The Rejected Times -- Issue X

[Unibot]

 
 
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!

 

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> > > 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. 
 
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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. 
 
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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!
 
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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. 
 
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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!
 
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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.
 
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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!
 
___________________________________________________________________________________
 

[Eli]

so at times I've wondered what the true definition of post zilla is.

 

 

^^

 

 

Believe that's it

 

very informative Unibot, kinda in a Fox News-CNN sort of way but still kudos

[Darkesia]

I read some of it.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

I actually read all of it.

[Yy4u]

Holy Carp!

[Intelligent Holograms]

I've also read it all; it took a while but I managed it.

 

I love this style of newspaper with all of the different sections in it focusing on more than one topic.

[Consular]

I got bored after the first few lines about existentialism.

[Westwind]

I had to stop reading after all the presumption of what early defenders were like.  I was one, so I couldn't tolerate the presumption.

[Eli]

Unibot twists everything to fit his warped views.

[Intelligent Holograms]

Unibot twists everything to fit his warped views.

 

Don't we all?

[Consular]

It's the extent of the twisting that matters, and the intention behind it I suppose.