Killing The Nation, One Module At A Time
Day 2,481, 01:11
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Candor
You call this an election?
We have five Top 5 parties. And just one of those parties could see fit to put up a candidate?
Sure the game has serious problems, most of which none of us can do much about. But we don't have to destroy our own Election Module.
For the uninitiated, the T5's run off-site "Primaries", where most of you never venture. They make their own rules, and control their own access to both entrants and voters in those elections. Which is their right both ethically and mechanically.
But by not presenting choices, we're contributing to the demise of our own Elections Module, and therefore the game itself.
Is this article alone going to change anything? Probably not. Only the individual members of those parties themselves could instigate changes that would rectify this harmful practice.
This is a practice that discourages citizenship, retention, participation and fun for the players, but folks are sure free to continue. Right up until the Admins shut the lights off and kick any of us left to the curb. Party over.
Wake up and act like opposition parties. Each of you produce your own best candidates monthly, and then present them to the in-game electorate. Are the parties other than Tyler's saying they have no one capable or interested?
To everyone else: If you want to send a message that you'd prefer real elections with choices in the future, today send your vote to The Ghost of Tom Joad.
He isn't going to win. But you can vote against a self-destructive system, and for real choice in the future.
Even when you harm yourself, I love you. But I pray you won't.
We have five Top 5 parties. And just one of those parties could see fit to put up a candidate?
Sure the game has serious problems, most of which none of us can do much about. But we don't have to destroy our own Election Module.
For the uninitiated, the T5's run off-site "Primaries", where most of you never venture. They make their own rules, and control their own access to both entrants and voters in those elections. Which is their right both ethically and mechanically.
But by not presenting choices, we're contributing to the demise of our own Elections Module, and therefore the game itself.
Is this article alone going to change anything? Probably not. Only the individual members of those parties themselves could instigate changes that would rectify this harmful practice.
This is a practice that discourages citizenship, retention, participation and fun for the players, but folks are sure free to continue. Right up until the Admins shut the lights off and kick any of us left to the curb. Party over.
Wake up and act like opposition parties. Each of you produce your own best candidates monthly, and then present them to the in-game electorate. Are the parties other than Tyler's saying they have no one capable or interested?
To everyone else: If you want to send a message that you'd prefer real elections with choices in the future, today send your vote to The Ghost of Tom Joad.
He isn't going to win. But you can vote against a self-destructive system, and for real choice in the future.
Even when you harm yourself, I love you. But I pray you won't.
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Comments
Beautifully said.
well said!
o7
Well stated Skipper. Thanks for the wise words
However, I consulted my Magic 8-Ball and I've been assured victory. : )
V
Ghost of Tom Joad is a great player. When he gets some experience and puts forth a coherent plan and cabinet I will have no problem casting a vote for him. When a candidate's platform consists of just saying
"I will change things" it's impossible to vote for that candidate. We see how well that worked out in real life. In real life our country voted in a President who had zero experience and no real plan other than change and that President is in over his head and ability and is quickly destroying what's left of the country. This is merely a game but people in the past have put a lot of work into it and that work needs to be respected by electing a President who is ready for the job. Personally I look forward to a Ghost of Tom Joad Presidency.......when he is ready for the job.
My plan was aimed at society, rather than the government. I don't even need to hold office, to accomplish it.
I actually accomplished two of TB campaign promises, before the election:
I maintained contact with the top5 PPs and I introduced new players to politics.
This RL Pres. you speak of that would be George W. Bush, right?
BO is that idiot with a ZERO on his HEAD, NO experience in his mind. I guess you do not see the news he can only golf and he sucks at that to.
No, I speak of Obama, the least qualified individual to ever hold the office. But you already knew that. The guy rode a populist wave into office without ever having actually accomplished anything of note. Hell when he was a senator he voted present in order to not offend anyone by taking a real position. Rabble rousing and hanging out with terrorist professors who blew up government buildings and killed civil servants is not a presidential qualification. I find it amusing that when criticizing Obama the only defense his supporters can muster is to throw Bush's name around. An actual defense would involve naming his accomplishments and ways he's helped the country. In Obama's case he flounders over his head and prosides over one disastrous policy after another. Unlike most I have no issue with his vacations and golf. The only time he's not harming the country is when he's not working. Bush was a bad President, however Obama is the most harmful and worst ever. With Bush we were promised a Conservative, while we got a liberal Republican Neocon. Bush spent too much money and greatly increased the size of government. At least he actually knew how to govern though. He had been the Governor of Texas and ran businesses which meant he was qualified and knew how to be in charge. Bush's administration at least understood the how the world works and didn't believe the cause of every problem to be the USA or racism.
Who determines when he is ready? Some party hacks or the voters. I'll dtick with the latter, thanks. Any other system is the antithesis of democracy.
The standards are quite different now in my opinion than when society was 20k. A CP needs to be hella active and ready to put in 18+ hours a day or have a very trusted and dependable "Number Two". He/she needs to communicate well in use every medium. He/she needs to be smart enough to solicit a lot of feedback and utilize every bit of knowledge around them.
Probably some other traits too ofc. But this IS a game, not every CP need be a Patton. And no CP need be the wisest player around, by no means the Top Dog playing. Like any leader anywhere, they need to understand how to utilize their resources in PEOPLE to get the job done. Set, motivate, supervise, communicate and see through S.M.A.R.T. goals.
This article isn't about Tyler or GOTJ though. It's about saving and utilizing the Elections Mod to the long term benefit of the nation. And today it wasn't used that way at all.
I believe it has more to do with our narrowing bench than any intent by the parties not to run people interested.
For the record, AMP was going to put greeling on the ballot, but their PP is derp and missed the nomination window.
Aw hell Pfeiffer! Our Glorious Leather!
A T5 PP missing the nomination window is a big derp, no doubt. Is that still reset the night of 2nd/morning of 3rd? Everyone should know that mechanical date. And some Emperor's minion ought to remind every PP 😉
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
How crazy are we?
Hey! Glad to see you still playing the game!
Drink to the dea😛 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCljyOyuTU
I'm more interested to find out what happens when no body runs, and if it elects the last person who ran then what happens when that person dies?
I bet it defaults to rank. Highest ranking Amurikan wins. That's what happens in the PP races. Being from a small party, seen it a dozen times. Highest ranking member gets it by default. If they quit, it goes down the line. At level 32 you'd get it before me, etc.
Is it really right ethically to limit votes to the forums?
I see the problem as being that not enough people can decide who their party runs for CP. The only proper restrictions I believe should be in place is that a player who comes in and tries to vote during the primary who wasn't in the party before the primary began.
Mechanically, only the Party President actually matters. He has the button as the game was designed for CP nomination. Therefore, he/she is within the rules of play to handle the decision all alone, or include those they choose to. All of the T5's basically let others weigh in through off-site "Primaries". That said, those "Primaries" aren't always handled ethically, even within the "rules" each PP assigns. There's always been a problem with that.
But basically the decision really lays with the PP's themselves. They have the button. And no rules as to how to use it. All rules are meta-rules.
A great mechanical GAME change might be to allow all within a party to run, and all within that party to vote for their candidate. In game. No messin' around with access.
You'd have PTO's and ATO's ofc. But it would be a darn transparent system.
This article is misinformed. First off, the parties don't necessarily choose who does and doesn't run for CP. PEOPLE choose whether or not they want to run. The parties then (WTP anyway) do nominations and then a primary. IN WTP, the only two people who were nominated were Tyler and Ghost. There were no other nominations, because - as far as I'm aware - no one approached anyone in WTP with a desire to be CP.
Party Presidents, mechanically, choose who is nominated from each party. The rest is meta-game. Only ONE PP choose to nominate a candidate from their party to run. THAT is a problem. THE problem. By doing that, the rest of us have no qualified choice to be made. The PP's have "chosen" the CP.
And that destroys the Elections Module. And contributes to the demise of the overall game.
So what you're saying is the problem is PP's aren't nominating people who have no interest in becoming CP. Got it.
Certainly finding qualified candidates for CP nomination IS part of a PP's responsibilities, absolutely yes. You get it 😉
Haven't been to the forums in who knows how long, but I still voted for TB. His articles were good, honest and he sounds like a stand up guy. Beat that and maybe you win my vote. The biggest key for me was a good title to get the 2 clickers (like me) to read it, then follow that up with some kind of decent plan for this country so I don't feel like you are going to run us into the ground.
The process is more important than the man to the longevity of the game. An election, choices. This isn't about GOTJ or Tyler. But OFC GOTJ wasn't a realistic choice. Which IS the point. We were denied real choice. Which negates the Elections Module, and harms retention, participation, etc. The game itself. And our team.
In USWP, all you need to nominate and vote in primaries is to be a USWP member with forum access *before* the primaries. That's not a hard requirement to meet. If candidates want to campaign early and encourage people to get involved, to hop onto the forums and nominate them, that's plenty welcome, as political campaigns should be more enthusiastic, and there should be some work expected of those who wish to run the country. I can't speak for other parties, of course.
Remember, the reason we deal in off-site primaries is because relying on the in-game mechanics is terribly unreliable, and having a bunch of candidates to vote for in-game opens up massive holes for people like RGR to slip on in.