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I told Ron I would write an article on my thoughts of party politics in this game. Before I do that I just want to say my prayers go out to Mierk Family. I had been playing this game with him almost 7 years. Saw him, and a lot of others, grow up during that time. He was always positive, full of energy, and a good kid. I always enjoyed talking to him on IRC. He will be missed.

I had a college professor talk about power and were you gain in in an organization. There are different types of power or influence in this game, Money, Damage, Connections, and votes. I will give my thoughts on each below.

MONEY
Today one person can influence wars by CO. That person can buy 800,000 CC of packs for about 100 euros, then use that money in CO. Most countries have at least one person who does that. In Ireland I have seen two people at least do this. In the last month I have donated over 800K to the government. I spent over 500K in Mexico and over 2 million in six months before that in Ireland, and I am not the biggest Govermetn benefactor right now. Yddub or Noggin would pay for a MPP or supplies in the past, but did not have the influence we see today.

In the past governments got all the money they needed in taxes, fishing, and the buy bot. They could pay for anything the game offered at that time without the need for private investment. The question in the past was preventing people from steeling and how much you could generate. One of my favorite saying is “money talks”, today in this game that is true. If the Money players do not agree with a government’s direction or leadership it is hard for that government to win wars.

DAMAGE
Today one player does about 70% of the damage for our country. Another player supplies weapons to that player and influences where that damage goes. They control the fate of a lot of battles. A few months ago Ireland was doing 14 billion in damage a week and the government controlled less the 2 billion of the damage. Years ago this was not the case. Snake was Ireland's top Tank 6 years ago and did less than 5% of our damage. The more time goes by the farther tanks get ahead of the average player. Today's tanks are more self-sufficient and have little reason to fight for their current government. In the past a screen shot would get published of someone fighting for the wrong country (been there myself) and the person publicly shamed. Today fighting for CO and BH anywhere is common place. The players who can dominate there Divisions and the players who supply them have influence.

INFLUENCE
Years ago Ireland was a little small community playing a solo game in a much bigger game. We were barely able to join alliances and never had absolutely any influence on them. I was part of the governments that got us into EDEN. We had no idea how they worked, who had influence in them, what the requirements were for joining, etc. Iboy was our only well connected player. Today Ireland has players like Don Croatia and Saugher. They have both led and formed many alliances. Besides them there are a lot of people that know individual in specific countries they can call on for help. Argentina occupied Ireland a year ago. We set up a PM with the Irish and Argentina Government to discuss them letting us go. The Argentina MoD notices that Don Croatia was in the thread and stated in the thread “he never met him but it was a great pleasure being in the same thread as such a great player”. This was our enemy stating his respect, that is influence. When we have need help in the past these type of players can call on their network of friends to bring a lot of damage. They also are very active, have a lot of experience, and ideas. You need these type of player in your government to make them successful.

VOTES
Some players become PP and maintain a network of friends. They work hard to get there party the most members or win congress elections. This sometimes brings a community spirit to people who do not play game that much. Most of the time it leads to an us verse them mentality. You are in our circle or you are our enemy. They have to distinguish there group from others so they write articles and make speeches how they are right on some little issue and good and everyone one else is evil and wrong. When elections come around they can influence who gets voted. Years ago this is how we elected our leaders. I played the game this way along with most people. Sweet might be only person I do not remember playing this way. We had bigger community (I lost a CP election and still got over 200 votes) and the other areas of influence did not matter as much. Years ago we had enough active people that when a portion of our community got elected into office there was enough active people in there group to form an efficient government. Congress was made up of relatively well informed active players. Today there are not enough active people in the whole country to form most governments Dictatorship function has also weakened democracy in this game.

I am a strong believer in democracy in RL, but in this game it does not always bring the best leaders to the surface.