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.