What I Think I've Done

Day 1,152, 13:33 • Published in USA USA • by SamWystan

As the USWP sends their Zombie Army to come crush me in the election (now with help from the UIP), I think it's necessary for me to reflect on how I feel about the day's events.

First, besides the obvious "fools" comments, I think I feel pretty fine about the whole affair. Yes, I'm behaving like a petulant child. But so is everyone else, right now. Let's walk through this for a few moments. I'm doing a high wire act right now. I have to burn as many bridges as possible so that people will hate me enough that I won't want to come back to eRep, and at the same time, I have to keep enough people enamored with me to win votes. I'm sad that I'm blocked from IRC on a number of channels, but frankly, IRC has always been a trap for me anyways, so this helps.

eRep is a GAME. There's two ways games end. Either one player or team is the winner, or everyone else quits. Since eRep doesn't have winners, it means everyone has to quit. I've decided to quit by kicking the board over.

Second, I'm pretty proud I've done as much as I have already while managing a hangover. I was drunk last night when I did all of my campaign stuff, and now I'm paying the price. I'm better than I was this morning.

Third, long-time Fieldist readers will know that I once threatened to bomb the Media with middling-quality articles. I think I've done that today.

Fourth, I think I've highlighted a serious amount of discontent, in all parties (although Nicholas Ryan is tapping into that in SEES). That discontent leads to a lack of discipline, but it's most likely caused by a lack of connectedness. I think people want to believe in something bigger than themselves, and I gave them something bigger to believe in. This never could have happened if Libertarian members and others hadn't felt so disaffected by their own parties. I would have been crushed. If the parties were really organized and put together, they would be incredible organizations.

The challenge I'm putting to everyone, is that no matter what happens, win or lose, you need to organize your groups. Part of the reason there are "elites" in the game is because they are semi-organized. So organize yourselves. Hell, if you want to call yourselves the Wystonians or Fieldists after me, go ahead. That'll inflate my ego. Form factions within parties, that way people have to listen to you. Even if you're new. In fact, get involved with the new players.

Fifth, I think this is by far the greatest set of Party Presidential elections, ever. At least in my experience. Serious fireworks, organized resistance, two or three insurgency campaigns. Although it's also highlighted that there really isn't much difference between the parties. Really, I think every party should just band together under the USWP's banner.

I have some thoughts on how the government should work. First, I think bureaucracy is crazy here. I think you could eliminate a lot of things. Or just point out the absurdity of others. For instance, don't attend the forum Congress. Form an alternative Congress. There's no reason to debate Section 1, Title IV of the Congressional Budget Code as relating to Congress' auditor, when the auditor in question doesn't even know how to write an audit or go about doing it.

Don't pay attention to the President past what he's capable of doing within the game. Declare yourselves whatever you want. Make yourselves kings, knights, lords and ladies, etc. No one can stop you. No one really matters.

A lot of people are gambling their reputations on this. If I lose, innovative new people will be locked out unless they organize. Unless they get together. They may have to use chats and forums and everything, because the game is bad enough to fail to provide those. But they don't have to pretend like Congress is the be all and end all, or that the President is anything more than war-declarer. They don't have to know what our "Constitution" in the forum says (I certainly don't). Those are stupid things.

So why am I doing all this?

I set out some time ago, maybe what, 10 days ago, to figure out just what my level of support was. I was hoping to form like a fifth column or something. Iasov was running unopposed and I thought to myself, "hey, Iasov is unopposed, it's not really an election without opposition. I'll be the opposition." So I put in my 2 Gold, and decided that if anyone asked, I'd be cryptic about the whole thing, saying, "I cannot comment on my donation of 2 Gold to the Party." I didn't think anyone would take it seriously. After all, I've been a joke writer for so long. I figured I wouldn't campaign, Iasov wouldn't campaign, and I'd see maybe some surprising results in the election, but enough to gauge my popular appeal. I thought that later I'd talk with the Imperialist Party about being their presidential candidate in February, just to put me into the debates. A sort of long climb to fame, if you will.

Well, it didn't work out that way. This is where it tends to get biased, so bear with me; this is just my perspective. Claire sent me a thing about my campaign. Then CRoy started talking to me on IRC. He told me I couldn't be high-up in the party because of my paper. I said, "but all I print is lies." Finally, he said he'd "take [me] under [his] wing" and get me to be Chief of Staff of the party. It was a nice offer and I accepted it.

I even had begun talking to a friend of mine about painting the party in a positive light after these elections; just to prove how important newspapers are. Then I went to bed. And I thought, "I don't want to be Chief of Staff. I'm not some newb who needs to be taken under somebody's wing. I don't want some party position. I want to quit."

We know the next part. I wrote my peace, and said goodbye. People said, "well, visit us on IRC."

I was playing my new game (Echo Bazaar, by the way. Really innovative) and I ran out of stuff to do for the day. So I came to IRC and I logged in here to see the tearful goodbyes. It's incredible that that one post did so well. It's literally the highest vote count I've ever gotten.

While on IRC, Claire confronted me. She made good points about screwing over the party if I won. And to be fair, they have worked hard. I think she overplayed the Libertarian Writers' Guild in her paper recently (it was never more than a paper organization). So I decided that I'd stick around if I won to make sure the party wouldn't be taken over. Of course, I didn't tell Claire that.

And now we're here.