I've been mulling this over for a while, and I'd like to see what you all think:

In real legislatures, legislators form themselves into committees to review legislation and find facts. While doing that would be stupid in the demogame would be stupid, committees also serve another purpose: a declared area of specialization. Depending on what committee it is, it could help out with gameplay by concentrating people who are good in a certain area in one group, or at the very least indicate the likely candidates for government positions (e.g. the Armed Services Committee could serve as a sort of pool for Minister of Defense candidates--when we have a Minister of Defense, of course--and the Legal Committee could serve as sort of Judiciary-in-waiting.) So I propose the following committees:

Legal--Compiling laws, like what ravensfire suggested in this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=205150), and generally assisting the Judiciary in compiling case law from this and previous Demogames (if applicable).

Armed Services--Discussing defense matters. Committee members are expected to be aware of the situation of our military more than any other group of citizens, and advise whoever it is is running the military.

Foreign Affairs--Discussing what other foreign relations. Committee members are expected to be informed of what the heck is going on in other nations, as far as we can tell, and to discuss possibilities for war, peace, and trade, and to plan for what other civs might do if we do X, Y, or Z.

Economics and Finance--Exactly what it sounds like. Screaming about the budget.

Domestic Affairs: Thread for discussing how we should generally place our cities, what our general improvement emphasis should be on (more farms or more Cottages? Culture first or defense?)

These threads should be called [name of the citizens as a collective] Committee: [whatever] Committee.

Obviously, we can delay this for a bit.

So what do you think?

I like the idea. Basically we already have (or had) certain players who prefer certain areas of the game. By making these committees we can create threads for those like minded players to participate more in their preferred area.

One thing though, as many of these committees would in truth overlap with the officials thread, as the subject would be the same.

True. But while the officials thread would generally discuss current issues, the committee thread would mostly be for long-term planning and strategy.

Sounds like a good idea but I guess my first question would be who is appointed to the committee, or is it just whoever wants to can join. Wouldn't just starting a thread on Defense (or Finance, etc) matters accomplish the same goal?

It would, but calling it a committee would 1. be cooler and 2. would mean that there would have to be a membership list at the top. Remember, one purpose of the committee is to act as sort of a pool of likely ministerial candidates.

Very good idea.

Best regards,

good idea, proberly have to wait to mid game, (although an emergency war commitee could be set up if the armed defence commitee isn't running)

I'm seeing some potential for this idea. For one example, an economic group to advocate sound policy discussions would be needed around the time we get to 3 cities.

I have been thinking about starting my first Citizens Group in the Demogame. The problem is that I don't have any good ideas.

I like the concept of this idea, but I fear that there will be no unity. What may be good for the economic committee may not be good for the military committee, and what may be good for the domestic committee may not benefit the nation as a whole. See what I'm getting at?

Yes, an imbalance would be bad. We wouldn't want the citizen groups to be so powerful that they endanger balance. However the previous demogame's problem was a lack of focus on certain areas. Having the committees might help ensure all areas are covered.

I'd like this idea if the committees had no real power. There sole purpose should be to get as much detail about their area as they can, compile it into a report and release the report. That way all areas of the game are throughly covered, and the committees can't force a decision which may benefit their area, but not other areas. The reports would then be read by the cheftian (and citizens) and the best plan of action can be derived from them.

I'd like this idea if the committees had no real power. There sole purpose should be to get as much detail about their area as they can, compile it into a report and release the report. That way all areas of the game are throughly covered, and the committees can't force a decision which may benefit their area, but not other areas. The reports would then be read by the cheftian (and citizens) and the best plan of action can be derived from them.

That's the idea.

Ahh, then I'd definitely join the citizen group.

I'd like this idea if the committees had no real power. There sole purpose should be to get as much detail about their area as they can, compile it into a report and release the report. That way all areas of the game are throughly covered, and the committees can't force a decision which may benefit their area, but not other areas. The reports would then be read by the cheftian (and citizens) and the best plan of action can be derived from them.

How would the best plan be derived? By a poll?

Perhaps. But we could also use a Wikipedia-style "consensus" system: the committee would presumably be small enough that if a few people post, we can find what the committee would likely vote.

Each individual committee could hash out a proposal for an initiative. Than, once that committee feels their proposal was ready to be presented to the empire they would, as in "X committee proposal for Y". Than possibly move it to the initiative process.

Example:

Proposal for War versus ...

We the Committee for Military Advancement find it .....

Pros: ...
Cons: ...
Etc.

If its accepted, the example above would then be set as an initiative or poll by the Committee for Military Advancement.

This does several things. It gets our military like minded citizens in a group together to best discuss possibilities and it brings recognition to the actions of the committee.

Each individual committee could hash out a proposal for an initiative. Than, once that committee feels their proposal was ready to be presented to the empire they would, as in "X committee proposal for Y". Than possibly move it to the initiative process.

Example:



If its accepted, the example above would then be set as an initiative or poll by the Committee for Military Advancement.

This does several things. It gets our military like minded citizens in a group together to best discuss possibilities and it brings recognition to the actions of the committee.

Good idea! We won't have to spent 4 days on a poll then :lol:

Sounds good, but a problem would be in defining the various committees area of interest, for example, would Trade options come under the Foreign Affairs committee or the Economy committee, maybe set up a Trade committee to liase with both? Or would this be a case of too many cooks . . .

On an other note, in reference to a query in the Naming thread, about (funnily enough) naming and re-naming cities, proposals to rename cities have to be vetted by the Domestic Affairs committee to ensure that no-one can use up the 'one name change per term poll' with a silly name.

Hm. Well, I guess there could be multiple committee reports (worst-case scenario) or perhaps the two committees could work together.

Alternately, since committees are researching bodies, they could attack the same problem from different angles. For instance, with a declaration of war on France, the Armed Services committee might say "We have a good chance of winning a war now, but their military technology is advancing very quickly, so we should attack now rather than later," the Economics and Finance committee might say "This war would be expensive, but not too expensive, and the resources gained would offset the losses," and then the Foreign Relations committee might argue that "well, the French are good little Buddhists and attacking them might anger Isabella; however, they don't have a defense pact, and Napoleon only converted to Buddhism after a war he started ended in miserable failure."

On an other note, in reference to a query in the Naming thread, about (funnily enough) naming and re-naming cities, proposals to rename cities have to be vetted by the Domestic Affairs committee to ensure that no-one can use up the 'one name change per term poll' with a silly name.

Not necessarily. It's my understanding that these committees don't really have any power, but are only an area (thread) for those who have that type of interest to discuss them. It's my understanding that these groups are not able to hold any powers at all.

Now if the official is influenced by the committee, or starts agreeing to the committees decisions they would gain power by this influence, but that's only at the officers will.

I really like the idea, especially if they have no real power, but rather power through influence. One thing I've noticed from lurking other demogames is that there was a lack of concentration on separate areas of the game; it seemed like everyone was just all over the place and it was a bit overwhelming. I think this will help people "specialize," which would be a good thing.

So who is going to start the other committees? I really like the idea of committees but I only found 1 sofar.

I think two more comities must be created now, because, probably, they will
be among the first ones needed: Military and Domestic.

May I suggest Lockesdonkey to start them, not caring if he intents to stay
or not?

Best regards,

Since this is your baby Locke I'd like to ask if you care to be the one who creates the committee threads or do you mind if the citizens do?

Since this is your baby Locke I'd like to ask if you care to be the one who creates the committee threads or do you mind if the citizens do?

I encourage others to create the other committees. I won't be creating a committee thread for a topic area if I'm not particularly interested in it.

I do, however, suggest the following titles for threads for the military and domestic affairs:

Legislative Committee: The Committee on the Armed Services
Legislative Committee: The Committee on Domestic Affairs