Newcomer’s Perspective, By Brunhilde
Midway through December, Europeia set out to hear the voices of those newly arrived to the region, to understand their experience. What we got from (now Senator) Brunhilde was beyond anything we could have expected, so we felt the best way to show our appreciation is to distribute this amazing piece to all our friends in the NationStates world. Enjoy.
Brunhilde:
I won't lie.
I didn't join this game because I wanted to. This whole idea of building a world based around text and roleplay seemed foreign to me. I chided my husband when he asked me to join for being a nerd or a dork. I teased him about being a weirdo and giggled when it made him blush. Sure, I wasn't a massive nerd myself. After all, I've spent the better part of the life that I can remember building computers and playing video games. I scream at the top of my lungs in anger at League of Legends(even, embarrassingly, while my husband was in NS related meetings). Bit hypocritical of me, I know. Though, at the time I didn't care. I was happy where I was and had no intention to change.
Then I started to get pestered. It was insanity. My husband pestered me. My husband relayed other people's pestering from NS like the one I now call my wife, Zenny. I tried to deflect it all with a giggle and a smile. Sure, it was hard seeing that pitiful begging and the adorable faces, but I wanted to be steadfast.. Or maybe just stubborn.
After a while, I finally gave in. It was a... interesting choice. My husband has prepared notes and summaries on people that he has met throughout his years on NationStates. It is... Long... to say the very least. He gave these notes to me with the hope that I would be better prepared than he was when he started. I thought it was a lot, but I read them with the belief that it is better to know what you are walking in to. It took me a while, I won't pretend. It had a lot of information.
My start has been pretty smooth, thankfully. I met someone I enjoy in Zenny, which has led to many more smiles and far more giggling than I initially thought would come in a game that I initially viewed as cut and dry. I discovered that my perception of a community more interested in politics wasn't entirely true. I met people that I came to call friend and found a few regions that I felt at home at. It was... odd, really. I expected people to want to hold everything at an arm's length but the regions I've came to call home have proven such thoughts wrong.
One such region is Europeia.
I joined Europeia exactly one week ago on December 12th, 2014 without knowing the slightest bit about what I'd be getting in to. Sure, I had read the notes claiming that Europeia was a community full of depth in everything from the Judiciary to the Newspaper Industry to the culture to the elected positions but I never believed it would be as it is. I thought it might be decent, sure, but what I saw when I arrived was a community with years upon years of development with players that are so obviously intelligent that you cannot help but be a bit nervous and awed. It was a bit overwhelming. I felt like an ant, looking all of these threads on a wonderfully designed forum. I felt like I could not possibly get comfortable in a place that was so well developed. It was intimidating. Then I met some of the people and explored some of the different areas of the forum.
I realized that my initial assumption was right. Everyone carried themselves with confidence and intelligence. At the same time, things weren't so overbearing that it felt like I was getting the cold shoulder. Quite the opposite, really. I watched as these people bantered and teased each other like old friends. They shared memories and inside jokes that comes only through shared experience. I found myself feeling like I wasn't out of place. Sure, I am still as much of a newbie as ever, but in Europeia being a newbie isn't so bad. I get to learn from people that I can respect and laugh with without feeling like I am being patronized. I feel like Europeia is a place where people stand shoulder to shoulder with the good of the region in mind. Those who show their devotion and desire are respected, as they should be, and it leaves me wanting to do nothing more than to fight for the region that has so warmly accepted me into its ranks.
So, if you ask me what it is like to be new in Europeia I have a pretty simple and straight forward answer:
F***ing awesome.
Senate Growth Brings Activity
This Senate race saw twelve hopefuls chase after the prestigious office, with only eight walking away victorious. To win this election, these candidates would need guts, grits, and some other third thing. To make things even tougher on our candidates, we interviewed many of them in audio format, which you can listen to
here. In the end, here were the results, with the winners in bold:
- Raging Zen Master - 13 (Interview)
- Kraketopia - 16
- Writinglegend - 17
- prometheus32 - 8 (Interview)
- Notolecta - 18 (Interview)
- Cool Spring - 8
- Brunhilde - 18
- Haley Davenport-Anumia - 7
- Anumia - 12 (Interview)
- HEM - 14
- Vinage Vinage - 11 (Interview)
- Malashaan - 19 (Interview)
Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that Vice-President Malashaan was in this election and won, so shortly after the election, r3naissanc3r was confirmed as the new Vice-President. r3n has a long and distinguished history across the NS world, and we know he will perform this job well. Also shortly after the election, Malashaan was elected Speaker. Malashaan had, until very recently, held the record for most days served in that office, and he is now back on track to reclaiming his title.
Can You Hear Me Now?
As you can probably tell by our last section, we here at Europeia are getting very excited over this new technology we found, called mixlr. It allows us to broadcast ourselves like an internet radio station, and we are loving it. We’ve found uses for it to discuss
domestic affairs,
foreign affairs, and even
game shows.
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, don’t just take our word for it, here’s what The South Pacific’s Foreign Minister Raven had to say: “I found it rather fun to be honest, it was something rather new for me. I've had skype calls in the past per say but never an experience where I am also being broadcast live to a group of others, some of whom I may not know, let alone recorded. I'd be up to repeat the experience in future if I get a chance to do it, as I think it has the potential to be a good way to open up communication between regions.” Not enough? Here’s TSP Delegate Tsunamy’s opinion: “The content and questions were great and live listening/messaging was really engaging.”
Would you like your region to be featured on a future edition? If so, contact our President,
Mousebumples and we can set that up, and have barrels of fun while doing it.
This has been a production of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Europeia. Thank you for reading!
