Dreadton for Delegate

[Dreadton]

Dreadton, A history​

Let's Recap what a lot of you already know, but some may not.

I joined NationStates back in 2018 and have only lived in this region. TNP is and will always be my home. I wandered into a discussion on the repeal of Solorni commend. They were facing repeal because of some OOC behavior. At the time, this was rather controversial. There was a lot of debate on if we should use OOC behavior to address in game activities. I enter the conversation with the mindset that there should be a divide between OOC and IC. As such we should just let the game mods handle the account and not worry about it and if we were going to blur these lines then we needed to go full throttle on it. Until we did, I would not support any commends, and with the exception of two, I have held to this since.

From there, I rushed into the race for Speakers office with no history within the region. I jumped in feet first and got soundly stomped by Oracle. But that failed Speaker attempt jumped started my career in TNP. Oracle took pity and asked me to join the Speaker’s office as a deputy, where I learned the ropes of the office. During that term I ran, and won a spot on the Court. We heard one criminal case that year, and after completing the term I went back to the Speaker’s office as a Deputy. I kept my hands in the TNP legal field, contributing to several R4Rs and served as prosecutor in a criminal case.

Post Speakers Office, I moved into the executive by joining the then Ministry of Radio as a Deputy. During that time, the Ministry was new and had very little staff. Despite the lack of a large staff, we produced several shows and kept activity up. When El Fiji retired, I became Minister of Radio. We produced a variety of shows over the terms, increasing subscribers and views, while producing quality content for the region. However, the staffing issues continued. Looking at the other ministries this was the trend that all were experiencing and the status quo.

From the Ministry of Radio, I ran for and was elected Vice Delegate. Right before the beginning of the term, the region passed a law requiring the release of Security Council records after a year. I spent the beginning of the term devising the procedure and working with the Admins to get the system in place for declassifying threads. These procedures developed are still being used by the Vice Delegate for other declassifications. Also during this term, I had to recommend three denials for citizenship. Despite having worked with Funkadelia in the past, his and Aleister’s history lacked any mitigation of their actions during the coup of TEP. New Francois, on the other hand, likely would not have been barred from citizenship if he did not lose it during his court case. His actions post court case sealed his fate. At the end of the term, some real life work came up and I chose not to run again, but did submit and was accepted by the region into the Security Council.

This past term I have served as Minister of Culture. I have details included in my ministry section.

A Course of Action
​

There are three things I want to accomplish during this term outside of the Ministry break down below. First is to increase awareness of Ministry and NPA activities, second is to introduce legislation related to the Delegates authority to suppress rule breaking posts on the RMB, and third to introduce a Delegates Directive on participation in the Executive Government while supporting the military actions of an exempt region.

As any Minister and past Delegate can attest to, a key issue on keeping each Ministry functioning and active. As the Minister of Radio and now Minister of Culture, keeping an active, growing staff has been hard. To help combat this and grow the NPA and Executive staff, I will be introducing a monthly Telegram on regional Activity along with promotion requirements with the Gameside Advocates. The regional telegram will highlight whatever project, NPA Operations, or general state of the region occurred during the past month. From my regional telegrams sent over the past term, roughly 10% of the region reads the regional telegrams sent. That is an engagement of over 1000 players. The next step is the promotion of post on the RMB by the Gameside Advocates. The Gameside Advocates have been doing this over the last term with form post, I will be expanding the requirement to include activity post from the Ministries. When a Ministry or the NPA posts on the RMB about their activity, they will provide the raw text to the LGA for the RMB to promote over the next few days. No longer will it be one and done.

The recent R4R on the Delegate’s Authority to Suppress Post has brought up several interesting questions. Zyvets brief brought up several good points and my discussions with him have been enlightening. There is a need to define the power of the Delegate to suppress rule breaking posts, along with establishing a way to check that power from abuse. During this term, I will be introducing legislation to define the Delegates power in this matter, along with addressing the standard the court should use in evaluating that power as requested in their ruling in Kirina.

During the current term, the Brotherhood of Malice was added to the regional exemption list by the Delegate and the Regional Assembly. As we are all aware, this region has actively attacked our allies and friendly regions across the game. As an exempted region, the NPA is able to actively work against BoM and they are prohibited from having a diplomatic presence within the region. However, without a formal Declaration of War, our residents are able to participate and support any exempted region. In fact, one of our established citizens and a Deputy Speaker are actively working with BoM in their military activities. (To my knowledge, neither citizen has participated in any activity against TNP or its allies.) Having citizens participate with the military actions of an exempted region poses a risk to TNP. This can cause diplomatic issues with other regions, it is a propaganda victory for a region that actively works against us, and can risk operations of the government. Sort of a Declaration of War, there is no legal prohibition against this and I would encourage the Regional Assembly to address this issue, no matter who wins the Delegate election. However, should I be elected I will be issuing a Delegate Directive prohibiting any citizen who has actively participated in the military actions of an exempt region from participating in the Executive Government for as long as the Delegate determines. I look forward to working with the region and the Cabinet on this matter.

Ministries ​

-Media

Since absorbing the Ministry of Communications, Media has continued to produce a steady pace of shows. I would like to continue this trend into the next term and add a spate of General Gameplay shows and tutorials. In the next term, I want Media to produce a tutorial show on one of the game event days, either Z-Day or N-Day. I will also hold a midterm town hall. While I would like to see the return of our regional publications, I don’t see the personnel and interest available to commit to publishing this term. I hope our plans to increase active staff in the executive will change that for future terms. I will be asking Media to explore the viability of smaller publications promoting some of our contributors to the roleplay community. This would be a regional promotion of a storyline or factbook.

-Culture

The past term within Culture has been active and productive beyond what I had planned. Classics, such as Theme Thursday and Music Monday continue to show strong staying power and will continue to be regional classics. We expanded the Music Monday program with Guest DJs. We introduced a project celebrating Flag day. This pilot program had larger than expected submissions. With the success of this program, I want Culture to plan and execute a program for the next memorial day, Democracy Day. The downside was that we were not able to conduct an interregional cultural event, due to the commitments of the other region involved. This is something I will be seeking to correct next term. I have seen other regions conduct a “state visit,” where a government official travels (talks on RMB,DIscord,Forums”) to another region for a day or two. It is a reasonably simple event that can be conducted without long term negotiations and work commitments from the various governments.


-Home Affairs

There are no changes needed to this ministry. It continues to work effectively. My key focus for this ministry will be to maintain activity and grow the staff base.

-Cards

The tools that the Cards Ministry was waiting on have been released. Cards remain healthy and effective. I foresee no need to change the Ministry in any meaningful way. Hopefully we will see the release of Season 3, but it is Soon(™).

-Defense/NPA

The NPA saw a recent revitalization with some policy changes and the return to active duty of past members. We need to continue down this path and continue to advertise our activities within the region and elsewhere. I will be adding a Join the NPA post to the Gameside Advocates worksheet. I will also be directing the appropriate parties to build a monthly regional telegram highlighting NPA activities and instructions to join. Should this be an effective means of recruitment for the NPA, I will want to expand this into an automation tool, like we do with WADP.


-Foreign Affairs

Foriegn Affairs is a key means of communication between us and other regions. This area I would like to see more activity in. The primary way we will be increasing this is the posting of a monthly report into our forum embassies. I will also be seeking out input from our senior diplomats about regions we can reach out to for cultural events, such as the state visit I discussed in the Culture sections. This would be a good opportunity to reach out to some of the smaller regions we do not have formal relationships with.

-World Assembly

A good many players do not realize how the World Assembly is a big part of the power and influence TNP wields over the game. From the WALL block, to unifying a wide range of regions when our interests align, the power we wield here can guide the direction of the game. We saw this with Ghost’s proposal to Repeal the Condemnation of Koth. TNP was able to leverage its voting power, along with gathering support from allies and sometimes opponents to a unified front against someone who acts against our security. The most effective thing we can do here is to grow the staff within the ministry to keep it working at this level.

-Gameside Advocates

Over the past term, the GAs have picked up on their promotion and engagement on the RMB outside of just moderation. We will be expanding on this foundation during the upcoming term as I have outlined in the Course of Action section.

 

[Hulldom]

Well, I guess I'll get the party started in asking questions. Firstly, congratulations on deciding to run and good luck whatever happens on Election Day. However, to help me and others make some decisions, I think some clarifying questions on your platform might be helpful.

Media
1. What would the "General Gameplay" series look like? Would it be more looking at more things for new nations or things that more seasoned players think of when they think of Gameplay? Perhaps an appreciation of what you mean by that would be helpful.

Culture
2. I appreciate the desire to not be bogged down with negotiations, however, isn't summer sort of ideal for some sort of event? Many of us TNPers are on the younger side and thus enjoying our summer breaks and can do some of the lifting even if some of it has to be left in the pads of the working professionals elsewhere.

Foreign Affairs
3. Smaller regions such as...? "This would be a good opportunity to reach out to some of the smaller regions we do not have formal relationships with." Not to denigrate smaller regions, but perhaps there is a reason our contact is rather limited with, say, the Union of Fairer Nations as opposed to, say, The South Pacific. That's not that reaching out to those smaller partners isn't worthwhile, but I question on making it the central part of one's policy. So I would ask: what do you think are the benefits of hosting small events with small regions?

World Assembly Affairs
4. I want to state this categorically as someone doing a lot of the buzzing behind the scenes in the WA Ministry: it's not that we luck into similar stances as, say, TSP/XKI/TRR, etc. on occasion, as much as that our interests more or less align. Of the three, I cannot say I know who the WA person is in the former two (TSP's changed recently and isn't an author OR in the WA server to my knowledge, XKI's new Delegate is an older player with SC experience but their WA Secretary role is unfilled) and I don't talk to the WA person in the third (it's Manson, I bring my concerns to Minsk if I do period). Additionally, the recent convergence has largely been either due to strategic alignment were with the Defender bloc (We have interest X that dictates vote A, they have interest Y that dictates the same) or, as they have been pretty routinely, fairly benign and uncontroversial votes which pretty much everyone votes For. However, it should be noted: these are only in the SC.

Which I guess is just a way of saying this: how would you plan to expand our network that "unifies the game"? We do have a lot of influence in WALL, but we shouldn't take SC strength to be the pinnacle of our success--we need to be willing and able to flex our muscle in both chambers. That leads to my second question.

5. How do you propose to grow our staff "to keep it working at this level"? To not come off as too sour, it is very, very tough. There is only but so much we can do. What we've found is that retrenching our tasks bask regionally means one or two people get to do everything...and some people get upset by collaboration on matters with our strategic allies and partners. So I'd like to see some ideas from you on that topic.

 

[Vivanco]

Sup y'all, it's me, it's your gal Viv, back again to ask questions about Media.

What is your opinion on the merging of Communications and Radio once again? Is there a way of solving the chronic problem of staffing?

 

[Lord Dominator]

While Gladio is obvious, I'm confused about which Deputy Speaker you're referring to - I'm not aware of any of us who are actually in Malice to assist them.

Edit: I have been informed it's Bob via some mercing, so question retracted.

 

[Dreadton]

Well, I guess I'll get the party started in asking questions. Firstly, congratulations on deciding to run and good luck whatever happens on Election Day. However, to help me and others make some decisions, I think some clarifying questions on your platform might be helpful.

Media
1. What would the "General Gameplay" series look like? Would it be more looking at more things for new nations or things that more seasoned players think of when they think of Gameplay? Perhaps an appreciation of what you mean by that would be helpful.

Culture
2. I appreciate the desire to not be bogged down with negotiations, however, isn't summer sort of ideal for some sort of event? Many of us TNPers are on the younger side and thus enjoying our summer breaks and can do some of the lifting even if some of it has to be left in the pads of the working professionals elsewhere.

Foreign Affairs
3. Smaller regions such as...? "This would be a good opportunity to reach out to some of the smaller regions we do not have formal relationships with." Not to denigrate smaller regions, but perhaps there is a reason our contact is rather limited with, say, the Union of Fairer Nations as opposed to, say, The South Pacific. That's not that reaching out to those smaller partners isn't worthwhile, but I question on making it the central part of one's policy. So I would ask: what do you think are the benefits of hosting small events with small regions?

World Assembly Affairs
4. I want to state this categorically as someone doing a lot of the buzzing behind the scenes in the WA Ministry: it's not that we luck into similar stances as, say, TSP/XKI/TRR, etc. on occasion, as much as that our interests more or less align. Of the three, I cannot say I know who the WA person is in the former two (TSP's changed recently and isn't an author OR in the WA server to my knowledge, XKI's new Delegate is an older player with SC experience but their WA Secretary role is unfilled) and I don't talk to the WA person in the third (it's Manson, I bring my concerns to Minsk if I do period). Additionally, the recent convergence has largely been either due to strategic alignment were with the Defender bloc (We have interest X that dictates vote A, they have interest Y that dictates the same) or, as they have been pretty routinely, fairly benign and uncontroversial votes which pretty much everyone votes For. However, it should be noted: these are only in the SC.

Which I guess is just a way of saying this: how would you plan to expand our network that "unifies the game"? We do have a lot of influence in WALL, but we shouldn't take SC strength to be the pinnacle of our success--we need to be willing and able to flex our muscle in both chambers. That leads to my second question.

5. How do you propose to grow our staff "to keep it working at this level"? To not come off as too sour, it is very, very tough. There is only but so much we can do. What we've found is that retrenching our tasks bask regionally means one or two people get to do everything...and some people get upset by collaboration on matters with our strategic allies and partners. So I'd like to see some ideas from you on that topic.

1. Gameplay as in things done site side, such as our NPA series and tutorials. I mentioned working on the long discussed NDay/Zday tutorials. Those are gameside videos.

2. When building an event there is alot of little details that must be ironed out before the event can be done. When the event expands across regions, the amount of details increase, along with the amount of people who have input and need to sign off on the event. So having an big event over the summer is possible but it will be rife with issue and rushed. Internally, it takes about a month, month and a half to plan an event that has not been done before. You will need to double that time for an interregional event and hope nothing happens between the regions, or within their respective regions that will derail the even. Producing the smaller template events is something that can be built upon over time, and while it has a decent front load, that will not occur each and every time you do it.

3. Off the top of my head, Forest comes to mind. As to the benefits to hosting small events with small regions, we know the game will be changing in the near future. Establishing these enroads now can help us down the line. For example, we know that the way nations will spawn will change. With that, smaller UCRs will become a larger player in game. Working on refining our approaches, relationship building, and creating these ties now will give us the advantage in the early chaos after the game shifts and until it settles down in its new meta. Im going to use an example from World of Warcraft. I am an auction house player. I make a large part of my gold (to the point I use it to fund my purchases of expansions and other games) via the auction house. In order to keep competitive and not loose your shirt, you have to keep abreast of the game changes and setup your resources for the new meta. A good example of this is the new expansion coming out. Generally, there is an item that sells well when a new expansion drops. It helps you move from place to place quicker. Normally this is a good bet and something I stock up on for the 2 year lead up. However, this expansion has flying at the start of the game. My normal routine cannot be relied on as it has been for the past 10 years. I need to shift and look into other markets. We need to do the same here. Our normal reliance on our traditional allies served us well and they are something we need to keep, but we cannot guarantee that this patter will continue with the changes coming up.

4. Im going to refer you to the answer in 3 and some of your own question. One of the reasons we are successful is because there are alignments in interest. So how do you grow that? Relationship building and find those whos interest align with ours.

5. Its very tough across the board, so how do you find the next Hulldom, who keeps the ministry running? You locate those who are interested in the WA gameplay. How often is the resolution writting assistance promoted on the RMB or sent to some of our residents who publish resolutions? Not very often, in fact I think the last time I saw it on the RMB I was refering a person to you and you to him. That was, I believe last term and that is what we can improve for the overall health of the Executive Staff, not just WA. Showing players what we are doing and how they can get involved actively, instead of just waiting for them to show up on the forums and ask.

Sup y'all, it's me, it's your gal Viv, back again to ask questions about Media.

What is your opinion on the merging of Communications and Radio once again? Is there a way of solving the chronic problem of staffing?

It was a solid move. Comms has always struggled to consistently produce product. But we cannot just keep merging Ministries in order to produce activity. It may lessen the blood loss, but does nothing to solve the underlying issue of finding and producing new talent. If we can't adapt, we will end up with only the three required groups and no one to make them work. Eventually you get to the point we call dumb sizing, which is where your staff is reduced to the point that they can no longer operate efficiently

 

[Vivanco]

It was a solid move. Comms has always struggled to consistently produce product. But we cannot just keep merging Ministries in order to produce activity. It may lessen the blood loss, but does nothing to solve the underlying issue of finding and producing new talent. If we can't adapt, we will end up with only the three required groups and no one to make them work. Eventually you get to the point we call dumb sizing, which is where your staff is reduced to the point that they can no longer operate efficiently

The other candidate, Pallaith, wants to merge the ministry of Media with Culture. What is your oppinion on that?

 

[Dreadton]

The other candidate, Pallaith, wants to merge the ministry of Media with Culture. What is your oppinion on that?

Its a risky experiment that I dont agree with at this time. Having seen both ministries in action this term, that move will likely result with a stressed and burnt out minister with an impossible workload to be effective with, during a period we can least afford it.

 

[Dreadton]

Ok,

I wasn't planning on unloading this here, but people are asking. My company is getting ready to go belly up and theres no spot garantteed for me in the parent company. So I need to leave Nationstates and focus on getting a second job to bridge what is likely to be a gap in income while I try and locate a job that will let me keep my house. So the choice was necessary to wind down the game while I try and survive.

 

[Cretox]

Shit, that sounds horrible. Definitely seems like the right decision then, sad as it may be to see you withdraw.

 

[Hulldom]

I am so sorry to hear that, Dreadton. Take all the time you need and let us know what we can do to help.

 

[Fili]

That's kinda sad, sorry to hear that. I wish you the best there can be, as you were great candidate for delegate. I hope you get your problems fixed soon.

 

[Loh]

I already expressed my thoughts about this on Discord, but stay strong. You got this.

 

[Lord Dominator]

Sorry to hear that

 

[mcmasterdonia]

Oh my gosh, so sorry to hear that. Completely understandable and do take care

 

[Chipoli]

Ok,

I wasn't planning on unloading this here, but people are asking. My company is getting ready to go belly up and theres no spot garantteed for me in the parent company. So I need to leave Nationstates and focus on getting a second job to bridge what is likely to be a gap in income while I try and locate a job that will let me keep my house. So the choice was necessary to wind down the game while I try and survive.

I wish you the best. Good luck!