Thoughts on Our Culture




Thoughts on Our Culture
Analysis of the EBC Roleplay Culture Poll

Written by Ervald







(Europeia - September 17, 2017) - Not long after Writinglegend succeeded to the Presidency, the EBC conducted a poll asking Europeian citizens their opinions on the possibility of implementing several aspects of roleplay culture that is common in other regions, not just limited to running roleplays. 22 citizens participated in this poll which is roughly a little over one-third of the electorate in the last Presidential election. Here are their thoughts.

Roleplays


According to the data, 68.1 percent of respondents would probably or definitely set up or join a roleplay that reflected their interests, 4.7 percent were unsure of the idea, and 27.2 percent probably or definitely wouldn't set up or join a roleplay that reflected their interests. Overall, we see a good majority of the respondents in favour. The data is not too surprising because despite Europeians not being able to remember a roleplay recently that was active on a long-term basis, Europeia has a long history of flirting with roleplays. Over ten years of this region existing, citizens have set up a total of 42 roleplays according to the Roleplays section of the Culture Archives. While people have different ideas on how there hasn't been a roleplay lately that stayed active on a long-term basis, it is quite clear that our society still remains to the idea of it.

Businesses


According to the data, 40.9 percent of respondents would probably or definitely set up or interact with a roleplay business, 13.6 percent were unsure on the idea, and 45.4 percent probably or definitely wouldn't set up or interact with a roleplay business. Overall, there is some uncertainty of the idea and there is no majority consensus for people in favour or in opposition. Now, two points must be clarified. First of all, all of the respondents that said they would not set up or interact with a roleplay business are not necessarily opposed to it. It simply means they just may not feel like doing so or not too sure but they are leaning more to the "I am not sure about this but I guess it would be more likely I wouldn't." The other point is that after closing this poll to the public, a respondent asked me about this question. They thought I was referring to what happened in EuroTycoon where there was a roleplay largely happening on a private Discord server where people stimulated an economy. When I was writing this question, I was not talking about that. I was talking about where some regions have a subforum for people to set up businesses where they are in-character. The most common examples are cafes and shops where people would get out or make the item, sell it, and the customer might just walk out or maybe stay in that business where they invite a friend in-character to come over to talk with. So, the data of this question may be a little risky to depend on since some of the respondents may have misinterpreted the question.

Ceremonial Oaths


According to the data, 71.5 percent of respondents would probably or definitely support having ceremonial events such as public officials taking an oath of office after being elected, 9.5 percent were unsure of the idea, and 19 percent probably or definitely wouldn't support having such ceremonial events. Overall, we see almost three-fourth of the respodents in favour. The high support for such ceremonial events is incredibly surprising considering that Europeians generally prefer separating roleplay from the meta aspects of our society. One possible reason for these results is Europeian are desiring for public officials and institutions to be more dedicated to their jobs due to the many resignations and removals of public officials over the last year.

Subforums with Image Headers


According to the data, 54.6 percent of respondents would probably or definitely support having subforum pages be allowed to use images as their header, 9.1 percent were unsure of the idea, and 36.3 percent probably or definitely wouldn't support allowing subforum images to be allowed to use images as their header. Overall, we see a fair majority in favour. I included an image of what I was talking about in the poll which I will do now: click here. That image is from the forum of one of our allies, the United Kingdom. In that image, you can see that the subforum for Buckingham Palace, the home of the Royal Family, has an image of Buckingham Palace as the header of the subforum. If this idea was implemented, it would not drastically change how Europeian society would function like the other questions. Instead, it would provide an image to represent the way the region imagines the area in question to look. That may be the very reason why we see a majority of respondents in this poll being open to the idea.

Residence Spaces


According to the data, 36.4 percent of respondents would probably or definitely set up or interact with a roleplay place of residence, 9.1 percent were unsure of the idea, and 54.5 percent probably or definitely wouldn't set up or interact with a roleplay place of residence. Overall, we see some uncertainty and a majority in opposition. The number of respondents that personally probably or definitely wouldn't be interested in roleplay homes is similar to the responses for the roleplay businesses. It is likely there is no opposition to the idea just because they believe it would be inherently detrimental but rather that they do not simply imagine doing such activities.

This poll on our roleplay culture does give us some new knowledge on how the society of Europeia is thinking in general. We now know that that the appeal of participating in a roleplay is not dead, Europeian society do not appear to be completely comfortable with the idea of opening up subforums for roleplay homes and businesses, that a good majority of the respondents in this poll support allowing subforums to use images for their headers, and a vast majority would support having ceremonial events especially for the example of elected public officials taking an oath as suggested in the question for that. Essentially, Europeians are not asking for a top to bottom renovation on the role of roleplay in our culture. They still yearn for a roleplay they can partake in that would be active on a long-term basis but what is even more important is the noticed demand from this poll for ceremonial events and having images for subforums. Europeians are not asking for more roleplay, they are asking for the government and forum administration to incorporate more roleplay into the regional theme, especially on the forum. It will remain to be seen if our institutions will take the result of this poll into consideration.
 
According to the data, 40.9 percent of respondents would probably or definitely set up or interact with a roleplay business, 13.6 percent were unsure on the idea
That's a majority for an economy boys and girls. Lets get that rolling again :p
 
This confirms that Euro culture really hasn't changed since I used to be active. I think some well done RP's and perhaps a little flash around civic ceremonies would be well received, but we'll never be a predominantly RP region. And that's a good thing, because it would take away from the one thing we do best - politics.
 
Kraketopia said:
This confirms that Euro culture really hasn't changed since I used to be active. I think some well done RP's and perhaps a little flash around civic ceremonies would be well received, but we'll never be a predominantly RP region. And that's a good thing, because it would take away from the one thing we do best - politics.
This is exactly right, in my humble opinion. The desire is there for RP, but the dominant culture is not designed for that. Euro is certainly one of, if not the, most... realistic?, in it's politics, in the sense that attacks get somewhat personal, there is a distinct culture to be competitive and the best. There is nothing wrong with that, and like Krak said, that is a distinct political culture, not one necessary designed or catered towards RP. That being said, there is certainly interest in RP by a group of Europeians, but it not a pressing issue as it is with some other regions.
 

It only makes sense to survey people as to their intentions when it isn't possible to measure their actual behavior. People responding to a poll might say they'd participate in RP of one sort of other, but our history suggests otherwise.

That isn't to say that an individual citizen who is inspired to create an RP game shouldn't follow his/her passion, but I would hate to see our government make the promotion of RPGs a significant priority.
 
The problem with Rps is you need to find something that will attract enough people - yes, many of us may want to rp, but the specific rp in question may not appeal to someone's interests. The odds of finding 4+ people who all, around the same time, all want to join the same general kind of rp and then are all active... there's a reason why Gameplay regions don't tend to have strong roleplay sectors - many gameplayers may want to rp (many people come to NS with Rp in mind, at first) but getting enough people onboard for the same project in a limited community...

Of course, it doesn't help how freaking buried the RP area is, right next to the Spam Zone and constantly hidden by the Spam Zone's action.
 
Kylia Quilor said:
The problem with Rps is you need to find something that will attract enough people - yes, many of us may want to rp, but the specific rp in question may not appeal to someone's interests. The odds of finding 4+ people who all, around the same time, all want to join the same general kind of rp and then are all active... there's a reason why Gameplay regions don't tend to have strong roleplay sectors - many gameplayers may want to rp (many people come to NS with Rp in mind, at first) but getting enough people onboard for the same project in a limited community...

Of course, it doesn't help how freaking buried the RP area is, right next to the Spam Zone and constantly hidden by the Spam Zone's action.
I tried to get it fixed. :(
 
Darcness said:
Kylia Quilor said:
The problem with Rps is you need to find something that will attract enough people - yes, many of us may want to rp, but the specific rp in question may not appeal to someone's interests. The odds of finding 4+ people who all, around the same time, all want to join the same general kind of rp and then are all active... there's a reason why Gameplay regions don't tend to have strong roleplay sectors - many gameplayers may want to rp (many people come to NS with Rp in mind, at first) but getting enough people onboard for the same project in a limited community...

Of course, it doesn't help how freaking buried the RP area is, right next to the Spam Zone and constantly hidden by the Spam Zone's action.
I tried to get it fixed. :(
:p
 
RP will never garner enough of a following to warrant front-page status
 
I've seen enough promising RPs start and fail not to have much confidence in any of them every working. That doesn't mean people can't and shouldn't try, but if it's going to be a Europeian government initiative we need something more creative than "maybe eventually something will stick."

RP regions succeed because that's their primary purpose and why their members are there. That's not the case here, and RP will never be anything more than a "hobby within a hobby," paraphrasing something Carrot so aptly said a couple days ago about Culture contests.

A successful RP would really need to rethink the whole idea into something that Europeians would actually care about.
 
Well, the idea McEntire had in like 2011, of having the City Council be roleplayed as a way to try and accomplish that.

We're here to be politcians, so an rp that gave a chance for people without office to well... practice for office is a not bad one.
 
Kylia Quilor said:
Well, the idea McEntire had in like 2011, of having the City Council be roleplayed as a way to try and accomplish that.

We're here to be politcians, so an rp that gave a chance for people without office to well... practice for office is a not bad one.
Bring back the Mayor!

Sort of like how we had that Family Court for awhile that Earth and hy ran... I think?
 
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