First, thanks for your interest. This is sufficiently outside my usual spectrum of interest and involvement that I’m more than a little hesitant to just throw it out to the populace at large before I’ve had a couple of capable folks look it over. However, the positive responses to the recent “imperialism” idea leads me to believe that there are plenty of us who are willing to at least consider new ways to play, as it were.
I have been thinking a lot lately about the facets of international/regional management that are missing from NS. First that came to mind was regional culture, which I touched on in the MoAE election threads. And then it hit me – an economy. But how? What do we have as a medium of exchange - something that can be traded, consumed, exchanged, and, most importantly, flow-controlled?
Post counts.
We’ve already broached this ground by using post count increases as prizes in the Games forum, but, at this point, those increases have simply arrived ex nihilo – imagine that these prizes are being paid out of the pockets of the game organizer, who has collected them from sponsors (regional advertisers?) in exchange for mid-game ads? Or a pay-to-play lottery with steadily growing prizes, based on ticket sales. A post-count-based casino.
But the major benefit, I believe (outside simply enhancing the governmental flavor of the forum) is that the easiest way to “make money”, as it were, is to be active and post on the forum. Perhaps a small stipend for governmental officials, to actually put some source of personal gain into the generally thankless jobs. Those of us with creative abilities (coding, graphics, poets) can produce works on commission for those willing to pay, thereby driving the cultural aspect I referenced above.
The downside, though, is that we will have to whip up a shiny new agency to essentially act as a clearinghouse for these transactions – the Bank of the North Pacific as it were. Additionally, there is the added workload on the admins to adjust the post counts, although, if the BNP is well-regulated and efficient, once a week or so should suffice. Not to mention non-portability – it doesn’t really translate well to anywhere outside this forum, unless they have trustworthy admin staff that are willing to play ball. Or does it just affect exchange rates? Anyway.
So, here is your mission – what obvious pitfall have I overlooked? What great opportunity has escaped my vision? What minor detail is just waiting to trip the whole plan up? Tear it apart, put it back together. I think this is something that can work, but it’s going need a lot of work before it does. If you don’t think it is of interest after all, no offense will be taken if you wish to wander off to other pastures.
