The Atlasian Tribune - Mechaman's column

[Purple State]

Clearer paragraphs please.

[Purple State]

Clearer paragraphs please.

Like that ?

Yes, thank you lol. The giant bloc form hurt my eyes.

EDIT: And for the record, I disagree with the article. If you look at the game today versus 3 months or 6 months or a year ago, almost nothing has changed drastically in terms of party alignment. The RPP may be weakened from it's high point, but the JCP and RPP are in the same spots they could have always expected to be in (the rapid RPP growth was never sustainable). The ARC is made up of disaffected RPP or independent members, for the most part, and they elect their own candidate. As opposed to if they joined back with the RPP and would simply have that party elect one more candidate than it currently has. So, what's the difference? This article hasn't convinced me.

[Purple State]

J : Well recently the Southeast was mentioned as having

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In the upcoming January regional inititives I would like to work with Gov. Brandon H to solve this issue and improve the region.

JBrase is today's lucky winner of the GM kudos award.

[Purple State]

J : Well recently the Southeast was mentioned as having

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In the upcoming January regional inititives I would like to work with Gov. Brandon H to solve this issue and improve the region.

JBrase is today's lucky winner of the GM kudos award.

Do you think you might be able to provide a little detail on just where the Southeast has fail to follow statutes so Brandonh and Jbrase know what to tackle first?

There are zones in the Southeast that essentially rule by local law and eschew any higher forms of governance. It is less of a "here or there" issue, so much as a lax policy matter. Fostering an environment where such activities are permitted in an already autonomous-minded region can create these sort of conditions. There need to be stricter tax enforcement policies, as well as possibly some sort of tax amnesty program (see what the Mideast passed in a recent Assembly session), to avoid the predicted "lower-than-expected tax revenue" and a resulting budget deficit.

[Purple State]

This should be on your Wiki.

[Purple State]

Regarding the lack of Senate activity for your SoIA confirmations, they are on the verge of abolishing the seat. That could explain a lot.

Also, I am perfectly fine with the lack of controversy in an off month. The main excitement should be around campaign time, while the off period is for governing. Perhaps people will start making a bigger deal about the Senate and other officeholders, debating the issues and, ya know, participating in what this game is meant to be about.

As a quick example, issue-based campaigns have become non-existent recently because everyone counted on party turnout and recruitment efforts. The result is that potentially exciting races, like the one for governor of the Mideast, are not really about anything besides personality. An injection of genuine policy-based politics and comprehensive platforms is much needed. I suspect that the first candidates that catch on to this will be very successful.

[Purple State]

Regarding the lack of Senate activity for your SoIA confirmations, they are on the verge of abolishing the seat. That could explain a lot.

Also, I am perfectly fine with the lack of controversy in an off month. The main excitement should be around campaign time, while the off period is for governing. Perhaps people will start making a bigger deal about the Senate and other officeholders, debating the issues and, ya know, participating in what this game is meant to be about.

As a quick example, issue-based campaigns have become non-existent recently because everyone counted on party turnout and recruitment efforts. The result is that potentially exciting races, like the one for governor of the Mideast, are not really about anything besides personality. An injection of genuine policy-based politics and comprehensive platforms is much needed. I suspect that the first candidates that catch on to this will be very successful.

Hey, I tried that and I only lost votes

Yep. Atlasians don't vote for issues. They just vote for their friends, hence creating idiotic party structures.

Vepres ran a nutty campaign. Even if you campaign on issues, you're not going to win on what you said.

It is difficult when party politics are involved, but Atlasia has been shifting towards the independent middle recently. This makes substantive debate between candidates potentially more important. I would have liked to see a policy debate between Inks and Swedish Cheese, because I have been undecided this entire race and finding differences on substantive issues would have helped me make a decision.

I suspect that the first even-headed candidate to run on solid issues will win a major upset campaign.

[Purple State]

I'd love to do that, but there really aren't all that many issues.

I mean, inject it. What are your views on X, Y, Z policy issues? There are plenty of stances you can take that don't include trolls and game reform. As much as those are key issues for me, I would also like people to debate the merits of certain plans for education, foreign policy, immigration, etc.

[Purple State]

Apparently I'm a nutter who doesn't have a level head

*slits wrist*

Better believe it.

[Purple State]

Ranting about the LNF is a little... old... don't you think? Its a sad fact, but it doesn't really exist anymore.

Though, given your position, I think its fair to say that there's a looming crisis hanging over the Court unless you're more careful about what you have published under your name.

That seems like a needless threat. Real-life, modern day norms for Supreme Court justices really have little bearing on how I view Atlasian Supreme Court justices. It's not as though Marokai tipped his hand on any constitutional issues, nor would I really care if he did. After all, it's a game.

[Purple State]

Poll #5 : Ideological divide

Date	January 10
Question	Which ideology do you most identify with ?
Results	Social-Democracy/Radical left : 7 (16%) Liberalism/Center-left : 10 (22%) Conservative libertarianism : 2 (4%) Moderate libertarianism : 1 (2%) Radical libertarianlism : 3 (7%) Moderate conservatism/Populism : 4 (9%) Hardcore conservatism : 6 (13%) Centrism : 5 (11%) Loonyism : 3 (7%) Game reformism : 1 (2%) Other : 3 (7%)

With a quite good representativity (45 voters), this poll gives us important data to examine. While many right-wing Atlasians have repeatedly pointed out the domination of the left on Atlasia, this poll will probably give them some statistical basis. 38% of Atlasians define themselves as either "radical left" or "center-left", while only 22% of them consider themselves as "conservatives" and 13% as "libertarians". This domination is, however, far less massive than one could imagine : libertarians in Atlasia tend to be strongly right-wing, as the only issues which are really subject of debates are economic ones. That's what leads me to the conclusion that left and right are, in fact, rather equilibrate in the Atlasian political spectrum : 38% for the first, 36% for the second. Hardcore conservatives will point out Atlasia's ultraliberalism on social issues, but, frankly, few people really care about that. What about those who don't fit either with left or with right ? They're quite numerous comapred to other countries, representing more than one fourth of Atlasian citizens. Most of them are centrists, while loonies only poll 7% and game reformers only 2%. The last two, which we could call "Altasian particularisms", don't look so widespread as one could think : Atlasia remains based on a traditional divide.

Beautiful, Antonio. Truly. I've said for a long time now that Atlasia (and the forum at-large, really) is not nearly as left-wing as people say it is. It is socially left-wing, quite broadly in fact, but economically it remains rather split down the middle.

You're dead-on about the Atlasian libertarians. When have they ever voted for the JCP or other left-wing candidates? They may occasionally preference more moderate members, but the libertarians of Atlasia remain solely committed to their economic conservatism. Social issues don't even matter at all in Atlasia, and we've long determined "left vs right" in Atlasia on the Econ category. Even social conservatives, like Inks or MasterJedi, don't make their social conservatism that big of an issue for them.

It's all economic divisions. Because of that, Atlasia is fairly split and any whining about how left-wingers dominate Atlasia is nonsense. Representation is another issue, but even so, things are balanced.

I would like to point out that, in practice, the centrists, loonies, and game reformers preference the JCP higher than the RPP in most national elections.

Yes. Although I am the lone Atlasian to vote "Game reformism," I tend to be center-left in my politics. That said, I base most of my voting here on game reform at the moment. Since the JCP is the party that holds the power, and they are usually amenable to game reform, it is easiest to pass that agenda by supporting them over the Atlasian right.

Of course, this is also why my home is the DA. I would prefer a DA candidate over a JCP or RPP candidate any day specifically because they tend to be the most amenable to game reform of them all.

[Purple State]

One of my biggest problems with Antonio's analysis here is that it, in outlining the paths that lay ahead for Atlasia, he takes into account only the history of Atlasia and not the current situation. Perhaps this is a symptom of something I will call the "historical funnel" through which we usually see history.

Let me explain what this means. When looking back, back, waaaay back into history, usually before the period we find ourselves, we tend to see things in longer, more monolithic periods. In Antonio's case, this is the NLC era, which lasts for over a year. As we get closer to our own time period, things narrow as in a funnel; as Antonio gets closer to his own time in Atlasia, the eras las for shorter and shorter spans of time. This gives us a good description of the preceding months, but doesn't necessarily do a good job of breaking the game up into "eras."

If you take a wider view of Atlasia, it is pretty clear that we are currently in what can be termed the "JCP era" and have been here for quite some time (since bgwah's election). Under this view, there was no "return to normalcy" or "Hamilton era," as these are mere blips in relation to the vastness of the dominance of the JCP during this time.

Under this more expansive view of Atlasian history, which is admittedly hard to see when one considers that we are still in the "JCP era," it is easier to make a worthwhile prediction of the future, largely based on the future of the JCP. The current situation is held together by the glue of the JCP; if the party holds together, the current will not change substantively from the way it has been for over a year, but if the party begins to crumble on the margins, the entire political environment of Atlasia could see a shift.

Those two paths may be included in some loose way in Antonio's analysis, but much of that obscures the heavy reliance of this game on the dominant party (much the way he titled the NLC era after the dominant party). And whereas Antonio focuses on the HAEV as a major source of structural change in this game, I have trouble viewing it as anything more than a body equipped to effectively patch the small holes in the wall.