It is unlikely that it is passively that one would surpass the cap. Active endo-tarting is always involved in such events. If one is past the cap, they are asked(via telegram) to lower their level voluntarily. If this does not work or is ignored, the nations that have endorsed the offender are telegrammed and asked directly to remove their endorsements. Ejection is usually a last resort.
Unfortunately, that is the nature of Game Mechanics. Influence was established in NationStates in 2006, and had a dramatically negative effect on overall game participation. And as it has been allowed to grow unchecked for seven years, old inactive player nations are able to gather levels of Influence that makes them untouchable. And with a large number of endorsements, an outside army could come into the region and endorse that nation into the Delegacy, and the Delegate would be unable to remove them. We cetainly don't want other regions to have the ability to change our delegacy in that manner, thus we the players take a degree of control over the accumulation of Influence. I've always been opposed to Influence, but Max Barry refuses to remove it. This proposed change in how Influence in calculated is a major concession, and I'm pleased to see it. It will give newer players a better opportunity to rise through the ranks of Influence much more quickly in the Game Created Regions. And we really would love to see 'new blood' reinvigorate the game.
That would be interesting, but it's simply not possible as the game mechanics are designed. As it is, one gives Influence by giving endorsements. The more endorsements a nation has, the more Influence they gain daily. But you cannot share your Influence with another nation.
Yy's explaination concerning those that exceed the cap is accurate. There are times when players deliberately test the endorsement caps to see if the Delegate is paying attention. If the Delegate isn't paying attention, they will try to steal the Delegacy for themselves with no concern for the well being of the region and its community. When someone is spotted swapping like that (endotarting), they will receive a warning, but their opportunity to rectify the situation will be short. It only takes one update (12 hours) at most to leave the region and return with all endorsements removed. A nation showing such disregard is a threat, and will be removed.
Inadvertantly passing the cap can occur, but I noticed when a nation is approaching the cap, and contact them before it happens to remind them of the cap, and provide information on what they can do to prevent themselves from exceeding the cap. If after several contacts the nation is unwilling to comply and exceed the cap, I can eject the nation just before update, so that they are free to return afterwards. Spending an update outside the region will remove all endorsements. If they are beligerent about the situation, I will simply ban them outright.
The cap as it stands requires a bit of work to attain. So casual endorsement swapping is not going to be curtailed by the cap. Significant casual swapping will get you to the 50 endorsement level, more takes more attention to gain. Adding a low cap for those that fail to endorse the Delegate is a fair burden. And if a 'government level' cap will encourage government participation in order to be allowed more endorsements, all the better for our region and community.
There's always a perception of GCRites to be very elitist, exceptional, experienced players - and it's true to a certain degree. It can be very intimidating for any newbie or even anybody that has been playing NS for a while to join our community. That's something we should always be aware of and how we can overcome that perception.
We could try to include some kind of short survey with each mass tg I send out. Give them another way to participate, a way to express themselves, and the results can be part of our updates.
Hello all - How do we get more new people involved?
I have an idea. We can conduct a survey of WA nations in the region. We can ask them different questions about participating on the forum here and what their likes/dislikes are about the game. We can ask them how can we make the game more enjoyable.
At the end of the survey we leave with the "ask" asking them to participate in the forum government here to even further help us make the game more fun for everybody.
Too cheesy or is this something we should explore?
