The Transpacific Trade: NationStates as a Symbiosis between User-Created and Game-Created Regions

Post by **frattastan** » 11 Nov 2018, 21:40

The Transpacific Trade: NationStates as a Symbiosis between User-Created and Game-Created Regions By Unibot.

Prologue

“We need to ensure we can retain the positive minds which might otherwise unthinkingly depart for less green pastures.” – Francos Spain.

“I see it as part of the purpose of a feeder to welcome nations into the game and direct them elsewhere.” – Ballotonia.

“Surely the point of sending recruitment telegrams [in a UCR] is with the intent of destroying the region, what other reason would you have for trying to take members out of UCRs?” – Paper Flowers, in regards to Poaching.

“If you’re a newbie and get a recruitment telegram to move, and you do, you’re unlikely to get any more recruitment telegrams, limiting your scope. It’s like the fallacy of Bank loyalty; you think by staying where you are gives you the best deal.” – Lordieth.

“In truth, I believe that UCRs players usually come back to the feeders by themselves when they truthfully understand where the “real” politic of NationStates is […]” – Felasia.

Introduction

It may seem odd to begin with a collection of quotations of seemingly contradicting statements, when the objective of this lecture is to argue that NationStates is a symbiosis between User-Created and Game-Created Regions. Indeed, the interdependent relationship of User-Created and Game-Created Regions is so complex, many players come to acknowledge a view of the world in which there is no interdependence between their “kind” of region and another “kind” of region, or if there is an interdependence, one may argue interdependence must be an exploitive and pernicious relationship. This causes the rise of revulsion between these groups; scorning members of User-Created regions with negative terms (e.g., userite scum) or in one especially perverse situation, a moderator advocating for delegacies to be removed from feeders so there would be “no figureheads to complain about regional recruiting”¹ , an admin added to the suggestion with the idea that feeders would not be joinable and their regional “flag could be a 'nuclear contamination' symbol”² , before players from 10000 Islands, The Black Hawks and New Warsaw Pact praised these ideas³.

Obviously, as highlighted above, there are great tensions between these blocs of regional communities, but their contention emerges from players not recognizing how each bloc serves the other bloc’s central need of human resources in a functioning mutually-beneficial relationship which I call, The Transpacific Trade. If there was greater understanding as to how these units serve each other in this Transpacific Trade, perhaps it would foster mutual respect. There is interdependence between Game-Created Regions and User-Created Regions and it is a mutually beneficial relationship. Beyond the surface however, there are genuine conflicts that arise not out of ignorance of this interdependence, but out of a theoretical imbalance in the relationship which, I shall argue, can be resolved.

There are several major assumptions made by me that govern the overall argument I will put forth. These central facets to the master argument can be enumerated as two laws and a derivable paradox.

The First Law states constructive regions reflect the players that participate in them. Quite simply put, if a constructive region has many inexperienced players participating in its government or community, the region will develop to accommodate these players. If a constructive region has many experienced players participating, the regional development will be drawn away from training manuals, different levels of government and more political representation, towards more centralized agencies of power where “equal minds” may discuss and debate political policy without concern that unicameral legislatures and lack of representatives will be undermined by political inexperience. Furthermore, regions with a player-base who largely have not participated in any other region will mainly be isolationist, exceptionalist, patriotic or otherwise “regionalist”⁴ due to a lack of outside experiences causing distrust of foreigners and a tendency to see the affairs of one’s own region in a “bubble of significance” that does not encapsulate the unfamiliar otherworld. Whereas regions that feature a player-base that has participated in many other regions will often have reduced capacity to dedicate themself to one region and therefore craft the region as just one political community in a greater surrounding political macrocosm. These characteristics can be labeled as “cosmopolitan”⁵ in nature.

The Second Law states that there is no universally-agreeable characteristic for a region in regards to size, intrigue and intimacy. Some may desire a region that is large and thus carries with it great status. Others may desire a region with a deep political culture that is intellectually stimulating and indeed, others wish for an intimate region focused around common interests that is less confrontational. None of these desired ideal regions are necessarily “right” or “wrong” as preferences.

From these two laws follows The Status Paradox, which states that the larger region, the greater status a region has and the greater inexperience that participates in a region; whereas inexperience is antithetical to political intrigue which is fostered with status; whereas political intrigue is antithetical to intimacy. What this amounts to is maximum political intrigue is unattainable in conventional regions, because the larger the region is, the more inexperience contributes to the region to ruin the complexity of the political environment and the capacity for political intrigue, but the smaller the region is, the less status there is to generate the motivation for political intrigue. Game-Created Regions circumvent The Status Paradox by having an indefinitely large population from which they generate status but by establishing distantness between the masses and the elite that constitute the regional government and community, Game-Created Regions can essentially “have their cake and eat it too” by enjoying either a politically intriguing environment or an intimate environment (these two characteristics still remain antithetical; some feeders are more “community-based” others are more political and divisive) because status is required for a politically intriguing environment but adiaphorous towards intimacy. Conventional regions may try to reproduce this effect with moderately similar results using tiers of government, but will not be able to sustain their regional size without a political and communal elite that distances itself less to the general regional population than can be attained in Game-Created Regions with eerie convenience and ease.

During this seminar I will separate regions in NationStates into three main blocs: Game-Created Regions (which shall include feeders and sinkers and exclude warzones for the purpose of this seminar⁶ ), Broker Regions⁷ and Niche Regions⁸. Game-Created Regions are mammoth-sized regions, whom many of its nations involuntarily joined. Regional governments and communities in Game-Created Regions are traditionally quite small and consist of an elite which participate socially, politically and militarily for the region which, as explained, are their key to circumventing The Status Paradox. Broker Regions are the main “Recruiter” regions; their regions are designed to generally appeal to a wide range of players with a vague agenda that is understandable to newcomers who may have limited knowledge of facets of the game (The World Assembly, NS Roleplay, for example, are original concepts to newcomers). However, one may suggest Gatesville as a counter-example, I would argue that at the time of Gatesville's founding and prime, The World Assembly was named The United Nations -- an institution which new players would understand immediately since The United Nations exists in real life. A recruitment letter from February 2007 suggests Gatesville advertisements often appealed to a broad range of players, who Gateville identified as "Capitalists, Consumerists, Dictators, Kings, Queens and forward-thinking nations" that believe countries need to fight for sovereign freedom and power against an international bogeyman common to newcomers (The United Nations).^[9] Additionally, brokerite communities and their political institutions are generally more inclusive to newcomers and better designed to foster experienced players than the other blocs of regions, as of consequence, they suffer from lack of entrenched political intrigue and intimacy. Lastly, Niche Regions are regions with a more focused purpose that has limited appeal; these communities will be comparatively smaller than Brokers, so much so that they do not have the manpower (nor the mass appeal) to successfully recruit in Game-Created Regions like Brokers. As a consequence, Niches will often be engaging and intimate, but lack the interregional status and the political intrigue that greater political standing invokes.

At the beginning of the lecture, I explained that I wish to discuss the symbiotic relationship between User-Created and Game-Created Regions; I will take a more nuanced approach by arguing that there is a symbiotic relationship between Game-Created Regions, Broker Regions and Niche Regions; specifically the relationship is a mutually-beneficial trade of players or human resources. The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a brutal, oppressive and involuntary shipping of slaves in masses to North and South America from Africa, to sustain a trade regime that benefited Europe and Africa in produced goods. I do not wish to demean or dehumanize that historical and horribly cruel event; simply the triangular trade relationship from this event was my inspiration that drew me to the conclusions of the lecture. Thus I call the classical journey of players (which is entirely voluntary¹⁰) from Game-Created Regions to Brokers, then to Niches and then back to Game-Created Regions, The Transpacific Trade which seeks to provide the ideal quantity and experience of players needed to sustain each regional bloc’s preferred regional environment. There are three “movements” to complete this triangular trade obviously, thus I wish to describe each movement in greater depth so that the overall picture of NationStates’ greater symbiosis can be encapsulated. Also remember, there are certain deficiencies in The Transpacific Trade caused by seemingly unsymmetrical trade benefits between each bloc, these disparities will be discussed and hopefully a potential resolution will be presented.

The Most Glorious Hack, Dec 29, 2011; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=8011266#p8011266
Ballotonia, Dec 29, 2011; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=8021852#p8021852
See comments by Improving Wordiness, Nullarni and Sunrawr: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?t=157054&p=8021852
“Regionalism shall be defined as a set of political values that emphasizes the importance of a strong and concrete regional identity, in addition to promoting patriotism and demonstrations of loyalty to the region,” from The Polysemes of Nativeness by Unibot. See: http://s4.zetaboards.com/UDL/topic/9736045/1/
“Cosmopolitanism shall be defined as a set of values that emphasizes the importance of individuals within NationStates and rejects strict membership laws in regions on the basis that it interferes with the ability of individuals to contribute and participate,” from The Polysemes of Nativeness by Unibot. See: http://s4.zetaboards.com/UDL/topic/9736045/1/
Warzones are essentially niches; they do not draw people into them involuntarily to collect enough human resources to be a reasonable recruitment pool. Likewise, Warzones are smaller regions whose appeal is mostly limited to experienced players who already know of the existence of warzones and want an invasion experience notwithstanding ethical shortcomings posed by traditional founderless region invasions.
“Broker Region” comes from another term common in Canadian political science: “Broker Parties”, which are political parties that maximize their appeal across different groups of people by rejecting rigid ideologies to gain power and avoid divisiveness.
“Niche Region” was a term that Crazygirl once used to refer to my own region, Eastern Islands of Dharma. As a region whose primary function (to be a home to World Assembly Authors) had limited appeal to most experienced players and most new players (who had never heard of The World Assembly). The term seemed appropriate.
"What is so special about Gatesville? I hear you ask, well let me explain. Gatesville is a collection of only the best of nations all unified together against a common enemy, the treacherous UN and their attempts to create a one world order. The UN's ultimate goal Is to dictate to you how to run your nation. Every Resolution that is passed restricts how you run Your Nation more and more, But we the brave Fighters oh Gatesville, stand united against the abomination that is the "United Nations". [...]

For far too long has the UN conspired to rob nations like yours and mine of our Dignity and Sovereignty, What is the use of being a ruler if we cannot rule but must follow the rules set by the UN? [...]

We are Capitalists, Consumerists, Dictators, Kings, Queens and forward-thinking nations like yourself, who will influence and dominate the UN through votes and numbers. And We need all the help we can get, every vote is another step towards our goal fo being free of the UN's Lingering presence." - From http://z12.|invisionfree|.com/Concosia/index.php?showtopic=698&view=findpost&p=6914551, Feb 19 2007/
Although players migrated from Game-Created Regions to Brokers may not be well-informed of alternative choices, they still maintain free-will.

The First Port of Call: The Broker

Newcomers to NationStates arrive in a dizzying set of circumstances which I can only vaguely remember – perhaps you do as well. I recall for the first time figuring out what the telegram box was and reading my telegrams; the welcome message and various long-winded messages that regions were using to recruit me. This is an anarchy that nowadays appears rather standard even ordinary to me. The truth is: for the stunned fish uncertain of his surroundings, these are troubled and uncharted waters, but for many of us, the feeders are the old “fishing hole” where the fishing is a regimented regime of practices done every day, upon every hour for nearly every minute of the day.

For example, every week, thousands of telegrams are reported to have been sent out by a handful of individuals from Europeia to promote their region; they have mandated recruitment quotas for their government officials¹,they have worked recruitment into their cultural events² and their former President even argued that there was a “cultural importance of recruiting” to “the Europeian identity” and that the values of “loyalty, dedication, and work ethic” that recruiting promotes as well as its obvious societal benefits (region size) is central to the ethos of the region ³. Recruitment is one of the core elements of this community; it is the main means of region production. Europeia is by no means alone, 10000 Islands has numerous rewards for citizens that recruit through their “Accelerator” program, an award for signing up an accelerator account, recruiting the most in the month or the year, recruiting a future senator, recruiting a future delegate, the coveted Immigration Excellence Medal etc. ⁴, citizens are immediately informed through their training guides that “everyone” is a part of the Immigration Department (tasked with recruitment) ⁵. Recruitment is thus a central element to these larger “Broker” regions.

All Brokers see themselves in a race to be the “biggest”, they are in many ways competitive fishermen and women. Most recruitment messages from Broker regions are shaped to be as vague as possible, in this sense, the differences between every regional advertisement becomes minute. They explicitly use ambiguity to appeal to a wide-mass of people; these telegrams will mention the region’s “excellent offsite forum” and how it is a “powerful region” with “general discussions with a friendly environment”, an “inclusive regional government”, “opportunities to do whatever you like” and in some cases, the “best military in the game”. Likewise, in a 2011 Video Promotion of 10000 Islands, 10000 Islands specifically promotes it’s “1600 battles fought by the finest fighting force in NationStates”⁶ without even mentioning that these battles were defences or liberations; these sorts of ambiguities regarding the actual content of the Ten-Thousand Island Treaty Organization’s missions allows the message to appeal to everyone regardless if the recruited members would be interested in more of an aggressive military. If you believed regions to be exactly as their recruiters would have you think, you would think there is little difference between any of the Broker regions other than them being superior to each other contradictorily.

Not every new player is persuaded by these telegrams, myself included, but a large collection of the population is drawn into one of the Brokers everyday. Upon joining the region these new arrivals will be immersed in an environment designed to accommodate them. For example, Europeia has a subforum for citizenship, a civil service subforum where you can apply to receive a “Junior Minister” posting and a subforum for joining the Europeian Navy all organized together at the top of the forum for easy access. The key here is Citizenship Integration and Orientation -- this is something that successful Brokers do very well and often design entire ministries for its execution, for example Europeia’s Ministry of Citizenship Integration and Ministry of Interior, 10000 Islands has the Ministry of Labour to inform newcomers of available jobs and positions as well its Ministry of Immigration and The Ministry of Education to welcome and orient new members. Largely speaking Brokers share common political characteristics, there are opportunities to get politically active in any Broker Region, but power is highly centralized using representatives. This is indeed a balance that allows new players to feel engaged, but keeps vast inexperience out of concrete power. In 10000 Islands, there is no open legislature; simply citizens are allowed to partake in frequent elections for four senators and a delegate who represent them in the Council of Nine, alongside the founder and three of his appointed executive ministers ⁷. Europeia on the other hand has more democratic opportunities on the surface, but balances out their Citizen’s Assembly with a Senate of elected officials. Direct democracy, although common in Game-Created Regions is rare among Brokers due to the First Law, the population of these regions reflects their power structures.

For many citizens of Broker Regions, this is their political reality; their conception of NationStates is a bubble that contains mainly their home-region. When you have not been a citizen of any other region, the highly competitive environments within these regions is all that you know and all that you value; being an insider in one of these regions is a privilege for which citizens yearn; leaving the region would be leaving the bubble of significance. I may have painted Brokers in a light that appears negative, but let it be known there are many players that are fascinated with the competitiveness, stratification and the strong regional identities of Broker Regions. As a afterthought, I would like to posit the theory that the “Official NationStates Forum” can operate like a Broker Region for some with its strong emphasis on orienting new players, open discussion and Roleplay areas, an open, irrelevant and highly competitive legislature (The World Assembly) and an absolutely stratified political elite (appointed moderators). Nonetheless, not all players are satisfied by Broker Regions, for many of them their search for a home in NationStates does not stop with their original Broker home; instead, they move or create their own Niche Region.

The Second Port of Call: The Niche

Dissatisfied with their Broker, some players will come together in a Niche Region. These Niche Regions are their desired “utopias”; they have a focused purpose, perhaps a community dedicated to the World Assembly, literature, left-wing politics, roleplay, a specific culture , philosophy or religion (e.g., Dutch culture, Environmentalism, Catholicism), raiding or defending or admiration for a specific country. These are much narrower focuses for a region and there is limited appeal. Most regions in NationStates are in fact Niches; these regions are much smaller, less competitive and more intimate than Brokers. The aforesaid should probably make intuitive sense, the smaller the community, the more congeniality becomes necessary (i.e., New York City v. Buford, Wyoming), but moreover, Niches involve people coming together with common interests, thus intimacy is a natural result of shared interests.

When frustrated with the size of the Niche Region, players will recognize the need for recruitment and immediately see problems with implementing recruitment in the same manner as Brokers. (1) Niche Regions often lack the general appeal that Brokers do, they may be based around a controversial religion or a specific geographic location or simply not be understandable to new players (e.g., The World Assembly), (2) Niche Regions do not have the manpower that Broker Regions can boast, (3) Niche Regions are not centrally focused around recruitment nor is recruitment engrained into their culture and politics, since Niche Regions have substituted these Broker values with their specific social interests. Because of conventional recruitment not being available, Niche Regions will either maintain smaller sized populations or “poach” members from User-Created Regions (both Brokers and Niches) – illegally contacting players to convince them that their Niche Region is a preferable home-region. Obviously these messages will look different than recruitment telegrams sent by Broker recruiters; there is no need for bold text or snazzy lines to grab neither experienced players’ attention, nor ambiguities to address inexperience, furthermore the letter will be more specific and personal. But make no mistake, this practice is illegal, but it is utterly common and the central method for recruitment in regards to Niches.

This is one area where a trade deficit occurs in The Transpacific Trade, conflict thus arises. Although Francoist theory would have you think conflicts largely arise between Game-Created Regions and User-Created Regions, the reality is fundamental conflict is most present between Niche Regions and Broker Regions. The Reason? Broker Regions involuntarily provide Niche Regions with most of their members through poaching or subtle leaching, but it is unclear whether Niche Regions provide anything for Brokers. A stern Brokerite might even try to argue that NationStates is a symbiotic relationship between Game-Created Regions and Brokers, with Niches that interrupt this process with a largely parasitic interaction. Whatever be the case, the legal order largely favors the Brokerite view – poaching is highly illegal and stigmatized. Sedgistan, a game moderator, explains, “nations continue to have the right to control what they receive in their inbox, with the exception of messages about the region they reside in, since it is fair to presume they have an interest in that,”¹ ; this is all highly ironic, considering Sedgistan owes his political background to a niche, The New Power Federation, which illegally recruited him from a Broker Region².

But nonetheless, all irony aside, at the time of writing I cannot anticipate how the proposed telegram system reform will affect the theory I have laid out; perhaps the reform will resolve the trade deficit or shift the order of things and legitimize poaching which would overall increase the trade deficit. I cannot know for sure, but I can recommend some ways in which Niches can positively interact with Brokers, for example, Niches may use their specialized invader forces to take-over a region and then invite a Broker Region to “pile” their unspecialized invader forces into the region to endorse the lead-invader (this already is a common facet of “raider unity), or alternatively, an intellectual Niche Region could contribute to a Broker’s “University”; many Broker Regions, such as Europeia and 10000 Islands, maintain their own Universities to educate players. These are simply two suggestions, but the general gist of the formula is that Niche Regions could use their specialization in a subject to provide something of benefit to Broker Regions.

To distinguish between Broker Regions and Niche Regions in how they are designed, take for example a Case Study between two different regions founded by Cerian Quilor. One region, Wolfram and Hart had a law firm theme that structured the region into a strong separation between "Partners" (experienced players) and "Associates" (newcomers), which facilitated a more meritocratic and developed legal community. Cerian Quilor, in a brief private session with me, expresses his belief that this meritocratic structure was the downfall of the region in its hopes to gain the size of other Brokers, since the region's divided structure failed at "getting [...] people engaged, because the governing by the Partners was kept hidden and unseen by the Associates". Brokers also maintain similar divides between inexperienced and experienced players in regards to power, but they often do it more successfully using elected representatives, whereas a culture of legal expertise caused many newcomers without legal expertise to lack engagement -- a telltale formula for a Niche Region is when it alienates people who lack certain qualifications and interests. I would also argue the specific theme of Wolfram and Hart as a "law firm" narrowed its appeal, as opposed to the more general "political and diplomatic" theme of Europeia, however Cerian Quilor denies this by arguing that the "law firm" was not the theme of the region but the structure of the region which obviously he believes limited the region from attaining success. Cerian Quilor's most recent region, Kantrias is an open and inviting Broker region in its infancy at the time of writing; overall Kantrias has thus far been more successful at gaining new members and Cerian Quilor believes its more open and simpler political process is one the main reasons why it has been more successful than Wolfram and Hart; once again, I would refer to Kantrias's vague and largely undefined imperialist identity as a positive to its general appeal, since the specifics of its identity are not all that clear from its regional advertisements or its World Factbook Entry.

Overall, many players are absolutely satisfied with Niche Regions since they provide them with an intimate environment where they know everyone’s name and there is a clear set of common interests. However, some players grow dissatisfied with the lack of status and intrigue with Niche Regions which may lure them to the Game-Created Regions.

Sedgistan, Jun 08, 2011; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=5893864#p5893864
Sedgistan, Jun 24, 2011; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=6083042#p6083042

The Final Port of Call: The Game-Created Region

In this final movement, I shall propose the idea that Game-Created Regions have a certain mesmeric energy that draws experienced players to them; as explained Game-Created Regions have excellent status due to their size, politically and socially however, Game-Created Regions are much different than Brokers and it is this difference that appeals to the experienced player. The two major differences are, (1) Unlike Brokers, Game-Created Regions do not need to recruit for its survival therefore their culture and structure is not recruitment-focused, (2) as explained earlier, Game-Created Regions avoid The Status Paradox by creating a distantness between the community and the masses, thus with status as an indefinite quality possessed by Game-Created Regions and largely experienced elite players, Game-Created Regions can be hubs of either political intrigue and drama or intimate communities for elite players.

How Game-Created Regions structure their region with an elite community is rather evident upon observing various feeders and sinkers. The North Pacific and Balder often “market” themselves as strong political communities; whereas The South Pacific and Osiris “market” themselves as strong personal communities – obviously these regions will share characteristics of both, but it is true to suggest political drama is antithetical to social congeniality. Likewise, Feeders and Sinkers generally invest power in a direct democracy through a unicameral legislative system; this is true in The East Pacific (The Magisterium), The North Pacific (Regional Assembly), The South Pacific (The Assembly of The South Pacific), Lazarus (The Emerald Council) and The Rejected Realms (The Assembly). These systems would simply not be workable in Brokers that have a large influx of highly inexperienced players. Exceptions to the norm include Balder (Riksdag) and Osiris (The Sepatarchy) which rely solely on elected representatives and The Pacific which appoints its Senate in accordance with the rule of Meritocratic Francoist Autocracy.

From this we have the basis of how NationStates is a functioning symbiosis wherein Game-Created Regions involuntarily trade a large quantity of players to User-Created Regions, for which User-Created Regions involuntarily donate a small quantity of quality players in return to Game-Created Regions. This Transpacific Trade of human resources is necessarily to fuel reach bloc of region; with massive amounts of players, Blockers can grow their regions in status; likewise with a solid-pipe of experienced players from Blockers, both Game-Created Regions and Niche Regions can sustain their own communities. However, there may arise claims of a trade deficit; I have mentioned one deficit before, another deficit could occur if Game-Created Regions simply are not receiving enough quality players from the Trade. There are two possible explanations for the aforementioned deficit, (1) Brokers and Niches are retaining more of their members, (2) A Game-Created Region may not be appealing. The latter option cannot always be discounted: Game-Created Regions compete between each other for appeal; lack of opportunities for civil impact as well as inactivity will commonly diminish a Game-Created Region’s competitiveness. Thus it is important to determine whether all Game-Created Regions are suffering from lack of new arrivals of The Transpacific Trade or whether simply one’s own Game-Created Region is being ignored.

An unscientific and quick survey of Game-Created Regions suggests that The Transpacific Trade will provide around thirty new members per year to an active, open Game-Created Region and about ten new members per year to an inactive, open Game-Created Region. Is thirty enough “new blood” to fuel a functioning elite in a Game-Created Region annually? Debateable. However, an argument could be made to justify limited poaching of desired intellectual members of User-Created Regions to ensure a fair bargain from The Transpacific Trade. Nonetheless, the conclusions of this lecture will still be highly controversial for many, so I wish to use my concluding statements to address the Francoist View.

Concluding Thoughts

Taken from a discussion in The North Pacific¹, I believe these excerpts highlight the Francoist’s major problem with the theory I have presented before you:

Felasia: I simply don't believe that we are losing anything to UCRs. In truth, I believe that UCRs players usually come back to the feeders by themselves when they truthfully understand where the "real" politic of NS is and I think that UCRs are the best place for new players to start slowly into NS politic.

OPArsenal: This notion that Userites are somehow doing the Feederites a service by taking and training our new members would be comical if it weren't so offensive to our ability to develop our membership. To perpetuate that idea is to perpetuate the Userite lie that the monolithic, faceless Pacific region is no place for a new nation to develop their identity or learn the NS ropes. That great falsehood is one of their loudest arguments against the feeders and here you are acting like it is some kind of service that the Userites provide that we should possibly thank them for.

Here The Transpacific Trade is faced with a counter-argument which suggests that a Game-Created Region need not compromise younger members and inexperience for political complexity and intrigue; all that needs to be done, a Francoist would argue, is to use a second barrier of distantness to stratify a secondary class of higher political elites who emerge with experience and demonstrations of loyalty from the primary class of elites. The primary class of elites encompasses everyone else who participates in said Game-Created Region besides the masses who are separated from this primary class of elites by another stretch of distantness. Most other Game-Created Regions only have one general class of elites; a two-tiered and more hierarchical approach with power largely centralized in the secondary class of higher political elites would reflect The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal for a Game-Created Region². Here player-potential may be fostered in the first tier and then allowed to participate more politically within the second tier, having first grown as a politician and player.

The problem that faces The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal is that in practice it doesn’t appear to function consistently. The social mobility of the first class of elites into the second class of elites is highly questionable when meritable outsiders from other regions (especially User-Created Regions) make up the bulk of notable political actors in the second class of elites. Bearing this in mind, Game-Created Regions that follow The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal tend to follow the same trend of accessing talent from The Transpacific Trade as other Game-Created Regions; simply The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal also attempts to engage a first class of elites which are enlightened members of the masses that other Game-Created Regions often disregard. But the failure of The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal to cultivate members of the masses in comparison to the relatively successful experience-building machine of Broker regions is evident when these meritocratic governments continually draw in key experienced players from outside of The Pacific to become its major political players.

As Unistrut explains in The Great Pacifican Lie, “Francos Spain was not an active member of The Pacific community before he took the delegacy […] he was the founder of the region "Spain" and was residing there just three weeks before he rose to the delegacy”³ and had also been a member of USSR⁴. , The Empire created by Francos Spain has a track record of leaders who largely developed as players outside of The Pacific just like him. Unlimited received a lot of experience early on in The Pacific Army, The RRA as well as serving as one of 10000 Islands’ first elected senators, as “EU-topia”⁵ ; although a spy during most of this period of time, he was convinced by his “revolutionary consciousness” sometime after joining The Pacific Army region⁶. Mammothistan, also known as Great Bight was an invader with the Sea of Cecil⁷. Pierconium (aka. Ivan Moldavi), operated as Borogravia Moldavi in the region, “Sparrow”⁸. Moo-cows with Guns was a polished Equilism member before joining the New Pacific Order⁹. Krulltopia (as Cakatoa) matured as a player in The North Pacific but was also involved with Lemuria¹⁰. Also current high profile New Pacific Order members, such as A Mean Old Man or Jeux were drawn in after gaining experience in Niches such as Corporate¹¹, Shnookworld¹² and Brokers such as Europe (where Jeux served as Delegate). Thus, there is a notable trend of The Pacific’s power-base to be largely imported talent to address a deficit of “star-players” contrary to The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal which would prefer to see “original” Pacificans rising through the ranks of power instead. Why are Broker regions able to promote and cultivate newcomers so much more efficiently? Possibly because Brokers are more focused on this aspect, but also, possibly because the stratification of society in The Francoist Meritocratic Ideal discourages members from getting more involved out of fear they will never gain status as an elite; obviously Francoist doctrine emphasizes the needs of the region over the individual¹³, but not all newcomers will be influenced by communitiarianism whereas Brokers may be better at responding to their individual needs and desires. Alternatively, “star-players” and charismatic figures may simply be more likely to be cultivated in individualistic societies, which would in turn require an outsourcing of charisma for a communitarian meritocracy that is traditionally ruled by charismatic leaders.

Whatever be the case, the track-record of Game-Created Regions being their own “schools” for their own major players is not very credible, considering how many players that matured in Brokers and Niches constitute the elite in Game-Created Regions: most of them. Brokers are simply highly efficient at training and providing experience for younger players, whereas Francoist programs to do something similar have been comparably inefficient. The value of Brokers and Niches to mature players still remains strong in The Transpacific Trade as an excellent bargain for Game-Created Regions that allows Game-Created Regions to maintain their particular structural decision – this is not some perverse “service” as OPArsenal suggests, it is a functional and mutually beneficial deal that every Game-Created Region including his homeland, The Pacific, has profited from, or perhaps, dare I ask it: would The Pacific have liked Francos Spain to go back to where he belonged (e.g., Spain, USSR) and have left the “pure” Pacificans to solely constitute their political elite? Unlikely.

But to be fair to Francoism, let me withdrawal from the hostility and conclude more courteously. If Francoists truly believe that Francos Spain was a benevolent figure for The Pacific then remember Francos Spain for who he really was: at first, an outsider, in the end, a hero. The players migrating to Game-Created Regions for power, glory and intrigue are not necessarily bad people; if they do not respect the regional institutions they are joining they will obviously be detrimental to the region. But where contemporary Francoists do a sufficient job is in promoting historical studies for newcomers that is relevant to the community they join. With knowledge comes respect, with respect comes reverence. Despising User-Created Regions for “teaching players the ropes”, as OPArsenal and others have done, suggests that there is not more to learn as a player; but on the contrary, when players migrate to Game-Created Regions they do learn more: but it’s not simply the building blocks of how to play politics, it’s philosophical and political enlightenment which is much more difficult to cultivate in the typical User-Created Region, but also highly difficult to cultivate without the experience that User-Created Regions can efficiently provide players.

People say as a defender, I influence The North Pacific. The North Pacific has overcome at least four instances where its liberty was in great jeopardy; the region is a living triumph story with a widely-respected Bill of Rights that bore out of these crises. As a defender, The North Pacific has influenced me. One should not feel the need to hide the truth or ignore the reality of the Transpacific Trade. Many new arrivals to the shores of The Pacifics after this trade can be matured further into great contributors to their respective Game-Created Regions. The question we should be asking to these arrivals is not, as contemporary Francoists have asked, “Can they be trusted?”, but “What took you so long?” For many of these new arrivals, their journey has only just begun.

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed the lecture.

See: http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/6773082/1/
“[…] a very strong central and close-nit government based on loyalty to the cause and competence in a specific field – be that Intelligence, security, politics or defence – and at this point, the Pacific very much becomes a class based meritocracy,” from Proper Francoist Thought, Unlimited.
See: http://s4.zetaboards.com/UDL/topic/9732219/1/#new
See: http://z4.|invisionfree|.com/thepacific/index.php?showtopic=304&view=findpost&p=8379956
See: http://www.nationstates.net/nation=ananke_ii/detail=factbook/id=main
See: http://forum.taijitu.org/community-office/interview-with-unlimited/
See: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4014457&postcount=113 ;
http://z8.|invisionfree|.com/Dopeistani_Order/index.php?showtopic=101
See: http://z4.|invisionfree|.com/thepacific/index.php?showtopic=2926
See: http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=Equilism
See: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=109790
See: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=14324
See: http://www.nationstates.net/nation=topdop/detail=factbook/id=4062
“Francoism is not about the individual or their petty wants, it is about the class and the Pacific, and what is best for them as a whole,” from Proper Francoist Thought, Unlimited.