What a Difference Four Years Makes
Israel Stevens
What a Difference Four Years Makes
All throughout my campaign, and in a few of the articles I wrote while President, I talked about being President four years ago. I want to take some time to write about the differences that I see both in the position of President, and the country as a whole.
Being President
It’s sort of the same. The National Security Council, DoD orders, Interior programs (albeit renamed now), media, etc. They’re all the same. Or at least mostly the same. At the very least, the idea behind them is the same. I guess what I’m driving at is that the ‘outline’ of the Executive is the same. The people are different, but the base functions of the departments, and the Executive branch remain the same.
It was like riding a bike. I just needed to know what all the programs were called, and what their function was.
I found that being President wasn’t as intense as it once was. I distinctly remember going from one crisis to the next. Constantly staying up too late. Getting bombarded with texts and PMs (both forum and ingame).
When I left office the last two times, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with being President. I enjoyed my time, but I was done with it. The demands were just too high.
But this month, I could totally go for another term. Or 3. Or whatever. The intensity just isn’t there. To me, it most closely resembles being the Party President of a Top 5, a few years ago. There was a lot to do, and a lot to manage, but ultimately, it was doable. And if you checked out for a few days, it was fine. Things continued to function without you.
Personally, I had a lot of difficulty with Foreign affairs. It wasn’t just that the countries we’re close with have changed, it was that I didn’t know who anybody was. All of my old go-tos were either dead, or out of the loop. It made it frustrating having to rely on the pomp and circumstance of formal PMs, as opposed to the back channels that I am more accustomed too.
On Congress
The problem with Congress, is that it never changes anymore. The people are almost exactly the same as they were the term beforehand. Yeah, we always had constants before. But now, it’s the same 35-40 people. With a few newbies sprinkled in for good measure.
On the surface, this sounds great. 40 or so players that are active and engaged. That know what they are talking about, are proven leaders and are committed to the United States. And that is all true.
But (there’s always a but), they also all have their own agenda. And they are so ingrained in their ways, that every discussion seems to devolve into the same old us vs them mentality. There is little room for new thinking.
With everyone having an axe to grind, they are looking to cut someone else down, or expand their own power. Whatever is best for the country seems to come second.
It’s frustrating, but there is also not much that can be done about it. The state of the game being what it is, there are only so many good candidates to run for Congress in the first place.
Congress has always been dumb. That has not, and probably will not ever change. But we used to have much higher turnover. And in my opinion, that allowed discussions to be more substantial. It wasn’t just the same people arguing amongst themselves all the time.
Our Mentality
A week or so ago, Tenshibo asked me is there still really a game to play?
The answer I gave him was wordy and long winded (surprise surprise), but it boiled down to sometimes.
There are still moments of greatness in eRep. Moments that we will remember beyond a few weeks. But they are becoming fewer and fewer. And are becoming increasingly farther apart.
The elements of being President that I enjoyed were still present. But they came less frequently.
I believe that part of this is what I touched on in my last article. That we play the game too conservatively. That we do what is mechanically correct, but not always in the overall best interest.
We worry too much and we take the road more travelled.
We have taken the technically superior Wild Owl Doctrine, and allowed it to permeate our entire country. The WOD is great for foreign policy. It keeps us safe and secure. Full bonuses and a strong alliance. But it is also very safe. It makes sure that we don’t ever risk going to war with someone. That we play nice not just with allies, but with the neutral countries and enemies too.
To me, it feels like this idea has taken hold in all aspects of our country. There aren’t specific examples of things. But when you talk to people about doing somewhat controversial things, they hem and haw. We just don’t have that bold spirit that I feel like we used to.
I’m certainly not advocating that we just upend everything. That would come with it’s own set of problems.
But I would like to see us be a little more bold; a little more brave. I think that it would be better for the country, and make sticking around this place a little more appealing.
Comments
It was great to serve with you Israel.
Attack Kanada!
This country needs a new villian 😮
seeing that it's looking like TDK can't muster enough allies to present a credible threat, do you think the Congress Elites will drop their fear mongering and participate in a straight up tax reduction discussion?
The so-called "congressional elites" always participate in the tax reduction discussion. Just because we choose not to reduce the taxes doesn't mean we're not participating in said discussion.
key phrase, here, was "straight up."
What's not straight up?
Fact: it's possible for an enemy to install a dictator if we don't have our own.
Fact: our enemies (chile for one) are stronger than us.
TDK is a joke who can't do anything, don't let that misguide you into thinking we're strong enough to quell a real threat.
Probably.
This is the most low comittal answer possible. Lol.
Name dropping me is the #1 way to ensure I read an article.
who are you
I think you're down playing it a bit.
Mostly agreed with this (especially with regard to Congress... Good Lord...)
As far as our overall mentality goes, we're really kind of in a vicious cycle. We would do well to act more boldly sure (at least it would make the game more interesting), but to me, it's a bit of a chicken or the egg thing. Overall activity has declined, we've become fairly reliant on COs, and we've lost some of our prowess in coordination. In essence, we grew weary and lost some of our bite. Now, did all those things happen because the game slid farther down the slope and we stopped caring so much? Or did we stop caring for all those things because we grew weary and softened up? I'm not sure what really came "first", but I know both sides of it feed into and perpetuate each other.
I mean, I (or anyone else paying attention really) can make an argument that the game itself has just become less game-like, less demanding, and easier to auto-pilot. So what do you do about it? Well, if you're us, apparently you auto-pilot it. You take advantage of the tools you're given: the COs and the resource shuffles, and the taxes, and the numbers, and you stack the deck in your own favor. You play the game as given, and you exploit the rules to your utmost advantage.
And then... And then you realize, years later, that you've only fallen into the trap, and you see that you've only taken the admins' handouts to remove a lot of the game from the game. Did we make a bad play? No. Of course not. In fact, we might have made the best play for the rules assigned. Did we make the best play for ourselves and the game and our long-term enjoyment of it though? Yeah, that's where it gets complicated...
What should we do about it? What can we do about it?
Honestly, I don't know. Reaching higher and playing bolder and pushing and doing more just for the sake of doing would be a start. But to do that and succeed, we'd have to demand (and get) a lot more from ourselves than we've been getting lately.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmmKzEKYvdM
3 more terms?
Zoli4Potus
Zoli!
EIN REICH, EIN VOLK, EIN ZOLI
full support
o7
Hey bro...
(Hoping I've earned the right to call you that.)
"Personally, I had a lot of difficulty with Foreign affairs. It wasn’t just that the countries we’re close with have changed, it was that I didn’t know who anybody was."
Yeah, I hear ya. Try moving to the Southern Hemisphere. 😃
You nailed Congress problem on the head. After all the fuss getting my US citizenship restored I only lasted one term. Evidently you can be brain dead and still be a viable candidate. Just check with your PP before voting. *yawn*
You should consider moving to Australia. Been here 3 months. In Congress twice. Finishing MoFA this term and looks like I'll be CP next month. I needs help! lol
no pictures?!?! tl;dr!!!
Honestly, some of your thoughts don't sound too different from my own. You should give SFP a try. We want to bring that bold spirit back.
Haha no
lol'd
hey man. I knew you'd be great and you proved me right. I appreciate your reflections. We generally think alike,you and I.
I think I'll run again in a few months. It really is kind of fun and not a killer amount of stress.
I still remember your article about stopping playing erep. Looks like dem steps proved to be harder than you thought
Hey! Maybe we can get Oblige to run again too!
lolololololololololololololololololololololo
o.o
hahahahahahahahahahaha...
Thanks for running, IS. It was a good one 🙂
so when are you returning the money ? people like you anyway dont understand the game. so think they can comment on whether its great or not. this is the difference between asking messi whether he thinks football is great versus asking a 10 yo girl(you) playing in a school team.
Remind us why you keep posting again? Who are you?
u dont know the krakken mortal? remind me again why i shouldnt suck out your eyes from you skull mortal.
I believe the use of "mortal" twice was a bit redundant. But I'm just bathing in like 3 million right now, so the redundancy doesn't annoy me too much.
furry listen open your eardrums and hear my response: who am i Lthe krakken / why do i post again in your feed. ask yourself why do you post your sentimental crap and arrogant bs and inane drivel in front my eyes.
furries is so predictable anyway there is never like a frog furry or a stock insect furry. look gays its ietermagog(the zulu name for a stick insect) again that guy is so weird and so sad that we had to ban him from the piledrive. cause he would get squashed or something. did someone remember to invite the girls this time guys
and if you plan to get furocious on my ass remember dogfood is expensive especially if a fat little tyke like you lifes in his mom basement as some kind of dog suit wearing freak.
you cant handle me getting real.
Back in the day I had to be online 10-12 hours a day to be a decent CP or even MoD. Nowadays it can be done in 2 hours tops.
The game has turned to cater to the shit casuals. The noobs. Because noobs pay money to win.
🙁