Confirmation Hearing: GM Team

[RC (a la Frémont)]

The floor is now open. Weatherboy1102, Forumlurker161, and NewYorkExpress may make opening statements if they so choose, otherwise the Senate is open to initiate questioning the nominees.

[NewYorkExpress]

After my on and off years of being registered here in Atlasia, I'm truly honored to be nominated for a position here.

The position of GM, whether alone or as part of a team, has historically been one of the most important and underappreciated positions in the game. I am truly honored to have been nominated, and honored to have been nominated alongside Weatherboy1102 and Forumlurker161.

I look forward to working with my teammates to bring this game to new heights.

[Pedocon Theory is not a theory]

Looking forward to the inevitable collapse of this sorry state of affairs now that this is the pool of idiots you're reduced to! Bottom of the barrel, the lot of em!

[WD]

Looking forward to the inevitable collapse of this sorry state of affairs now that this is the pool of idiots you're reduced to! Bottom of the barrel, the lot of em!

We could’ve had REAL CHANGE with GM Calamity. Sad!

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I'm absolutely honored to be nominated to one of the most important positions in the game, after serving in almost every office the game has to offer, I have a good knowledge of how the Game Engine drives activity. I already have a storyline planned out regarding state governments across the nation, which I believe would be very interesting for the others in the game to interact with.

I had been interested in this position for several months, but was always daunted by the amount of work it would be to do it alone. That's why I helped create the GM team, and I'm happy to put my money where my mouth is in proving that this structure is better than putting all our eggs in one basket.

I am looking forward to working with NYE and Forumlurker, or anyone else who the senate confirms should either withdraw themselves from consideration.

Looking forward to the inevitable collapse of this sorry state of affairs now that this is the pool of idiots you're reduced to! Bottom of the barrel, the lot of em!

We wouldn't have any state of affairs at all if you had your way, I don't think you're in much of a position to say anything like this.

[WD]

Anyway, questions for all 3 nominees:

1.) Will you commit to being active in producing stories and updates?

2.) How do you plan to collectively handle the work load?

3.) Do you believe you 3 could do scoring of bills? As we obviously will not be having a CG again anytime soon.

That is all. But thus far all 3 nominees have my support. 

[NewYorkExpress]

Looking forward to the inevitable collapse of this sorry state of affairs now that this is the pool of idiots you're reduced to! Bottom of the barrel, the lot of em!

I'm pretty sure you could have expressed your opinions without the insults. Our Deputy PPT is not an idiot, and is probably the most qualified nominee of the three of us in my opinion, so this is really childish of you.

[NewYorkExpress]

Anyway, questions for all 3 nominees:

1.) Will you commit to being active in producing stories and updates?

2.) How do you plan to collectively handle the work load?

3.) Do you believe you 3 could do scoring of bills? As we obviously will not be having a CG again anytime soon.

That is all. But thus far all 3 nominees have my support. 

1. I personally would like to be active in producing stories and updates, but I'd prefer not to go it alone.

2. My vision is a rotating schedule of sorts. Each member of the team, while keeping all members of the team in the loop about upcoming storylines, so that they may request changes, rotates through and posts for a specific period of time, such as a week, so that no member of the team gets worn out, and no member of the team has an extended period of time being forced to write storylines alone. Since all members of the team would be aware of ongoing storylines and would have the opportunity to request changes or outright veto said storylines, I believe that would meet the requirements of the current law.

3. I personally think I could give it my best effort, but it would probably depend on the bill in question. Financial bills, I probably couldn't do, but other types of bills, I might be willing to try my hand at scoring.

[Former President tack50]

I will say that GM teams have historically had a poor track record compared to a single individual

[NewYorkExpress]

I will say that GM teams have historically had a poor track record compared to a single individual

And recently single indivuals have a history of getting burned out after a matter of weeks, if not months.

There isn't a perfect individual or approach to handling the Game Engine, but we damn well need to try every solution we can.

[Devout Centrist]

my question is for NYE: will you commit to writing more international and domestic crises if confirmed?

[NewYorkExpress]

my question is for NYE: will you commit to writing more international and domestic crises if confirmed?

I think my specialty is probably going to end up being in the International Arena, though I won't rule out writing some domestic stories.

I think the Kansas fiasco might have scared me out of writing in true domestic policy crises, or at least ones that haven't happened in real-life and don't involve real-life politicians.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I'm also up for writing international stories, or at least helping out. I don't think we really got any news out of Eritrea after their leader was assassinated, which probably would cause the country to fall into some sort of chaos even for a short time.

[West_Midlander]

Will the nominees be voted on individually or as a group?

[NewYorkExpress]

Will the nominees be voted on individually or as a group?

I know I don't really get a say in this, but I'd personally prefer a group vote. I'm not the most popular person on the forum, and I think my nomination would probably be rejected for that reason if I were the only person being voted on at once.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I’m more in favor of doing it one at a time since doing it as a group is kinda unprecedented by my knowledge.

[Spark]

Questions for all nominees:

1) How will you utilize the game engine to spur activity?

2) In spite of there not being an appoint Comptroller General, how will the GM team be involved in matters of cost analyses if at all?

3) What story lines do you have in mind?

4) Should Congress create a separate council on activity? If so, how will you be involved in such a council?
WB is far from terrible. I expect our interactions with the said nominees to be cordial and dignified. An absence thereof reflects a lack of candor and civility. Let us abstain from personal attacks whether explicit or implied.

[NewYorkExpress]

Questions for all nominees:

1) How will you utilize the game engine to spur activity?

2) In spite of there not being an appoint Comptroller General, how will the GM team be involved in matters of cost analyses if at all?

3) What story lines do you have in mind?

4) Should Congress create a separate council on activity? If so, how will you be involved in such a council?
WB is far from terrible. I expect our interactions with the said nominees to be cordial and dignified. An absence thereof reflects a lack of candor and civility. Let us abstain from personal attacks whether explicit or implied.

1. I personally believe it is the responsibility of the individual player to be active. I will do what I can, but I can't do much if our elected officials or my partners on the GM team are unwilling to be active participants.

2. I personally won't be involved with any bill that handles finance, as I've failed math in both high school and college. I am willing to handle grading and scoring for bills at both the regional and national level for non-budget related bills, however.

3. The first immediate thing to come to mind is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar this autumn. Just as the United States qualified IRL, I would write the Men's Atlasian National Team as having qualified, and I don't believe that our participation in Qatar would be popular among some members of the population, so there might be a storyline about protests and a petition calling for Atlasia to boycott the World Cup.

Beyond that, I would like to provide a conclusion to the ongoing China/Taiwan storyline, and bring the Russia/Ukraine situation more in line with the IRL situation (though possibly not involving an actual shooting war).

4. While I do believe such a council would be helpful, I personally don't believe I'm experienced enough as a player here to be a member, at least not at the beginning.

[Devout Centrist]

my question is for NYE: will you commit to writing more international and domestic crises if confirmed?

I think my specialty is probably going to end up being in the International Arena, though I won't rule out writing some domestic stories.

I think the Kansas fiasco might have scared me out of writing in true domestic policy crises, or at least ones that haven't happened in real-life and don't involve real-life politicians.

thank u. i will vote to confirm

[Utah Neolib]

1. How active will the GM team be?

2. Will you commit to creating realistic storylines? Don’t create something similar to the Taiwan story fiasco.

3. Lastly, do you think that the GM team can work in a lasting way?

[NewYorkExpress]

1. How active will the GM team be?

2. Will you commit to creating realistic storylines? Don’t create something similar to the Taiwan story fiasco.

3. Lastly, do you think that the GM team can work in a lasting way?

1. I'm not going to speak for my fellow nominees, but I plan to be active as a member of the GM team.

2. I personally think it's far more likely that China would actually invade Taiwan, than the revoked GM decision to have Taiwan sign a peace treaty with China, and I might consider writing a story-line to that effect, but that would be a long term project, and bringing the situation between Russia and Ukraine more in line with what is going on IRL would be more deserving of my immediate attention.

3. I think so. It would require more than one active GM, though I don't think three is consistently required, and more than one GM with different strengths to make things work, but I believe it is possible.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Anyway, questions for all 3 nominees:

1.) Will you commit to being active in producing stories and updates?

2.) How do you plan to collectively handle the work load?

3.) Do you believe you 3 could do scoring of bills? As we obviously will not be having a CG again anytime soon.

That is all. But thus far all 3 nominees have my support. 

1) Absolutely, within reason. I will give LOA notice should I be forced to focus on IRL instead, but I believe that I can certainly write some new stories and updates at a better rate than what we've received as of late.
2) I hope to deliberate and delegate based on who wants what, and when none of us want to work on something we instead all work together. Doing 1/3 of something you don't like to do but need to is better than having to do all of it, after all.
3) I don't see why not, since the GM Team creation act removed the office of CG (which wasn't exactly being used anyway...)

1. How active will the GM team be?

2. Will you commit to creating realistic storylines? Don’t create something similar to the Taiwan story fiasco.

3. Lastly, do you think that the GM team can work in a lasting way?

1) Of course, this depends on the activity levels of the other two members, but I can say with a degree of confidence that we could get a good bit more updates than we had in the past. Once a month at minimum I'd say, though I'd aim for an update every 2 weeks with some special updates thrown in for storylines.
2) Of course. Truth can be stranger than fiction, however, so some odd thing could happen though nothing like the about-face we saw in the now non-canon Taiwan update by Crane.
3) Absolutely. The point is to have it be less of one singular cog turning the wheels of the engine and instead being a set that are easier to replace and also aren't absolutely vital should there be a vacancy for a short period. As long as there aren't large disputes that grind the system to a halt, we should be fine.

[It’s so Joever]

Anyway, questions for all 3 nominees:

1.) Will you commit to being active in producing stories and updates?

2.) How do you plan to collectively handle the work load?

3.) Do you believe you 3 could do scoring of bills? As we obviously will not be having a CG again anytime soon.

That is all. But thus far all 3 nominees have my support. 

Thank you for your questions.

1.) Yes. I will commit to being active consistently. I won’t be active everyday on the GM thread itself, but I will be active in planning things and on discord (creating a group chat for coordination) about daily
2. I think all three of us need to coordinate to do such. With three of us, we can best figure out our interests/strengths for research/coverage and schedules if needed.
3. Yes, I believe we can handle that task.

[It’s so Joever]

Questions for all nominees:

1) How will you utilize the game engine to spur activity?

2) In spite of there not being an appoint Comptroller General, how will the GM team be involved in matters of cost analyses if at all?

3) What story lines do you have in mind?

4) Should Congress create a separate council on activity? If so, how will you be involved in such a council?
WB is far from terrible. I expect our interactions with the said nominees to be cordial and dignified. An absence thereof reflects a lack of candor and civility. Let us abstain from personal attacks whether explicit or implied.

1. I slightly am going to disagree with my colleague on this one, I believe there are ways that we can improve activity and I think part of that does involve interesting storylines. Obviously there is a fine line to draw between “interesting” and “unrealistic” and that’s where we definitely benefit from a team rather than a single GM. I also plan on using my signature to keep people aware of Atlasian news. I believe one major problem is that people seem to forget about Atlasia, and I think if allowed, that small visibility will have a major benefit on activity and player retention.
2. I am not an expert on budgetary affairs, so I think the answer to your question will partially depend on the extent of knowledge my colleagues have on this topic. However, I can do research and I am fine with math, so I and the GM team could take over the cost analysis role  (although that is something that may cause somewhat slower story updates than otherwise, so I think we could start at first and gauge how doable it is) My position is open to change if my colleagues have strong disagreements/compelling concerns.
3. Oh…well being too detailed would spoil some of the fun wouldn’t it? If my colleagues are on board, I envision some stories involving serious natural disasters, a volatile situation in Sudan, and of course a few meme tier irl politicians having some funny moments (that will help activity as well)
4. Yes. Lack of activity is a continuing concern we face, and I believe creating such a council would be proper. I can’t say exactly what role I would play in this hypothetical council before the structure is even created…but I would want to be active in such a council given my unique perspective as a former borderline zombie.

[It’s so Joever]

1. How active will the GM team be?

2. Will you commit to creating realistic storylines? Don’t create something similar to the Taiwan story fiasco.

3. Lastly, do you think that the GM team can work in a lasting way?

1. I can’t speak for my colleagues on this, but I will maintain a commitment to have consistent activity in creating and updating stories/responses to policy changes.
2. While I do of course respect the importance of realism, I also do believe it still is important to have a degree of deviation and imagination when it comes to these storylines. Keeping the game events too dry could hurt activity, although of course you won’t see any ridiculous events that simply are out of the blue and near impossible.
3. I hope so. I don’t like to make promises I am not 100% certain on, but I do believe that this team has the potential to flourish and deliver as a result. I do believe a team in general is more sustainable than a single individual, even if there are problems that emerge such as disagreements (which imo is not a bad thing) or of course miscommunications.