Meet GM Niles!

[Niles Caulder]

Well, the Forum has very sneakilly drafted me into being GM so I don’t overheat the legal system.  So I thought I’d post a few (and hopefully just a few-as brevity is not my strong suit-) words on what everyone can be expecting from me.

I’m shamelessly going to mimic Ernest’s usage of a ‘Newspaper’ Thread to broadcast the public developments the GM chooses to announce.  As was ‘the Region,’ it will be stickied at the top of the Elections board.

But this newspaper will also be including ‘news coverage’ of the Forum’s elections and government activity, contributed by those qualified members who’ve chosen to take on the responsibility.  Citizens and office holders will have the chance to affect the media coverage they get by interacting with ‘the Chronicle’ staff.  Defend your decisions, your votes in office, and try to get (re-)elected through the major paper everyone has on their doorstep whenever they log on.  How fun!  A one-stop shopping center for summarizing the Fantasy Politics world.

The GM (now and those in the future) will be ‘Editor-in-Chief’ of the Paper and will be responsible for preserving its utility to him or herself and to the Forum, but the rest of the paper’s staff (if any) will not be ‘agents’ of the GM.  It’s up to them to dig out and report whatever they can extract from the figures they cover.  The most they’ll get out of the GM is aged, experienced ‘Editor-in-Chief’ general possibilities angles of inquiry—and perhaps the occasional “leak” that the GM deems to have occurred.  (So those of you in government might do well to scan more than just the GM’s articles for clues to the world’s goings-on.)

Another climate change to expect is that the game will require some participation out of all office holders.  It is not my intention that people have to quit their jobs to do fantasy government, but many hands will make for a light load…and a new interesting twist to your political careers.  The policies and positions that you run on and engender will affect the game world.  The bills that are passed and signed might come back to haunt you.  And cabinet members who haven’t considered basic administration policies relevent to their Departments might want to start doing so.  High profile vacancies and mute inertia in the Adminstration are going to be calculated, and affect the Administration and nation's fate as a whole.  The President has assured me that his staff has been chosen based on their competence and forum activity level.  So I'll be throwing you guys some fun challenges--you've earned it.

“Why is any of this needed??  This is just Fantasy Elections!”  Believe it or not, this is FOR Fantasy Elections.  The Fantasy of platforms and positions and campaigning on them ought to include the fantasy that they matter and have an effect on the voter.  If this things runs like I hope, the forum might enjoy more integrated political converations that has more impact on these elections.

So here’s hopin’!  (Try not to worry; it won’t be as tedious as I make it sound.)  But I’m puttin’ on the badge today, so it’s official.  Feel free to vent your opinions, frustrations, and forbodings with me here on this thread.  I do keep an open mind about things, and will adjust as we go as needed to do the best thing I can discern for the Forum.

(So much for 'few.')

[JohnFKennedy]

Wow! Looks like a lot of stuff Niles, this should be fantastic, I am very enthusiastic about this!

[Niles Caulder]

OK, guys...I need to apologize.

I really threw the Senate for a loop yesterday, and I really should have been giving more hints on the legislation front to keep that from happening.  The Senate had little reason to think I was paying attention to them at all...and thus little reason to expect the Game World was going to react to their activity (other than the second post behind this one.)

So I left a lot of Senators with the impression that "Mount Olympus" was unhappy with them ideologically, and that I was trying to shape history into thwarting their agendas.  It's untrue...but even if I leave that impression--it means I need to a better job.  I was simply not organized in handling this one, and I apologize.

I've been asked if I expect Senators to abandon their own agendas and deal soley with the scenario I have going.  The answer is NO!  I'd like the senate to engage, but certainly not at the expense of the reasons and causes that made them want high office to begin with.

This scenario of fantastical national crisis does skew the national political climate in which actions are interpreted...and I'm as anxious to move on to a more mundane pace as anyone.  But that's simply going to require some governmental manipulation of oil pricing while "people" at home and abroad are thinking irrationally.  [talk about a clue...shees.]  Whether it's the President who comes up with a tactic first or a legislature led initiative---well--that's up to y'all!

At any rate, I definately want to be humming at a rate of time passage that John Ford is more used to by the time the new elections roll around.

And regarding the Education Equipment Act:  again--Wall Street Capitalist Pig Peter Foreyes does not speak for the GM.  He does speak for the Capitalist Pigs of Atlasia's Wall Street (for now).  His reactions and political biases may or may not have varying threshholds of merit.  All I decided yesterday is that under pre-existing circumstances when he heard the Senate raised his taxes 3% to refurbish schools nationwide with oversight provisions very friendly to 'My Cousin Guido' Construction--he felt inclined to move from stocks to bonds, and had a lot to say about it.

But if I don't see a "3rd Education Equipment Act" pass this session, I'll be very surprised.  Addressing Sen. SteveNick's objections won't necessarilly get his vote...(his wasn't needed, and neither was the President's!)  But they'll go a long way in keeping P.F. from selling so many of his Coca-Cola shares--probably on a day when whatever the heck he does won't be a fraction as dire.

And is somebody's vision of good government for national education (or anything else) something I'm going to try to squash if it doesn't match mine?  Nope.

Rest assured, most of the time govt. does anything--somebody is going to b**** to The Chronicle.  But sometimes it's not a majority opinion you have to worry about on a given day.  This wasn't about conservative/liberal--it was about timing the use of power.  Fooling with tax schematics is ALWAYS going to get a reaction.  Federal involvement in school districts is ALWAYS going to get a reaction.  But GM Niles is not a member of The Federalist League.  I'm only interested in voicing the realism necessary to give the fantasy world enough credibility to enjoy.  I promise, conservatives will read plenty in the newspaper they don't like, either.  (They're alot more used to it, aren't ya guys?  )

Again, I apologize for any frustration I've caused.  I feel I've gotten myself on the record about what people should be expecting from me, but this thread was 9 pages back when I found it...so it's understandable that it didn't sink in the first time around.  The "effect-less" limbo of Senate legislation is not nearly as enjoyable as the idea that there is a [quasi-]'real' political environment in which to consider it.  It wouldn't be fun if it were as merciless as the real world...only professional politicians could play.  I know the composition of this Forum...and I'll do my best to find the best medium between 'realistic' and 'fantastic' that accomodates the most fun for the most people here.  So thanks for letting me try, and I promise I'm the type who learns from my own mistakes.

Again, this thread is available to anyone who'd like to tell me how much and in which manner "Niles sucks."  I'm also reachable via email at nilescaulder@yahoo.com