subtitles I can try to transcribe...

 

[Ervald]

Oh no no, you don't need to go that far. Just disregard what I said.

 

[hyanygo]

The youtube subtitles only got two words wrong...

Damn it's pretty good.

 

[Boomer]

As a note, I am hoping that EPL will hit its stride down the playoff stretch run and in the elimination tournament. We're 2/3rds of the way through and I'm hoping that will increase interest.

I believe that sports RPs can work here and that this hopefully is not indicative of what they can be like. A decent RP for a sporting tournament can take 20-30 minutes at most to whip up a good one, like a match report. It's not super time-intensive.

 

[Sopo]

I absolutely and wholeheartedly agree with Calvin.

Roleplays like those CSP suggests have been tried more than "one or two" times. Investing any time in roleplay that doesn't arise organically is a waste unless it's something radically different.

 

[Lethen]

I was listening live to this debate - honestly more like a polite discussion - and the Culture section had me fairly underwhelmed. Neither candidate has a strong grasp in my opinion on what needs to be prioritized in Culture, but Calvin definitely edges out CSP. I don't understand how you can argue for more organic RP while at the same time dismissing all of the activity in Religions Row that has developed almost entirely organically, and how can anyone seriously think contests still work? Have contests ever worked?

 

[Common-Sense Politics]

I don't understand how you can argue for more organic RP while at the same time dismissing all of the activity in Religions Row that has developed almost entirely organically

Me either. I don't think you were listening as actively as you think you were. Not only did I never say the word "organic", I'm not a proponent of an organic approach either nor have I ever said anything suggesting I was.

I think it's a shame we're not arguing about something more important.

 

[hyanygo]

How we integrate and grow our next set of ministers is important, but hey ho, the culture article gets more replies.

CSP is as far from organic as possible. His roleplays are structured and simple (and kept that way by an active culture ministry).

 

[Writinglegend]

The most successful Roleplay's over the years have been one's that haven't been forced (ie: Religious Row Activity). I'm not saying CSP is completely incorrect in his initiatives for Culture -- I think he and Cal both hit the nail on the head at what we should be looking for in RP's -- just that CSP has a very uphill task because he of the way he goes about it. Sopo nails my thoughts upthread.

As for contests, I think more details are needed in order to form a judgement. But on mere face value, contests don't have a very bright history of being beneficial.