While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

Status
Not open for further replies.
Here's something I cooked up for Symphony D.'s NES, though I believe it's automatically disqualified for neither being submitted in the thread, on time, nor within the word limit.

---

The collapse of the United States federal government came much later than expected. Nuclear war came and went, disaster after disaster struck, and even after all the secessions, wars, and domestic unrest the so-called Federal State remained in control of several key installations and productive metros, not to mention irreplaceable pools of talent safely tucked away in bunkers and shelters. Despite never having reunited the states, the Feds remained a formidable regional power, until it was dissolved in the late 23rd century when a terrorist plot destroyed the highest echelons of democratic civilian government before a leadership crisis in the military – its attitudes hardened and radicalized from the experiences of the past centuries – finally laid it to rest, its various organs dissolved and the divided remnants forced to reassemble society as best as it could.

Many were cast out into the darkness, and there was lamentation and gnashing of teeth. Despite grim reality however, there was much left to build upon and soon many communities rose up to the challenge of the time; some preferred to cling on to the ideals and structure of the old state, but many chose to reinvent themselves, either partially or radically. Among these societies were those that harbored the sophisticated cooperatives and democratic collectives that were never possible before, owing their existence to a combination of technical advancements in industry, computing, and information infrastructure; the availability of skilled and educated manpower; hundreds of years of experience in trade unions, market freedom, corporate management, and other social and economic innovations; a good grasp of liberty and the entailing responsibilities, and of strong civil society, built on centuries of thought and experience; and the destruction of the old order that blew away the relative social inertia of the nearly three hundred years prior. Soon enough, these "commie traitors" of the highly skilled working class huddled together, elected leaders, formed a volunteer military force, established services deemed necessary to maintain the equity they enjoy, and soon came to be known – some would say rather unimaginatively – as the United Socialist Syndicates of America, a callback to both the old United States and its storied rival in the ancient past, though in a few short decades "the USSA" was shortened to "the USS" upon the inclusion of mostly small, but like-minded communities outside of the traditional bounds of the United States and the Americas.

In the decades that followed, the USS proved to be a great success, enjoying unprecedented levels of quality of life, liberty, and democracy. The triumph of the USS in the Americas was hailed both as the "Second American Revolution" and as a spiritual successor to the Russian Revolution by many in the world. Its mere functional existence did not sit well with the diverse powers that were; the fact that it did visibly well had them on edge, and rightly so. Praise soon transformed into inspired movements, which led to the usual conclusions: reform in some parts of the world, brutal violence and repression elsewhere. Soon many states were channeling their energies towards the destruction of the USS, though with their own problems at and around home, these were lackluster efforts. Several armed conflicts arose, skirmishes escalating to large-scale invasions from neighbors that tested the mettle of the USS Armed Forces and brought the fears of another nuclear holocaust into the forefront of the world's consciousness once again.

Unbelievably motivated, technically experienced, technologically advanced, and with a lack of formidable, united bloc of enemies, the USS brought to heel its enemies in the Americas within a decade. While the first generation of USS citizens were of an insular disposition, their sons and daughters proved to be optimists, idealists, and – most importantly – interventionists. The Americas were incorporated, though not all were of equal standing yet. Intensive development programs, rooted in centuries of knowledge, were implemented in the many less fortunate regions, combining human development, development of industry, and population growth control – a move primarily motivated by convenience – among other thing into several regionally-appropriate plans of actions executed by new, "long-term temporary" agencies appointed to the task. It was an arduous and expensive process, and many times the occupation governments chose to incarcerate entire cities' worth of dissidents, bringing the USS's motives into question. Nonetheless, by the late 24th century these programs bore fruit, and those who weren't living in the squalor of the military prison complexes enjoyed much of what the USS promised and sought to do. While faith in the Socialists, as the citizens of the USS came to be known, was only partially restored, their system was proven to be golden.

The Final Great War on Earth, as it came to be known, had extended what the USS did in the Americas to practically the entire world – including the sickening state of the "prison ghettos." Sometimes lumped in with these were entire regions cordoned off by trenches, razor wire, and all sorts of installations and armaments. However, in the 2450s the seeds of FTL technology were being thought out in the world's labs and universities, which was to become the USS's saving grace. By 2484 the proposal to have exile to distant stars as a condition in negotiating peace with the enemies of the USS, as well as to give the incarcerated a new lease on life, was made policy, deemed to be the best compromise between expediency an humanity. Upon being appointed President of the Union by the Union Congress in 2485, President Selina Salazar's first act was to put into motion the final acts of the multi-decade conflict: several expensive campaigns aimed at negotiating exile, willingly or at gunpoint if needed. In the August of 2488, the last ship containing the final dregs of the old world were shipped off to some faraway inhabitable star system, graciously provided with the basic tools necessary for rebuilding society.

Its conscience cleared, the USS finally has achieved a zenith of liberty, equality, and fraternity on Earth, but it knows that it is not as it is in the heavens. However, it will cross those bridges when it reaches them; in the meantime, with the developing world rapidly approaching maturity, funds and energies are being turned fully to the stars. The cradle of humanity's job was complete, and a new chapter of human history had begun.
 
Cool fc! Too bad you weren't able to get this in on time, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
 
After an extended vacation, in which I explored my options and future in terms of keeping my family together and still keep my good high paying job, I have returned. If there are still any NESes in which I am still in (doubtful) let me know as I have most likely forgotten. Thanks.
 
You can't tell us that without telling us your choice!
 
I am being spammed by +10 Prestige every single day as the Timurid>Mughal Empire because I am building the Taj Mahal in EU3. :'( Should I mush through it (cheat) for infinite Prestige or just cancel it so I can play correctly?
 
Since I don't want to bump my NES thread and give people false hope of an update, I'm just posting here to let my players know that for the past two days I've not gotten to work on the NES because I had to go to the hospital for various complications. I'm back and getting right onto the update ASAP.
 
Hope whatever it was is resolved. No rush.
 
I never realized how much more time and effort math would cost me after 3 years. :(
 
My first experiment in cartography, for a school project. I know there's plenty of map makers for the NESes here, so any constructive criticism is highly appreciated.

Plus I honestly don't know what to do with the mountains.
 
Personally I prefer a uniform shape, so make one mountain as you like, and then spam copy and paste it everywhere. Perhaps make a smaller version to ring mountain ranges for hills.
 
I like it, but I do not like the font - just does not 'go with the flow' of the map for some reason. Small village/town names are good, but larger names are what disturb me.
 
The borders of countries were rarely so clean. They were roughly defined by landmarks and natural divisions, such as rivers, mountains, even hills and woods- try to keep that in mind. Overall I really like the color scheme- very dark, and in contrast the names pop out at you. The patched-work or paper affect adds to this as well. I disagree with Northen Wolf- except for in the case of Dook or Deek in the north. Sometimes it can't be helped though. There is a thread for this.
 
There is a real art to doing a shameless plug, well, not really, it depends on how much shame you actually have, so I suppose that this is more about doing a rather shameful plug. A shameless plug gets right to the point, and it's brevity is a virtue, but does it really help. Would you really buy your penis enlargement from them? How many studies do they have backing up their claims?

So, if you want to really sell it, you have to invest a little more time. Brevity is a tool in your arsenal, but it is not the only one. You can of course try to get maximum saturation, diversify your output venues, and for all of these things it is good to go with a short and concise message, stay on target. But are you going to sell the reader? How do you progress them from "I've heard about it" to "I'll probably even send orders for the first couple of turns"?

You start with a little misdirection, just talk about whatever you want, but as you progress you start bringing up examples, like.

Absolution 4 of course follows all of these marketing strategies to some degree.. It's peripherally related to the core concepts, but now the reader is starting to suspect that something is afoot. Was the transition too awkward?

The readers who are well versed in guerilla marketing will begin to back off, the sort of people who know what I'm talking about when I say "I Love Bees" zone out and shut down the part of their brain that buys into things.

So, you give up on the brevity altogether and just go all out, truly shameless marketing, huge icons and gaudy adjectives like "Fantasmasonic" or "Interest-erific" because our core audience is now no longer concerned with overthinking the plug. And then you just keep going, because eventually someone skimming will see something they like and then "bam" you've got them hooked.

For instance, I'll start this paragraph talking about pancakes. Pancakes are great, chocolate chip pancakes, and then all of the sudden someone who was just skimming stops and thinks "Pancakes" and the connection is forged. Now everyone expects pancakes, but are there really pancakes?

The truth is more complicated than that.
 
Freaking COLD here!
 
-2 farenheit here yesterday afternoon. Nice plug SKILORD :p

EDIT: Actually, it got warm enough to rain tonight. Bad news for when it gets below freezing again.
 
Believe it or not, it has snow for two straight days in Vancouver. That's not supposed to happen.
 
Of course, I could be complaining because I haven't seen snow in years, but still, 16 F is pretty miserable for me.
 
A question: what do y'all think about reminder PMs for people who slack off in sending orders? From my experience modding a short-lasting beta of the future SKNES rulese in an SG elsewhere, I have found that this can be a major help to get in a high proportion of orders on time, but I can see why they would be annoying? So, what does everyone think about them?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom