The East Pacific News Service
May 29, 2021
Zukchiva AMA Transcript - April 6, 2021
By [nation=Greater New Cassandra] and [nation=The Atlae Isles] (Edited by [nation=Eunopiar], [nation=Zukchiva], and [nation=Albrook])
[spoiler]
EDITOR’S NOTE: On April 6, 2021, Zukchiva held a general Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on The East Pacific’s Discord Server.
[Session officially begins- Zukchiva starts answering a list of questions within the voice chat text channel, as audience members start commenting in the same channel below the list.]
“If I mess with the honk, do I get the bonk?”
Yes you do. You get bonked a lot, and you will suffer. That’s pretty clear. So, don’t mess with me.
“Who are you and why are you in my house?”
I am a teenager who’s in your house because I wanted to say hello and take your chocolate. It’s not suspicious, I’m just hungry.
“How do you think your term is going so far?”
It isn’t the best term, I would say. I’m aware there isn’t a lot going on, that I could be doing a lot more. But I think my cabinet’s doing well overall. I don’t think the term is really the worst of the entirety of TEP, but I do think it could be better. We’ve done good in some areas, we’ve done worse in some areas. It’s a mixed kind of thing
“How are you finding the experience of being Delegate, especially compared to other government positions?”
It’s not that different from being a minister in that you do a lot more, and you’re stressing out about a lot more. But that’s basically it. The workload is a bit different in that you’re pushing people into doing things, and you need to do foreign affairs stuff. Other than that it’s not too different apart from stressing about a lot more things.
“What are your proudest achievements in your NS history and why? What are some mistakes you’ve made and what have you learned from them?”
My proudest achievement was Valsora, RMB RP’s map. Specifically, my part I played in creating it. It’s been the RMB’s main map for over two years now, and at this point if I leave NS (or when as well all eventually go), it’ll remain behind as a legacy. So I’m proud in my role of creating it and my role in shaping the RMB RP community into an actual community.
I don’t remember mistakes that I learned from (of course I had mistakes I just can’t remember learning experiences), but one mistake that I did have was that as Viceroy, I held Delegate elections a month early. I counted the months between terms wrong, so that happened. I decided to hold a Citizenship audit and a long nominations period to hide the fact of early elections.
“Would YOU like to win the Nigerian lottery?”
Yes.
“If I may ask, does the delegate position disturb your RL much or take essential time from you?”
It does take a lot of time. I play NS a lot in my free time, so I have a lot of free time I usually spend on NS, so it doesn’t take free time away from me. Pretty much all my free time is spent on it. But if someone had a busy schedule, they’d be shoving things out of the way for it due to the time constraints. But for me it’s fine. Usually I’m just procrastinating on everything which decreases my free time, though.
“Alright, seriously, if you could do anything in the future, what would it be?!”
I want to be a pharmacist in real life, because I think I would enjoy it, and pharmacy would be a pretty solid career.
NS wise, two things. I want to get commended, which sounds narcissistic, but it’s just something I wanna do. I also want to found my own UCR, which probably won’t happen, but it’s kind of a dream.
“Thoughts on regional activity as a whole?”
As a whole, regional activity is doing good, forum and RMB RP are doing good. Government is mostly doing good, but regional affairs isn’t active, which could be due to a number of things and is something I’m trying to fix with EM and other people. The Magisterium is also active because EM is trying to rip apart our citizenship systems.
“Which one tastes better, goose or duck?”
I’ve never tasted goose, I’m not a cannibal, but duck is pretty good.
“Are you a goose or a duck?”
I’m a goose, not a duck. Libertanny is just a bully when he calls me a duck.
“If you hear a hoarse parrot shout “duck”, what do you do?”
I wanna smack that parrot.
“Choose one cabinet member to bonk.”
Nociav.
“How much caek is too much?”
As much as you can eat. If you go past that it’s too much because you shouldn’t be vomiting from caek.
“What surprised you most about being delegate?”
You hear about everyone saying you’re so important, it’s a second job, but it kinda didn’t fulfill my expectations. If I were to compare before and after, it was just more worry. Nothing drastically changed from before and after I became Delegate.
“To what extent are you satisfied with the availability of cards for rewards?”
TEAPOT is extremely generous and beautiful because they’re donating cards. We can just ask them and they’re willing to give them even though they’re not required. That’s pretty cool. I’m not too concerned with availability. When there are contests we can always ask y0 and Atlae to give. TEAPOT is cool regardless. As long as TEAPOT is willing to give, we have cards to use.
“What are your plans, if any, for the Consortium?”
Well our plans are still basically just to do more cooperation. To be frank, it’s going a little slow right now, negotiations are going a little slow around the treaty, and Thaecia rejected the treaty. Negotiations might go beyond my term. I’m trying to push it, we’ll see how it goes. In my term I do want to see military cooperation and cultural as well- maybe even another Late Nite Festival.
“How do you feel you have changed plans since #Zukchiva4Delegoose! - The East Pacific - Tapatalk ?”
First of all, there’s some ideas that have been ditched, such as Radio Culture due to manpower. Game nights, I need to start hosting them, I do plan to start hosting them. We’re not doing a language orientation dispatch anymore especially because I don’t think there’s much of a need for it. Most of my current plans focus on trying to get regional affairs up and running and active. In my campaign I assumed RA would be active, so that’s a policy change I had (having to focus on reviving RA).
“Could you please resign?”
No.
“How well do you think you’ve delivered on your campaign promises?”
Mmm not the best, because like about a quarter to halfway of my campaign promises haven’t been started yet or are in progress. For this point in the middle of my term I think that’s pretty cool, pretty good. If you look at my campaign promises (not policies) I’ve been mostly keeping to them, I voted in UDS once (which broke one of my promises), but I’m mostly keeping to them.
What are your thoughts on campaign promises as connected with a term; i.e. do you think a delegate should deliver on all their campaign promises even if they change their mind?
Campaign should be versatile. You may not know what’s going on in the executive, only the current Delegate knows that completely. So campaigns may not match up to the current reality or situation. That being said, a Delegate should have a comprehensive campaign they aim to mostly complete. You would expect TEP voters to elect someone with a realistic campaign they can meet during the term. But a Delegate should be able to change their mind as well, but needs to provide the reasons for changing their mind.
“How satisfied are you with your administration and the changes you’ve brought?”
Depends, subjectively I’m self-deprecative so I think I suck as a delegate. From an objective standpoint there haven’t been that many changes. Most of the changes that did happen weren’t because of me, but mainly because of the people under me, and they deserve credit for that. I’m pretty satisfied with how we’ve been doing, I think we could be doing better but it’s not the worst.
“What do you see as the most pressing issues TEP is facing?”
I don’t think there’s a gigantic pressing issue. Sometimes there’s a bit of grafting between RP communities, that annoys me a lot, but it’s not as big an issue as in the past. People are aware of each other and not isolated, which is what happened during Yuno and Fedele, which hurt our region. The unity issue is still one we need to figure out. It’s something the community needs to fix itself; the government can’t force unity more than it already has. I’m not saying everyone should be singing kumbaya, but just saying to each other that we’re not worse than each other, we’re just different yet equal.
“What do you think you or the government in general should focus on at this time? Army, FA, Culture, recruitment, activity, level of citizen involvement, transparency et cetera et cetera?”
I think we need to focus on Culture, but I don’t want to burn out TechTag which is why we haven’t been pushing too much on it. Again, game nights is something we need. I need to start doing more recruitment. One thing you learn, as every Delegate I’ve met has told me, is that it’s more personal recruitment. The government can help in general, but I need to personally start reaching out to people and shove them into government. Need to start reaching out to people and telegramming them. [Responding to a comment in the audience chat.] I know I can ask people to help and I am, Sammy does a lot of RP recruitment. But the Delegate has a big responsibility in this regard.
“How do you want to leave office; i.e. what should be accomplished and what should be the state of things for the next delegate?”
I want to leave office with capable people in the Minister positions. I think most probably Ministries have such people, but WA is concerning because Wall is awesome but I’m not sure we have a successor for him if he resigns or is replaced. Besides that, we have people we can rely in or who can fill in temporarily in the other Ministries. We have people who can take over, and that’s the main thing I want to leave as Delegate- an Executive which can function.
“Do you have any thoughts on how the next delegate should handle things at all?”
Nothing specific at this time. It depends on how the delegate themself is, their campaign, etc. It’s a case-by-case basis.
“What are your thoughts on the performances of each Ministry? What should be better, what is working, what isn’t, et cetera.”
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Culture is doing fine, needs to host more events. Culture is the most intensive ministry, but it should be the easiest to recruit for.
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Information is doing pretty good, but we need to push for more articles. I understand Aga is doing the magazine editing by themselves, which is a massive task and explains the delays, so I’m not worried for publishing monthly issues anymore.
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Publishing is doing fine, working on a gigantic history project right now.
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Education is doing great, looking into holding a debate if all things allow it.
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Immigration needs a lot of work. The minister isn’t doing that well, we’ve made Aga temporary minister to help out. We can seek out people in RP to take positions in government and ping Ministers to accept applications, amongst other things, to help give Immigration things to do.
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FA is doing pretty good.
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WA could be running more IFVs (Information-For-Voters dispatches), but it’s usually Wall who does these but he’s been pretty busy recently. We should push staffers to do those if possible.
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EPSA’s doing fine, need to start doing more update operations. We’re doing a few cooperative operations, like the equestria one with ERN.
“Can you dare Euri to ask you when you’re gonna post an rp in taze?”
After my delegacy.
“Where do you stand on the resident rights topic right now and why? Would you be willing to compromise on the issue with those that disagree?”
I love EM’s proposal for the most part. I support what EM is doing because I support resident’s rights. Democracy is not always about practicality. Dictatorships are about practicality. Democracy is about principle. I am willing to compromise, because I understand there are a lot of people with different opinions on this, and I’m not gonna be an asshole. I just want a system that works to protect our residents from abuse.
“How would you deal with a rogue agent in your government?”
I guess it depends on the agent but I’d probably try to see if they match up with anyone we know is known for subversive behavior. If I knew who they are, I’d gather evidence and put them to trial, or make their time in TEP as unpleasant as possible to get them out.
“If the acronym was fixed, but the words weren’t, what would you change TEP to stand for instead of “The East Pacific”?”
The Epic Pepperonis.
“Who is best girl? Out of all of the girls. Yes, she counts too.”
Taiga, because she’s on my flag and I watched Toradora- it’s a good anime even if I didn’t complete it.
“You’re in a race and you just passed the person in third place. What place are you in?”
Wouldn’t I be in second?
[laughter]
Oh, I’d be in third. I’m sorry, I suck at math.
“What is the best type of goose?”
I don’t have a favourite type, all geese are epic.
“Favorite meme?”
There was also that meme where Libertanny was being roasted in NSGP by an Osirian, before he made a large rebuttal debunking a lot of things. It was made by Souls- used the “Call an ambulance but not for me!” meme template. I laughed a lot at that one.
Aivintis. That’s another meme. He’s my favourite sometimes, depending on how I’m feeling.
“Is soup a drink or a food?”
It’s a drink with food in it.
“Favorite historical military battle?”
I don’t have a favourite. Favourite war is the Revolutionary War, because I like the idea of forming new governments, which makes sense playing NS.
“How did you decide on ministers advisers and other appointed positions? How do you decide they can be trusted?”
It’s a shot in the dark. It’s really hard to tell if people can be trusted, especially in an online game where you can’t see people’s faces. So it’s mostly just people I’m comfortable with. I see if there’s anyone willing to serve as Minister because usually there’s not anyone willing to do it. For Ministers it’s first of all, is anyone in the ministry willing, otherwise anyone in the citizenry, otherwise anyone I can import to revive the ministry. Advisors are people I know can be active and give opinions. Ideally you’ll have experience for being a Minister, but you just need to be willing to do the job. Everyone in my cabinet is amazing, I love you all.
“To what degree has the rot of heresy, in your view, infected NationStates?”
Heresy is afoot, it’s hard to say how much.
“How do you pronounce Zukchiva?”
Zukchiva.
“What’s your favourite bread?”
Toast.
“What is the state of cards in TEP in your opinion?”
I don’t know, I’m not really invested in cards. I think we’re doing pretty fine right now. I’m not sure there’s anyone who can take up the mantle if y0 and Atlae disappear one day. Regardless, it’s good TEAPOT is becoming more recognised in the cards world.
“Can we make kpop the official music of TEP and can I be the Minister of Music?”
No, KPOP is awesome but I need to be equal to everyone. Plus, I don’t listen to it.
“Who is Joe?”
Joe is a Union person who came over here to check us out. He works for me in my newspaper in the [Union of Democratic States (UDS)], so technically I’m his boss.
"What is the official pronunciation of EPSA? "
E-P-S-A. That’s it. Epsuh? I don’t know, that’s a sin, a crime. E-P-S-A is the way it is meant to be said. That’s a fact.
“Will you stick to your campaign 100%?”
No. We must be adaptable, must work around the realities of the delgacy. But I do plan to release a state of the region speech to go over what’s in the campaign and hold myself accountable.
Art asks how I’m living in a pond, pretty fine
“How do you pronounce Aivintis?”
Ahh-vinn-tiss
“Opinion on canadian geese?”
Canadian geese look nice, white geese better.
“Favorite UCR?”
UDS, because I’m literally involved in the community there. I’m biased there, I’m literally in the community there. I’d say Europeia next, because I’m just in there as well. It’s kinda just like I’m in them because I love them so much, so they’re my favorite UCRs.
“Can I [Marrabuk] be the Minister of handsome?”
Marrabuk can always be the minister of handsome.
“Thoughts on FNR-TEP relations? Willingness to work with us more, what kinda cooperation you’d be interested in, how much you will push it, etc.?”
Going pretty well, not so many interactions this term, but the foundation by Libertanny is pretty solid. Libertanny, the basis he made was pretty solid. Not much cooperation this term but I’d love to work with them more, military and culture wise. I’m not really focused as much on FA and I’m not good at pushing things and initiating stuff, but if they want more relations, I’m open. I know people in TEP really like FNR.
“Can we have TikTok cooperation between regions?”
You can try, but it’s kinda cursed.
“How was your Easter?”
I think it was fine, and I hope yours [Atlae’s] was good as well.
“Thoughts on Regional TGs? Some residents complain about the frequency. Do you want to limit them or increase the rate?”
I’ve sent literally three regional telegrams to non-WA residents in the past two months. I think the complaints are just, yeah. I feel like if you’re just complaining that’s too bad. But if you’re talking about the telegrams I send to WA nations every few days, I don’t want to stop that because I’m trying to be interactive, but if anyone wants to block me, you can. I don’t really plan on changing the rate right now unless people try to riot against me.
“On a scale from 1-10, how big is Alger’s nose?”
Bigger than the universe and we’re probably going to die from being stifled by it. So prepare to die, because it’s big and gigantic.
“Speaking of recruitment, who recruited you? :P”
No one recruited me. Yuno kinda did. You were the one who got me into government Atlae, but no one really got me into the region itself. I just joined the Discord one day and you were there and encouraged me to join the government!
“Also, what’s your story in NationStates?”
Going to try to get through this fast due to the other questions, but it’s pretty quick. Started posting on the RMB, joined the government in 2018. Kinda fought the Fedele coup (I was running around with a chicken for a head- some people say I helped fight others say I didn’t). Became a Vizier, that was cool. Now I’m Delegate!
“What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
No sparrows- I’m not answering this question as I said earlier and Aivintis cannot force me.
“Is your office virtual or real?”
It is virtual, but I wish it was real, because it would have nice chairs.
“Very very controversial question: Is Aivintis a nerd?”
Yes. We continue.
I am not a weeb- please I am seriously not a weeb. [Referring to audience comments made when Zukchiva stated he was not a weeb earlier in the session.]
“Didn’t Kampf post that? [Regarding the meme linked earlier in this transcript.]”
This is referring to the meme I sent, Kampf did it. Nice Fedele meme though.
“Are you willing to be a minister?”
I hope you [Gio] are.
“What’s your plan to trick him [Euricanis] into citizenship?”
I can’t trick him. I wish he would get it though.
“A goose that hates bread?”
I’m a very special goose.
“What kind of duck can’t eat bread?”
Me! And I’m not a duck, I’m a goose.
“How do we get my fellow RMBers to stop disenfranchising themselves.”
I don’t think RMB is pretty disenfranchising itself, but if you think the RMB is doing so you can argue forum RP is too. You can’t really stop RMBers from disenfranchising themselves, but you [the government] just gotta reach out to make sure the relationship is there and let them know its open. Yuno was pretty good at interacting with the RMB, but for Fedele the RMB was somewhat ignored besides when he posted occasionally. It just wasn’t treated as a community- there wasn’t a focus on treating the roleplay communities as communities. Now we do that and it’s’ the only thing we can really do because you can’t force people to enfranchisement. But, I argue that RMBers are trying not to disenfranchise themselves: Shavara is in forum RP, TechTag is in government, Algerstonia is here. It really depends on people doing things- the government can’t help much more in this regard.
[More responses to comments.]
EPSA is fun.
UDS is insane, beautiful.
[Zukchiva starts ending the session.]
I think that is basically it, I’m sorry to Atlae and Cat for transcribing this, I’ll look at recording this in the future so we don’t break people’s fingers. Thank you to Aga, he organized everything and he is awesome and pretty cool.
Thank you for coming and I know it’s me just talking for an hour and sharing my thoughts but if you have anymore questions about things just reach out. I’m always open.
I’ll probably post out a survey to see how we did and get feedback, otherwise, there should be a transcript. If you have any questions, I have many hours to sit here. You can ask them right now.
But you can see in the general text chat that Atlae has a transcript prepared, so I think it’s nice for Cat and Atlae for doing this.
Thank you for Cat, Atlae, and Aga for doing this and for you all [the audience] for coming! I thought this was going to be just a few people but a lot of people came.
[/spoiler]
Draining the Confederate Lake
By [nation=Stellar Colonies] (Edited by [nation=Zukchiva])
[spoiler]
If you’ve been on TEP’s RMB for an extended period of time, you would probably know TAMDEZ (replacing the retconned name TAMDEG) as being an older roleplay (RP) which was the definition of chaos. TAMDEZ itself was an alliance of Earth-nations, and the roleplay was primarily based around their interactions among themselves and foreign entities. It was a godmoddy science-fiction roleplay that loosely bound many different plot threads together into a barely coherent and usually contradictory canon; it was an irreparable mess compared to the more organized and structured RMB RPs seen since, such as the current favorite of Valsora, a modern-tech roleplay.
I won’t go much into detail of it here, but TAMDEZ was in short something which allowed me to turn Stellar Colonies from a dry series of historical factbooks into a ‘living’ and dynamic fictional nation, roughly made as it was and still is in some respects to this day. But all through the course of TAMDEZ, there was a fundamental problem with Stellar Colonies in the RP which I had been aware of since the beginning but had no idea how to resolve.
It was way too overpowered.
Aside from myself as Stellar Colonies, a couple of other TAMDEZ RP members (such as Daravon and Morlockland) along with many of the villains lurking around in the RP world were playing as modern-tech nations with a veneer of future-tech assets. The wacky nature of TAMDEZ helped to sidestep the issue a lot, but the reality of it was that you had this literal galactic confederation of worlds interacting on a near-equal basis with what was essentially multiple countries on a modern Earth.
To combat this disparity, I began introducing roleplay elements to help ‘explain’ why the Confederacy (the In-Character term for Stellar Colonies) didn’t simply absorb TAMDEZ from sheer difference of scale. The most prominent element was a political movement called the Withdrawal Coalition, which lobbied for the Confederacy to leave TAMDEZ and cease interacting with it. The introduction of these elements was almost unnecessary; however, because TAMDEZ had gradually been becoming more and more dormant with time mostly faded out by mid to late 2018. Over the rest of that year and 2019, there were at least a couple abortive attempts to reawaken TAMDEZ, but the RP would remain quiet aside from half-nostalgic references to it until 2020.
Several RMB regulars approached me during the summer of that year (Aivintis, Zukchiva, and Euricanis from what I recall) and invited me to take part in a planned revival of TAMDEZ, one set decades after the events of the original RP. Named early on as TAZE, it was decided from the beginning that it would be more organized than its predecessor to keep the roleplay grounded with a consistent and coherent storyline and world. I was eager to take part in this revival, however slowly it would progress, but my foremost concern was the same one I had during TAMDEZ - how to deal with the scale of the Confederacy? I realized that there was only one true way to resolve this, by removing the problem entirely.
As part of the foundational backstory behind TAZE, I discussed with the other members of TAZE (as of the writing of this article, they include me, Aivintis, Zukchiva, Euricanis, Danelaw Scandinavia, and Talitoa) the inclusion of an event called Cutoff Day, which involved an as of yet unrevealed catastrophe which annihilated the homeworld of the Confederacy across spacetime and erased it from existence. With the Confederacy located in a separate universe from TAMDEZ (that being a whole other discussion), this event did not affect the surviving Confederates left behind in TAMDEZ’s universe, called U-2 in the TAMDEZ / TAZE RP. These stranded Confederates gathered together and built a new Confederacy within U-2.
This allowed me to resolve the problem of the TAMDEZ-era Confederacy, putting it on the same level as the other members of the RP, and doing this also gave me an interesting new setting and plot line to work through. I would be able to play out the physical, societal, and psychological recovery of the remaining Confederates and their gradual construction of a new society in a different universe. I could also roleplay Confederate interactions with their partners and competitors of the former TAMDEZ alliance, as all of them struggle to deal with the reemergence of a new enemy from the past. Wherever TAZE takes us and however long it lasts, this new direction for the Confederacy will give me a chance to focus more succinctly on the society I am creating. It will be a rich experience I can apply throughout TAZE and any other future RPs in which I may participate.
But however this goes, at least I won’t have to figure out how to stop a lake from absorbing a raindrop.
[/spoiler]
Inside the Life of a TEP Diplomat
By [nation=Albrook] (Edited by [nation=Zukchiva])
[spoiler]
The East Pacific has a lot of great friends. And I don’t mean the 8,000 of our residents and citizens here at home, but rather the 34 regions we have either an active embassy or consulate with.
A lot of friends means there’s a lot of news to share, lots of cultures to understand and interact with, and the occasional request for diplomatic business to be done. We have just the team of superheroes for that: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For each of the 34 embassies and consulates TEP has, we assign at least one diplomat to their region or organization. The everyday duties of the diplomat are simple. First, they communicate to TEP any important regional happenings. These can include government changes through elections, appointments, and resignations; major cultural events; and major breakthroughs in legislation. Next, they communicate to their assigned region any important news from us or about new EPNS releases. Finally, they participate as members of the community to the best of their capacity. This can include being active in the RMB or Discord, participating in open regional events and RP, and overall representing the virtue of TEP by being a good person.
When crisis strikes, however, inexperienced diplomats have nothing to fear. Every diplomat is assigned to a Senior Diplomat, who oversees the diplomats assigned to a handful of embassies and consulates. Besides managing the diplomatic force, Senior Diplomats also meet and discuss solutions to any problems plaguing their assigned regions.
So what does it take for YOU to become a TEP diplomat? First, be a citizen of TEP! If you are not already, and are residing in TEP, you can apply on https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/citizenship-and-welcome-thread-t17565-s390.html#p245162 Not only will you be able to apply for government positions, such as staffing in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a diplomat, but you will also be granted the ability to vote in regional elections and have the right to a trial for In-Character offenses. Second, apply via https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/executive-branch-applications-f314/ into the Foreign Affairs ministry. Upon your acceptance, enter TEP Foreign Affairs + UTEP and await your regional assignment, and pair up with an experienced diplomat to learn the ropes!
[/spoiler]
A Short Analysis of The East Pacific’s Last Election
By [nation=Zukchiva] (Edited by [nation=Albrook])
[spoiler]
Elections are often the most exciting events in any democratic region- and often the bane of them. With excitement building up, it can be annoying when vote counts are delayed or results are messed up. Elections are also a time for anxiety, as citizens wonder which factions will be casting votes and candidates ponder on will come out the victor.
In this article, I want to review how factions cast their votes. It isn’t much of a surprise that in most democratic regions, there are certain groups with certain levels of involvement in government. These factions are typically split between social players, roleplayers, and politicians. I wanted to explore how the background of voters affected the vote outcomes in the East Pacific’s February 2021 Delegate elections; specifically, how did a voter’s background affect how they decided their vote?
To explore this, I took the most direct route possible. I made a two question survey and sent it to all individuals who voted in the last Delegate election. 35/45 of citizens who voted in the last election responded to the poll (75% of all voters)! The results How'd you vote? (Responses) - Google Drive, the data was calculated, and the following table was created:
https://i.imgur.com/aJFfSIT.png
SOME CONCLUSIONS
So now let’s get into data analysis!
One of the most interesting categories we see are government-only people, with a high majority (62.5%) having voted solely based on how they thought a candidate would do. It’s also interesting how 42% of those who identify as government and part of another community also voted based on likeability. One would presume it would be government officials, above all, would base their vote solely on campaigns! But some thinking can show the reasoning for this bias towards likability. Afterall, the best people who could judge how one person would do in the Delegacy are those who’ve seen the Delegacy constantly in action! So it’s possible most government members simply felt they knew who would do well, and thus saw no need or little need to consider a campaign.
To piggyback off of that, it certainly is a bit odd how those who did government work whilst hanging out elsewhere were so nearly evenly split between likeability and campaigning. It’s like some people would prefer to either vote solely based on how they thought a candidate would do, or only on the campaign- no compromise. Again, a bit weird as one would expect a mixture of both campaign and likeability to be the norm.
Another interesting tidbit is that those who tend not to associate with a main community (RMB RP, Forum RP, Government), also known as the Lurkers and Main Discord users, often considered both likability and campaigning equally, rather than preferring one or the other. Again, not totally unexpected- knowing a bit about the candidate personally and about the candidate’s policies is often the way to go when you know candidates well, but not that well.
None of this is as surprising as the fact that one group is completely out of the picture: Regional Message Board players. What happened there? Now surely, some RMBers were part of the “Government + Something else” category, but what happened to those nations who primarily hang out on the RMB? One reason could be general RMB apathy to forum activity, as has been the case in the past (and totally okay!). The RMB has historically always been sequestered from the forums, and given its vast diversity, many RMBers are okay with never glancing at other regional services. It is a bit concerning, however, that RMBers (assuming none voted) have no say in who their leader is- whether by choice or not, it could be that something substantial needs to change, lest the region one day ends up isolating the RMB again.
Factoring the missing RMBers and other groups, it’s that the East Pacific has a unique voting layout. Most government people seem to vote based on likeability, while non-government players voted while considering both campaign and likeability. Different groups had different biases and things they could consider, although these biases were not what some people may expect. But first and foremost, this knowledge shows the vast diversity of TEP’s population. While there may be some things that need to be improved, overall the region is a working example of a democracy with active and varied voters.
At the end of the day, that’s all a democracy can ask for.
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