- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
- TNP Nation
- Prydania
- Discord
- lordgigaice
Greetings TNP. I know many of you are surprised to see me here, running for the Delegacy. I know I am! I’ve said a lot about my desire to stick to RP, and not get involved in government. I meant that when I said it, and I tell you all that to make it clear. I have rethought that position and am running for the Delegacy because I honestly believe I am capable, and I honestly believe I have a platform that will do this region some good.
First, I’d like to address the obvious weakness of my campaign. I’ve never served in an elected position. My tenure in TNP’s government has been a short stint on the staff of the Ministry of WA Affairs, a term as Deputy Speaker to Wonderess, and almost a year as Minister of Culture under Ghost, Fiji, and McM’s Delegacies. I have spent a good deal of time in support roles, but I have never run for office in TNP. This is very much uncharted waters for me should I be elected. That being said I believe that I have the experience in government necessary to make an honest go of it, and I intend to do just that.
I would like to lay out my vision for TNP before I get into specifics. I believe in community. I’ve served as a RP mod since 2018, and have served as Lead RP Mod since late 2019. While moderation and government are two separate spheres,? I wish to apply lessons learned from one to the other. RP moderation is, after all, an exercise in community management. We are all going through rough times at the moment, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues on across the world. For many of us, o? Our options for socialization are limited. It’s in times like these that online communities such as ours are very important. TNP is home to a lot of people, be they game players or role players.
As Lead RP Mod, I have worked to create a stronger sense of community in the RP community to help our community members in these difficult times. We’ve relaxed restrictions on streaming video games, and have held streaming events of various shows and movies to give people in our community an outlet to ease the stress of social isolation in the real world.
I wish to do something like that as Delegate. To use the vast resources our region has to foster a sense of TNP community to make this hard time for us all just a bit more manageable.
We have a TNP Games Discord server. We’ve hosted events there before and there is no reason we cannot do that again. We are capable of streaming video games, movies, and tv shows on any of our assorted Discord servers, and I plan on pushing the government under my Delegacy to hold social events in these spaces on as regular a basis as possible to foster a stronger sense of community for each and every one of us.
We live in a world where online communities have increased socialization tools at their disposal. Programs like Discord provide us tools that we never had via instant messaging software and IRC chatrooms when I was starting out in NS many years ago. I want to use these tools to strengthen just what TNP means as a place, as a group.
Let's talk about the Delegacy beyond just community though. What can I promise you, the citizenry of TNP? I can promise you a measured approach.
My time as a RP mod has given me ample experience at diffusing conflict in an online space. I believe there is merit in compromise. I believe there is merit in reaching out and finding out how we can build bridges, even when the gap between two conflicting parties may seem too wide.
I can also promise you transparency. I can promise you integrity.
Some of you may have noticed my vocal dislike of petty politics in the past. I stand by that, I truly do. I see no point to backroom dealing. I see no good coming from obscuring the truth from people who wish to know what their government is doing for them. I don't desire to lie or to cheat or to otherwise act in a two-faced manner. Those who know me? You know me. For those who have yet to meet me? I am excited for the opportunity. And either way? I won't blow smoke, I won't play fast and loose with the truth. What you see and hear from me is what you will get. If I mess up? I'll own it. If I succeed? Well those who know me know I am embarrassingly uncomfortable with praise. A success to me means a few moments of relief before going onto the next checkbox on the list.
I am running for public office, yes, but I am very much not interested in playing politics. I'll always be upfront and honest about what I believe, and what my intentions are on any given matter. I hope that, for many people, this thread can serve as a means to hear what I have to say, and what I plan to do if elected.
My plans for the Delegacy go beyond that, however. Here’s a look into what you can expect from me in a term as Delegate.
We experienced an attempted attack on our sovereignty last term at the hands of the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators. The CCD’s attempt didn’t get far, and McMasterdonia’s response was just about perfect. Should The North Pacific face any similar attempt or assault on our sovereignty, I would follow a similar response - reporting on the activities to the Regional Assembly and enacting a response that utilizes all aspects of our defence network including the Army, our diplomatic partners, and our WA vote.
With that being said, the CCD and other assorted fascist-leaning regions continue to make noise on the GP world stage. TNP has always stood against fascism and I would ensure that the NPA hounds these malcontents wherever they try to pop up.
There was a contingent of people, who, upon hearing that the CCD attempted to coup TNP, remarked “it’s a Pacific, who cares?” These sorts of people tend to assume we’re a monolithic block. That we are not a community. As such they have little regard for our sovereignty. I fully intended to unapologetically defend our sovereignty, and bash those who would so easily disregard it at every turn.
In addition, I will continue to support efforts by the NPA Leadership to ensure that our military is well trained and well resourced in undertaking its operations. The NPA will work in tandem with the Gameside Advocates and the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to proactively recruit new members of the NPA.
With that being said, the CCD and other assorted fascist-leaning regions continue to make noise on the GP world stage. TNP has always stood against fascism and I would ensure that the NPA hounds these malcontents wherever they try to pop up.
There was a contingent of people, who, upon hearing that the CCD attempted to coup TNP, remarked “it’s a Pacific, who cares?” These sorts of people tend to assume we’re a monolithic block. That we are not a community. As such they have little regard for our sovereignty. I fully intended to unapologetically defend our sovereignty, and bash those who would so easily disregard it at every turn.
In addition, I will continue to support efforts by the NPA Leadership to ensure that our military is well trained and well resourced in undertaking its operations. The NPA will work in tandem with the Gameside Advocates and the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to proactively recruit new members of the NPA.
I find Radio to be an amazing ministry. There has been some talk of merging it back into communications. While I am not opposed to that,? I would ideally like to keep it separate. I am a podcaster myself in my free time, and I find the work Radio does to be quite good. Its potential is still untapped, however. I would have three main goals with Radio.
- More RP-centric content. Radio has done spotlights on Eras, Strangereal, and Inaius roleplay and I would like to see more of that. I want to see RPers highlighted, giving non-RPing members of our community a chance to get to know those who primarily exist in the RP sphere of things.
- More GP -player highlights. TNP is one community regardless of if you are a RPer or GPer. I believe it’s important to use Radio as a means to introduce GPers to our more prolific RP members, and I believe the reverse is true as well. So many GPers go unknown in RP circles, and I think the Ministry running spotlights on prolific GPers would do a lot to inform others as to their contributions to our community.
- More content that isn’t NS or TNP related. Strange, I know, but I feel as if the Radio Ministry offers us a unique opportunity to hold shows focused on anything from literature to movies to video games. We all have hobbies and lives outside of TNP and NS, and I feel like it would be cool if we provided some entertainment content that wasn’t focused exclusively on this game.
TNP is able to do a lot through WALL and I believe we should be an enthusiastic partner within that organization. I also believe that we have the opportunity to leverage our endorsement count in the WA to uphold our values as a region in that body.
My plans for the WA Ministry are relatively simple, but straightforward. We will reconnect with our WALL partners. We as a region tend to fall into the comfortable trap of looking inwards even when we have the best of intentions. A government under my watch will work to ensure we are always engaging with our partners in WALL. We will aggressively pursue WA policy that we believe in, that reflects the values of our region. I would also ask the Minister of WA Affairs to continue our outreach efforts on the NationStates forum, bringing proposal authors to TNP to respond to comments from our residents, and also posting our IFV in each relevant proposal thread on those forums.
I am supportive of efforts to grow the number of gifted proposal authors in The North Pacific. The Heroes of the North program was slow to start but presents a real opportunity to grow our authors and recognise the hard work of our citizens. I hope to see this further develop into the new term.
The Ministry will also work closely with the Ministry of Defence and will therefore target resolutions and approval Delegates that are approving resolutions that are not in our interest to go to a vote. This is a relatively new area of NS military gameplay, in which our region has become a prominent leader.
Finally, there is an opportunity here for The North Pacific to once again serve as an interregional leader by hosting another World Assembly Symposium. The last event was a huge success and I believe it would be in our interest for it to be an annual event.
My plans for the WA Ministry are relatively simple, but straightforward. We will reconnect with our WALL partners. We as a region tend to fall into the comfortable trap of looking inwards even when we have the best of intentions. A government under my watch will work to ensure we are always engaging with our partners in WALL. We will aggressively pursue WA policy that we believe in, that reflects the values of our region. I would also ask the Minister of WA Affairs to continue our outreach efforts on the NationStates forum, bringing proposal authors to TNP to respond to comments from our residents, and also posting our IFV in each relevant proposal thread on those forums.
I am supportive of efforts to grow the number of gifted proposal authors in The North Pacific. The Heroes of the North program was slow to start but presents a real opportunity to grow our authors and recognise the hard work of our citizens. I hope to see this further develop into the new term.
The Ministry will also work closely with the Ministry of Defence and will therefore target resolutions and approval Delegates that are approving resolutions that are not in our interest to go to a vote. This is a relatively new area of NS military gameplay, in which our region has become a prominent leader.
Finally, there is an opportunity here for The North Pacific to once again serve as an interregional leader by hosting another World Assembly Symposium. The last event was a huge success and I believe it would be in our interest for it to be an annual event.
Home Affairs represents an overlooked yet vital component of TNP’s government. It allows the government to hear from TNPers and allows TNPers to know the government is active and always reaching out. Our Gameside Advocates continue the work to ensure that there’s an active presence on the RMB maintaining the peace.
Under my Delegacy Home Affairs will be run well, run like clockwork, and will be vital in ensuring RMB and forum users become acquainted with each other. Just as GP and RP represent two sides to the same community? So too is the RMB and forum. Home Affairs is essential to bridging these divides.
Home Affairs takes on a lot of key projects including internal recruitment, forum mentorship, surveys/censuses, and the updating of The North Pacific handbook. It is a Ministry that often works very hard but silently. As Delegate, I will work closely with the Minister to ensure that they are properly supported with interested and engaged staff to make sure we continue to hit all of these key areas.
Under my Delegacy Home Affairs will be run well, run like clockwork, and will be vital in ensuring RMB and forum users become acquainted with each other. Just as GP and RP represent two sides to the same community? So too is the RMB and forum. Home Affairs is essential to bridging these divides.
Home Affairs takes on a lot of key projects including internal recruitment, forum mentorship, surveys/censuses, and the updating of The North Pacific handbook. It is a Ministry that often works very hard but silently. As Delegate, I will work closely with the Minister to ensure that they are properly supported with interested and engaged staff to make sure we continue to hit all of these key areas.
I discussed what my plans were for the NPA regarding our aggressive reaffirmation of sovereignty. That’s the message to those that would challenge us. To me Foreign Affairs represents the other side of the coin. TNP has allies we can rely on. Allies we have deep ties with. I want to strengthen those ties.
Some members of TNP have a tendency to look purely inward. We are a victim of our own success in that way. We have a stable government and a system of secure checks and balances that ensures an orderly democratic transition of authority from elected official to elected official. This stability, and our size, means it’s very easy to pay the rest of NS no mind. I understand that, and it’s an easy and comfortable trap to fall into.
The North Pacific is a world leader in all aspects of the game. We have been reasserting ourselves as that figure in recent times, uniting regions against fascism, forcefully advocating against poor proposals in the World Assembly, and taking on a leadership role in fighting the coup against The East Pacific and in hosting interregional events. It is in our interest for this to continue. Some in our community call upon us to reject this role, to reject NSGP, or to reject the wider world. I firmly believe that it is our duty as a world leader in everything we do, for us to reach across the world and make new connections, strengthen old ones, and to be a pragmatic and assertive voice when needed.
My vision is to reconnect with our long-time allies from across the spectrum of NS. We need to be a visible and active presence on the NS world stage. Our allies need to know they can count on us and that we will march hand in hand with them in the name of our shared ideals. Likewise, we also need to be sure that we can rely upon our allies - that even with changes to NationStates, that these alliances are still serving our mutual values and interests.
Some members of TNP have a tendency to look purely inward. We are a victim of our own success in that way. We have a stable government and a system of secure checks and balances that ensures an orderly democratic transition of authority from elected official to elected official. This stability, and our size, means it’s very easy to pay the rest of NS no mind. I understand that, and it’s an easy and comfortable trap to fall into.
The North Pacific is a world leader in all aspects of the game. We have been reasserting ourselves as that figure in recent times, uniting regions against fascism, forcefully advocating against poor proposals in the World Assembly, and taking on a leadership role in fighting the coup against The East Pacific and in hosting interregional events. It is in our interest for this to continue. Some in our community call upon us to reject this role, to reject NSGP, or to reject the wider world. I firmly believe that it is our duty as a world leader in everything we do, for us to reach across the world and make new connections, strengthen old ones, and to be a pragmatic and assertive voice when needed.
My vision is to reconnect with our long-time allies from across the spectrum of NS. We need to be a visible and active presence on the NS world stage. Our allies need to know they can count on us and that we will march hand in hand with them in the name of our shared ideals. Likewise, we also need to be sure that we can rely upon our allies - that even with changes to NationStates, that these alliances are still serving our mutual values and interests.
As I have stated previously, I have been Minister of Culture for close to a year. As such my vision for Culture hasn’t changed much. A number of fresh initiatives meant that the Roleplay Reel was not able to be put out for a fourth time, the first miss of all my terms as Minister. I would instruct the Ministry of Culture to redouble its efforts in making the Roleplay Reel a regular publication once more.
Additionally we are involved in other cultural events, such as the Pacific Con that I believe the Ministry should continue to support once I have left that office. These events take a substantial amount of work to deliver. I am always thankful for the dedication of the Culture staff and for the involvement of other members of the executive. As Delegate, I would make sure that I am supporting the organisation of these regional events in order to make sure they are a success.
Culture under my watch would also be proactive in organizing events for our various RP communities, building off of our successful World Cup events in both Eras and Strangereal last summer.
Finally, Culture will also work with the Ministry of Home Affairs to update our regional handbook to better reflect the roleplay communities that we have. This will not only be a creative endeavour for our roleplayers, but will also make advertising our roleplay community easier in future.
Additionally we are involved in other cultural events, such as the Pacific Con that I believe the Ministry should continue to support once I have left that office. These events take a substantial amount of work to deliver. I am always thankful for the dedication of the Culture staff and for the involvement of other members of the executive. As Delegate, I would make sure that I am supporting the organisation of these regional events in order to make sure they are a success.
Culture under my watch would also be proactive in organizing events for our various RP communities, building off of our successful World Cup events in both Eras and Strangereal last summer.
Finally, Culture will also work with the Ministry of Home Affairs to update our regional handbook to better reflect the roleplay communities that we have. This will not only be a creative endeavour for our roleplayers, but will also make advertising our roleplay community easier in future.
The Cards Guild under @r3naissanc3r and @Praetor has been working wonderfully since it was established. I have no plans to radically alter how it functions, but there are a few things I want to touch on. I plan on encouraging the GAs to assist with promoting the Cards Guild to new TNPers and will make sure the Cards Guild is mentioned in the welcoming and API telegrams. Both of these initiatives should continue to aid the Cards Guild's growth.
Communications will play a supporting role to Culture in publishing the Roleplay Reel. Beyond that though? Communications’ focus will be regular TNS and TNL publication in line with the grand tradition of the Ministry. Communications’ mandate is in the name; people need to hear from the government. TNS and TNL provide this. Under my watch Comms will be active enough that, hopefully, you all get sick and tired of finding their publications in your NS telegram inboxes!
That’s my vision for TNP. A proactive, engaging government that promotes all aspects of this community, and one that uses the tools at our disposal to make that community something truly special in these difficult times. We are a NS region, but we’re also more. And I believe we should strive to be as active and engaging as we can be on all fronts.
Thank you for your time, and thank you for your consideration.
-Prydania
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My first full term as Minister of Culture saw the University become the centre of a controversy over what could and couldn't be presented by the government. The decision was reached by myself as Minister of Culture and Fiji as the then-Delegate to make the university private. This would allow the University to continue to promote a number of non-NS related topics without it seeming like the government was sponsoring that content.
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