Join the new world

Dear friends,

A couple articles ago I wrote yet another long attack on admin policy (followed shortly by, surprise surprise, offers). A lot of people asked what keeps me playing. I answered of course that what kept me (and everyone else) going was the hope that the admins poor decisions were part of some sort of learning curve, and they like every child putting their hand into the fire would eventually learn it was hot and refrain from doing so.

However that is only my reasoning for continuation, it doesn’t explain why I am actually still here and enjoying it. After all, people said, if it was merely the hope of a better game that kept me going I’d simply jolly off and play a better game. There are plenty of them around if my inbox is anything to go by. By the way TemporaryCitizen46, ErepClone12.com sounds fascinating, I’ll check it out next time I’m feeling depressed by eRep’s poor coding and need cheering up.



No, the thing which has kept me actively involved and playing all this time is of course my friends, in general terms, and TUP, specifically. For those of you (at least 80😵 who don’t know what TUP is, it is broadly speaking a centre-left political party/movement based in the UK, my home country. However to call TUP a political party is like calling an Elephant a large pet, or the Hoover Dam a particularly efficient bath plug. What TUP is, quite simply, is the greatest and most significant political party to grace the face of the world since it’s inception.

Now many of you (especially Brits) are probably spitting out your tea/coffee/rakija right now at this, and will protest that this viewpoint is nothing more than chauvinism on my behalf, since I have been a Party member since my birth and have spent most of that time viciously promoting the party as its most reviled spokesperson. But unfortunately I’m really not exaggerating. What started as nothing more than a small political party in early 2009, struggling to dominate a local congress, has become an international movement of tremendous influence and more importantly tremendous fun.

TUP has had more Presidents than any other party in the UK. In fact many of its members have been Presidents in other countries. Some in more than one country! We have had dozens of alliance HQ members. In fact our members have been leaders in opposing alliances at the same time. SG of PEACE? Yeh we’ve had four of those. Just the one ATLANTIS guy though. First and last SG of PHX, plus three or four in the middle, a half dozen SCs and of course myself, who was Treasurer all the way through save one month when I was CP. ONE? No problem, we’ve got a few of those too. We’ve even got the current CTRL SG, aVie, kicking about the place. He might be a famous Pole now, but he was a famous TUP member first 😛



It’s got to be one weird environment for our new members to wander into. To join a local party in the UK and suddenly find yourself surrounded by an international meeting must be a bizarre experience. The thing is this isn’t something we originally set out to do, but nowadays a lot of people are actually moving to the UK deliberately to join, which is possibly the coolest thing in the world for me. I know I’m rhapsodising about this a little, but it really is something both unplanned for and wonderful in its scope.

One of TUP’s guiding principles is “don’t tell” or put in more familiar terms, no leaking. Leaking is punishable by permanent expulsion, as is cheating, exploits, multi-accounting, scamming and so forth. Combined with the fact that TUP membership is not conditional on CS (once you join, it’s for life) a casual conversation about beer or something can quickly escalate into a fully fledged discussion about the future of alliance politics. This is made more interesting by the fact that not all members originate from the same alliance, and in fact many are currently active in opposing alliances. The other week when the whole Poland-MKD thing was blowing up we had a full scale debate between various senior figures in both governments about it. That’s TUP, international peace forum 😛



Whenever MUs were added we duly created one (most UK MUs are party-affiliated) and let it rumble on accumulating players until we were one of the top hitting MUs in the country. However that wasn’t enough and I’m proud to announce that from the 15th onwards TUP Family will have a new division, which will coincide (unless a meteor wipes out the West Midlands) with the ascendency of the ferocious old duffer Dan Moir as TUP Overlord.

The 12th Division will be the elite force division of TUP Family. I could sermonise you all about how incredible it would be to be a member of a unit with international connections and so many Gods of War, but I think you get the picture by now.

Anyway the 12th will be entirely IRC active citizens and will have unlimited supplies. It will be awesome and all other MUs will suck compared to it, so you should join if you’re eligible by being a member of TUP, on IRC and not a dick. It’s job will be to be the iron fist inside the much softer glove of the Family, and will provide the UK with yet more damage free courtesy of the Party.

In conclusion, TUP is a party which has sublimed beyond the original concept of a political party. It is international conference, tight knit brotherhood, force for leadership, provider of damage and a moral compass all in one. It is the reason I have kept playing all along. Safeguarding its future and guiding and supporting it’s development from a tiny idea into a huge world spanning organisation with sister branches in half a dozen major countries has been an absolute wonder and despite everything the admins have thrown at us we’re richer, stronger and have more to offer than ever. The only requirement for joining is honesty, hard work and being willing to support the UK’s best interests internationally, regardless of your original affiliations.

It’s a great place to be!

Iain