PNN: An Interview with Afforess

PNN: An Interview with Afforess
Tuesday August 13, 2013


We sat down with Afforess and asked him about his thoughts on this recruitment fiasco during this afternoon.

PNN: Hello Afforess. It's widely known that you're the former delegate of Capitalist Paradise. To start, what's your role within the region now, and how does the region function?

Afforess: I am the current the Minister of the Interior. My duties include maintenance of the offsite forums, monitoring the RMB for troublemakers, monitoring national happenings of all nations for potential crimes, and managing the recruitment. It is an appointed (not elected) position, appointed by Kaputer. The region has a mixture of elected and appointed positions. The best way to understand is using the infographic on our site: http://capitalistparadise.com/forums/pages/government/ You can click on each position of government to see a short description.

PNN: All right. When and why did you decide that you were going to send out recruitment telegrams to every nation from the thirty largest regions in the game?

Afforess: I decided after I saw that the telegram stamps were available on Friday. There was no prior planning.

PNN: Do you think the mass messages work?

Afforess: It depends on what you mean by work. They have drawn in ~150 nations, and a few are still trickling in. Whether this is a success is unclear.

PNN: That sounds like success to me. You mentioned that you were doing a study throughout all of this. Are there any results that you're comfortable with sharing?

Afforess: It is far to early to call. I plan on waiting 2 weeks after the initial recruitment before writing up a preliminary report. After month of watching after that to determine what percentage of nations simply joined and then ceased to exist is needed. Don't expect final results until October.

PNN: That makes sense, though some are skeptical that this is for a report. What is your response to the outrage that residents of some of the regions you recruited from are feeling?

Afforess: I'd tell them to turn off recruitment telegrams and stop whining.

PNN: Fair enough, but how do you justify your recruitment tactics?

Afforess: Justify? I don't consider them unjust actions. Capitalist Paradise doesn't recognize regional sovereignty of any region unless it has been explicitly established in a treaty. Seeing as how the only treaties we have had were with Dharma, no unjust actions have been taken. To state in simpler terms, The Capitalist Paradise only recognizes itself, and the vast unliberated masses outside of the region. There are no other 'regions'.

PNN: Right. Some parties, specifically the government of Osiris, have expressed interest in possibly recruiting from Capitalist Paradise or taking up other forms of revenge against your region. What are your thoughts on this, and what do your region's members think?

Afforess: We have no opinions on this. They are free to do as they wish. We have no laws preventing such action.

PNN: Will you continue to send out mass messages that are similar in size to this week's in the future?

Afforess: Probably.

PNN: Thank you for your time.

Predecessor Article:


PNN: Capitalist Paradise on a Recruitment Rampage
Saturday August 10, 2013

The World — Stamps were released to the NationStates public three days ago and Afforess, the former delegate of Capitalist Paradise, was one of the first to notice. The renowned coder sent out a mass telegram to every nation in the feeders, the sinkers, 10000 Islands, and seventy other large UCRs today in an effort to boost CP's size. Humorously, he misspelled "Balder" in his "to" form and thus residents of the peaceful sinker were protected from the advert spam.

This is not the first time that the nation in question has used mass telegrams to the chagrin of others, however. Indeed, another incident occurred when Ainur's founder quit: nations in the region were told that it would inevitably die and that they should move to Capitalist Paradise. When this action was noted in a Security Council thread, Afforess sent out yet another mass telegram to the residents of Ainur.


Countless nations and most of the relevant regions have already been angered by this strategy, and have resorted to expressing their disgust of it and/or recruiting from Capitalist Paradise itself. For example, Milograd created a region, Freedom Fries Inc, and sent a mass telegram to every nation in Capitalist Paradise inviting them to forge a new region, though it seems he has put no effort into actually creating any sort of community whatsoever. It is likely that the region exists solely for the aforementioned telegram's sake, and that others may follow suit for their own regions. Cormac Stark, the Pharaoh of Osiris, expressed frustration and a desire for retribution in response to the mass recruitment.

It is also suspected that these messages, along with Afforess' previous incidents of over-zealous recruitment, prompted Feux to withdraw his "Commend Afforess" Security Council proposal from the World Assembly's floor. PNN may continue to update this story as it develops.

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