Community of Order Under Pestarzt Party (C.O.U.P.)

[Silentium]

The Puppetmaster Libertarians (sounds contradictory) and the Atlantic Alliance?

[Papercuts and Skittles]

Where's Halmont when you need him?

[Consular]

History time, children, gather 'round.

 

*pulls up a chair*

[Westwind]

Others can tell the story of Atlantic Alliance better than I can, I was not a member.  The Alliance Defense Network was originally created for the purpose of opposing the Atlantic Alliance.  Curiously, the same day that I joined ADN, was also the day ADN's Constitution went into effect, and the Altantic Alliance announced it's ending.  That would have been February 29, 2004.  Leap year made it an easy day to remember.

 

In short, the Puppetmaster Liberations were only able to occur due to an unrepaired flaw in NS code.  This allowed the tactic of pre-endorsement.  A non-WA nation could 'pre-endorse' a WA nation, so that as soon as that nation joined the WA, it's pre-endorsements would go live.  The North Pacific elected it's delegate UPS Rail, who proceeded to act independently of the offsite government.  The offsite government requested assistance from it's allies, who formulated the Puppetmaster attack, with the approval of NS Mods.  (I'm condensing a 4 month conflict and a nearly year long conflict into a couple sentences).  The mechanics of pre-endorsement was a very closely kept secret, and was used on a large scale twice.

 

There was no Influence at that time, no security council resolutions, just a 200 nation banlist limit.

 

Mods then became less inclined to allow the use of pre-endorsements, and finally it became illegal.  If I remember correctly, that problem in NS code was patched about the same time that the UN became the WA.

[Darkesia]

Westwind was an ebil ADN Ninja.  *nods*

 

Now he's a nice TWP Ninja.

[Westwind]

'Tis truth. *nods*  Not only was I an ebil ADN Ninja, I was Acting Director.   (though I was tempted to change 'sides' more than once)

 

Once greifing rules were replaced with Influnce, I moved forward into the glorious recognition of the truth of game mechanics over false moral ideologies that ignore reality. 

[Silentium]

Quite the interesting read.  Thanks for sharing.

[Karland]

Nobody else irked by the fact that the events in the story happened over 9 years ago?

 

No? Just me? Okay. xD 

[Consular]

9 years? Damn.

[Intelligent Holograms]

That's a long time for any game to be played. What kept your interest?

[Pestarzt]

NS is a terrible game that is enjoyable because of the people who play it, in my opinion. 

[Westwind]

^ What he said.

 

Nobody else irked by the fact that the events in the story happened over 9 years ago?

 

Which part of it being nine years ago irks you ?   (I know, the nine years themselves.)

 

 In a sense it's not too unusual - an elected delegate acting independently from the offsite community happens periodically, as in TSP recently.  That always creates a fuss and makes NS interesting.  Todd McCloud's thesis on the need for conflict in NS comes to mind, although I beleive his theory is incomplete. I think, if anything about it irks me, is that more players over the years aren't actually trying to play the game within itself.  They get pulled into a region's offsite community and then into it's ideologies and methodologies, and then tend to forget to log into their nations and play the game itself.  Then when someone does play the game while they're ignoring it, they get all upset and demand control of the region be returned to them, the inactive ones.

 

(One of the greatest benefits of a regional gameplay military, is the player interaction that builds the community.  Whether you're raiding, defending, or whatever...it doesn't matter.)

 

If I become inactive, I expect the Guardians to replace me, and I won't be upset about it.  I'd be an idiot to come in and demand the Delegacy back and condemn whoever's become the new Delegate (but it would be fair game for me to try to take it back).  And if the Guardians aren't paying attention, I expect anyone else with the intiative could replace me.  I don't feel I have any more 'right' to TWP than any other player, even though it's home and I'm Delegate.  The GCR's belong to the game, IMO, not any particular group of players. However, Influence is a fact of gameplay life, thus it provides a level of 'nativity' to long standing well-endorsed nations.  But that is no guarantee of authority in a region, there are still ways to overcome Influence to some degree.  The rest is up to the talents of the players involved. 

 

Influence had a destructive effect upon the game that many played within NS when it was established.  Scores of major regions died, hundreds of players left.  I used to track the level of activity in NS, watched the steady decline in numbers of nation, numbers of region, and numbers of players 'online'. *chuckles* I wrote speeches about it.  Yet I was always looking for a new method, a new tactic... try to better understand the nature of how Influence works, to develop new ways to play.  And frankly, I was often disapointed in the remaining players ability to construct new ways to play regardless of Influence. But there's always been a handful or two that still keep looking for new twists in NS, and they've tended to congregate in a few regions.  And they tend to get labeled as 'evil' for challenging the status quo.

 

If a group of players want a secure NS-based regional community without regard to the game itself, then they need to be in a UCR with an active Founder.  The game provides all the tools of the Foundership and passwords to protect those regions.  And those that fail to use those tools by failing to refound after a founder has CTE'd for example (and fail to have an active Delegate), have simply abdicted their responsibilites to defend their region.  Theyve practically invited raiders to come into their regions by their lack of attention. 

 

NS by itself is dull and uninteresting. Why bother with 5 minutes a day to login to your nation, answer an issue or two, and vote on a resolution ?  Because of the players themselves, and that which the players have managed to build around the basic game, and they methods they've found to use the mechanics of the game... ....that is what makes it worth hanging around.  While some individuals drive me to frustration, the larger NS community is an interesting world community.

[Consular]

Well then maybe it's time we caused a little bit of chaos to spice things up.

[Westwind]

   I know nothing, I see nothing....

[Consular]

Oh right. Unprotected forum. All anonymous users and guests are hereby directed to ignore my above comment, lest it be interpreted in exactly the way it was intended.

[Westwind]

 

There's also the 'fog of war' that is often devised, sometimes concealing nothing, even though implying immenent danger.

[Consular]

Like how we hide how ridiculously powerful our military is.

[Westwind]

*nods*  Certainly. But of course, it does not always matter how powerful your military is, but rather what coalition you can build.

[Consular]

And the NPO happens to have a fairly large active military.

[Westwind]

It's about time they did. 

 

Did I mention I was once a Defense Secretary of The Pacific ?

 

(don't hit me)

[Consular]

Was Krull still leader then?

[Pestarzt]

I know nothing about creating chaos. 

[Consular]

Yeah this topic is no longer really about your party... funny how we get distracted.

 

Regarding chaos, that's better left for a secure forum.

[Westwind]

Ah, but you should sense Pest's greater plan in the direction he's allowed the C.O.U.P. thread to take.  It could almost be classified as a cunning plan.  I like that.

 

Was Krull still leader then?

 

No, it was....*thinks* .... 3 or 4 Delegates before Krull, during the PRP period (sandwiched between NPO era's).  Unlimited was Delegate.

[Kharkistania]

Guardian Punk Daddy was also a member of my TNP government, in Foreign Affairs. 

 

My title was The Crimson King of The Crimson Order, and I had declared war against inactivity in NS.  At that time, even NS Mods and Admins were largely inactive, which didn't bode well for NS.  By the end of my TNP Delegacy, the UN had become the WA, new features were being added to NS, and mods were responsive to requests again. (although unfortunately, it was also when Max announced NS2) I figured the Crimson Order was successful and had served it's purpose.

 

The only other Feeder delegate actively fighting the problems of inactivity at the time was TWP Delegate TAO.

 

My TNP Delegate nation was Lewis and Clark.

 

 

 

Heh....no regional flags back then.....no active links in the WFE....old NS skin....no Security Council...

 

Now this takes me back. Ah the times of fighting against well-intentioned feeder takeover attempts, rabble rousing, and half-assed intelligence work.