Let's talk about the Meta
So recently something came up in the meta-game of the eUS. What does that mean? Shit went down in the eUSA forums. Bad shit. One of the Congress reps, Franklin Stone, was censured by the Speaker of the House (a nonofficial meta position made up in the forums to facilitate discussion) for the reason of "I don't like him". This led to a huge debate about whether someone should impeach the SoH for his inactions. The debate spoken was horrendous. People were openly laughing at the person being censured, and you know, that says a lot about the people in power supporting SoH. The issue with the meta game is that it excludes players who don't want to sign up to ten million forums and discords simply to enjoy the game. Plato gave out some decent mechanics, and while certain meta stuff is totally debateable (dictatorship anyone?) the extent of which occurs in the eUSA community is insane.
I recently brought my friend, Atominer, into the game. He frankly had no clue what to do, or how to get involved. There were simply too many things to sign up on, too facebooky, too much grinding or just clicking fight. Unless he was part of the political module, the early game was boring and a waste of time. He only plays when I tell him to do a vote or something after only two weeks of playing. Imagine if he could get into active discussions inside the game mechanics? If Congress actually had power?
The Struggle of the Opposition with Meta
The second biggest issue with meta-gaming, after the lack of new player inclusion, is the fact that it allows older players in power to maintain it. Think about an extreme scenario. The eUSA has a democratic dictatorship, so all Congress decisions are made in the eUSA board Congress. What if, just as a thought, the majority party banned everyone but the dictator and their party from being on the boards. What then? Suddenly it is literally a tyranny of the majority. The way this stuff is set up that is totally possible. And as long as it's possible, it's a threat. As you've seen above minor infractions are already happening in this way, so we must fight it by gaining that majority in Congress, and making change for the inclusion of all of us.
How do you stop the meta? Vote SFP, BSP, or WTP for Congress. That's how.
My Platform for Congress
I'm running for Congress, if you didn't know, as a member of the SFP. I will support ending the dictatorship, my arguments being that it further insinuates the meta trap and isn't used by the majority of nations above us in weekly damage, including Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria and who knows how many more. I will argue for increased government programs as I believe that it takes waaay too long to get decent at the game. The first couple months are extremely boring unless you write mad amounts of articles or get into the meta debates. I would like to create subsidies for MU communes overseen by the government, which may not be what many SFPers like, but is my sincere opinion. IRL I'm a card carrying socialist and that is reflected in my stances.
Cool parties are cool.
If you want to help, you should join the
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PS. I need the mission for twenty five unique comments, so help me out!
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Comments
Bruh! I Love You ❤ ❤ ❤
I love you too YBDM. Also you fuckers better comment we getting that hot 3G with this article.
Good article. I just worry that it's beating a dead horse.
Everyone knows that things are corrupt, but they still support the same people, every month.
as corrupt as you (lying to another player to set them up for failure is about as corrupt as one can be in a game)?
Get a life, you lying ass troll.
@j c-word, the truth seems to hurt you a good bit
Prove one word of what you are saying or GTFO.
so you never communicated with me on skype, Illene and you never had a private Pm with me to discuss our failed friendship over it, I never came to the conclusion you must be a female in RL?
Certainly I tried to smooth things over between you and Jimmy. I'd still offer the same today, but I doubt that it would do anything beyond get my blood pressure up.
Your complaints at the time were heard, investigated and found to be baseless. If you have new information, bring it forward or be silent on the issue.
proving now utterly worthless this game is?
hi
caramba
Here's a comment 😛
o/
Here's some words
uy
Conquer in the name of Dio
Congress organises itself likes it wants to do. That said, taking access away because you dislike someone is indeed undemocratic. Such a person doing that and elected by majority of congress is a disgrace. We see this happen in real life nations with so called democracy too, Turkey (arresting members of congress), and Poland (deciding about the budget in another room closed for all opposition parties) among others...
Congress can organize itself how it likes does not translate to the Speaker can remove access. This is clearly an example of Federalist corruption.
Speaker is part of the executive of congress I think. You are right, it is an example of corruption. Congress should take concrete steps against the Speaker or the congress is firmly in undemocratic and corrupt hands.
Comment
Congress has nothing to do with your inability to get someone interested in this game.
I know it has become the scapegoat for your party- IF ONLY CONGRESS WERE DIFFERENT EVERYTHING WOULD BE PERFECT!
It's not actually true though. At some point you have to put the work in.
Well thanks for the comment at least. You're getting pretty accusatory with the whole second person pronoun usage, huh? Easier to attack than to talk about the other two thirds of my article.
The argument about being a scapegoat would be good if it hasn't been used to hell. When did I ever say things would be perfect? Combat won't get improved, and the economic module is still utterly fucked, but at least he'd be able to see Congress doing some stuff, which was the drawing point of the game for him.
Very ironic to see you do the whole "put in work" slogan. It's a great way to paint a vulgar picture of somebodies actions and life and is used very well to keep disadvantaged people down in real life.
You completely misunderstand. I'm not saying it's on a new player to put the work in, I'm saying it's up to the party. Party's need to be engaging and a welcoming place for a new player to get into the game and become part of a community.
Some in your party seem to want congress to be that community, but congress has always been total garbage, even before the Dictatorship. Even if Congress had buttons, the conversations would still need to take place. Congressmen would still need to get information from the executive and from each other and would still need to organize. Meta would still be necessary.
This 'slippery slope' argument you're trying to make isn't a great one, especially since it was the very real threat of PTO that led to the Dictatorship in the first place. You're so worried about a couple parties overpowering another party in the meta game, but do you care at all about one group overpowering every other group in the mechanical game?
The thing about the first point is that I really did put that work in for Atominer. We had lunch together so we'd pull up our phones and play the game for the whole hour for weeks. He just didn't feel there was a point. He knew how to make it fun, just sign up on at least two forums, more if he wanted to win a political position, get on a bunch of Discord servers, but frankly at that point there's more meta than game. He's actually on the SFP Discord and pops in when something interesting happens, probably more to make me happy than anything else.
Theoretically, if we want to talk about the ways to work in mechanics, you could have discussions in the chatrooms given by Plato, messages to executive, etcetera. About the dictatorship, how can FYROM, BG, Romania, Argentina, Hungary and god knows how many others not have the dictatorship? They all put out more damage, with the exception of maybe ARG and FYROM, why haven't these bigger nations decided to put the dictator in place? At the end of the day, the same problems that appear in the mechanics appear in meta, a majority will still overpower the minority, because eRep refuses to put in a decent Judicial Branch and even if it existed it'd be partisan, so there's that. 50%+1 will win out in both the meta and mechanics, as the dictator is going to follow Congress. The dictatorship doesn't really protect anything if we allow that the above stated nations are not, in fact, gigantic wrecks(tell that to BG), and only serves to move all of Congress into a forum where we can allow stuff like Tenshibo censoring people for the basis of "I don't like you" being stated not once, but twice. Congress will always be super partisan, no amount of whips change that, but by removing the dictator at least there is no threat of arbitrary abuse.
At least we're having a conversation doh.
Come on fingerguns, we have all witnessed congress/elite/governing junta chasing folks right out of the country if not the game itself.
Boycott the forums and deprive the meta-elites of any power.
Great article as always.
Can I have sex with your mouth now?
Only if you give me 9 more comments 😉 from nine different fucks
Nine whole fucks? I don't think I can give that many.
Nine hole fucks sure, but nine whole?...not likely.
I heard the author needed a comment. Here ya go! 🙂
That is the worst reason for a comment I have ever seen. My coming rant will need a full comment of its own and I shall encourage others to do much the same.
I will do that much later of course as my bed needs a lot of sleeping on or it will grow angry and attack the city. Really, I do this for the public good.
Angry man is angry? 🙂
Not me.
SOLID
this is a comment
~hyuu~
Did you seriously just centre your entire article? You know that it makes all of the content in the article useless right?
🙁 will fix
o7
o/
o7
America is generally a fail nation.
But this guy seems alright
¡Viva la Revolución!
Also there is no exclusion of new players from congress except the month wait they have to sign up we encourage it.