As part of this year's Delegate's Day celebration, I sent out a 20 question survey to our former delegates, asking them about their experiences and for a sense of what the region and the game was like back when they held office (through whatever means they employed to get there). For those who were kind enough to respond, this is what they had to say.
Due to the very long responses some of our delegates provided, I will be breaking these up into a series of posts and updating the thread periodically.
1)Tell us about your origins in TNP, and your rise to the top office.
Wilkshire: My nation was born in TNP on 22nd June, 2003. In those days it was a free for all as regards collecting endorsements and within around five months I had the third most in the region. It was just a natural progression in those days before we had formal elections that if you established yourself as a trusted nation and built up your endorsements you would get a turn as delegate.
GBM: My first nation was born in TNP, I think when Wilkshire was delegate. My impression of those days is the talk of identity, of who we wanted to be as a region. What philosophies we should espouse, and what should be rejected. How do we make TNP look like our utopia. The visionaries at that time included the gracious and welcoming Magicality, Blackshear with his infallible moral compass, and my dear friend, Thel D’ran.
In July 2004 Great Bight was in power. He was behaving like a juvenile pirate and banning nations at will. I saw it was time for his mum to step in. He needed to be sent to his room, put on computer time-out. That's how the nation Great Bights Mum came about. To his credit, GB was never heartless enough to ban his own mother. So you could say my nation came of age in interesting times.
Afterwards, I mainly served in the NPA and did my best to fight usurpers, despots and other nefarious nations.
SillyString: I joined in 2013, when COE recruited me to be his deputy speaker. I was reasonably familiar with TNP as an outsider, but it quickly became a second NS home for me. I love legislation and legal interpretation so I wrote a bunch of laws and served on the court, and then ran for Vice Delegate because I wanted to implement some procedural reforms in the Security Council. I had not intended to run for the delegacy at all, but decided to do so following a diplomatic incident with our ally Europeia which threatened to escalate and possibly derail the treaty we had with them.
2)When were you delegate? How long did you serve? How did you take office? Tell us about the experience of taking office/the transition.
Wilkshire: I was delegate three times – though if I remember correctly the first two occasions were only for a single day! The main bulk of my delegacy was between February-April 2004. I took over when The Twoslit Experiment wanted to hand over and I was pretty much the most trusted/endorsed nation at that particular time. It was, and I think still is quite an honour to see your name up there as delegate of the largest region in the game.
GBM: The first time I was delegate was in 2006. Since I was NPA right before that, I had 0 endorsements to start with and the transition was lengthy.
I served as delegate off and on for a couple of years. It seemed every time you turned around, some rogue delegate went off his rocker and started banning everyone. I think I became the “safe choice” because everyone knew I would never do such a thing.
SillyString: I was elected delegate in September 2015 and served one term. It was a very fast transition, as I already had a high endorsement count from serving as vice delegate. I had also already held the in-game delegacy twice that year as acting delegate - once in February, when McMasterdonia stepped down, and again in May after Tomb resigned. The second time, the transition was quite slow and I actually held the delegacy nearly as long as the actual elected delegate - 56 days for me, to Elu's 65. All of which is to say, the region was used to seeing me in the delegacy and it was very straightforward to hand it back over.
3)When you were running for delegate/pursuing/assuming the office, what were the big issues of the day?
Wilkshire: It was largely about keeping an eye on the NPO and what they were doing. Everyone was very paranoid about them at the time.
GBM: Security was always a big issue. One time I was elected DIW, which was Delegate-in-Waiting. I think it was Dali who had gone rogue, and needed ousting, so I got to do the honors.
SillyString: The biggest issue was our treaty and overall relationship with Europeia. There was a relatively minor (all things considered) diplomatic incident that escalated rapidly when a public statement was posted on TNP's forum. Due to missteps and insufficient urgency by leaders on both sides, little progress was made toward a resolution and the populace of both regions lost confidence in one another. At one point, it was not clear the treaty would survive. I ran for the delegacy because I believed I was the best person to resolve the situation to everybody's satisfaction.
I also recall the Communications ministry being a point of contention. r3n had introduced or revitalized that ministry the previous year, and COE had put out the first issues of TNL. However, activity faltered under subsequent ministers and I (among others) was not convinced that it was actually realistic for us to have a well-written publication that put out new issues on a regular schedule - not without a full-time paid staff, that is! I was convinced to appoint a minister and give them a last shot at making something happen, with the intention of removing them from office and shuttering the ministry if nothing panned out.
Well, nothing panned out that term, but I never got around to firing the minister either... and in retrospect, I'm glad that I didn't. Even if it had a rough time getting started, I think the comms ministry is doing great work now! So I'm happy to have been wrong about how to handle it.
4)What was your focus/plans/set of goals for the region? For foreign policy?
Wilkshire: At the time we were just trying to set up a very basic form of government – the forum had not long been in existence so I was just trying to build on the work that we had done over the last few months. Foreign policy just tended to be about building links with as many friendly regions as we could – I don’t think we really had any official embassies as such back then.
GBM: Regional peace. World peace. Call me Miss Congeniality.
SillyString: My goals were pretty simple: Salvage the relationship with Euro if possible, and keep things running otherwise as r3nnishly as I could. I didn't go in with a grand plan for every ministry.
5)Who was your cabinet? How did you organize the government? How did that organization/government compare to the one we have now? What were the duties, tasks performed, how did they differ from what they do now?
Wilkshire: In those early days there was no official government or formal cabinet as such – we didn’t even have a constitution back then! It was still in the era not long after after the original TNP forum had been set up so it was before the time when the first elections were held. We just hoped that people were willing to chip in and help out in areas that most interested them. I think it is tremendous how well run and efficiently organised the region is these days.
GBM: At that time, the sentiment in the region was one of extreme paranoia. Rogue after rogue had taken its toll on our vision of utopia. As a result, executive power to run the day to day affairs of the government was given to an elected prime minister. The delegate position was more like the Queen of England. And pity the poor PM, because all the ministry positions were elected as well. Achieving harmony in the executive branch was a challenge.
SillyString: I took applications for minister, but I don't remember who I appointed for every role. I remember Kialga was my communications minister, and r3n was WA (although he really wanted FA). I'm sure some things were different from how they are now due to technological improvements, but the executive branch hasn't changed much in structure since I served - or even since I joined TNP.
6)What was your policy for handling WA votes?
Wilkshire: I always strictly voted along the lines of respecting whatever the majority of the nations of the region wanted.
GBM: I voted according to the will of the people. I counted TGs as well as forum posts. I also encouraged the authors to post on the forum and address any concerns.
SillyString: I voted in line with the forum vote, except when there was an FA or military reason to do otherwise.
7)What was your policy for NPA/military action?
Wilkshire: We were only at the beginning of forming the NPA back then. Though we were heavily allied to the ADN and tried to support them whenever possible.
GBM: TNP was staunchly defender at that point in time.
SillyString: I don't recall. It wasn't a ministry I had much interest in, even though I identify as a defender. I think I told the minister to keep the NPA active and don't cause an interregional incident.
8)What did you consider to be your greatest achievement(s)?
Wilkshire: With hindsight being delegate of the best region in the game can be considered an achievement I suppose!
GBM: By the time Lewis & Clark had gone rogue, I had already been through enough wars and mass-bannings to know how devastating it was to a community, and how difficult it was to rebuild in the aftermath. L&C’s Crimson Order had succeeded in dividing the TNP community, and winning the peace was going to be hampered by a legal process that would include numerous trials for war crimes. One of my first acts after regaining the delegacy was to offer amnesty to those who had supported the Crimson Order. I wanted those who had been led astray to be able to return to the fold.
SillyString: Well, I achieved the thing I ran for delegate to accomplish, which was setting things straight with Europeia. I can't point to much else I did as delegate that was notable - like I said, I mostly tried to keep things running as they had been. I view my legislative and judicial accomplishments as more significant than most of what I did as delegate.
9)What did you consider to be your greatest failure(s)?
Wilkshire: I probably should have done a better job in handing the delegacy over to Blackshear. With hindsight I could have made it easier for him.
GBM: As delegate? Falling asleep at the wheel and letting the VD overtake me in endorsements. Not recommended.
SillyString: "Failure" isn't quite the word I would use for this, because I have a pretty firm grasp of my strengths and weaknesses, but... I'm just not that good at being delegate. And that's okay! Not everyone is suited for the delegacy and not everyone can serve the region best as delegate, and I don't think there's anything wrong with making an NS career doing what you're good at.
10)What was/were the biggest events going on in the game during your time in office?
Wilkshire: It was at the time when Francos Spain and the NPO were at their peak so quite a lot used to revolve around what they had been up to and what our response should be.
GBM: Rogue, coup, repeat.
SillyString: Z-Day happened since it was the Fall term, but I don't really recall other than that.
11)What do you consider to be the best R/D term to describe you?
Wilkshire: I’m heavily pro-defender. I don’t particularly like raiders!
GBM: Defender. When you see the devastation we saw in those early years, and countless nations driven away, you just don’t want that to happen to other communities.
SillyString: I generally identify as old-school defender (aka moralist defender), though I've sometimes used "defender-pendent" somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I have no ethical problem with a regional military that raids regions in pursuit of an actual foreign policy goal, but I cringe at the rationalization that it's "necessary" for a regional military to raid harmless, completely uninvolved regions for "training purposes".
I'm also a staunch supporter of Warzone Rights, and modern defending's dismissal of these regions and communities (or, worse, their willingness to raid them themselves!) frustrates me to no end.
Mostly I stay out of it now, though. I'm a relic of an older era and there's no real place for me in modern R/D.
12)How would you summarize what you perceive to be your legacy as a former Delegate of TNP?
Wilkshire: I think the fact that I am still around more than 15 years after holding the delegacy counts for something. This is a great game and I suppose I am quite rightly seen as one of the old-timers now. It’s nice to have been around in the early days because it makes you appreciate what the region has become.
GBM: I always tried to share my vision of TNP as open and accepting. It’s someplace where newcomers have opportunities, and it’s a place for second chances or making a fresh start.
SillyString: See above.
13)Was there something that happened while you were in office that changed the course of the game and forced you to alter your plans while in office, and if so, what was it and how did it change your approach?
Wilkshire: I can’t recall anything particularly dramatic happening.
GBM: There was something that changed my perspective on the R/D game. Back then, TNP was staunchly defender, myself along with it. As a known raider, Blue Wolf II faced a lot of hostility for – really - just for being there. But he started a dialogue about inclusiveness with respect to R/D.
Then came another coup (I honestly can’t remember which one) and I was either the Delegate-in-Exile or the DIW, but I was drumming up support from our allies in an effort to liberate TNP. BWII had some friends who could help. I recall I was approached by a sweet kitty-cat themed raider region. They wanted to help. Of course, I was happy for their assistance.
That was when I realized that the R/D aspect of the game was not all black and white. It is more complex than defender=good and raider=evil. I think today's NPA has shown it can successfully accommodate the whole spectrum of military activity.
SillyString: Not that I can recall. That happened more before I was delegate - the Euro situation arose and was not handled and was threatening to escalate, which made me decide to step up.
14)Which Ministry did you consider to be your favorite or strongest? Which did you consider to be your least favorite or weakest?
Wilkshire: As I have said earlier, in the old days we didn’t really have any official ministries, although I enjoyed working with Nem who was doing his best to set up what would eventually evolve into the NPA.
GBM: My favorite ministry is Culture. I have always considered it the most important. Its mission centers on unity, identity, and camaraderie. It is the heart of what keeps TNP going.
My least favorite is… nah, I can’t say. All the ministries play a significant role in TNP.
SillyString: Weakest was definitely Comms - I don't think it put out a single issue the entire term.
Couldn't really opine on the strongest. I don't remember most of what any of them did! But if we're picking favorites, I've always had a soft spot for culture...
15)Were there any other players/former delegates you looked up to/considered a role model/example to follow?
Wilkshire: Nastic was the delegate when I first joined the game and he was always tremendously supportive. Also Treenudity and The Twoslit Experiment who held the delegacy during my early time in TNP and who both did so much for the region Great people, I miss them all.
GBM: Flemingovia, because he is god. Blackshear, because I could just follow him around and say, “Yeah, what he said.”
SillyString: r3n, for sure!
16)Which region, ally or otherwise, did you consider yourself most personally connected to?
Wilkshire: I would have to say Canada – I don’t really know why but I somehow put one of my puppet nations in there and ended up getting to know everyone. I also became TNP’s ambassador there for a while after my delegacy had ended.
GBM: 00000 A World Power. Sadly, AWP membership has dwindled, but those guys were great! My nation, GBM stayed there for a while.
SillyString: Well... my first region in NS was Equilism, so I'm always and forever connected there. But I haven't been super active there in quite some time, so it's not like it was a major part of my delegacy.
I think the real answer would be Warzone Europe! It was "mine" - they named me Empress, and I committed to protecting them against being raided. Equilism actually formally adopted WZE as a protectorate, and I definitely deployed the NPA a few times to defend it from harm.
That arrangement has, sadly, fallen by the wayside, but I still see it as my warzone.
17)Which ally did you consider to be the strongest/have the best relationship during your delegacy, and why?
Wilkshire: Probably The West Pacific. I think their ideals were the closest to our own.
GBM: I can’t recall.
SillyString: Euro might be the answer to both of these! I've always considered it to be a strong ally of TNP, but the relationship was extremely tenuous for a while and required patching up.
TSP also might be an answer, as Hileville's coup was during my term. I like Hile a lot, and when he and TSP's admin team came to blows, TNP was fully prepared to support him and TSP's government through a forum move. Unfortunately, he decided to coup the rest of the government instead, and we were compelled to side with TSP's constitutional government against him. That was tough.
18)Which ally did you consider to be the weakest/have the worst relationship during your delegacy, and why?
Wilkshire: I don’t think there were any allies we had a bad relationship with during my time. I hope not anyway!
GBM: Once again, memory fails me.
SillyString: [see above]
19)Please go into as much detail as possible about your personal philosophy as a leader and your approach to leading the region.
Wilkshire: I think the most important thing to remember is that NationStates is supposed to be a game – we all should enjoy playing it. Unfortunately I have seen the effects when it takes over people’s lives and they get really stressed out and upset over it and that shouldn’t happen. I always tried to encourage newcomers and established nations to do what they most enjoyed doing and get the most out of the game.
GBM: Peace was a fragile thing in those days, and I was continually grateful for the trust the region placed in me time and time again. I believe in a servant-leadership role. The delegacy is not a mandate to do what you want; the idea is to take the people where they want to go.
I felt the ban button should be used sparingly, if at all. Endotarters were, and still are, dealt with on a case-by-case basis. There were no Border Control officers then. As delegate, I banned just one nation. Everyone else responded well to having that little chat with mum. It speaks to my larger view that diplomacy and persuasion are preferable to the use of force. It may take more time and effort, but the end result is better. This approach applies to so many other aspects of TNP. Even though folks have their differences and we enjoy having our robust debates, when it’s all said and done we have more in common with one another than we realize.
SillyString: These are actually going to be kind of different things!
I think that in general, a leader's role is to let other people grow and stand out. To seek out, notice, and cultivate talent, to promote it, to give credit freely and provide guidance and structure where necessary. With all the ministries, and the size of the executive staff (and the whole region), a delegate has a ton of opportunity to do this! But I do think that active management is key here - unlike in something like the Speaker's office, where there are legally defined requirements, most of what ministries do has no set deadline. A cultural event could happen next week, next month, or next term. A new treaty could be written today, or tomorrow, or "idk, whenever I'm less busy". So whereas in some roles people can be guided by the requirements of the position, in the executive branch the delegate really needs to take an active management role in making goals and deadlines and holding people accountable. It's not enough to just see that someone would make a great event planner, it's also following up to make sure that they actually plan an event.
It's that part where I fall short. I can spot talent (I think!), but I'm just not great at the management part. I think it's a combination of lack of time/energy, lack of experience, and lack of inclination.
So at this point, my approach to leading the region is "don't".
20)What is your biggest regret from your time as Delegate? Is there anything you would have done differently?
Wilkshire: I probably would have stayed longer. There was no pressure on me to stand down and when I consider the period of turmoil that hit the region a couple of months later I wonder if I could perhaps have helped us to avoid that. I gave up the delegacy because after a couple of months I felt it was time to give someone else a chance - perhaps would have been better if I had held on for a while.
GBM: Regrets? They have long ago been doused with rum and buried in the sands of time.
SillyString: I REGRET NOTHING!
I dunno. I don't spend that much time reliving it in my head. The region is still standing and still strong, so I consider that a win.
Due to the very long responses some of our delegates provided, I will be breaking these up into a series of posts and updating the thread periodically.
1)Tell us about your origins in TNP, and your rise to the top office.
Wilkshire: My nation was born in TNP on 22nd June, 2003. In those days it was a free for all as regards collecting endorsements and within around five months I had the third most in the region. It was just a natural progression in those days before we had formal elections that if you established yourself as a trusted nation and built up your endorsements you would get a turn as delegate.
GBM: My first nation was born in TNP, I think when Wilkshire was delegate. My impression of those days is the talk of identity, of who we wanted to be as a region. What philosophies we should espouse, and what should be rejected. How do we make TNP look like our utopia. The visionaries at that time included the gracious and welcoming Magicality, Blackshear with his infallible moral compass, and my dear friend, Thel D’ran.
In July 2004 Great Bight was in power. He was behaving like a juvenile pirate and banning nations at will. I saw it was time for his mum to step in. He needed to be sent to his room, put on computer time-out. That's how the nation Great Bights Mum came about. To his credit, GB was never heartless enough to ban his own mother. So you could say my nation came of age in interesting times.
Afterwards, I mainly served in the NPA and did my best to fight usurpers, despots and other nefarious nations.
SillyString: I joined in 2013, when COE recruited me to be his deputy speaker. I was reasonably familiar with TNP as an outsider, but it quickly became a second NS home for me. I love legislation and legal interpretation so I wrote a bunch of laws and served on the court, and then ran for Vice Delegate because I wanted to implement some procedural reforms in the Security Council. I had not intended to run for the delegacy at all, but decided to do so following a diplomatic incident with our ally Europeia which threatened to escalate and possibly derail the treaty we had with them.
2)When were you delegate? How long did you serve? How did you take office? Tell us about the experience of taking office/the transition.
Wilkshire: I was delegate three times – though if I remember correctly the first two occasions were only for a single day! The main bulk of my delegacy was between February-April 2004. I took over when The Twoslit Experiment wanted to hand over and I was pretty much the most trusted/endorsed nation at that particular time. It was, and I think still is quite an honour to see your name up there as delegate of the largest region in the game.
GBM: The first time I was delegate was in 2006. Since I was NPA right before that, I had 0 endorsements to start with and the transition was lengthy.
I served as delegate off and on for a couple of years. It seemed every time you turned around, some rogue delegate went off his rocker and started banning everyone. I think I became the “safe choice” because everyone knew I would never do such a thing.
SillyString: I was elected delegate in September 2015 and served one term. It was a very fast transition, as I already had a high endorsement count from serving as vice delegate. I had also already held the in-game delegacy twice that year as acting delegate - once in February, when McMasterdonia stepped down, and again in May after Tomb resigned. The second time, the transition was quite slow and I actually held the delegacy nearly as long as the actual elected delegate - 56 days for me, to Elu's 65. All of which is to say, the region was used to seeing me in the delegacy and it was very straightforward to hand it back over.
3)When you were running for delegate/pursuing/assuming the office, what were the big issues of the day?
Wilkshire: It was largely about keeping an eye on the NPO and what they were doing. Everyone was very paranoid about them at the time.
GBM: Security was always a big issue. One time I was elected DIW, which was Delegate-in-Waiting. I think it was Dali who had gone rogue, and needed ousting, so I got to do the honors.
SillyString: The biggest issue was our treaty and overall relationship with Europeia. There was a relatively minor (all things considered) diplomatic incident that escalated rapidly when a public statement was posted on TNP's forum. Due to missteps and insufficient urgency by leaders on both sides, little progress was made toward a resolution and the populace of both regions lost confidence in one another. At one point, it was not clear the treaty would survive. I ran for the delegacy because I believed I was the best person to resolve the situation to everybody's satisfaction.
I also recall the Communications ministry being a point of contention. r3n had introduced or revitalized that ministry the previous year, and COE had put out the first issues of TNL. However, activity faltered under subsequent ministers and I (among others) was not convinced that it was actually realistic for us to have a well-written publication that put out new issues on a regular schedule - not without a full-time paid staff, that is! I was convinced to appoint a minister and give them a last shot at making something happen, with the intention of removing them from office and shuttering the ministry if nothing panned out.
Well, nothing panned out that term, but I never got around to firing the minister either... and in retrospect, I'm glad that I didn't. Even if it had a rough time getting started, I think the comms ministry is doing great work now! So I'm happy to have been wrong about how to handle it.
4)What was your focus/plans/set of goals for the region? For foreign policy?
Wilkshire: At the time we were just trying to set up a very basic form of government – the forum had not long been in existence so I was just trying to build on the work that we had done over the last few months. Foreign policy just tended to be about building links with as many friendly regions as we could – I don’t think we really had any official embassies as such back then.
GBM: Regional peace. World peace. Call me Miss Congeniality.
SillyString: My goals were pretty simple: Salvage the relationship with Euro if possible, and keep things running otherwise as r3nnishly as I could. I didn't go in with a grand plan for every ministry.
5)Who was your cabinet? How did you organize the government? How did that organization/government compare to the one we have now? What were the duties, tasks performed, how did they differ from what they do now?
Wilkshire: In those early days there was no official government or formal cabinet as such – we didn’t even have a constitution back then! It was still in the era not long after after the original TNP forum had been set up so it was before the time when the first elections were held. We just hoped that people were willing to chip in and help out in areas that most interested them. I think it is tremendous how well run and efficiently organised the region is these days.
GBM: At that time, the sentiment in the region was one of extreme paranoia. Rogue after rogue had taken its toll on our vision of utopia. As a result, executive power to run the day to day affairs of the government was given to an elected prime minister. The delegate position was more like the Queen of England. And pity the poor PM, because all the ministry positions were elected as well. Achieving harmony in the executive branch was a challenge.
SillyString: I took applications for minister, but I don't remember who I appointed for every role. I remember Kialga was my communications minister, and r3n was WA (although he really wanted FA). I'm sure some things were different from how they are now due to technological improvements, but the executive branch hasn't changed much in structure since I served - or even since I joined TNP.
6)What was your policy for handling WA votes?
Wilkshire: I always strictly voted along the lines of respecting whatever the majority of the nations of the region wanted.
GBM: I voted according to the will of the people. I counted TGs as well as forum posts. I also encouraged the authors to post on the forum and address any concerns.
SillyString: I voted in line with the forum vote, except when there was an FA or military reason to do otherwise.
7)What was your policy for NPA/military action?
Wilkshire: We were only at the beginning of forming the NPA back then. Though we were heavily allied to the ADN and tried to support them whenever possible.
GBM: TNP was staunchly defender at that point in time.
SillyString: I don't recall. It wasn't a ministry I had much interest in, even though I identify as a defender. I think I told the minister to keep the NPA active and don't cause an interregional incident.
8)What did you consider to be your greatest achievement(s)?
Wilkshire: With hindsight being delegate of the best region in the game can be considered an achievement I suppose!
GBM: By the time Lewis & Clark had gone rogue, I had already been through enough wars and mass-bannings to know how devastating it was to a community, and how difficult it was to rebuild in the aftermath. L&C’s Crimson Order had succeeded in dividing the TNP community, and winning the peace was going to be hampered by a legal process that would include numerous trials for war crimes. One of my first acts after regaining the delegacy was to offer amnesty to those who had supported the Crimson Order. I wanted those who had been led astray to be able to return to the fold.
SillyString: Well, I achieved the thing I ran for delegate to accomplish, which was setting things straight with Europeia. I can't point to much else I did as delegate that was notable - like I said, I mostly tried to keep things running as they had been. I view my legislative and judicial accomplishments as more significant than most of what I did as delegate.
9)What did you consider to be your greatest failure(s)?
Wilkshire: I probably should have done a better job in handing the delegacy over to Blackshear. With hindsight I could have made it easier for him.
GBM: As delegate? Falling asleep at the wheel and letting the VD overtake me in endorsements. Not recommended.
SillyString: "Failure" isn't quite the word I would use for this, because I have a pretty firm grasp of my strengths and weaknesses, but... I'm just not that good at being delegate. And that's okay! Not everyone is suited for the delegacy and not everyone can serve the region best as delegate, and I don't think there's anything wrong with making an NS career doing what you're good at.
10)What was/were the biggest events going on in the game during your time in office?
Wilkshire: It was at the time when Francos Spain and the NPO were at their peak so quite a lot used to revolve around what they had been up to and what our response should be.
GBM: Rogue, coup, repeat.
SillyString: Z-Day happened since it was the Fall term, but I don't really recall other than that.
11)What do you consider to be the best R/D term to describe you?
Wilkshire: I’m heavily pro-defender. I don’t particularly like raiders!
GBM: Defender. When you see the devastation we saw in those early years, and countless nations driven away, you just don’t want that to happen to other communities.
SillyString: I generally identify as old-school defender (aka moralist defender), though I've sometimes used "defender-pendent" somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I have no ethical problem with a regional military that raids regions in pursuit of an actual foreign policy goal, but I cringe at the rationalization that it's "necessary" for a regional military to raid harmless, completely uninvolved regions for "training purposes".
I'm also a staunch supporter of Warzone Rights, and modern defending's dismissal of these regions and communities (or, worse, their willingness to raid them themselves!) frustrates me to no end.
Mostly I stay out of it now, though. I'm a relic of an older era and there's no real place for me in modern R/D.
12)How would you summarize what you perceive to be your legacy as a former Delegate of TNP?
Wilkshire: I think the fact that I am still around more than 15 years after holding the delegacy counts for something. This is a great game and I suppose I am quite rightly seen as one of the old-timers now. It’s nice to have been around in the early days because it makes you appreciate what the region has become.
GBM: I always tried to share my vision of TNP as open and accepting. It’s someplace where newcomers have opportunities, and it’s a place for second chances or making a fresh start.
SillyString: See above.
13)Was there something that happened while you were in office that changed the course of the game and forced you to alter your plans while in office, and if so, what was it and how did it change your approach?
Wilkshire: I can’t recall anything particularly dramatic happening.
GBM: There was something that changed my perspective on the R/D game. Back then, TNP was staunchly defender, myself along with it. As a known raider, Blue Wolf II faced a lot of hostility for – really - just for being there. But he started a dialogue about inclusiveness with respect to R/D.
Then came another coup (I honestly can’t remember which one) and I was either the Delegate-in-Exile or the DIW, but I was drumming up support from our allies in an effort to liberate TNP. BWII had some friends who could help. I recall I was approached by a sweet kitty-cat themed raider region. They wanted to help. Of course, I was happy for their assistance.
That was when I realized that the R/D aspect of the game was not all black and white. It is more complex than defender=good and raider=evil. I think today's NPA has shown it can successfully accommodate the whole spectrum of military activity.
SillyString: Not that I can recall. That happened more before I was delegate - the Euro situation arose and was not handled and was threatening to escalate, which made me decide to step up.
14)Which Ministry did you consider to be your favorite or strongest? Which did you consider to be your least favorite or weakest?
Wilkshire: As I have said earlier, in the old days we didn’t really have any official ministries, although I enjoyed working with Nem who was doing his best to set up what would eventually evolve into the NPA.
GBM: My favorite ministry is Culture. I have always considered it the most important. Its mission centers on unity, identity, and camaraderie. It is the heart of what keeps TNP going.
My least favorite is… nah, I can’t say. All the ministries play a significant role in TNP.
SillyString: Weakest was definitely Comms - I don't think it put out a single issue the entire term.
Couldn't really opine on the strongest. I don't remember most of what any of them did! But if we're picking favorites, I've always had a soft spot for culture...
15)Were there any other players/former delegates you looked up to/considered a role model/example to follow?
Wilkshire: Nastic was the delegate when I first joined the game and he was always tremendously supportive. Also Treenudity and The Twoslit Experiment who held the delegacy during my early time in TNP and who both did so much for the region Great people, I miss them all.
GBM: Flemingovia, because he is god. Blackshear, because I could just follow him around and say, “Yeah, what he said.”
SillyString: r3n, for sure!
16)Which region, ally or otherwise, did you consider yourself most personally connected to?
Wilkshire: I would have to say Canada – I don’t really know why but I somehow put one of my puppet nations in there and ended up getting to know everyone. I also became TNP’s ambassador there for a while after my delegacy had ended.
GBM: 00000 A World Power. Sadly, AWP membership has dwindled, but those guys were great! My nation, GBM stayed there for a while.
SillyString: Well... my first region in NS was Equilism, so I'm always and forever connected there. But I haven't been super active there in quite some time, so it's not like it was a major part of my delegacy.
I think the real answer would be Warzone Europe! It was "mine" - they named me Empress, and I committed to protecting them against being raided. Equilism actually formally adopted WZE as a protectorate, and I definitely deployed the NPA a few times to defend it from harm.
That arrangement has, sadly, fallen by the wayside, but I still see it as my warzone.17)Which ally did you consider to be the strongest/have the best relationship during your delegacy, and why?
Wilkshire: Probably The West Pacific. I think their ideals were the closest to our own.
GBM: I can’t recall.
SillyString: Euro might be the answer to both of these! I've always considered it to be a strong ally of TNP, but the relationship was extremely tenuous for a while and required patching up.
TSP also might be an answer, as Hileville's coup was during my term. I like Hile a lot, and when he and TSP's admin team came to blows, TNP was fully prepared to support him and TSP's government through a forum move. Unfortunately, he decided to coup the rest of the government instead, and we were compelled to side with TSP's constitutional government against him. That was tough.
18)Which ally did you consider to be the weakest/have the worst relationship during your delegacy, and why?
Wilkshire: I don’t think there were any allies we had a bad relationship with during my time. I hope not anyway!
GBM: Once again, memory fails me.
SillyString: [see above]
19)Please go into as much detail as possible about your personal philosophy as a leader and your approach to leading the region.
Wilkshire: I think the most important thing to remember is that NationStates is supposed to be a game – we all should enjoy playing it. Unfortunately I have seen the effects when it takes over people’s lives and they get really stressed out and upset over it and that shouldn’t happen. I always tried to encourage newcomers and established nations to do what they most enjoyed doing and get the most out of the game.
GBM: Peace was a fragile thing in those days, and I was continually grateful for the trust the region placed in me time and time again. I believe in a servant-leadership role. The delegacy is not a mandate to do what you want; the idea is to take the people where they want to go.
I felt the ban button should be used sparingly, if at all. Endotarters were, and still are, dealt with on a case-by-case basis. There were no Border Control officers then. As delegate, I banned just one nation. Everyone else responded well to having that little chat with mum. It speaks to my larger view that diplomacy and persuasion are preferable to the use of force. It may take more time and effort, but the end result is better. This approach applies to so many other aspects of TNP. Even though folks have their differences and we enjoy having our robust debates, when it’s all said and done we have more in common with one another than we realize.
SillyString: These are actually going to be kind of different things!
I think that in general, a leader's role is to let other people grow and stand out. To seek out, notice, and cultivate talent, to promote it, to give credit freely and provide guidance and structure where necessary. With all the ministries, and the size of the executive staff (and the whole region), a delegate has a ton of opportunity to do this! But I do think that active management is key here - unlike in something like the Speaker's office, where there are legally defined requirements, most of what ministries do has no set deadline. A cultural event could happen next week, next month, or next term. A new treaty could be written today, or tomorrow, or "idk, whenever I'm less busy". So whereas in some roles people can be guided by the requirements of the position, in the executive branch the delegate really needs to take an active management role in making goals and deadlines and holding people accountable. It's not enough to just see that someone would make a great event planner, it's also following up to make sure that they actually plan an event.
It's that part where I fall short. I can spot talent (I think!), but I'm just not great at the management part. I think it's a combination of lack of time/energy, lack of experience, and lack of inclination.
So at this point, my approach to leading the region is "don't".
20)What is your biggest regret from your time as Delegate? Is there anything you would have done differently?
Wilkshire: I probably would have stayed longer. There was no pressure on me to stand down and when I consider the period of turmoil that hit the region a couple of months later I wonder if I could perhaps have helped us to avoid that. I gave up the delegacy because after a couple of months I felt it was time to give someone else a chance - perhaps would have been better if I had held on for a while.
GBM: Regrets? They have long ago been doused with rum and buried in the sands of time.
SillyString: I REGRET NOTHING!
I dunno. I don't spend that much time reliving it in my head. The region is still standing and still strong, so I consider that a win.