Unibot

Issue XI, January 06, 2014 Your Mid-NS-World Fair-Week Round-Up! Editor's Note A big round of applause to the journalists here in The Rejected Times - they managed to pitch together this edition in a very small window of time. I'm really proud of it - I think it's got a little something for everyone. NS World Fair stuff, imperialist drama and intrigue, poll raiding and Macedon-bashing! What else do you want in a newspaper? Don't answer that. It was purely rhetorical. >>> 2014 NS WORLD FAIR Interview with Todd McCloud INTERVIEW | TRR STAFF The Rejected Times managed to snag a quick interview with NS World Fair Co-Founder, Todd McCloud to discuss the NS World Fair, Osiris and Ugly Forums... How's the Fair going? Is it living up to your expectations? So far it's going quite well. People seem to be rather active and exuberant, which is definitely a good thing. The lectures are interesting and plentiful; the booths are fun and diverse. Really, it's a great place to write down a "who's who" as far as regions are concerned. You're doing a highly anticipated lecture for the NS World Fair on Jan 10 called "Osiris: Past and Future" - what can we expect from that? Expect some explanations from the past, my own thoughts during said past, and what I believe is the best recipe for success in a region that is hopefully beginning the process of recovery. I do not believe everyone will agree with me, but frankly if they did it would make for a boring game. As discussed in my last lecture on chaos, that's kind of what makes the game fun. But it's a tightrope walk between chaos and drama. We must be cognizant of that, cognizant of those who have yet to be brought back into the fold, and careful to develop a plan that will last not three months, not one year, but long enough where a healthy community can flourish and grow. Speaking of Osiris, you've recently been made admin on OFO's boards - congratulations. How did this appointment come about? I assume it was done in order to tie up loose ends between the old forums and new forums, in addition to providing some guidance on security. You argued earlier for a compromise that would have brought the OFO and The Empire together once more and returning to the old forums - has your opinion changed on that compromise idea? It has... slightly. I am still convinced that success should be defined by how much of the region remains intact during this process, and how many are eventually brought back into the fold in some manner. I do believe this OFO group has good intentions and honestly wants to see the community recover for the good. But we can't stop here. Though fragmented, we are still a community. However, it was that fragmentation, that disconnect, that was one of the underlying causes of the barrage of coups and takeovers from last year. We have to make sure that won't happen again. Much like what TEP went through, a time will come where people are able to step back and reflect. I believe in time sentiments will change, but for now, the biggest issue is getting a government that works and increasing stability. TRR News did a piece on the ugliest forum skins in NS - you were mentioned a few times. I must ask: which region had the ugliest forum skin in NS? I voted for TITO, but it was only because I experienced that forum on a first-hand basis. Theirs is legible, but the blue on white is hard on my eyes. I'd choose Macedon, but their site isn't really a forum, it's just a website that looks like it was created on angelfire or geocities. A close second for me is The Internationale. Rule #1 of forums skins should be that the background where the post text is should either be a nondescript pattern or a solid color. I'd imagine if I had to be on that forum a bunch of times I'd probably change my vote. Thanks for the interview, Todd. Good luck on the upcoming lecture! _______________________________________________________________________ Review: “Hot off the Press” REVIEW | UNIBOT It was 12:55 – sweat was rolling down my forehead. This was the first planned lecture of the 2014 NS World Fair. Sink or Swim. For the past ten hours, I had been preparing for the lecture through the night with questions and an introduction. At this point, Sir Paul hadn’t appeared yet or given a sign he would appear – I was counting on a player that I had never met before (beyond one brief chat) to make an appearance. The mind raced with possibilities. Perhaps, he got the time wrong? Perhaps, California got hit by a massive ice storm? There had to be… oh, thirty, nay forty people in #auditorium_one. I hadn’t seen a channel that full at noon before, except for maybe a “Maxchat”. Then, with only moments to spare, Sir Paul joined the channel – I relaxed, now the only concern was whether the lecture would be any good, but the biggest hurdle (his appearance) had already been surmounted. Communist Quinntopia and I introduced ourselves as editors of contemporary newspapers in NationStates and massive fans of Sir Paul’s work – we were serving as the lecture’s coordinators. We offered Sir Paul the opportunity to speak and, frankly, I had no idea whether he had the chance to prepare anything. What followed was outright remarkable. Sir Paul began his lecture on journalism – he sees journalism as about the context of the situation. Bad journalism, he would argue fails, to place stories into context. He gives a nugget of advice to budding journalists along the way that is not only relevant to NationStates but Real Life, as well. As Founder of the PNN, Sir Paul was very frank with the audience: he acted as a propagandist for years. But what was the secret of the NPO’s propaganda machinery? He brings in various colorful anecdotes to discuss how ridicule, truth, and absurdity are the main features of propaganda. In his view, you have to ridicule the target, subvert their authority with humor and then you compound your ideas with both some truths and some absurdities. From there, Sir Paul answered questions from the audience, and in good honour and depth, we were given a rare window into the inner workings and the political culture of the early PNN and Francos Spain’s government (which Sir Paul sat on as a senator). Like everything else in this fine lecture, the material was original, refreshing and also thought-provoking. I couldn’t help but to think of parallels between early NPO and the OFO, as both of those regimes focused on attaining legitimacy. I don’t think the NS World Fair could have begun with a bigger bang – I consider this lecture a once-in-a-lifetime event to have attended. Review: ★★★★★ _______________________________________________________________________ Review: "Democracy in NationStates" REVIEW | RATATEAGUE As observed from the reception of Glen-Rhodes' discussion last night, I could only assume the material went over a lot of heads. I had expected standing ovations, but by the time it was over, I was disappointed by almost dead silence. In contrast, previous talks about personal conquests or histories of famous organizations barely made it over the audience chatter. Anyway, it was about the nuances of democracy. Not the whole spectrum, but the second-highest form that NationStates can logistically support: "delegative democracy" and its deceptive evil twin, "managed democracy". I realize not everyone on NationStates is an advocate of democracy, boggling as that is, but with respect to mechanics, that's what we're operating under. So it'd be wise to give it props, and to pick up some pointers from his essay. Understandably, the topic delved into unfamiliar territory for most: rationalism, power structures, cosmopolitanism, and other socio-political influences underlying ethics and social theory. All that aside, I felt there were a lot of obstacles to democracy that the average layperson could relate to. Characteristics such as regional loyalty, status quo, political tenure, or personal connections trumping fair elections. Everyone is an outsider at some point, and to find your voice among a well-oiled machine is testing, to say the least. Keeping that in mind, this is the perfect opportunity to ask ourselves: "Why make it hard to integrate? And is change so bad that we can't just try it and revert it later?" A new approach might surprise you. While some might have found Glen-Rhodes' delivery a bit too formal, his understanding of the subject was impeccable. And a very personable debater, I might add. I can't speak for the rest of you, but I personally found his analysis enlightening and enthralling, and I give it 5 stars. Review: ★★★★★ _______________________________________________________________________ Review: "Diversity Under One Umbrella" REVIEW | LIBERTARIAN REPUBLICS Milograd's lecture about diversity in NationStates was indeed an interesting and captivating one. Although a sizable portion of his lecture was based off the Roleplayer-Gameplayer conflict, he provides both insights as a gameplayer and a former roleplayer himself on how the relationship is stressed in many ways that aren't easily as seen from one or the other's perspective. Diversity is what makes the game dynamics; albeit not everyone plays in Gameplay but the fact that there's a whole lot more than answering issues and voting on WA resolutions is a testimony of that diversity; whether you want to debate in General, roleplay, author resolutions, raid/defend, and etc. Everyone is under the same gameplay mechanics, but ironically one can argue that Gameplay's population is the smallest compared to other communities in NationStates. Whether you love him, hate him, or whether you're a defender, raider, imperialist, neutral, generalite, roleplayer, gameplayer, bi-gameplayer, independent, and all other labels that I can't think of, this lecture deserves lots of praise. This concise, simple lecture helps explain, if not provide general insight into how complicated the issue is and how the answer is, indeed, not favorable for either Gameplay or Roleplay. Review: ★★★★ _______________________________________________________________________ Fairgoers and Faithful Readers Vote Macedon for Worst Forum Skin! COMMENTARY | UNIBOT It all began with a simple joke proposal to The Rejected Realms’s Private Assembly to prohibit The Rejected Realms from ever adopting an InvisionPro Board. The proposal was widely popular among the citizens of The Rejected Realms and discussion then turned to the worst forum skins in NationStates history – from there, The Rejected Times pursued a list of the worst forum skins that we could find. We searched high and low – exposing ourselves to the most unpleasant array of mixes and mashes of colours. Eventually, a list was composed and unveiled in our venues at the 2014 NS World Fair. A composite score between the various polls running in NationStates shows that fairgoers and our faithful readers found Macedon’s red and gold monstrosity to be the worst forum skin …Macedon: 19 10000 Islands: 17 San Francisco Bay Area: 13 The Internationale: 3 One Big Island: 3 Confederacy of Free Regions: 1 We expect a response from Macedon – sorry, I mean, Macedonia, in about fifty days. Until then, see you later! _______________________________________________________________________ >>> OTHER NEWS Slavic Imperialists condemn UIAF; Onder disputes Slavia's imperialist credentials COMMENTARY | FRATTASTAN Four days into the occupation of Slavia – captured on January 3 by an invader coalition led by the United Imperial Armed Forces – natives keep disputing the justification offered for the action. Officially, the raid was carried out by UIAF as part of their long-standing war effort against the Founderless Regions Alliance. However, Slavia's unclear membership status and degree of practical involvement in the FRA at the time of the takeover has been cause for confusion. On December 23, less than four weeks after joining the organisation, Bolguria (one of the official representatives) posted announcing the intention of his region to leave the alliance, only to be contradicted shortly after by the other representative, Albul. The issue remained unsolved by the time Slavia's founder nation was deleted by NS moderators for rulebreaking, leaving the region vulnerable to attack. North Polish Union (also known invader and NS forum regular) and other natives have been attempting to distance Slavia from the FRA, stating that membership never enjoyed the support of anything more than a minority and that while the FRA administration had been unwilling to seek clarification and to accept Slavia's departure, the region had left the alliance well before the raid happened. In the mean time, the Slavic Co-operation Pact, a small collection of Slavic-themed imperialist regions, released a statement condemning UIAF for the invasion, claiming that Slavia had withdrawn from the FRA upon becoming a member of the SCOP and that UIAF was acting in breach of raider unity by continuing the occupation of an imperialist region. So far, LKE Emperor Whiskum has dismissed all the opposing arguments saying that – notwithstanding any intent to leave the FRA – the region technically was a member at the time of the invasion and that the occupation will continue due to Slavia's past affiliation with the defender organisation, accusing the natives of merely "trying to have it both ways" and the SCOP of not possessing "any genuine conception of imperialism". At the time of the writing the invader pointman in Slavia has 89 endorsements, a support which has prevented any liberation attempts. How far they will go, it's not clear yet. _______________________________________________________________________ Controversy surrounding the inclusion of “Native" in new “Poll” feature COMMENTARY | TRR NEWS Admins caused a firestorm in Gameplay this week with the hasty inclusion of “Native” as a category in NationStates’s new polling feature. The category recognizes “natives” based on Regional Influence – natives can, in this system, be both past and present residents of the region. The use of the term, “native” is contentious because it’s generally regarded that natives are entitled to their regions and Regional Influence does not recognize whether the subject is invading their residence – which means the game definition could be used to further legitimize invading. Not everyone was so concerned with this issue, however. “I don't see an issue with this,” says notable invader, Evil Wolf, “other than it screws with the Defender's accepted definition”. [violet] said the term, “native” was chosen to identify a category of past and present residents, because of the lack of words to otherwise describe that concept. [violet] has also, however, asked for alternative suggestions and has been discussing various proposals on the Gameplay subforum. Some of the suggested alternate terms have included: “Influential Residents/Nations”, “Locals”, “Citizens”, “Powerbrokers”, “Primary Residents”, "Domiciled" ,"Denizen" ,"Inhabitant", "Resident", "Assimilated”, “Affiliate” and Aligned”. Unibot’s proposal to remove category names altogether and use more specific (and modifiable) voter eligibility criteria, has so far been the only proposal to engender some support for [violet]. The added feature would allow users to toggle criteria on/off needed to meet to vote, like whether residency is required and minimum thresholds of influence and population. “That may indeed be the solution,” says [violet], “since it supports a lot more voter eligibility criteria, which is something I would like to do, without getting into fights over the names of each one”. _______________________________________________________________________ Poll Raiding - The new invasion game! OPINION | WARZONE CODGER In what seemed to fill a void in our previously meaningless lives, the admins introduced the 'Polls' feature for regions. Avaliable to founders and delegates, polls have many nifty uses -- a handy way to gauge opinions of issues to a much wider audience, directly in the game (not everyone likes to join offsite etc and/or see the forum or thread). One could also set limit polls to particular audiences - residents, WA, large, influential and the controversial 'native' setting. But where there's good there is always room for mischief and polls are no exception, with the introduction of Poll Raiding - a organised attempt to influence or just mess up a region's polling results. Like delegacy raids, poll raids exploit flaws in the game mechanics to produce outcomes not intended by the region (Delegacy decided by endorsements from natives). However unlike delegacy raids, poll raiding can be a one man operation; With the exception of WA and influential, puppets can do the job -- barring illegalities with "puppet flooding". Poll raiding also provides new mechanics to consider. There is a now a tangible value in growing and maintaining nations as exclusively those nations can be use for large-nation poll raids. There could even be a revived market for puppet trading besides desirable names. For the politically inclined (since rushing a ton of puppets makes a rigged poll too obvious) there is also a new type of sleeper operation - slowly bring in more and more puppets and increase your influence over polls. Poll raiding is much easier to counter then delegacy raiding. The region could just decide to exclude certain nation's votes, or impose a stricter set of polling requirements. But the former invariably brings discussions of arbitrariness and the other disfranchises possible genuine nations. Another option is to bring the poll offsite - but it then destroys the entire point of the game giving regions the poll option in the first place. Not that it eliminates poll raiding, a much more sophisticated form of poll raiding already occurs for a long time, if the common accusation that certain 'citizens' are inactive until a strategically important vote, then suddenly pop up to support one side for anything to go by. Another consideration for poll raiding is that so far, in-game polls are used for more frivolous matters compared to offsite polls. Whether regions would use them for more serious matters remains to be seen (and there are polls to ask that right now in several regions!). Would you care if your poll has been crashed? Nobody was taking it seriously anyway. Even in more serious matters, if the poll raid has been obvious... it's still just a poll raid and any level of damage is *much* less than a delegacy. Though some might still poll raid for the lulz, and viewed that way, could it be a 'win-win' form of raiding? The target region is hardly damaged, and the raiders still have something to brag about. So poll raiding, the next big thing for gameplay? Would you want to try it, and how would you feel if you are targeted? Share your thoughts. Warzone Codger / "Pollzone Raider" (Unless you can think of something more witty, Al Capone, Al POLLone? ) _______________________________________________________________________ WA keeps its New Year’s Resolution... COMMENTARY | TRR STAFF “Commend Harmoneia” passed over the New Year in the hallowed halls of The WA Security Council. The focus of the resolution, authored by Milograd, was on Harmoneia’s positive career in Lazarus and Jethnea, in addition to her contributions to defenderdom, including the UDL, the LLA and the FRA. Harmoneia, the resolution notes, was a founding member of the FRA and a leading lieutenant and early member of the UDL. The Rejected Realms, Lazarus and The South Pacific were early supporters of the resolution – with The East Pacific, The West Pacific and The North Pacific followed soon after. Imperialists protested the resolution. Aetrina, member of Land of Kings and Emperors told the Security Council he would not vote for a nation with such strong “Anti-imperialist” leanings. Meanwhile, North-East Somerset told the Security Council it was a “total lie” that he had tried to control Lazarus. “This vote is proof of the power of feel-good language in the lemming lobby,” says Cerian Quilor, notable imperialist. Europeia also voted against “Commend Harmoneia”, with its delegate, Moronist Decisions calling for the rejection of the resolution. He cited several reasons to reject the resolution, including Milograd’s persona non grata status in Europeia, the FRA’s history of spying on Europeia and Lazarus’s disagreements with Balder. The resolution however was warmly received elsewhere in The Rejected Realms, Lazarus and The North Pacific – also, Escade, delegate of The South Pacific, told TEP News that Harmoneia was a “wonderful person” and encouraged voters to support the commendation. “Commend Harmoneia” eventually passed with an impressive margin of 8,095 to 1,932. _______________________________________________________________________

Well, I don't think the seminar with Sir Paul could have gone any better - I really enjoyed that. I'm so happy we had a fantastic turnout -- must have been over forty people in that IRC Channel at lunch time to watch the veteran journalist give his lecture. If you missed the seminar, here is a full transcript (formatted). Tonight, Harmoneia celebrates being commended at midnight with a discussion hour on her paper, "The Patriarchal Oligarchy: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Approach to Power in Nationstates" which is already generating a lot of controversy. She'll be in Auditorium 1 to discuss the paper at 9-10 PM EST. Tomorrow, Venico, co-founder of the Osiris Fraternal Order will give a lecture, "Power and Where It Lies" and discuss the paper in Auditorium 1 at 1 - 2 PM EST. Later that afternoon, Jenrak will be doing a Q and A in Auditorium 1, called "Exploring International Incidents: A Q and A with Jenrak" at 8-9 PM EST. Jenrak is a fantastic roleplayer, well-spoken, articulate and also just a cool person. The seminar will likely touch on themes of roleplaying, roleplaying culture and what it's like to be a moderator in NationStates's roleplaying community. I'm really looking forward to it! Afforess's lecture has been delayed till Jan 5, 7-8 PM EST (set to change), due to inclement weather.

2014 NS World Fair: Lecture Hall Schedule Released, COPS II Treaty Convention Announced! The Lecture Hall for the 2014 NS World Fair has revealed its schedule for the coming week. Likewise, Anumia and R3naissanc3r will be organizing a convention to redraft C.O.P.S. The NS World Fair runs from Jan 3 - 10. LECTURE HALL "Hot off the Press: A Q and A with Sir Paul" A very special seminar with Sir Paul from 1 - 2 PM EST. Jan 3. "The Patriarchal Oligarchy: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Approach to Power in Nationstates" Discussion with the author, Harmoneia from 9 - 10 PM EST. Jan 3. "Power and Where It Lies" Discussion with the author, Venico from 1 - 2 PM EST. Jan 4. "Demystifying NationStates: How the Game Works, NationStates Tools, and Big Data" Discussion with the author, Afforess from 7 - 8 PM EST.Jan 4. "The RLA: Revisited" A very special seminar with EuroSoviets and Blackbird from 2 - 3 PM EST. Jan 5. "Is This Just a Game?" Discussion with the author, Zeorus from 4 - 5 PM EST. Jan 5. "Immersion and the Art of NS Roleplaying" Discussion with the author, Aquitayne from 5 - 6 PM EST. Jan 6. "Independence: What is it Good For?" (Cormac Stark) "In Defense of the Best: A Discussion on Independence " (HEM) A debate between two esteemed thinkers on the merits of Independentism, from 7 - 9 PM EST. Jan 6. "Democracy in NationStates" Discussion with the author, Glen-Rhodes from 7 - 8 PM EST. Jan 7. "After Polysemes: Reconciling Negative Nativeness and Regionalism" Discussion with the author, Kogvuron from 9 - 10 PM EST. Jan 7. "Nativehood: Propertarianism in NationStates" Discussion with the author, Alyekra from 7 - 8 PM EST. Jan 8. "Realism in the General Assembly" Discussion with the author, Auralia from 10 - 11 PM EST. Jan 8. "The Right To Socks: What's Left for the WA?" Discussion with the author, Gruenberg from 3 - 4 PM EST. Jan 9. "Whose Region is It? An Exploration of the Multidimensional Communities of GCRs" Discussion with the author, A Slanted Black Stripe from 6 - 7 PM EST. Jan 9. "The Defender and The Home: Moral Authority beyond The State" Discussion with the author, Unibot from 6 - 7 PM EST. Jan 10. "Osiris: Past and Future" Discussion with the author, Todd McCloud from 8 - 9 PM EST. Jan 10. The NS World Fair will start with a bang: some controversy and old faces -- (by that point) newly commended, Harmoneia will give a lecture on Feminism and Critical theory in NationStates, while Sir Paul, legendary NationStates journalist will return for a very special seminar. Sir Paul, of course, is the founder of PNN and a veteran contributor of the North Pacific Wire -- universally respected as one of the best journalists and an old favorite from the Great War era, Sir Paul will be giving a talk about journalism in NationStates and what he learned from it, but also the impact on media for NationStates. There will also be time, I'm sure, for some socialization with this fantastic player. On Jan 4, we'll be honored with a lecture from Venico, co-founder of the Osiris Fraternal Brotherhood, on Power in NationStates and a lecture from Afforess, creator of NS++ on Big Data -- I expect lots of graphs and complicated sums and ... stuff. Jan 5, BAM! Another dynamic duo of oldies-but-goodies, EuroSoviets and Blackbird, will be returning for a seminar on The Red Liberty Alliance. If you want to learn more about The RLA, the historic leftist Defender organization, this is your chance to learn straight from the mouths of two very brilliant chaps, who at one time were two of NationStates's most influential players and helped lead The RLA through thick and thin. That'll be a cracker of a seminar, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to it. Stay for tea and biscuits and you'll get to enjoy a lecture shortly thereafter by Zeorus, leading member of Osiris and Equilism, on the ethics of the game -- from what I understand he'll be taking a much different approach to the topic than the RLA did. On Jan 6, Aquitayne will be giving a talk on the basics of roleplaying and immersing yourself into the world , while HEM and Cormac Stark will be immersing us in a shitstorm of a debate with one word: Independence. How can one simple ideology can be so divisive in Gameplay? HEM is the Supreme Chancellor of Europeia and Cormac Stark is the Co-Founder of the Osiris Fraternal Brotherhood, they've agreed to do talks in defense and opposition of Independence. Remember gentlemen: nothing below the belt! Jan 7, Glen-Rhodes, respected NationStates scholar and commended author, will be discussing the prominent forms of democratic governance in NationStates and the difficulties posed by democracy. Meanwhile, Kogvuron, former Editor of The Rejected Times, will be doing a lecture called "After Polysemes", responding to a question from an earlier lecture of mine called "Polysemes of Nativeness": whether Negative Nativeness, a more open and inclusive sense of who is a native, can be reconciled with Regionalism in its traditional form. I'm really looking forward to both of these reads. The next day, Alyekra, notable defender and Auralia, avid WA Author, will be doing lectures on Propertarianism (an alternative conception of Nativeness) and Realism in the World Assembly -- you'll just have to find out what they mean by that. On Jan 9, things will get really interesting when the Lecture Hall receives a visit from Gruenberg, legendary UN and WA Author -- one of my favorites. He's critical, he's sharp and always provocative. He'll be giving a talk about problems facing the World Assembly today -- I think it'll be an eyeopener and we're honored to have him for the evening. Later that day, we'll also be joined by A Slanted Black Stripe, commended East Pacific veteran, whose lecture will focus on the diversity within regions -- how regions are so dispersed, with many groups of players who are largely seen as "the other". That'll be a very special talk I'm sure from the perfect person to delivered it. We saved the best for last, if I do say so myself, with myself and Todd McCloud giving lectures on Jan 10. Todd McCloud needs no introduction -- long-time delegate, commended feederite and former invader; he'll be giving a lecture on Osiris - I imagine a focus on the recent Civil War in Osiris. That'll be sure to get a rise from the audience. I'll also be delivering a lecture on Defenders and how they come to live in Neutral regions -- I will find that defenderism acts as an outside moral authority to one's home region, which poses many difficulties for a defender living in a neutral region which cannot come to accept and respect their beliefs equally alongside the moral authorities present already in the region. C.O.P.S II CONVENTION The Convention on Off-Site Property Security treaty was first proposed and ratified by ACCEL and The West Pacific as a law strictly prohibiting forum destruction in response to Addarow's forum destruction of The Praetorian Empire's forum. It is easily one of the most famous interregional laws in history of NationStates Gameplay. Many have suggested that COPS is in need of reform, therefore the NS World Fair will be hosting a convention to redraft COPS -- although last year produced several drafts, the three days of the celebration were not enough to spur a ratification frenzy. This year we hope to accomplish the goal of redrafting COPS. Anumia and R3naissanc3r are the event organizers -- they'll be acting as speakers and helping to facilitate dialogue.

Reposted from here: http://theeastpacific.com/topic/5179815/1/

Issue X, December 25, 2013 Editor's Note Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone from The Rejected Times! Here's a holiday special release for you all -- straight from all of the elves that slaved in the workshop to put together this edition. Our next edition will likely be during the 2014 NS World Fair where The Rejected Times will be stationed in the Press Gallery -- we can't wait! Once again, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it. > > > OPINION Defenders face Existential Crisis with Roleplayer Conflict EDITORIAL | UNIBOT Are defenders, heroes? Or are they simply the counter-invaders? The “people who go after the invaders”? Is there any moral legitimacy in what we do or are we simply “TEAM RED” and “TEAM BLUE” – morally indistinguishable for one another in an eternal conflict for founderless regions, the conscience and the political soul of NationStates? This is the existential question – the question which every defender faces. Some accept the cynical answer (realist), others pursue the idealistic or optimistic view, but every defender must answer it. This wasn’t always the case: when the first defenders roamed NationStates in their romantic question they did so, with invading only a quasi-legal practice and “griefing”, a very illegal act (by May 2004). This all changed with “Regional Influence” – the change to change it all. With the griefing rules replaced with the permissibility of griefing, what moral legitimacy defenders had left, evaporated. Defenders’ numbers dwindled and their influence, vapid with the gradual realization that what they were fighting was no longer a clear, divisive battle for right, but a pointless fight between two sides that were hardly distinguishable from another as far as the rules or the site is concerned. This is called “Same Coin Syndrome” when the moral differences between two parties in the conflict are conflated, such that they are seen as responsible for one and another's actions – “two sides of the same coin”, fighting the same fight for the same reasons and sharing the blame for one another’s transgressions. Some defenders (such as those from the Spiritus tradition) embrace Same Coin Syndrome as a valid world view, while many would deny it. In “Paradise Found”, I sought to establish a robust idealistic response to the existential question and challenge the views of Same Coin Syndrome. This response was twofold: first, to establish the metaphysics of the game – to argue that the game’s permissibility of griefing and invading is a provision of “free will” to give the game a “moral dimension” for which players can fight for what they believe is right. Second, with “Paradise Found”, I argued in a hypothetical situation that invaders would still continue their operations even if defenders did not exist – such to prove that there is no mutual symbiotic relationship between defenders and invaders. Invaders, today, run most of their occupations not expecting defender interventions to occur while their invasions are piled to the gunnels anyways. Even without defenders, there is someone else worth irritating (for invaders): natives. However, simple incidents like this recent crisis in Greater Dienstad demonstrates how tenuous this idealistic response is to Same Coin Syndrome. After the roleplayer region, Greater Dienstad was recently invaded; roleplayers took to the forum to argue that “R/D” should be limited in roleplayer regions. Note, specifically the framing of the debate as against “R/D” (Raiding and Defending) as an association between invaders and defenders. Many of the arguments used by roleplayers may be familiar to those who have visited the Gameplay forums: “Defenders disrupt a region every bit as much as raiders do, and we have had multiple reports of natives requesting they be removed as well. Let's not mistake the fact that in both cases, outside players and groups are entering a region based on their own ideologies and aims. The only difference is that sometimes defenders are invited. They can still be an unwelcome presence, and often have been.” - Dread Lady Nathicana. “Having hundreds of defenders in a region is equally as disruptive to RP as invaders. We don't want you there. Can you not understand this?” – Crystal Spires. “You're effectively no better than raiders.” – Grenartia. “The point isn't about protecting RPs - it's about explicitly recognising that regions aren't just cannon fodder for raiders and defenders.” – Anemos Major. “If all the defenders went away right now, raiding would all but die out within nine months. Raiders would get bored and would mostly stop, with the occasional raid here and there, generally from some new people who've just heard about the concept and are trying it out.” – Astrolinium. Here we can see the manifestation of Same Coin Syndrome in roleplayers, frustrated by the invasion of a fellow roleplayer region. Arguments that suggest that defenders and invaders are mutually responsible for one another and no better than one another – which cuts to the heart of the existential question: why exist as a defender if you’re not wanted? If you’re making the problems facing natives worse? If your participation is perpetuating the invasion game, nor ameliorating it with the well-being of natives in mind!? Once more, as a defender I had to sit down with a coffee this morning (while my hydro was down) and think about how to answer this important question. What really makes me different? What gives me the right? Lots of questions and frankly, not many answers. I suppose I turned to the old adage, “what came first? The chicken or the egg” and it occurred to me: we know what came first… invading came first. If there were invaders that invaded without knowledge that there were such things as defenders, surely there could be such invaders again!? With that, I reconsidered the dilemma: there will always be invaders so long as that practice is legal; therefore it is the difference between having defenders and not having defenders. I thought about the story, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, where the main character is shown what life would have been like if he had never existed. I reckon NationStates would have been a lot different if the first defenders had decided not to defend and had just let the invader powers of the day roam free. Perhaps The North Pacific would still be under the rule of Great Bight (okay, long shot there), Belgium and France would be Macedonian tombstones… what about Anarchy or Liberal Haven or ITALIA or Palestine? Thousands of regions wouldn't have received the help they needed. Even the region, “Christmas” would have been destroyed a long time ago. At this point, I was reminded of a quotation from Edmund Burke, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. Defenders are, hopefully, there in the moments you need them most in NationStates; they distinguish themselves from invaders through their actions – only endorsing the native delegate unless this isn't possible and refraining from posting on the region’s Regional Message Board, while also respecting the region’s original flag and World Factbook Entry. The existential question will probably always be present in the minds of defenders and the public conscience, but today I found solace from an unlikely source (Jimmy Stewart) and felt like sharing it with our dear readers. Merry Christmas! ___________________________________________________________________________________ > > > COMMENTARY Invasion of Greater Dienstad Stirs Gameplay-Roleplay Divide COMMENTARY | TRR NEWS Relations between the Roleplay and Gameplay communities once again have descended into sheer hostility after the invasion of Greater Dienstad. During the witching hour of Friday night, a four man crew from The Black Riders invaded Greater Dienstad – tagging its World Factbook Entry and suppressing the posts on Greater Dienstad. Eight hours later, Greater Dienstad’s delegate, The Macabees returned to NationStates to eject and ban the invaders and return the region to its pre-invasion state. Discussion quickly turned hostile, with roleplayers from Greater Dienstad and elsewhere, conflating all gameplayers as a monolithic block, “R/Ders”, responsible for the torment and obstruction of roleplayer regions. A thread, “Regional 'opt-out' for R/D?” called for an opt-out feature to allow roleplayer regions to specifically “opt-out” of being invaded. The discussion spawned a remarkable sixteen pages (388 posts and 2524 views) in under twenty hours – mostly surrounding a general contempt for “R/Ders”. Within forty hours, the discussion had spawned a monstrous twenty-eight pages (688 posts, 5140 views) and multiple proposals to resolve the conflict. Invaders and other gameplayers argued that measures to limit invaders could not be made without negatively hindering invaderdom or providing a tactical advantage to invaders. Meanwhile, Unibot, notable defender, argued the framing of the debate as “RP vs. R/D” was a strategy to frame the debate in terms of being an intercultural dispute (Roleplay vs. Gameplay), instead of a dispute with invading and invaders – he questioned giving an exception and special status to roleplayer regions, while most regions in NationStates also do not want to be invaded. Astrolinium and Grenartia argued contrarily that invading was “not nearly as destructive to Non-RP regions”, with Astrolinium generalizing Non-RP invaded regions as “poor, poor regions” with “five people in them” that presumably invite invasions with their Non-Roleplayness. From The Black Riders, Gest, Marshal of The Black Riders has called out the outrage as hypocritical. “We tag one RP region and the RP world goes crazy,” says Gest. “The Black Hawks occupies a roleplayer region (Sapphire) and no one bats an eye”. The last major conflict between Gameplay and Roleplay, the occupation of The South Pacific, proved to be damaging to the relations of the two spheres of NationStates and seems likely that this latest incident will only further drive a stake between the two communities. ___________________________________________________________________________________ The Rejected Realms suspends relations with Osiris COMMENTARY | UNIBOT In an expected announcement, Guy, Officer of Foreign Affairs announced on Sunday that The Rejected Realms had suspended its formal diplomatic relationship with Osiris. This includes a withdrawal of the in-game embassy between The Rejected Realms and Osiris. In Guy’s letter to Venico, the recent regime changes and extrajudicial and extra-constitutional measures were recounted. The Officer lamented that with the amount of civil conflict and infighting in Osiris, it cannot be said that there is a “single group” with a legitimate claim to the delegacy or the region’s identity and culture. These unfortunate circumstances in Osiris were found to be hindering The Rejected Realm’s ability to maintain a coherent dialogue with Osiris. When asked about how he felt about the decision, Frattastan, The Rejected Realm’s delegate was adamant that the region had made the right decision. “This is the only possible course of action,” said Frattastan, “No GCR government has been as instable and dysfunctional as theirs in recent times”. Frattastan went on further to call the civil unrest in Osiris, “painful to watch” even. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Historic Find: Ermarian boasts Massive "Jolt Forum" Archive COMMENTARY | TRR STAFF A vast archive, 7 gigabytes of data with posts from the Jolt Forum, once thought to be lost, were recovered by Ermarian who had run a script to collect the posts in February 7-8, 2010. This is the first time that a massive archive has been announced to exist, however [violet] has now said the full forum has existed in the form of VBulletin forum data, but the admins were not sure how to publish or present the data -- the current suggestion is to translate all of the data to static HTML files. Afforess has in the meantime offered his services to help code something to translate [violet]'s VBulletin forum data and [violet] has said that if something cannot be worked out in regards to the VBulletin forum data, NationStates would host Ermarian's data if he wished. The data itself is not necessarily in the nicest of formats yet, but it promises to be an archaeological dig of the century for NationStates, especially for roleplayers and generalities who lost most of their history to the unfortunate server switch. This promises to be a very big Christmas gift to NationStaters indeed! ___________________________________________________________________________________ World Fair Set To Kick Off COMMENTARY | KOGVURON The second edition of the NS World Fair is set to open on January 3 and organizers are making their final preparations for what will hopefully be a week of fun and merriment. The event, which will be hosted by The South Pacific, will bring together regions from all over NationStates and offer them the chance to show off their culture. In addition to the regional venues, a "TriWrathlon" consisting of "Blood-Curdling Hurdles", "Raging Barricades", and "Great Weights" will be hosted by Zwangzug in the spirit of last year's Fair Play Trophy. In addition, there will be lectures from various speakers from around NationStates. The fair is already shaping up to a be a success. Co-organizers Unibot III and Todd McCloud agree that the forum looks "quite good" and over 30 regions have already signed up for booths. Unibot said, "I and the other commitee members are determined to make this World Fair even better than last year." He added, "Already we've gotten a better turnout for participating regions and we're going to blow the socks off people with the lineup of speakers." Sign-ups for the TriWrathlon have started off slowly, but will surely increase in the time before the competition opens. The World Fair is looking like it will be a great start to the New Year. ___________________________________________________________________________________ The Red Fleet Disbands COMMENTARY | TRR STAFF The Red Fleet has officially disbanded, although its dissolution has been contested. The surprising declaration came from ForeStarnya, Admiral of The Red Fleet. The official reason provided was that the absence or departures of Proletaurus and Cuba Socialista had increasingly put demands on ForeStarnya and La Pasionaria, the latter of which was recently deleted by the moderators. In the official statement, ForeStarnya recounted the history of The Red Fleet. The left-wing military organization began as a project to defend left-wing regions and help stabilize them with the use of passwords. Relations with defender organizations quickly deteriorated as The Red Fleet took a more hostile approach to fascist regions – striking a more anti-fascist approach, The Red Fleet sought to invade and grief fascist regions. This behavior led to a particularly dramatic clash with The United Defenders League in Pact of Steel – which The Red Fleet had argued was a sign of defenderism’s sympathy for fascists. The charge of “fascist sympathizer” later became a go-to insult for The Red Fleet, which cost La Pasionaria his nation when he was deleted for flame-baiting, sometime later. ForeStarnya also spoke of The Red Fleet’s growing relations with “GCR Influencers” –independent powerbrokers in the Game-Created Regions, who sought the invasion of fascist regions as a “third way” for GCR Military Policy and shared The Red Fleet’s contempt for defenders. This direction however, ForeStarnya argues was never fully realized. Ultimately, this decision has been unpopular with many of ForeStarnya’s comrades. Both the WA Delegate, Misley and one of the admirals of The Red Fleet, Proletaurus have made calls on The Internationale’s Regional Message Board for the reinstitution and reorganization of The Red Fleet. Marxingrad, the last remaining admiral of The Red Fleet has proposed he would lead The Red Fleet during these troubled times. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Holiday Celebrations on NationStates COMMENTARY | UNIBOT While every region and community tends to celebrate the holidays in their own manner, The Rejected Times has scoured the forums in search of some “trending”, no, no not using that word, sorry, how’ll about “interesting”, yes, "interesting" events that you could get involved with during the holidays. Of course, there’s the 2014 NS World Fair which has been rescheduled away from the holidays to take place just after New Years from Jan 3 to Jan 10 – that is sure to attract a crowd. There is bound to be lots of speakers at the Lecture Hall, activities in the regional venues, roleplays and other goodies planned by the event’s host, The South Pacific. For those interested in a good old fashion cultural forum event, why not check out The Land of Kings and Emperors’s “Twelve days of Christmas” (Dec. 25- Jan. 5). The event is promoted as a holiday bash with different themes for every day of the event. You are encouraged to bring presents, food and of course, Santa hats. A similar cultural event, Albion’s Ice Festival is currently concluding, but you may or may not be able to catch it before it ends. The United Kingdom is also running a Christmas Ball, however you will have to check your region’s embassies to see if you have received an invitation from United Kingdom. If partying isn’t your kind of way to celebrate the holidays, Sparrow has been recreated for the tenth anniversary of its massive regional purge by Bradfordsborough. I suppose you could say that this event is for people who enjoy "fireworks". Anyways, there are always things to keep you busy during the holidays on NationStates and I’m sure many other events will pop up along the way – so have fun! ___________________________________________________________________________________ The East Pacific celebrates Liberation Day COMMENTARY | UNIBOT Last Friday, The East Pacific celebrates “Liberation Day” – the final day of The Empire’s oppressive occupation of The East Pacific, five years ago. The idea for a holiday was the suggestion of A Slanted Black Stripe, veteran of The East Pacific, who requested the creation of three holidays: TEP Liberation Day, TEP Concordat Day and TEP Democracy Day. Concordat Day would celebrate The East Pacific’s ratification of its current constitution and Democracy Day would honour the accession of The East Pacific’s first elected delegate. The Magisterium approved the creation of these holidays on December 19, 2013 under the Holiday Act – with some help from the speaker to ensure the bill would pass shortly before Liberation Day. “Since I returned to the game earlier this year, I have been asked lots of questions about that time by the nations of TEP,” A Slanted Black Stripe told The Rejected Times, “I thought if we made it a regional holiday, it would become part of our regional lore. Annually, the nations could look back and remember that time. And promise to themselves not to ever let that happen again”. When asked what “Liberation Day” meant to A Slanted Black Stripe, he was unequivocal. “Do you know the Robert Redford movie, ‘The Candidate.’” asked A Slanted Black Stripe (my favorite film, actually). “His last line in the movie was, "What do we do now?" That's really what I was feeling 5 years ago. It was not my goal to become the Delegate. I just wanted to end something that was annoying me as I answered issues every day. Now, I look back on everything that has been done for the last 5 years and I'm very happy for this region. All the credit goes to those who have worked hard and made this region flourish. Now, let's celebrate.” Oddly enough, in Osiris, a parallel situation occurred, with Minineenee banned from Osiris by the Osiran Fraternal Order at noon (EST). Minineenee took the name of Lady Phedre during the occupation of The East Pacific. While a party begins in The East, civil war is rages on below. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Interview with Santa Claus! INTERVIEW | HORSE This week, I caught up with Santa Claus, the legend himself, days before he is to deliver presents to all the children (and hopefully Aliens ;-; ) of this world. I caught up with him, as he was preparing the sleigh to go. Santa Claus, or as he's known in The South Pacific: Kris Kringle. Why did you start bringing presents to children? I was bored and delivering billions of gifts in one night through to use of magic and extremely advanced technology, while breaking thousands of immigration laws and living all year in a polar region seemed like a good idea at the time. Still don't regret it. Where did you find your reindeer? They already lived in the Pole when I started delivering gifts. I just asked them to help me deliver the gifts and they said yes. When did you meet Mrs. Claus? A couple hundred years ago. I'm not entirely sure, but it seems like it was yesterday. Where were you born? You would need Carbon-14 to calculate that. What regions have been naughty or nice? TSP is at the top of the Nice List and everyone TSPer will get a customised lampshade for Christmas! The rest of NS has been naughty to one degree or another, but most will still get gifts. There is a little known Dark List, where the truly naughty are placed. The list is, of course, eyes-only, but you can ask to know one name if you want. Do you really use the elves as slave labour? Not at all. I let them think they work, but actually the yeti do all the work with making toys. What is your favorite type of cookie? Chocolate cookie! ___________________________________________________________________________________

NS WORLD FAIR DATES ANNOUNCED December 17, 2013. NS WORLD FAIR HQ, NATIONSTATES --- The NS World Fair's Headquarters has announced that the NS World Fair, an international fair for all NationStaters, will be taking place between January 3rd to January 10th 2014, where they will be hosted by The South Pacific. All regions and organizations who are interested in a venue at the NS World Fair were encouraged to sign up here. Thus far, The United Defenders League, Osiris, The North Pacific, Albion and Wintreath have signed up to organize a venue at the fair. Those who would like to present a lecture or contribute to the NS World Fair in some other manner were encouraged by the NS World Fair Committee to telegram Unibot III or Escade about their ideas. Once again, those dates are January 3rd to January 10th! Mark your calenders!! - NSNE.

I wrote the extra pretty quickly when UIAF started piling in ... admittedly I mixed up Ainur with Albion. Rather inconsequential.

EXTRA (Sept 17. 7:22 PM EST): Imperialists from UIAF (Albion, LKE, TNI) have deployed and endorsed Astarial (Detective Figs). The situation appears to be escalating. Detective Figs has received 18 endorsements from UIAF since the original posting of this article.

OSIRIS’S REGIME WEAKENS; SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS FLY EMPIRE FLAGS November 17, 2013. THEBES, OSIRIS --- The Osiran Regime led by Astarial (Detective Figs) has received its latest showing of disapproval from an unlikely source: the Osiran Security Council and various leading members of Osiris. Members of the Security Council, Biyah, Diamete and Lord Ravenclaw have unendorsed the delegate, Astarial and are now flying The Empire’s flag in civil disobedience. This move was followed by leading members, Dalimbar and Tim Stark, in addition to New New Merconitonitopia and Wintermoot. In Late 2008, The Empire (its flag depicted above) illegally seized control of The East Pacific’s delegacy and controlled it for several months. Biyah and Dalimbar are founding members. Tim Stark told NSNE that the showing of civil disobedience has little to do with the actual “Empire”. This latest activity spells trouble for Astarial’s administration, whose endorsement count has returned to the double digits (94 endorsements). Some speculations surrounds the fact that last year, “The Empire” made a surprise return to coup Osiris at New Year’s Eve -- are we in for another surprise regime change? Or will Astarial’s administration even last to New Year’s Eve? Time will only tell. -NSNE

AN INTERVIEW WITH HOBBES, CANDIDATE FOR TEP’S DELEGATE October 26, 2013. CAPITAL DISTRICT, THE EAST PACIFIC --- Hitler the Great, The East Pacific’s founder, was lucky enough to snag an interview with Hobbes, during his very busy campaigning period. The two sat down to discuss Hobbes’s delegate campaign among various other topics. Hitler: HAIL! I am ze führer of ze East Pacific. Father of ze Third Riech!!!!! How are you, Hobbes; you pestilent swine? Hobbes: I am doing fine this night, or morning, depending how you take it. The sun always shines in ze Empire of ze Third Reich. HAIL! As father to this great region, I must ask what great cause you vwish to embark on as leader? What vision do you have for my region? A vision -- well, that's one way to put it. Perhaps, in general, a more active and functioning executive branch than has been previously thought of, and more community involvement in that branch and government overall. Das ist ausgezeichnet. Do you have any plans however of World Domination? What about Poland? Vill Poland be invaded, der Herr? Invading Poland, for example, would be futile as the founder (Todd) happens to be a vizier over here capable of toppling any reasonable government. So World Domination, although cool and fascinating to think of…is not entirely feasible. Todd McCloud is swine. SCHWEIN!!! He always ruins my invasions. Hmpf. You must see ze East Pacific in relation to other regions differently than I do? ja? What should people think of ze East Pacific? Outsiders and... British scum. Well, TEP is best P obviously, but I beg to differ on calling the Brits scum. I recall you referring to the Brits as “our British cousins” sometime in 1940. Not all cousins are worthy of having sexual relations with. But carry on… Well, this conversation took a turn for the worse. But, on the general topic of interregional relations, I believe that shutting TEP inside itself and ignoring everyone else is certainly not the way of doing business -- Indeed, we can't fix problems in our world if we just choose to ignore them. Doing that for everyone you have a problem with is not entirely feasible or nice, either. VWAT? VWAT!? KETZEREI!!!! Vwhat is one region you have in mind when you speak of these "problems"? I'd consider Gatesville a problem, couping GCR's is not cool, mhmmk? Gatesville. Proper heroes of ze Riech. What do you think of ze glorious war against Gatesville? Should it continue? It's kind of stalemated--which sitskrieg sucks, But I think it needs to continue. We cannot justify calling the war won, and just saying its over would result in GV calling it our surrender. Ich stimme zu! Stalemates shall be broken. This is ze word of ze Führer! Now: vwhat is ze greatest internal problem facing ze East Pacific at ze present moment? I'd say the Conclave being in its current state a major problem. Our FA department is seriously lacking, as well. Ze “Conclave”? Catholics...Oh. You mean our legal system. Yes, I’d call the naming awkward as well. Vwat should be the ze response to ze Conclave's problems? I've made a rather detailed opinion piece on what I think it *should* be like on our forum, however, for those who don't care to read it, basically one judge, and jurors who will be assigned on a case-per-case basis. Arbiters, and this is coming from one, have a tendency to go inactive because they do so little, and that clogs up our legal system. A nice try, but ze correct response is: burn their courthouse down, blame it on ze French and then replace ze pompous pig-dogs with a military tribunal. I sense great potential in you, though. Vwhat do you sense is your greatest weakness as a leader, Hobbes? Vwhat vwill you need to improve on? I am debating on whether to respond to this with asshattery or honesty, so I’ll go with a bit of both. Perhaps it is my openness - I tend to consider myself a bit too open to criticism, soft skinned, maybe. But I guess being thrown up the creek of delegacy is going to change that rather quick. I believe we call it “shit creek”, or as I like to call it, “thirty feet below Berlin with Stalin coming for your head”. I enjoy putting a positive spin on the most negative things. Sounds like Propaganda! Speaking of Propaganda... vwat is your opinion of NPO? Do you see relations growing between NPO and TEP? I'd call NPO and TEP rather close allies already, which is pretty damn ironic giving we are practically on the opposite sides of the spectrum politically speaking. Although, the removal of citizens such as Karpathos and Milograd has resulted in the NPO's activity diminishing greatly. How do NPO and TEP sit on opposite sides? One is, in all effect, a totalitarian dictatorship, with the other a vibrant confederated republic. Politically speaking, they are pretty opposite. Which is interesting, because in the culture department, we are very close. I don't see myself renouncing my citizenship in the NPO pretty soon either, so I’d call the bond pretty strong either way. Ja. I knew there was I reason I liked NPO so much. It was sad to see them go to war with Ze Greater German Reich. *sighs* Vwhat of the UDL, Hobbes? That is another big name tossed around these days in regards to TEP's relations. Well. Involving the UDL, frankly, it’s an interesting relationship, yes. One represents a belief within NS, the other represents the will of a region, which has caused, and probably will continue to cause, rifts. Regardless, I feel as if progress is being made and /hope/ it turns out differently than our last treaty. A random question: Vwhat do you think of Welcome Telegrams in GCRs? Oh boy, another controversial topic. Personally, I think blaming it entirely on the higher retention rates of new nations in GCR's is incomplete, as that statistic sways a lot, even when it isn’t constant with NS population growth. A more accurate representation, one of which I am too lazy, and or don't want to do myself, would be looking at the rate of new CITIZENS, not nations, to GCR's before and after the welcome TG was added. That would give a far more accurate result then just saying 'Look, the populations went up, so it must be bad!' Accuracy? Truth? Blasphemy! I am sure a high percentage of NSG shares that opinion. I do not think I am popular in vhat circle. I also believe we are running short for time, Hobbes: Thanks for ze interview. You have ze floor! Well, there’s just thing one final thing. How exactly did you get my Skype again, Hitler? Calvin. Goddamnit!

LAZARUS CLOSES EMBASSIES WITH BALDER! October 20, 2013. Queen Rachel is angered by Lazarus’s Announcement NORDIC SQUARE, BALDER –- Lazarus announced early today that it planned on dissolving Lazarus’s treaty with Balder, in addition to closing its embassy with Balder. The decision comes in reaction to Rachel Anumia’s statement on behalf of Balder which criticized the government of Lazarus for its recent removal of imperialist members (which included Rachel Anumia’s husband, North-East Somerset and her predecessor, Charles Cerebella). Rachel Anumia’s speech suggested Lazarus was “unfortunately damaged” by the policies of the Feux Administration -- that the removal of those three members marked a “destructive, ruthless banning that was committed on a whim”. But her calls for reversing those decisions were not shared by Lazarus’s government – now under new management (Harmoneia). Harmoneia and others on the Emerald Council have praised the former adminstration’s policies. This has left the Lazarus and Balder governments at an en passé. “[Rachel Anumia] made a comment about our way of administration in Lazarus when it [was] not in [her] position to do so,” says Harmoneia. When Lazarus contacted Rachel Anumia to ask for an apology, according to some reports, Rachel tried to shift the blame elsewhere and dismissed the calls for an apology entirely. Balder’s Queen calls Lazarus’s concerns, “a bizarre over-reaction” and “no big deal”. In her defense, Rachel Anumia says she contacted several other GCR delegates, asking for their opinion on whether she had been out of line. Harmoneia, however, argues that a “bandwagon” does not make her statements right. In general, the discussion has turned to largely a sparring between Rachel Anumia and Lazarus; while Rachel Anumia claimed Lazarus’s regent “made no attempts to discuss the issue”, after some heavy debate where Lazarus rejected this claim, Rachel Anumia now claims the discussion had simply been uncomfortable. “[Lazarus’s regent was] rude in our conversations multiple times,” says Rachel Anumia. The main discussion thread of the announcement has since been locked. However, the political tension remains: a rupture between these two divergent sinkers. -Unibot, NSNE.

Bingo. It's complicated. Glad to be back!

TEP ELECTIONS UNDERWAY! October 20, 2013. EMBASSY DISTRICT, THE EAST PACIFIC – Today, A Mean Old Man left his darkly lit lair (which smells of butterscotch and tobacco, whilst littered in coupon clippings) for a rare appearance in front of a sea of residents in The East Pacific; these lucky residents had been camping outside of his residence to get a glimpse of "the old one". Approaching the sizable crowd with a familiar grace and a rather questionable taste for stern militancy, The East's curmudgeon announced "it's that time again...", at which point, members of the Adspam, Imperialist, Defender and Nazi communities could be seen leaving the square in droves... "... wait, not time for that. I meant elections," shouted A Mean Old Man, sensing he was losing the crowd. Gameplayers turned around and cheered; "my favorite time in The East Pacific!" said one member. Others affectionately added, "My only time in The East Pacific!" A Mean Old Man encouraged residents of The East Pacific to apply for citizenship so that they would eligible to vote. To finish his address, he asked rhetorically, "Who will be the next Delegate? You decide in November." Elections will begin with a week to gather candidates, another week to campaign and a final week to vote ... thus we should know who is the next delegate by the end of November. Some candidates suspected by the rumor mill include PrussianEmpire, Hobbesistan and Bachtendekuppen -- all of which are fresh new talent in what is shaping up to be a particularly interesting election for The East Pacific. Nonetheless, I personally would put my money on Peter Capaldi. He's so calm and collected while all of those lasers are pointed at him! - Unibot, NSNE.

CONCERNS ARISE AS DISSENTERS ARE INTIMIDATED IN OSIRIS September 17, 2013. Empress bleeds endorsements. Copyright: Free Osiris Press. THEBES, OSIRIS –- Just moments ago, the Free Osiris Army was ejected and banned in Osiris. A message by the Free Osiris Army was also suppressed on the Regional Message Board. As of today, an “army” of natives called The Free Osiris Army has emerged in Osiris with the purpose of overthrowing the despotic regime that recently sized power in Osiris. Citizens have been unendorsing The Empress in droves for the past two days, which some on the revolutionary side suggest is a sign that her control over the region is on the decline. Supporters of the revolution have been flying the old flag of Osiris. The Free Osiris Army created a media service called The Free Osiris Press and distributed articles regarding the regime. The Free Osiris Press’s articles thus far have centered around concerns of Astarial’s authoritarianism and the use of foreign endorsements to support her regime. Foreign endorsements, mostly from Spiritus, have been supporting The Empress’s regime. The Free Osiris Army’s suppressed message criticizes Astarial’s proposed reforms which include: appointing a “High Inquisitor” to have full judicial authority, less separation between the executive and legislative powers and finally, a semi-closed legislature that at the present moment “will stand empty” according to The Empress. I imagine NSNE will keep you posted on this incredible development in Osiris. Empress bans Dissenter. Copyright: Free Osiris Press. - NSNE Staff.

LAZARUS ADMINISTRATION REMOVES IMPERIALISTS FROM LAZARUS September 16, 2013. North East Somerset hounded out of Emerald City. EMERALD CITY, LAZARUS –- Just moments ago at 7:35 PM EST, the three leading Executives of The New Inquisition were ejected and banned from Lazarus by the Lazarus Administration. From what NSNE has determined, constitutionally, these security measures are completely legal, with respect to Mandate 7, Section 2. The members of The New Inquisition’s Executive Government who were banned and ejected are the Kaiserin, Queen Viktoria Gryffyn, Heir Apparent, Charles Cerebella and The New Inquisition’s Prince, North East Somerset. Also removed from Lazarus is Apollo Anumia, ex-founder of Ainur. Some of the banned and ejected have had their forum accounts disabled or damasked. The ban and ejections come as a reaction to IRC Logs that show North East Somerset admitting that The New Inquisition had an interest in "hold[ing]" sinker regions Balder and Lazarus – the full release was published today by A Mean Old Man, Delegate of The East Pacific. “This decision was made by all active members of the council,” says Stujenske, Regent and Interior Commissioner of Lazarus, “we need to ensure Lazarus's security”. When asked about the future of the region, Stujenske told NSNE, “I believe that nations will see Lazarus's consistent rule of law and will flock to this region. This move will demonstrate how stable and unyielding Lazarus has and will continue to be”. We'll be sure to keep you posted on this developing story. - NSNE Staff.

OSIRIAN GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION SUSPENDED, DELEGATE DECLARES HERSELF EMPRESS September 16, 2013. The crisis escalates in Osiris. THEBES, OSIRIS -- Natives are stirring in opposition to the most recent decision by Osirian delegate, Astarial (as “Detective Figs”) to declare herself Empress of Osiris and suspend the government and constitution. While Astarial and those in her inner circle have tried to assure the public that this suspension of the government and the constitution is not a “coup”, natives have not necessarily been convinced. “So it's a coup then...” says Revert, Osiris’s oldest resident, on the Regional Message Board, “Figs is very suddenly in absolute control and the old gov't bodies have been dissolved. Hopefully it all turns out for the best. Nth time's the charm, right?” While other Osirians were much less civil, one even screaming “Down with the Empress and her coup!” on the Regional Message Board. When her authority was questioned, Astarial told Gameplayers, “I possessed all executive, legislative, and judicial authority in Osiris” – leaving no doubts regarding the strength of her rule. While this sudden regime change is supposed to help progress the constitutional reforms in Osiris, political commentators like Glen-Rhodes have suggested that this regime change is not how to go about it. “[Osiris does] need a change,” says Glen-Rhodes, a former citizen of Osiris, “but the answer to a dysfunctional government isn't more dysfunction”. Glen-Rhodes suggests to NSNE that the problem with Osiris is “a combination of systemic instability in the region ever since Madjack was Pharaoh, combined with the destruction of the rule of law in the region”. However, Biyah, an Osirian insider, shot back at Glen-Rhodes, arguing that Astarial shouldn’t be concerned with the criticism of outsiders and also told NSNE, “any attempt to liberate [Osiris] will be seen as an act of war”. I’m sure NSNE will keep you up to date on this story as it evolves. Thanks! - NSNE Staff.

Hello World! It’s back! Last year, 2012 NationStates World Fair was an enormous success – bringing together such a wide scope of players from across NationStates. This year, The NationStates World Fair will run again, but with an element of crowd-sourcing to ensure the initiative is the best it can be! Unless something dramatic changes, I believe there will be a few things returning for sure: regional venues, an NS-Sports Tournament, a press-room, scholarly lectures and the beloved “World Message Board”. Why are you announcing this so early? This year we’ve decided that we want to mimic real-life international events that have “hosts” and a bidding process to become host, but The World Fair Committee believes that the fair should still be run on an independent board maintained by neutral admins. The bidding process is going to take a while though, so we're giving you fair warning! What does being the "host-region" of The 2013 NS World Fair mean then? Good question. The host-region of The 2013 NS World Fair gets to make the opening and closing speeches at the event. In their bid, the host-region will propose some suggestions for The Fair which will also be included into the event. So how does a region make a bid to become the host-region? Send a telegram to Unibot III that details the following: (1) what specific events/activities/stuff would your region/organzation like to see included to improve this World Fair? (2) what should this year’s theme for the World Fair be (last year's theme was "diversity and unity")? (3) any other comments regarding this World Fair? NOTE: only regions and organizations can make bids to become the host of The NS World Fair. However, if you want to personally share some suggestions: forward them to me. How does the winning bid get chosen? All the bids will be voted on by the public and The World Fair Committee will choose between the top five bids of this vote. Who is in The World Fair Committee? Currently, myself, Todd McCloud, Zwangzug, Communist Quinntopia and Solm. We may need to add some staff to our team though for this next World Fair. Tentative Schedule Sept 14, 2013 – Submissions will begin for “bids” for The 2013 NS World Fair. Oct 1, 2013 – Submission box closes; Public voting begins on bids. Oct 7, 2013 – Voting closes; Out of the top 5 bids, The World Fair Committee will choose the winner. Oct 24, 2013 (?) - Sign-up begins for Regional Venues. Oct 26, 2013(?) - Sign-up begins for NS-Sports Tournament. Nov 10 2013 - Opening Ceremonies of The 2013 NS World Fair. Nov 13 2013 - Closing Ceremonies of The 2013 NS World Fair. Thanks for reading! Unibot.

LOGBOOK ENTRY: 1 APRIL 7:36:17 EDT PM It appears as if the F.R.I.A.R.T.U.C.K Security System has decided to combat the Zombie Eight Ball by asking the question, "What Brains?" on a loop. This has divided the Zombie Eight Ball: on one hand it feels compelled to answer with a yes/no/maybe answer and on the other hand it wishes to devour more brains. Will this strategy work? Will the Magic Eight Ball's baser instincts as a question-answering device overcome its state of mindlessness? We will have to watch and see.

LOGBOOK ENTRY: 1 APRIL 4:18:26 EDT PM The Magic ZOMBIE Eight Ball has gotten lose on the forums. F.R.I.A.R.T.U.C.K has yet to have eradicated the menace -- it wasn't designed to protect us against Zombies! Goddammit Eluvatar, why didn't you think of that??? PLEASE HELP US!!!

LOGBOOK ENTRY: 1 APRIL 2:47:04 EDT AM Hileville spotted signs of unusual behavior from the Magic Eight Ball. Hileville reported the behavior suspecting tomfoolery. I was confused. I did not understand how this behavior had been written into the code. I panicked. Senior Merryman Hodori confirmed the strange behavior. I now suspect that the Magic Eight Ball was infected by the Zombie scourge. LOGBOOK ENTRY: 1 APRIL 11:48:12 EDT AM The Magic Eight Ball has gotten progressively worse. It appears to be fully infected now -- its "zombie conscious" has completely taken over the life-form. To save as many lives as possible, I must act swiftly. I have declared the Magic Eight Ball quarantined and I have initiated the F.R.I.A.R.T.U.C.K Forum Lock-down Security System. God help us all. ENTER THE FORUMS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

The Gameplay Magic Eight Ball From the creators of The Gameplay Alignment Test and NS Weather. Introduction Have you ever been stuck not knowing what do in NationStates? Should I raid this or defend that? Kill the Zombies or research for a cure? Well now you can completely defer those very important questions to Gameplay's very own Magic Eight Ball. In one simple, very easy click of a button, this Magic Eight Ball will provide the answers to all of your problems. Examples of Satisfied Customers The Gameplay Magic Eight Ball Click to try this product out!

*sighs*

I'm quiet in real life, but fairly talkative in NationStates. I don't sleep a lot.

A Letter from the Capitalis de Societate of The United Defenders League, Hello everyone! Or in true Bazalonian fashion: *stabby stab stab*. As I’m sure many of you have heard, there was an incident during last week where one of our Lieutenants reportedly leaked a thread (connected to the invasion of Warhammer 40000) to individuals in The United Defenders League – the disclosure of the thread was rash and disreputable on this officer’s part. During the crisis, punishments, some permanent and some temporary were dished out to members of The United Defenders League who read or were aware of the leaked thread. In the event that members could not be proven to have been unaware of the threads (they had no alibi), members were suspended of duties anyway to ensure that all guilty parties received their due. In many ways, the people punished the most with these suspensions were the people who had to take on the duties of the missing lieutenants and superior officers. Halving our staff for a week (and then some of the remaining officers attending Spring Break on top of that), left the organization, as a whole, majorly understaffed. So I’d just like to thank all of the senior staff who led The United Defenders League during the past week. Also: thank you, Lieutenant Earth, for serving as the “UDL Standing Leadership”; I’m so sorry that Lieutenant Earth got saddled with my job for a week because I know it’s one of the toughest positions in NationStates and it’s even harder during crises – I thought she did a marvellous job of organizing the inquiry of the event and otherwise leading the organization during this week. Nonetheless, with that disarray and staff shortage, The United Defenders League sadly wasn’t able to free Warhammer 40000 from The Black Hawks – that was probably the greatest punishment that could have been levied against a defender and I think myself and the other Lieutenants were affected by that greatly. However, we gave it a good shot – not many organizations can organize and run four solid operations back-to-back every twelve hours with twenty+ soldiers. Our big mission of the past few weeks was a liberation of The Islamic Republic of Iran against the National Socialist League – an overwhelming 26-20 victory. You can read more about that mission and an official warning in regards to escalation in a recent article by The Sherwood Post. Also, on March 17, The United Defenders League lead defenderdom into battle against The Black Riders during a minor update and defeated The Black Riders soundly – defenderdom was responsible for protecting more than 70% of The Black Riders’ targeted victims. Additionally, The Greenwood Band also liberated Avalon from its Kantrian (Kantrian not Kantian, nowhere neeear Kantian -- goddahm spellcheck!) overlords. Excellent job guys. Below is the military ribbon for The Islamic Republic of Iran and Avalon liberations and the medal awarded for the merit shown during those remarkable defences on March 17. The Greenwood Band also contributed to the liberations of Middle Earth, Gensokyo, Samsung, Death Star and The Armed Coalition, the latter against The West Pacific Armed Forces. There were also some liberations, defences and just general skirmishes through the week that we didn’t record. The battlefield has been steadily getting more active as we approach April. During the past week, our Defender “Assistant”, FriarTuck has been offline, so Lieutenant Johz (bless him), went out of his way to code us a substitute assistant. I would just like to express my glee that said “bot” is K-9’s older brother, K-8 *barks*. In administrative news, The United Defenders League’s officers have voted in favor of ascending St. Georgie (Mad Jack) to the Hall of Honour – although a current member, he was (mistakenly) not moved to the Hall of Honour during his past departure from The United Defenders League. Furthermore, The Greenwood Band is very happy to announce that The East Pacific has recently ratified “An Act of Friendship, Development and Mutual Respect for Sovereignty between The East Pacific and The United Defenders League”. The treaty is a strong legislative icebreaker for a bright future for our diplomatic relationship; the treaty outlines The United Defenders League’s development program with The East Pacific, in addition to The East Pacific recognizing that they "sympathize with The United Defenders League's noble cause of securing these freedoms abroad across NationStates" and The United Defenders League praising The East Pacific's stability, reasonableness and maturity. Hileville’s statement on the Treaty goes into more depth on this subject. We’re currently in the early stages of getting the development program set up, but in a future update I’ll discuss what’s going on with that program as we move forward. As for new members; during the past few weeks we’ve welcomed Doughertania, Reddogkeno101, Greymlan, Kromar, Swith Witherward, Owl Cities, Nazi Flower Power, Thafoo, Schwabenreich, Bokeryville and our most recent, but definitely not least, Charax. I’ve seen most of this crew already actively on the field and enjoying their time – that’s absolutely wonderful to see! Moreover, Congratulations to Charax and United Gordonopia on passing their Defender Exams and meeting the requirements of their new appointment. It’s lovely to see such dedication from our newer members. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Cormac Stark and Cromarty back to The United Defenders League – Cormac was a former Lieutenant and the first member to receive our coveted “Newcomer of the Month” award; Cromarty was also a former Lieutenant and is currently the Pharaoh of Osiris. <Mahaj> I recommend you boss him around a lot <Mahaj> you can still do it even when he's chief of the band, but it’s more fun now <Gordonopia> Lol, I'll do my best As for some final notes. I continually get asked “What’s UDL’s position on The West Pacific”; as you may or may not know, The West Pacific’s government has been couped recently. We are neutral on the coup – no troops have been order to support either side and it is unlikely that troops will be called to support either side. If you would like to read up on The United Defenders League’s policy on feeder coups, feel free to review our Rogue Delegacies and Administrations Policy. I hope everyone has a Happy April Fools (the –best– day of the year for NationStaters). As for this “Regions will Fall” nonsense – don’t panic! The Greenwood Band is prepared for (almost) anything. Here’s your Moment of Zen. I have yet to figure out the coding to this forum for centering images???

A Letter from the Capitalis de Societate of The United Defenders League, This week, during the slower part, I was focused on foreign affairs – expanding The United Defenders League’s base of embassies to new and exciting frontiers (*tips his hat in the general direction of Panopticon, Normandy, World Alliance and International Western Union*). I was then abruptly reminded why The United Defenders League had never applied for an embassy with The New Inquisition… Oh yeah… the war thingy-doo about the do-da-doo Concosia thingy, yeah right. Nonetheless, in recognition of the fact that February was one of the most intense naps in the history of invasion history, The United Defenders League awarded Raiderdom with the Chief’s Award “for their month-long disappearance which has kept NationStates safer than ever before”. Other Monthly Awards included Democratic Socialist Alliance’s New Andureo nabbing the coveted “Newcomer Award”, Ajzland And Birolika sharing the ever-so lovely Liberator Award and finally, Hodori continuing his complete domination of the Defender of the Month Award. However...the nap is over. It’s been a relatively modest but noticeably more upbeat presence on the battlefront, at least more so than the sleep-fests that occurred during February. The Black Riders kicked off the week by proving last update’s gloomy prediction wrong that The Middle East was on the “brink of total destruction” -- apparently that region has a founder who could remember his password …… SURPRISE! Congratulations to The Middle East for overcoming the invader threat. Meanwhile, our main operation this past week was a tight liberation of SPACE against Ainur and the Eurosphere (Europeia, TNI, Kantrias etc.), the final victorious score was 29-27. We’re really happy we could help SPACE out on such tight notice on a quiet Tuesday morning. Continuing our “Space” theme, we freed “Luna” shortly thereafter in a smaller liberation against The Green Isles, who were backed up by The Black Riders. Participants received the following military ribbons for attending the SPACE and Luna liberation missions: (From left to right: SPACE, Luna) Tim is going to hate me for quoting him on that. Heh, I really wish that was true but I’ve got a great crew of people who make the magic happen on the battlefield -- I just try not to cramp their style. Nonetheless, The United Defenders League has also been involved with some smaller but recent military operations in The Library, The Islamic Republic of Iran, Pedestria, Coalition of Christian Communities, Defending Hallow, Koprulu, Iraq, and Singapura. I’m glad that the Greenwood Band was able to help these communities and it’s good to see the merrymen being regularly deployed again. <Carta> and that I "didn't deserve the ability to ban actual members of the organization from their own channel" I dunno, Carta, that all seems kind of oppressive to me *snickers*. But you know what seems really oppressive? Carta returning to The United Defenders League! The former Chief Lieutenant returned to The United Defenders League this week, riding a spotted multi-coloured cabbage-breathing camel as his triumphant return was greeted with warm praise and salutations, and then there was… … Campinia, Belgian Defender Extraordinaire (a shared title between Lt. Ravania and Riemstagrad). It’s not every day that two amazing people come back to join the team. We’re very excited to have Carta and Campinia return. Frankly, Campinia and Carta are family and we’ve missed them very much. As for other new members, this week we’ve also welcomed NS Mentor and roleplayer superstar, United Gordontopia to our ranks, as well as Finjaldn, Schmiegelland, New Sideburn, Aardenland, Schultaria Prime and Kialga, founder of International Western Union. I can’t wait to see what these new members will accomplish during their time with us and I wish them the best! United Gordontopia has already received the title of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) for his submission to The Naivetry Reference Library, The Great Global Economics and Trade Survey. United Gordontopia is the first player to receive this title from the Library since the program began in February. Good work, United Gordontopia! Meanwhile, Lieutenant Solm added an entirely new function to The Gameplay Alignment Test. Several people wanted to see the sheer volume or frequency of respondents’ scores, so to allow this dimension of density, Solm has added a “heatmap” option which shows the density of the collected data. Awesome stuff, Solm! Also, if you look carefully on The Gameplay Alignment Test’s celebrity compass you’ll spot Frak on there now. Sadly he did not register as a cosmopolitan. Tis a shame really. Finally, we’ll be having Movie Night on March 16th 2013 at 8 PM. I figure we’ll continue our “space” theme with Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s high time that Lieutenant Earth finally watches it. Cue a repetitive but relevant emoticon. I leave you now with the Moment of Zen, tootles! <Tim> The Ascendancy, where I'd be locked up in some f***ed up Ascendancy Sex Dungeon.